Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

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hunter10
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Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby hunter10 » Tue Jul 14, 2015 12:08 pm

I have always been amazed at how some of you guys can knock down good whitetails in a landscape that seems never ending, hundreds of acres and countless swamps.. How is it done. I am honestly beside myself with how people venture out into this landscape. To me it seems way above my skill level and i have been hunting farmland for over 20 years. Id like to give it a try. For arguments sake lets say i can walk out my back door into this land... what do i do. Anyone willing to layout a hunt or 2 with maps explaining this type of hunt. To me it seems as if id run into more bear and snakes than anything


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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby bigwoodsmn » Tue Jul 14, 2015 12:31 pm

I wish I could hunt farmland. :D

Check out Hal Blood's book for a great place to start. http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Big-Woods-Bucks-Whitetails/dp/1616080434

The scouting section is very good.

Of course it then dives way into tracking, still-hunting, and gives very good advice on shooting well in big woods.

That's the book I would have given myself 20 years ago if I could have.
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby Swampbuck » Tue Jul 14, 2015 12:52 pm

I do run into more gators and snakes than anything :)

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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby kurt » Tue Jul 14, 2015 1:18 pm

I'm no expert but a quick summary don't look at big woods as endless. Look at all the edges and subtle edges everywhere and find preferred bedding areas. Just because it's not a field to Woodlot/marsh easy to see doesn't mean it's totally different. Their are a lot of big areas that you can just skip over. Get to the good stuff and get off the logging roads and trails.

Find preferred terrain. But I always end up somewhere I get my feet muddy and/or wet.

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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Jul 14, 2015 1:30 pm

kurt wrote:I'm no expert but a quick summary don't look at big woods as endless. Look at all the edges and subtle edges everywhere and find preferred bedding areas. Just because it's not a field to Woodlot/marsh easy to see doesn't mean it's totally different. Their are a lot of big areas that you can just skip over. Get to the good stuff and get off the logging roads and trails.

Find preferred terrain. But I always end up somewhere I get my feet muddy and/or wet.

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I agree. Looking for water has worked for me and nothing better than good aerial pics to get you started. I really like hunting around beaver ponds especially since they tend to create better habitat and edges which deer like. Always plenty of deer sign around these areas especially if off the beaten path like logging roads and such.

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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby bigwoodsmn » Tue Jul 14, 2015 2:50 pm

I'm jaded because I don't have the answers. Snow, time in the field (where deer are, this year, not last year), and decent shooting (*or at least following up well) is kind of the ticket with regard to putting some bucks on the ground. If you can't hit them at 20 yards running through the trees or 300 yards stopped, with no time to spare, ... personally I'd have a lot fewer sets of antlers laying around. If you go to some area like a certain WMU in Ontario non-res can hunt late season, or Superior Nat'l in MN, and you think you're just going to put boots on the ground without driving around looking for pockets of deer first, you will burn your hunt. The areas are huge up there. The deer are in small pockets. The herd has been devastated by snow and wolves the two winters prior to this past winter. The locals think we're nuts to come up there and hunt whitetails instead of moose. Last winter was very mild and that makes me optimistic for this year. Even guys like Bernier punted on some of those areas in Canada and tried tracking in states out west last year. HB has moved to some area of Montana too. He's still hunting Ontario though too.

After gun season, during muzzleloader, the only signs of life are near cutovers, I've found. There are no people in the woods except trappers. I get weirded-out if I see another person actually out of their vehicle and in the woods. The cutovers are key no matter how much I wish that wasn't true. You feel like you're "cherry picking" a bit to go to the very back side of a cutover and mozy around there first looking for fresh sign.

That being said, Dewey is right about areas with beaver dams and flowages. Lots of food, terrain and vegetation edges to slip along, cover etc. But a guy can't slip down every ravine and soggy bottom hoping to find a "signpost rub" and wheel/spoke areas to still-hunt. They're there... just not everywhere. I love burning my vacation in the big woods. I enjoy it. I shoot some deer but I wish I could do it more and somehow reduce the number of hours it takes between opportunities at mature bucks.

But that's why I read the posts and read the books.
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby johndeere506 » Tue Jul 14, 2015 2:59 pm

I haven't hunted recent cut but agree w Dewey and Kurt above. When I broke it down to few edges, MAN did I find the sign! Try that on aerials first.

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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby bigwoodsmn » Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:04 pm

johndeere506 wrote:I haven't hunted recent cut but agree w Dewey and Kurt above. When I broke it down to few edges, MAN did I find the sign! Try that on aerials first.

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I agree about edges. Magic on the beast put together a serious "home run" thread on hunting edges in big woods. On the other hand, people don't realize what happened to the deer herd up here from even 3 years ago. I think this year will be different. They had an easy winter. Maybe the 3 year olds that did make it will grow some antlers.
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:29 pm

The bigwoods is tough hunting for sure. I have been doing it off and on for 20+ years and still consider myself a novice. The last 5 years I backed way off just because of declining deer herd and poor management. When I do hunt up there the challenge is what still draws me back. Nothing like a bigwoods hunt to test your abilities as a hunter one on one with what I believe are by far the toughest deer to kill.

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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby bigwoodsmn » Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:48 pm

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Ryan
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby Ryan » Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:28 pm

I can't remember who said it but i heard on here someone say a good quote "100% of the deer are in 20% of the woods." I think it depends on if your hunting for meat or big bucks to, a lot of guys on here have said the quest for a big mature buck will often lead you to seeing less deer, but when you do see them there the ones your after. I plan on doing a lot of big woods public land hunts and out of state hunts going in blind, I'm just going to pick a good spot on the map hunt it in the morning, if there's no good sign there take my stand down and walk to some points of interest with the wind in mind and set up over hot sign for the evening hunt.
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby dirt nap giver » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:07 pm

huntimg big woods can be intimidating at first. But don't let it intimidate you. Like others have said, find water on aerials. Once you find water, then look at the topo map relating to the same aerial. Pay attention to terrain adjacent, leading to/from the water. I don't just hunt woods, I hunt terrain. Find water, transition edges between mature woods and swamps, combined with ridges/hills etc in and around the water. The more terrain you can find in one area, the better the area will be. Then follow up on foot.

Having a map of the area that is aerial with topo overlay in hand while scouting is priceless. I can mark up the map with a red pen of the sign I find, plus it helps get me back to the truck.
If you bring a GPS with you, that's even better. If you can bring a GPS and a compass, that's best. A compass typically won't fail you in your time of need.

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stash59
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby stash59 » Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:53 am

All good stuff guys. I need to read Magics threads. Thanx for pulling them up.

One tool I've found are GIS maps. Some counties have great maps that show what type of vegatation is growing in an area. I use this to find soft edges that hold the more palatable foods that the deer prefer. In essence finding naturally occurring "food plots".

The state of Michigan has the best example of this.http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10363_10913---,00.html

Click on the orange lettering to get started. After agreeing to the terms you'll get here.http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mi-hunt/#acceptTerms

Click on the pile of papers between the wrench and car to open up the layers. Open the MI-Hunt cover types by clicking the plus sign in front of it to see the legend. Click the gray box to it's right to place the layers on the map. Then zoom in.

Here's what it looks like.http://www.mcgi.state.mi.us/mi-hunt/#acceptTerms

Other states have this also to some degree. I can't get all of them to run on my computer. But most of the county ones will.
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stash59
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby stash59 » Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:55 am

Guess it won't open the last link. Sorry!!
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Re: Big woods hunting - I have no idea how to start

Unread postby hunter_mike » Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:05 am

X2 on the Hal Blood book. Purely awesome reading material there.
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”


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