flat swamp land just schooled me!

[hunter10]

Need some beast insight on this type of land. I am anxious for dans swamp video to surface but holy today's scout showed me i know nothing about swamps.

It is flat farm land and by the looks of things the 100 acre woodlot has been logged for years so the ground is very dense with about 7ft tall scrub and thin trees. There is water ankle/knee deep through the entire place with pretty well no transitions, high spots or noticeable bedding. I even left this place without a single idea of where i would want to climb a tree. Below is what the place looks like. I could climb 30ft up a tree and still only have a 20 yd shot into the thick stuff. I have been told mature deer have been seen in the area over the years but I would put my next pay check on it that i could not get into this swamp without making a heck of a racket.

Swamp hunters, do ya mind putting me on the right track.

[Buckhunter]

Can't wait to hear some replies, this looks and the description sounds like almost every public land ground where I'm at. Its tough to even walk 100 feet, much less cover enough ground to find mature buck beds and be quite enough to get to them. Its possible I'm sure, just very difficult and I'm looking forward to how other locate beds and hunt them in these swamps.

[fishlips]

Interested as well. I think it's tough to find much of anything quickly in these areas. I almost thing some of the areas I have found like this I am going to put on the back burner until I have a lot of time to almost grid search these areas.

[mainebowhunter]

Look for transition lines. Places where the swamp meets timber or where the swamp transitions into some of type of terrain. There has to be a reason for the deer to bed/use that area. If there are no high spots, no elevation changes, deer are not going to bed in the water. When I find elevation changes it may be only 2' but its enough to get the deer on a high spot. I know when I am scouting swamps, swale (just got done doing that today) I try to scout all the edges and then jump on any trails that cross the swale or swamp. Besides trying to find beds in the middle, I really want to know how the deer navigate in and around it. Now much of what I was scouting was wet/bog in the timber, on the edges or 4-5yr old cutovers. There were rubs, some scrapes and a PILE of droppings. Deer were feeding on buds.

There should be trails, rubs or something to indicate deer are using it. Not all swamps are good. Not all areas have the sign in them that makes them worth hunting. I scout a lot of stuff every year that just is not good. It can be frustrating because it takes knowledge and experience to look at something and know its good. Some spots, the super good ones, does not take a genius to see its hammered. Some spots, not so hammered but still have potential.

[dan]

Look for transition lines. Places where the swamp meets timber or where the swamp transitions into some of type of terrain. There has to be a reason for the deer to bed/use that area. If there are no high spots, no elevation changes, deer are not going to bed in the water. When I find elevation changes it may be only 2' but its enough to get the deer on a high spot. I know when I am scouting swamps, swale (just got done doing that today) I try to scout all the edges and then jump on any trails that cross the swale or swamp. Besides trying to find beds in the middle, I really want to know how the deer navigate in and around it. Now much of what I was scouting was wet/bog in the timber, on the edges or 4-5yr old cutovers. There were rubs, some scrapes and a PILE of droppings. Deer were feeding on buds.

There should be trails, rubs or something to indicate deer are using it. Not all swamps are good. Not all areas have the sign in them that makes them worth hunting. I scout a lot of stuff every year that just is not good. It can be frustrating because it takes knowledge and experience to look at something and know its good. Some spots, the super good ones, does not take a genius to see its hammered. Some spots, not so hammered but still have potential.

Yep... Your probably missing subtle elevation changes and transition edges... If not, I would look at a different swamp unless there is a particular buck in there your after? If all terrain is virtually the same, it can be dang near impossible to figure out. You have to get lucky by hopping around randomly, picking spots tossing a dart at the map... The video does touch on this very subject, and goes into detail about subtle transitions.

[DEERSLAYER]

Look for transition lines. Places where the swamp meets timber or where the swamp transitions into some of type of terrain. There has to be a reason for the deer to bed/use that area. If there are no high spots, no elevation changes, deer are not going to bed in the water. When I find elevation changes it may be only 2' but its enough to get the deer on a high spot. I know when I am scouting swamps, swale (just got done doing that today) I try to scout all the edges and then jump on any trails that cross the swale or swamp. Besides trying to find beds in the middle, I really want to know how the deer navigate in and around it. Now much of what I was scouting was wet/bog in the timber, on the edges or 4-5yr old cutovers. There were rubs, some scrapes and a PILE of droppings. Deer were feeding on buds.

