stash59 wrote:hunter10 wrote:Beauty posts guys thanks for sharing. I have always been fascinated by the endless landscape for miles around in all directions but i wont beat around the bush and tell you Im not worried about this type of hunting. The feeling of being lost in dense forests with minimal chance of being within close proximity of others, the potential to run into bears with only a bow in my hand doesn't sit well with me.
I have a cottage that with a 2 min boat ride i can find all the back bays, marshes, beaver ponds and swamps witbhout even trying... they are everwhere. I guess at the end of the day I am scared to jump in head first deep into the bush looking for minimal sign (low deer populations) and push myself deeper and deeper trying to figure it out and end up being lost. Cell phone service is minimal.
Big woods hunters I tip my hat to you. I would like to give it a shot even if im only 100yds from the boat.
Conquering your fear is very important. If your scared of getting lost you'll be paying more attention to that than the story the sign and terrain are telling you.
Read some books on outdoor survival. In my day Dwight Shue had some good ones. Just like anything learning how to be prepared ahead of time takes away alot of fears. Practice in safer environments to gain confidence. Throw away the "boogieman myth" about bears and other large predators. In general they fear you far more. Still show them respect but don't let that make you afraid of them.
To me the big woods is a mystical spiritual place. A place to be respected but also one to take so much away from.
x2 what Stash said. I wouldn't said I hunt big woods by any means, but a large chunk of continuous woods with cedar swamp. At times it all looks the same. I have gotten better navigating it, but I admit I have a GPS. I don't have to worry too much as I wouldn't have to walk too far (no more than 3/4 of a mile) to hit something that would look familiar. Hard part is that in those areas it can be really easy to walk in circles.
I definitely wasted a lot of time scouting the property by just walking and not really concentrating my scouting on areas that would be likely bedding areas. After enough trial and error and reading this site, I finally started to focus my time on edge habitat within the woods. Where I hunt there is a ton of open woods that is just not worth spending much time on. Instead I have focused most of my time on a transition from hardwoods to cedar swamp. Definitely more sign there than in the open woods.
It's fun hunting though. I could stick around and hunt better properties closer to home, but I love going to where we have gun hunted the past 13 years. Kind of one of those things that gets in your blood and can't quite shake it. I definitely did not hunt it hard the first 10 years, but have invested more time into scouting and have finally started to put together some of the pieces. It takes time and a lot of patience and I still haven't connected on a nice buck up there, but I have had opportunities that I just flat out screwed up.