Swamp Bedding in the South

[TNRiverRat]

I know a lot of yal (you yankies) hunt marshes with cattails. But down here in West TN it is buck brush. I tend to hunt exit routes from the buck brush to either food or running water (the nearby river). I feel like this technique is not aggressive enough and this tactic is faulted by the afternoon thermals pulling into the swamp. This is public land only accessible by boat for the most part. It sees hunters but mostly not until rifle and duck season. I know the big boys bed back there but there is little to no trees to hunt from and I would seriously doubt there would be a good chance for a shot. I was curious if anyone has any experience being more aggressive, as traveling back into the buck brush and hunting islands or small strips of land back farther into the swamp? Any and all tips are appreciated.

[Bonecrusher101]

Hey tn river rat!
I also hunt public lands in west tn! I have been reading this site and am also a bit lost on how I am going to plan and execute effectively. Each scenario I have pushed on a buck has only caused him to relocate or go completely nocturnal.

There seems to be too many prime hiding and bedding sites. I've been in areas that are too thick to hunt effectively and have half dozen plus entry/ exit routes. By the time I realize there is a mature buck in a target area, I feel like I've contaminated the area and its game over.

I typically don't see many bucks till late October. I see does early season and I do well as a deer hunter. I have killed does during my last three bow seasons. I've had chances to kill small bucks during bow season but have decided to pass. I am not where I wanna be with my big buck encounters. I hunt at least five days a week.

Where do you hunt? We probably already know each other

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[dan]

We have stuff like that up here too... Miles of dogwood or tamarack. It can seem overwhelming to some, but if you ever spend the time really looking close at buck bedding in these areas your going to find the bedding is on the edges. Especially the mature buck bedding, but in a lot of cases (most) edge bedding uses wind to an advantage...

The big boys will be bedded on the edge looking out with the wind to back, or 20 yards in smelling you with wind blowing into the swamp... The real key is understanding where they bed and why, rather than guessing or assuming where they are... And that ain't easy as it sounds, cause deer bed everywhere, but big bucks don't... So you have to be able to figure out who is bedding where.

I do this by fully understanding and evaluating how they bed, and when i can sitting back and watching from a distance... Andrae often does it by sneaking into all the bedding areas and kicking the bucks out to see who is bedding where...

The good news is once you figure it out it will repeat itself unless you put to much pressure on them.

[TNRiverRat]

Bonecrusher101,
Shoot me a PM I am far from an expert but maybe we can discuss some techniques and ideas.

Dan,

I have watched both Hill Country and Marsh Country and am somewhat familiar with at least the ideas of your techniques. For me, I feel like two things hinder my ability to tackle the beast style head on.
#1 is time. I don't have near as much time as I would like to scout (finding beds). Making it hard to make calculated decisions to increase my odds. This causes me to lose some confidence when setting up on a spot.
#2 knowing how aggressive is to aggressive. I know in theory, you find said bucks bed, wait for perfect conditions, then pounce strategically setting up on his exit or entrance to the bed in his core area. But in my case, this perfect scenario where weather, wind, thermals, and my time alloted to hunt line up is few and far between. How do you tackle imperfect scenarios?

[dan]

Most of the scenarios are less than perfect... I think it really boils down to effort equals success. The more you put in, the more you take out... A lot of the time 1 day spent scouting can give you more knowledge than 5 years of hunting an area... If a guy can't put that that day of scouting in, or don't see the value, it takes a long time to learn an area.

I can basically just take a glance at a map and have a pretty good idea where the big bucks will be, but this is because of a lot of time spent walking swamps, woods, farms, and hills... You can't learn it over night.

If you find the right set ups in a swamp they can pay off every year. I have one bedding area that I have taken over a 1/2 dozen big bucks out of and guided a dozen more.

If you truly don't have time and desire to scout, the best you can do is hop around alot and keep them from patterning you. But really, you can't expect the same results as guys who scout, when you don't.

Its kinda like a guy wanting to rebuild his car engine who has never done it before... If he is not willing to, or does not have the time to go to school, or train, he can't just ask a mechanic how to do it and then go home and do it and expect the same results as the mechanic... Can he learn to do it? Yes, but it will take training, and his 1st engine is going to have some learning curves along the way.

[headgear]

Bonecrusher101,
Shoot me a PM I am far from an expert but maybe we can discuss some techniques and ideas.

Dan,

I have watched both Hill Country and Marsh Country and am somewhat familiar with at least the ideas of your techniques. For me, I feel like two things hinder my ability to tackle the beast style head on.
#1 is time. I don't have near as much time as I would like to scout (finding beds). Making it hard to make calculated decisions to increase my odds. This causes me to lose some confidence when setting up on a spot.
#2 knowing how aggressive is to aggressive. I know in theory, you find said bucks bed, wait for perfect conditions, then pounce strategically setting up on his exit or entrance to the bed in his core area. But in my case, this perfect scenario where weather, wind, thermals, and my time alloted to hunt line up is few and far between. How do you tackle imperfect scenarios?

