Dewey

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PLB
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Dewey

Unread postby PLB » Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:52 am

Hey Dewey, you seem like a pretty hardcore marsh hunter!! I have really enjoyed reading your posts and have always went away thinking man this guy is a marsh beast!! Just curious about your tactics, equipment used, scouting methods etc.. You seem to hunt a lot so do you hunt all phases of the season?? Do you do all day sits out in the marsh during the Rut?? Any pics?? Anything else Imissed feel free to talk about also?? Thanks, PLB


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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:42 am

Well.....not sure where to start but here it goes...

I have been hunting marshes pretty much my whole life and during any given year at least 90% of my hunting/scouting is done there. My Dad and uncles were all hardcore marsh hunters and this just seemed natural to me growing up. I enjoy this by far over any other type of hunting and it seems like even when I hunt other parts of the state I am still drawn to any type of cattail marsh. There's just something about hunting marsh bucks that really gets me going and knowing that huge bucks call them home. It's definately not easy hunting and takes a ton of physical work but I have yet to find better public land that holds any large bucks with consistancy that a large marsh does.

Even though I hunted marshes most of my life and shot plenty of smaller bucks it didn't all come together until about 4 years ago when I bought the Hunting Marsh Bucks dvd. That completely changed how I hunt and instead of hunting travel corridors and random islands I now hunt beds specifically and although I see less deer in a season my number of larger buck sightings have gone up. Before Dan's tactics I had plenty of encounters with large bucks but this usually was during the rut and was not on a very consistant basis like hunting beds provides. I still do all day sits downwind of doe bedding areas during the rut and have had good sucess with this but daylight encounters with mature bucks are very rare outside the rut unless you are close to their primary beds.

My biggest step to being better at this type of hunting was by being much more mobile and rarely hunting the same spot twice in a season. I bought a Lone Wolf Assault and sticks and this has been my #1 tool to being more mobile and hunting the right spot. Before I was using a Summit climber most of the time and in marshes you are really limited to trees you can get in so I was never in great spots like I wanted. I used a TreeSaddle for a few years before my LW and it was much better than the climber but eventually went strickly with using Assault and sticks 100%. Best investment I ever made.

My scouting has really increased the last 5 years or so and I think I enjoy that as much if not more than the hunt sometimes. I put alot of time into getting away from other hunters and finding spots where others do not go. This is important to me for a quality hunting experience. This offseason I am going to focus on overlooked spots that are not really remote but actually right under the eyes of everyone else including me. Looking forward to experimenting with this next season.

Hope I covered everything you asked and I doubt I passed on any groundbreaking tactics since most is pretty what any serious marsh hunter here does already. I still haven't figured out how to kill a big buck every year but still learning. Hunting marshes can be very rewarding and frustrating at the same time but I wouldn't enjoy it so much if it was easy. ;)
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Jan 24, 2012 5:49 am

Great informative Dewey.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby ozzz » Tue Jan 24, 2012 7:02 am

Good info.

I also just ditched the treesaddle to give the LW sticks and Assault a try, I hope I like the combo like you do over the saddle.

I really like the saddle but dont really like using a ratchet strap as a platform because of the noise and found myself moving more than I liked while inthe saddle.

We will see.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Czabs » Tue Jan 24, 2012 9:18 am

I also like reading your posts and topics Dewey. I love the wet nasty cattails and muck!

Thanks for the info and background.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Uncle Lou » Tue Jan 24, 2012 12:47 pm

Dewey, good overview of how you hunt, where you are at with it, and where you want to take it.

How much wind do you like for noise cover on your approach? Those cattails can get pretty noisy when winds are hitting 15-20mph. Any tips on approach and how much wind you prefer, or any other tips on approaching beds in the marsh concerning noise would be good to hear.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:30 pm

Uncle Lou wrote:Dewey, good overview of how you hunt, where you are at with it, and where you want to take it.

How much wind do you like for noise cover on your approach? Those cattails can get pretty noisy when winds are hitting 15-20mph. Any tips on approach and how much wind you prefer, or any other tips on approaching beds in the marsh concerning noise would be good to hear.

A little bit of wind is always better than none at all. Sometimes I time my movement with the gusts if there are any.

In the fall a cattail marsh is a very noisy place at least where I hunt. Between geese, egrets and migrating birds it can get very loud out there covering up much of the noise. One of the main marshes I hunt is a federal refuge where no duck hunting is allowed. I swear at times every duck in the midwest is there in the fall and believe me they make a heck of alot of noise. It would be a duck hunters paradise!! This is great because they cover up my noise very well but also bad because you cannot hear deer coming and have to rely on your eyes only.

