Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

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dbltmn
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Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

Unread postby dbltmn » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:24 am

Hi All. Well Saturday I went out to some public big woods land that I have hunted (gun) all of my life. I have just started bow hunting last year. Though I read a lot of your blogs here I do not consider myself knowledgable enough to hunt "Beast style". I would be happy to shoot my first deer with a bow this year. I have learned a tremendous amount about hunting and using the wind, scouting, reading sign, ect.. I find this site to have a great bunch of hunters who are very helpful and do not have the swollen ego's of other web sites, THANK YOU.

Well Saturday I was studying a topo map of this area. I noticed that the large ridge right by the highway that is "way too close to the road to hunt" has some saddles or depressions in the ridge. I remembered through the years I have seen many tracks using this cut through the ridge. Most hunters walk the logging road way in and begin hunting another 1/4 mile or so back. So I see this on the topo and figure this depression going up into the ridge would be a great spot for a bow stand. It is a quick walk in and out, has thick cover on both sides of the trail, always has had deer sign, and no one ever hunts it. (ive been hunting this area for 25 gun seasons). Dont ever see anyone/ tracks in snow ect using this ridge.

So my girlfriend and I head into the woods up the gully and sure enough the deer sign is still there. The trail looks used, and it is still very thick. I find a small opening where I could place a climber in a big pine and see over this opening. The pine is on the south side of the main trail, and to the east of a secondary trail running about 2/3 the way up the ridge. So I have a nice entrance for either W NW N wind. The highway is to the south and the logging rd is to the east. I clean up a few small dead branches and scrub and make note of the tree on my GOS so I can find it exactly from the correct entry point.

Then I wanted to continue up the gully to see what lies at the top. Well I get another 60-75 yards and there is a blown down set of 3 trees laying over the gully and i instantly say to my girl "Wow this looks lika a classic buck hideout that Dan and the beasts hunt. Its towards the top of a steep ridge, got cover, can see down the gully, and faces opposite the most common wind direction". Well sure enough if under these blow downs there is a big area all matted down with a bunch of hair in it. I FOUND MY FIRST BEAST BED. :dance:

Above the bed at the top of the ridge there is a small 20-30 yard opening, seems like a stagging area to me. It is located just West of the bed up the hill and encompassed by 3" diameter popples that had been a clear cut 20 years ago. Very tightly grown together, but starting to open up.

SO many questions as to how to hunt this (later in the season of course now that I stunk it up in there).

My chosen stand location is only about 60-75 yds away to the SE of the bed. Is that too close?
When should I hunt it? I am thinking evening with a W or NW wind so themals are settling.
How long should I wait from when I invaded?
Should I try to hunt the stagging area above or the trails I mentioned? The stagging area would require a North or NE E wind to hunt without blowing my stink into his Bedroom.

I am so excited to have found this spot I don't even care if I see the buck, I just want to go back and put a camera nearby to see what kind of beast he is. My cousin hunts about 4-500 yards back of me. He hunts very little but had 2 very nice 10 ptrs on trail cam last season where he threw down some corn in front of a camera. The bucks were both at least 3 1/2 yr olds last year. One had split brow tines, the other had split ( end tips G2?). They are very nice public land deer and I may have found a primary area.

I will try to put a pic up from them last year, but have never posted pics here.

Any help in strategy would be greatly appreciated. I would post topo, but these gullies are not deep enough to show up on a 30 min map, and I cannot find anything more detailed of this area in northern WI.


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Stanley
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Re: Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:29 am

Looking forward to see the pics.
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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dbltmn
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Re: Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

Unread postby dbltmn » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:41 am

Trying.... got them on imageshack, but cant fig out how to poof them on here. :think:
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Re: Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

Unread postby dan » Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:03 am

1st off, ditch the trail camera idea... Your going to spook the buck out of there if you put a camera near his bed.
As far as killing the buck(s) using the bed, I am trying to visualize what your explaining. It sounds like the stand you have set up is below the bed and close? If its down hill of the bed no doubt thermals will get you busted... Sounds a bit close too, but I would have to see it to be sure. If what you found above is actually the staging area, you can bet thats the place to hunt it.
Good luck.
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dbltmn
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Re: Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

Unread postby dbltmn » Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:57 pm

To give a better idea of the location this ridge is probly only 30-40 ft high from the surrounding area. There is a slight gully that runs straight up the side (maybe a 10 foot deep x 30w). the cover is pretty thich with a lot of small pines, maple and oak saplings, and a good amount of mature pines and hardwood mixed in. The bed I found is about 15 feet from the top of the ridge. At the top, there is about a 40-60 foot diameter clearing with tall grass, and a few small pine saplings. Surrounding the clearing on the other side, is the beginning of approx 40 acres that was logged 20 or so years ago. Now it is all popple. Not so thick you cannot see into it, about 3 in dia trees. Deer have used this cover for travel over the years, but it is starting to be kind of a dead zone, as it is nothing but popple and grass, and open enough to now see into a ways.

One prob I have is the popple are too small to put a stand up in. And the popple woods are due west and run north and south from the bed. Im no expert but in the Lakewood/ Muntain area of Oconto county I believe most of my prevailing wind would be W NW. The thicker woods allows more stand locations. Couldnt I hunt below this bed in the eves on a fairly calm day?

Also to the south only maybe 100 yards id the highway. I am not real far off the main road at all.
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Re: Advice to hunt my first large buck bed ??

Unread postby dan » Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:35 am

Calm or windy, if your at the base of the hill, rising daytime thermals will pull your scent to the bed up top... Thats why they bed there. Bucks that bed on hills or ridges bed there on days the wind comes over the top from above, wind speed has nothing to do with it. They can smell whats above them from the wind, but exactly where the bed is placed is where the thermal rises from the valley floor and meets the actual wind. We call this junction the wind tunnel.
Thats how I can look at a topo map and a wind direction and tell you where the bucks are bedded on a property without setting foot... You can hunt below, but you have to be far enough away that your scent don't use the thermal to drift to the bed.


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