new grounds and thoughts!

[Stevew77]

hey guys, im back! well last season I managed to knock down 3 good doe and a run down 2.5 buck off of public land but this year I took the plunge again and joined a club. me being the only bowhunter in the club I will have my hands full with all of the thundersticks. I have been lurking for a while as usual and figured you would like something to occupoy your time and help me :)))
well this is about 1700 acres I'll be hunting this year and have scouted about half of it. I've outlined it and the yellow dots are where I've found the best buck tracks to date. we can consider it a game because I know much more as far as scouting and burning leather. when I get time later I can mark plot locations and clearcuts to narrow down the quest for the beast of the land. thanks Beast's!

[dan]

I marked buck beds based on wind direction. After scouting let us know how accurate.

[Knute78]

This map just turned the light bulb on in my head. The visual is great. For some reason this bedding thing based on wind, top 1/3rd, terrain and possible thermals just clicked.

Great post even though this isn't property I hunt. Now I wish I had time to get out scouting.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Stevew77]

Awesome dan! I can say that I found beds in three of those marked spots

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Stevew77]

well I managed to get out and check one of the areas Dan suggested and low and behold there was a bed close by. it was somewhat off and I'm guessing because the clear-cut runs down and it is in direct sun. This bed was probably one of the biggest I have found and I must have jumped him because it was fresh. This 2 acre point of hardwoods is surrounded by clear-cut on three sides with mature oaks running the creek and ridges sides (grayish areas) on top of the ridges and probably 80% of the woods on this property is a mixture of young and old pines, pretty much everything green. along the right of the property is close to 300 acres of clear-cut that club member's have surrounded for rifle season. not many have ventured deep into the woods. I've marked the bed in red and camera location in blue. I put the camera out for 4 days and I am pretty excited.



top portion of club


middle


Bottom






and this last one looks like the body of a slob and if I can see it right it looks like 5 on the right side. by far the biggest body ive captured on camera

[Stanley]

Man that is super encouraging. Dan definitely knows his onions when it come to beds.

[Stevew77]

What worries me is I haven't found any doe bedding areas yet, it would be helpful to find those before the rut. I don't think anyone in the club has scouted besides me but that's pretty typical when you bow hunt vs rifle. Me against 31 rifle hunters! Haha

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[cdeam]

The bed you confirmed that dan had marked appears further down the point than where dan had it marked. Does the clearcut extend down that far? I'm just curious what factors would cause bedding to be that much lower than the 1/3.

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[Stevew77]

Yes, the clear cut extends to the small block of woods. From his bed he can 80% of his surroundings and behind him is a small thick area surrounded buy a creek. The the finger coming off the small block is a creek that wraps around the block separating it from the big woods. The thick area is the small green band of trees then the creek and then the big woods.


[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

Does are most likely bedded near the bucks, at a higher more rounded elevation or in thick cover, unlike bucks they don't always bed in the same spot when they bed in the same area so there beds can be harder to find. My thoughts would be to hunt the buck bedding early season and you should have a grasp on some doe bedding by rut thru observations. .

[dan]

By the way, I want to thank you for the feed back, its good to hear how I did on my map reading, wish more guys would do the same.

[Stevew77]

Thank you sir!

You were actually right about 3 other places and when I get a minute I will mark them and post them along with another area I found. I've hit two of those areas since checking them out in march and they've gone dry, I'm guessing winter beds

[ Post made via iPhone ]