Later in the season when all of the migration is done it gets much harder to cover up your noise. The cattails and marsh grass are dry and very noisy. All you can do is take it very slow. I make sure I have plenty of time and plan the placement of every step.

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Re: Dewey

Unread postby BigHunt » Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:37 pm

Dewey wrote:
Uncle Lou wrote:Dewey, good overview of how you hunt, where you are at with it, and where you want to take it.

How much wind do you like for noise cover on your approach? Those cattails can get pretty noisy when winds are hitting 15-20mph. Any tips on approach and how much wind you prefer, or any other tips on approaching beds in the marsh concerning noise would be good to hear.

A little bit of wind is always better than none at all. Sometimes I time my movement with the gusts if there are any.

In the fall a cattail marsh is a very noisy place at least where I hunt. Between geese, egrets and migrating birds it can get very loud out there covering up much of the noise. One of the main marshes I hunt is a federal refuge where no duck hunting is allowed. I swear at times every duck in the midwest is there in the fall and believe me they make a heck of alot of noise. It would be a duck hunters paradise!! This is great because they cover up my noise very well but also bad because you cannot hear deer coming and have to rely on your eyes only.

Later in the season when all of the migration is done it gets much harder to cover up your noise. The cattails and marsh grass are dry and very noisy. All you can do is take it very slow. I make sure I have plenty of time and plan the placement of every step.

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this is very good info Dewey ...i learn alot from your post, thanks for helping me on some of my spots with suggestions and stuff matter of fact you gave me that boost the other night to get out and it was worth it ..thanks..i cant wait till next September..
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby RaisedByWolves » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:50 pm

your informative posts and scouting experience is always appreciated Dewey! Like you I am starting to focus more on the overlooked spots vs. far back spots....
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Czabs » Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:51 am

Dewey, when you are hunting individual buck beds what do you look for to tell you a buck is using that particular bed? trail cameras, glassing, shining, trailcameras, tracks?

Also when hunting the rut do you mainly set up on the downwind side of doe bedding areas or do you find it better to set up on the buck beds?
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Dewey » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:59 am

Czabs wrote:Dewey, when you are hunting individual buck beds what do you look for to tell you a buck is using that particular bed? trail cameras, glassing, shining, trailcameras, tracks?

Also when hunting the rut do you mainly set up on the downwind side of doe bedding areas or do you find it better to set up on the buck beds?

Most of these buck beds I hunt have been accumulated over many years and it seems like if one buck moves out another moves into the same bed. I usually verify this during post season scouting and many times kick a buck out of the bed and actually get a visual. Tracks are probably my main indicator for an individual buck. Another thing I will do during the early season is if I suspect a buck is bedding in a certain area but don't know exactly where is I will set up a safe distance away on an observation stand and just glass to decide what my next move will be. I am at a disadvantage where I hunt because shining and trail cameras are illegal so it's definately not easy to pattern a buck plus scouting is not allowed from March 15th-opening of Archery season.

As far as hunting the rut I have had my best luck hunting downwind of doe bedding and this is how I shot my two largest bucks. I have hunted buck beds during this time but have not had any success.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Czabs » Wed Jan 25, 2012 11:27 pm

That really sucks you can't even shine!? :shock:

If you have time on your hands you should post some pics of your bucks, I would like to see them.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Dewey » Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:01 am

Czabs wrote:That really sucks you can't even shine!? :shock:

If you have time on your hands you should post some pics of your bucks, I would like to see them.


Didn't start getting really serious about bigger ones until about 5 years ago so I have way too many smaller marsh bucks before then. Always had great encounters over the years with larger bucks but my patience wasn't always so good and ended up killing many smaller ones! I had fun though and that's all that matters to me.

Now try to hold out for something 130" or bigger. It definately makes it much more challenging on public land.

Here are a few pics of my 2 best marsh bucks.

2008
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2009
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This is the last young marsh buck that I killed in 2002. He was only a 1 1/2 years old and scored just shy of 100". I was happy with this buck and had a shoulder mount done just to remind me the potential this buck would have had in a few more years. Honestly I can't imagine what this buck could have been if he reached maturity! :shock: This is when I decided I wanted to start holding out for older deer.
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One thing I learned very quickly if you want to hold out for a older buck you have to be willing to eat tag soup once in awhile, which I have done the last two seasons. Had plenty of encounters with nice bucks and passed on some I would never dreamed of passing a few years ago. Killing a buck is nice but if I have a few great encounters with mature bucks a season on public land I consider the season a success.
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:48 am

Great thread! 8-)
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Re: Dewey

Unread postby Spysar » Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:14 am

I'm glad you posted the pics Dewey. Nice bucks man.
A buck will see you three times, and hear you twice, but he's only gonna smell you once.


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