Setup some kind of 5-10 year plan, scout when you can and log detailed notes about everything. When hunting don't be afraid to mess up. Some of my best spots and some of the finer details are learned the hard way, by not knowing the exact bed or going in blind and blowing a buck out of his bedroom you can look at it as a defeat or victory. Did I totally screw up that hunt sure, but I was in the right spot at the right time and nearly stepped on a buck and that is cool stuff. When it happens, and it will happen, get to that spot and have a good look around, pick your trees out and give it a good scout. Never waste an opportunity to learn something about the areas you hunt, every time you are in the woods you should be paying attention and looking for sign or tracks of mature bucks, other hunters, any intel you can gathers to help you down the road. I have 3 kids so I know all about limited time, you just have to make the most of any time you have. The only way to gain the experience and knowledge needed to hunt this way is to get you hands dirty, some people might feel comfortable in a year or two, others take longer. Myself I thought I knew what I was doing after a couple of years but eventually learned I was just scratching the surface. The good news is once you start racking up some killer spots they can be hunted year after year.

[PK_]

The thick swamps like that I hunt generally there is hunting pressure all along the edge, basically the outside of the first transition. I do find bucks bedding on this edge but not much in the fall when the humans start to pour in and setup every 100-200 yards along that edge. Generally the bucks are always bedding on humps and those tiny islands behind the transition on the interior.

The best setups I have found is figuring out access to one of the islands used for staging, generally they are open enough to get a shot and I view them as 'hubs', any deer bedded on the periphery seem to be drawn to these larger islands before heading to the mainland.

But any way you slice it, it is not easy.

[TNRiverRat]

Thanks for every one's input. I will do some scouting to find some islands out in the cypress swamps PK.

[Twenty Up]

Central GA here!

I've had some luck finding buck beds in and around swamps on public land down here, from what I noticed and as Dan already stated seek out the "edges" of the swamp or thickets. Now this is easier said than done but I've had a lot of luck between a hardwood or pine forest edge that met a thicket. I also noticed that the bucks in swamps prefer bedding areas where they have overhead cover (probably to avoid the sun & heat).

I also found that the bucks used flooded timber as travel routes. I counted hundreds of rubs, several very large, inside a large flooded timber tract where I assume everyone else walked around.

Good luck getting after em' and whatever you do, don't forget your Thermacell!

[Ryan]

twenty up..when you say you have had alot of luck hunting pine/hardwood transitions that go into thicket do you find that the beds are on the transition or the point of it where it meets the thicket? and when you set up a stand location is it also along the transition?

[hunter10]

Its kinda like a guy wanting to rebuild his car engine who has never done it before... If he is not willing to, or does not have the time to go to school, or train, he can't just ask a mechanic how to do it and then go home and do it and expect the same results as the mechanic... Can he learn to do it? Yes, but it will take training, and his 1st engine is going to have some learning curves along the way.

Good way to put it, this phrase can be put to all aspects of hunting

[Twenty Up]

twenty up..when you say you have had alot of luck hunting pine/hardwood transitions that go into thicket do you find that the beds are on the transition or the point of it where it meets the thicket? and when you set up a stand location is it also along the transition?

It's really site specific I hate to say.. Some have been right on the edge and others have been 20-50 yards inside the "edge". This seemed to be relevant to hunter pressure, forest maturity (old hardwoods or overgrown clearcuts) and the like. Stand setups are dictated by the wind, cover and buck travel routes. Take this with a grain of salt though, I'm new to beast style hunting but I've been scouting this way since December so while I still have a lot to learn I have been able to pick up some skills along the way. Hopefully this helped, if you have any others questions I would gladly help you out to the best of my abilities.

[Ryan]

awesome thanks for the info!

[TN Whitetail Freak]

Im sure i hunt the same swamps that you hunt...from my experience it comes down to cyber scouting and breaking down a piece....and most time when i get into a piece it is what i expected to see. the way i go at it is I look for something different...maybe thats a huge tree among little trees...10 year old cut transistioning into a 50 year + timber. and river edges ...i always find heavy trails along the river so you'll have to find something on the map that's different from along the river edges that concentrate them....I found this one spot this winter where a deer trail runs along the OBION RIVER for a few miles but at the one point the timber stays flooded mostly all year but it doesnt quite flood to the river levee and there is a 25 yd runway between the river and the flooded timber that will act as a funnel...i havent set this spot yet but am anxious come the rut...hunting buck brush starts with finding food and climbing up in a tree during the last week of july through august and watching what is in the area when all bucks are most visible in bachelor groups...granted the possibility of them not sticking around is there it does give you an idea of what's in the area.

[Florida]

Some really great info here. Thanks guys.

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