There should be trails, rubs or something to indicate deer are using it. Not all swamps are good. Not all areas have the sign in them that makes them worth hunting. I scout a lot of stuff every year that just is not good. It can be frustrating because it takes knowledge and experience to look at something and know its good. Some spots, the super good ones, does not take a genius to see its hammered. Some spots, not so hammered but still have potential.

Yep... Your probably missing subtle elevation changes and transition edges... If not, I would look at a different swamp unless there is a particular buck in there your after? If all terrain is virtually the same, it can be dang near impossible to figure out. You have to get lucky by hopping around randomly, picking spots tossing a dart at the map... The video does touch on this very subject, and goes into detail about subtle transitions.

X2, I spent half a day scouting an extreme pressure swamp yesterday. About 90% of the sign was in a 20 yard wide strip that was on the edge of an area that is wet most of the year. The "high ground" was 8"-10" higher that the wet area. There are usually edges of some sort in swamps that the deer relate to and sometimes it can be subtle. A lot of times it is a slight elevation change, small creek, a change in vegetation type or stem density. Swamps are usually the most difficult place to pattern mature bucks and I spend far more time trying to pin one down in a swamp compared to any other habtat.

[hunter10]

I am going to do another in depth scout and see if I can find something. As for bedding, there are cut tree tops scattered all over the place making the perfect bedding But not sure if say one tree top is better than another for a mature buck etc. On a side note, I only found 1 stand on the parcel so far and it's on a field edge

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Lockdown]

Is the picture you posted suppose to be of the swamp? Or of the trees in the woodlot that are "under water"? That's what you described and I'm not poking fun but I don't see a swamp or an under water woodlot in this picture

[CallMeFishmael]

Be sure not to fall into the same trap that I always fight of just randomly walking through the thick stuff looking for the needle in the hay stack. I had this happen again yesterday and started with a "hey, I think I'll check that out over there.". After a while, I stopped and thought why are you walking the middle? You know you should be walking the transition. I walked immediately to the edge and started walking. In no time, I found an entrance run with several rubs and tracked it 150 yards in to a bed. The point here is that if the deer are in there, they have to get in somehow and will take a few paths in. In my limited experience, it is much easier to find along the edge than through the middle and tells you right away if it is worth scouting.

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[hunter10]

Lockdown, this picture was taken 3 steps off the field edge. I got back to the vehicle with soaked boots and coveralls. The place is wet

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[hunter10]

Lockdown, I'm wondering if this type of land all thick like this can be hunted like your grove you have talked about in the past. Being that it's so think, do you find it easier to get into place off the field edge without busting them out? Thanks

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

Lockdown, this picture was taken 3 steps off the field edge. I got back to the vehicle with soaked boots and coveralls. The place is wet

[ Post made via iPhone ]

If whats in the picture is dry, and whats in the swamp is wet, there is indeed transition...

[headgear]

There just might not be great buck bedding there or that one spot where deer like to bed, however the thick cover should attract some deer and especially does so maybe this place gets hot during the rut. When looking at bedding on private land I would cyber scout all the neighboring properties too, if you aren't finding much on your land then they are likely next door and you might have to plan your setups based on that.

[Lockdown]

Lockdown, this picture was taken 3 steps off the field edge. I got back to the vehicle with soaked boots and coveralls. The place is wet

[ Post made via iPhone ]

If whats in the picture is dry, and whats in the swamp is wet, there is indeed transition...

That's what I was working toward. When you think transition, like Dan said woods to water is a transition (and a good one at that). Woods to field edge is a transition. Those are the obvious ones.

Also if there are any pockets in the middle of the thick stuff there could also be bedding there. I see lots of bedding in blowdowns. From what you've said there are a lot of them. From there the only thing you can do is follow the trails leaving each bed and hope to uncover a rubline.

It doesn't sound like an easy spot to figure out, but that is often the case on flat land. If you can't find one blowdown that appears to be the best, I would find the best cluster of them, or general area, and hope for the best.

Good advice from headgear too.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[hunter10]

The water I am referring to is not continuous its actually quite odd to look at. Picture it as a field full of bathtub size pockets of water about 2ft from eachother through the entire place. The advice is good tho fellas, I'm going to scout it again soon

[ Post made via iPhone ]