When the smoke settles?

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Straightshot
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When the smoke settles?

Unread postby Straightshot » Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:16 am

After the army of hunters have left the woods and the temperatures start dropping, I was wondering how everyone goes about bow hunting the late season. All the land I will be hunting for the next month is public and has seen lots of pressure. When you guys hunt after gun season how do you go about it. Do you look strictly for food sources or are you looking for thick bedding areas that could be potentially far from food sources. How far have you seen deer travel in winter months to get from bedding to food? Do you feel like the mature bucks are more concerned with cover after all the pressure or food because of the dropping temps. How do your setups change as December rolls on and what are you doing different from the rest of the season? If your only goal is to get on a mature buck, will you scout endlessly until you visually have seen him, keep in mind there is no snow so fresh snow sign is out of the question.


dan
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Re: When the smoke settles?

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 05, 2011 2:25 am

I look at both food and secure bedding cover... The secure bedding cover is by far the most important. But the secure bedding that is closest toi a food source often is a good option. I have some spots you wonder if a deer is insane for what it has to do to travel to and from, but thats often where I find the big boys.
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Re: When the smoke settles?

Unread postby vwj » Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:27 am

dan wrote " I have some spots you wonder if a deer is insane for what it has to do to travel to and from, but thats often where I find the big boys."

Dan, can you describe the insane areas that you are talking about and what to really look for? thanks
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Re: When the smoke settles?

Unread postby dan » Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:36 am

Dan, can you describe the insane areas that you are talking about and what to really look for? thanks

The ones I was thinking about when I wrote that are islands or patches of brush in the middle of oceans of cattails where a buck has to bellie hop thru muck and water for 100's of yards to get to land.
I remember hunting a bedding area in a large marsh about 300 yards from dry ground once. A large mature buck got out of its bed about 45 minutes before closeing. I was impressed with that even though there was no other human pressure out there and this was my 1st hunt there he staged till dark and the direction he left in meant he would need to pass thru about a mile of flooded cattails. Deers feet are not like ours. They punch right thru those floating bogs and the deer has to hop there feet out and flop thru the much and water. Imagine how late it was when he finally got to dry land...
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G3s
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Re: When the smoke settles?

Unread postby G3s » Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:52 am

I look for a travel route that is THICK! I prefer to hunt the tthick stuff between bed and feed. I also try to find an evergreen tree to get in to hide me as best as possible. I hang my sets5-10 feet higher than usual as well to try to beat detection


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