Mainly for Dan but if anyone else has some input on bedding

[BuckHunter1988]

Ok so ive been hunting this peice of property for a while now. Its family owned. I know that deer bed there sometimes but its mostly a travel corridor. Theres a active mine on one side and housing on the other. Its only like 30-40 acres big. My question is this. On this peice of property how would you hunt this Would you have your stands in the same spots. Which area do you think would have the best shot of getting a good buck. I just found out that there is atleast one really good buck running here and I just set the camera out yesterday on this property cause I wasnt thinking about hunting it this year. So you input please

Blue= Stand locations I have used in the past.
Yellow= Property Line
Green= Known active deer trails right now
Red= Bedding

[dan]

Can you PM me the cord's so I can zoom in and can you post a topo?

[BuckHunter1988]

I cant find the cord's but heres a address 3501 clements road pittsburgh pa 15239 that address is of the house to the east central part of the property its right along the road.

I will post a topo here in a couple

[Edcyclopedia]

Have you considered relocating or adding another stand site to the right of your top stand.?
Just above the top horizontal trail and hunt with a west/sw wind...
Looks like the shortest distance from the road and not tromping over any deer trails.
Maybe observe for a night or two for activity before season begins...

By the way my middle name is "Anyone Else"

[dan]

I could not get much out of zooming in... Or your contour map. I thought that the bedding area you marked in the upper left corner looked good, but in some of the images I looked at, it looked like there was a lot of human traffic in that area.
Based on what your calling bedding areas, and where you marked stand sites I would think your hunting to far from the buck beds, and you don't have enough stand options.
I think just about any mature buck you see in that wood lot in daylight is likely bedding in there.
I would spend some time pinning down exactly where the beds are, and exactly how they travel in and out of those beds and cover each option...
With a property this size, and with it being some what isolated, I would put a camera in the center in a non hunting area that the bucks travel thru over corn during the season and not hunt till a big buck is showing up on camera within 1.5 hours of daylight indicating he is bedded on the property.
If you scroll back to January 24th 2004 there is a real nice google satellite image of the property covered with snow making it real easy to see detail... If you zoom close you might even see deer.

[BuckHunter1988]

ED- yeah Im always up for moving stand locations And Every year I think about it but never do.

Dan I Put a camera just below the central bedding area thinking the same thing.
My problem is Honestly Im a lil scared to get up close to the bedding areas because you gotta be right on top of them to see. I dont wanna bump the deer off of the property. But I do have the travel routes pretty down pat. I will try and work on finding the buck beds and go from there.
Im gonna give it atleast another week or so before i go pull the sd card and put some more food for the camera out. Once I figure out a lil more Ill start looking for a couple other stand sites.

[dan]

My stands on properties like that are set up barley out of sound, site, and smell. You can't kill mature bucks if your not set up where they move during legal shooting hours... The trick is to not over hunt them. You have a good situation here where you can hunt smart with a trail camera and pre-set spots and wait till everything is perfect before moving in for the kill.

[phade]

That's a heck of a parcel to hunt. I've hunted two properties that bordered mines/quarries, and they were both phenomenal for mature bucks. There's some logical reasoning behind it (usually limited permission resulting in less hunting pressure).

Sounds like you've got the advice you need to hit this spot effectively. Depending on the understory cover, you may have a few spots that you can really access without alerting the deer.

[dan]

If your family owns the land, you may want consider making or enhancing some buck bedding areas next spring.

[BuckHunter1988]

yea I might have to take that to mind dan Im honestly not sure where to start on that but Ill do some research and if I still cant figure it out Ill prolly ask you.

I really appreciate the help guys.

[BuckHunter1988]

I went and pulled the camera today because theres a group of guys on the propert doing line clearing for the gas line and didnt want them to steal the camera. I lost a stand two years ago when they did this and didnt want to take a chance. No Bucks but lots and lots of doe photos and some with a really cool little spotted fawn.

Gonna give it a couple days and take it back out once there done doin what there doin.


I did see a couple big buck tracks also Where the one trail crosses the stream. The one print was as big as my hand So I think Im gonna put my camera down where the trail crosses.