New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo included)

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Debo03
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New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo included)

Unread postby Debo03 » Tue Dec 30, 2014 10:46 am

Hi All!
I'm new here and am seeking some late season advice on a new piece of private property that I just gained permission to hunt. I've been reading up on Dan's tactics for the last couple of years and have seen all of his videos but haven't quite been able to turn that new knowledge into success in the field. I've been on the property about 5 times and have a good general idea of the lay of the land but have yet to really get my feet wet diving into what I would think are the mature buck bedding areas based on topo and aerial scouting (mostly because it's late season and I haven't wanted to ruin good hunting spots). It's a big piece of property so I'm really just looking for advice on which "KEY" areas you guys would start with in your scouting/hunting as I only have about 6 days of season left here in TN and am really wanting to fill a buck tag as well as 1 doe for the freezer. I also do expect to have permission again next year so I am certainly looking forward to scouting it as soon as the season ends.

I've included a topo map with some markings.

Red= Boundary
Yellow= food plot ( clover, turnips, rye)
Blue = Entry points/Road access

Image

Extra info..
-The big valley in the middle of the map is pretty much just pasture (hay field).
-Pretty much the rest of the entire property other than the plots I have hilighted, is big open hardwood hills and hollows.
-There is very little undergrowth and really no thickets that I'm aware of.
-The points *that I have checked* that are 1/3 of the way down from the ridges are just open hardwood hillside with very little cover. Would a mature buck bed here??
-The prevailing wind is usually out of the North or some variation of that, ie. NNW, NNE, NE, NW although some days it changes

Thanks in advance for the help guys! Really looking forward to you guys's insight.


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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby dan » Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:05 pm

Sorry for the delay... I will try and get to this tomorrow unless someone beats me to it.
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Buckfever
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Buckfever » Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:30 pm

There's too many good spots. Late season is all about food which runs scarce. So I would skirt the food plots looking for big tracks, ascertain the direction of travel and then based on that I would look at the topo and figure the likely bedding based on the prevailing wing and see if I can get to the saddles near the suspected bedding undetected. I agree with you, you don't have enough time to get in there and really figure it out without ruining the hunt.
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Debo03 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:08 am

Thanks for the response Buckfever. And definitely looking forward to your input Dan. Hopefully you can chime in before this afternoon. I'm going to try to get after them around 3pm.

One of the problems is the food. We have had an extremely mild winter so far this year here in TN. It's only gotten below freezing about 4 times and those days it was barely below 30*. The acorn crop was incredible this year and white oaks are about every 25-30 yards on this property. Really haven't even seen many does in the fields in the evenings and on this property they don't allow does to be shot in fields.

The property also doesn't receive a lot of pressure. There are only 2 other guys that hunt it and they only hunt about twice a month. There's only been 1 deer killed on the property this year. About a 140" 8 point killed by the owners 14 yr old grand son.
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Debo03 » Wed Dec 31, 2014 6:52 am

Bump for any advice before I go out for the evening hunt. 8-10mph wind out of the North. If I were going to hunt a food plot or off the edge of one, which would be best for this wind?
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby dan » Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:54 am

Sorry, was at work all day and couldn't post maps from there... The biggest problem with this layout is the food plots are mainly in the valleys. Bucks will bed right up on the ridge points north of the bedding watching towards the plot and catching the thermals. Even if you do get in there clean, which would be tough, your going to have to deal with swirling winds and thermals changing in the evening and going different directions... Bucks are going to bed close at this time of year and getting between them with those food plot layouts is going to be tough...

With that said, I did mark some spots in dark green down towards the bottom of the map that look good, and marked some possible bedding spots... It would be better if the woods was thicker...

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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Debo03 » Thu Jan 01, 2015 3:28 am

Aha.. That's exactly what I've been thinking Dan but with limited "beast style" hunting tactics that just seemed like a semi-educated theory but it does mirror my experience so far.

I've tried hunting near a couple of the fields in the valleys and haven't seen any deer.

With the bedding areas you pointed out, where would your stand placement be? What's the ideal wind to hunt them? And how would you approach knowing my entry points?
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Buckfever » Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:28 am

Late season they'll cover a lot of ground between security and food and so often they'll get to the food after legal. From what you describe I wouldn't be setting up anywhere near the food. Let us know how it goes.
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:18 am

Buckfever wrote:Late season they'll cover a lot of ground between security and food and so often they'll get to the food after legal. From what you describe I wouldn't be setting up anywhere near the food. Let us know how it goes.

That depends... I find them bedding right on top of the food a lot in late season. But not always. If there is good bedding real close sometimes its dang near impossible to get between the deer and the beds.
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby dan » Thu Jan 01, 2015 9:20 am

Debo03 wrote:Aha.. That's exactly what I've been thinking Dan but with limited "beast style" hunting tactics that just seemed like a semi-educated theory but it does mirror my experience so far.

I've tried hunting near a couple of the fields in the valleys and haven't seen any deer.

With the bedding areas you pointed out, where would your stand placement be? What's the ideal wind to hunt them? And how would you approach knowing my entry points?

I marked two spots in blue on that map where I would start... If there is pressure there, then you need to move closer, but if the woods are mature and open it will be hard to get close, and if there is thicker woods on the neighbors they may be doing what buck fever said and coming from a distance.
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Debo03 » Fri Jan 02, 2015 5:42 am

Which two spots Dan? I didn't see anything updated on the map. Maybe it's not showing up on my phone?

I hunted the lone plot that is on the hill top yesterday evening. There was a NNW wind so I hunted off the south east side of the field hoping to catch a buck coming from the suspected beds on the points just south of the field. Didn't see anything come from that direction. Was getting my stuff together to climb down when the moon came out from behind the clouds and lit up the field. There was a solid buck feeding in the field. Watched him feed for about 30 minutes in the moon light but after shooting hours and out of bow range. I didn't see him enter the field so I have no idea where he came from. Just know he got there after dark and didn't come from the south like I suspected a buck would with a north wind. My approach was from the north west ridge then down the east side of the field. Any ideas?

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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby dan » Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:54 am

I said blue, but actually there green... You should be able to see them if you can see the purple spots.
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Bowhunter4life » Fri Jan 02, 2015 11:43 am

dan wrote:
Buckfever wrote:Late season they'll cover a lot of ground between security and food and so often they'll get to the food after legal. From what you describe I wouldn't be setting up anywhere near the food. Let us know how it goes.

That depends... I find them bedding right on top of the food a lot in late season. But not always. If there is good bedding real close sometimes its dang near impossible to get between the deer and the beds.

Agree with this. Almost all the deer in the public farmland I hunt the bucks and does both will bed right on top of the food. They are almost impossible to get too because they are bedding close enough to see the fields and anything coming at them especially with no all the foliage gone. I don't see them traveling very far at all during the winter months around here.

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Debo03
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Debo03 » Fri Jan 02, 2015 12:02 pm

dan wrote:I said blue, but actually there green... You should be able to see them if you can see the purple spots.


I see them now. They were hard to see on my phone. The spot I was talking about in my post above was pretty much the same spot that you marked on the south side of the field. Good to know that my instincts were close to the same as yours.

Thanks for all the responses guys. I'm learning a lot and it really helps to read the thoughts of other successful hunters

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Debo03
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Re: New Beast Member seeking late season Advice (topo includ

Unread postby Debo03 » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:19 am

I left out 1 food plot that I didn't realize was planted. I circled it in Orange.

Does that info make any certain spots JUMP OUT??

Image


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