It's the late season, where are the deer?

[BackWoodsHunter]

I know everyone has opinions about where to find deer in the late season, mainly around food, but where would you look beyond the food? Its cold, there's over a foot of snow, and the high temps have been in the single digits. I am going out to scan a few public spots and walk some hopefully finding some good sign. Where would you begin looking for the deer?

[lungbuster]

Well the good thing about snow is you can see where the deer have been and follow fresh tracks........I would look for areas of good browse, I know you want other places to look besides food, but the reality of late season is that the deer will bed as close to the food sources as they can. Food sources might be cedar thickets or red brush, depending on the terrain you are hunting, but I would bet all the tracks or deer you find are going to be close to a food source.Remember too that harvested fields are still a food source, deer will pick thru for waste grain or eat what is left of bean stalks or leaves.

[dan]

Track them from the food back... If that don't do it for you drive around the public till you find tracks and follow them.... If your doing it on foot following a transition line of thick cover can generate good results, but expect the deer to possibly be bedded near the transition on the thick side.

[BackWoodsHunter]

both of those were accurate. I went on the DNR site today and discovered their DNR managed lands map tool and got to work. I checked out a strip of public along a river and got busy. Walked over a mile and a half in the knee deep snow I was ready to give up but my "gotta see what's over the next hill" mentality took over and man did I do some discovering. Seems like one other hunter was in the area since the snow over the weekend and he followed a very obvious, and close to parking deer trail to the south so I kept going and stayed to the north. My wandering took me through a stand of young white pines into a small clearing that was above, and south, of a fresh clear cut. I peeked over the hill and the whole skid road leading to the cut was covered with tracks and pawed ground from browsing. Just north of the cut was private land and fields. I followed the "logging road" to the edge of the private, read the sign and took a breather. I heard a branch break, laughed to myself and said "wouldn't it be funny if that was a deer" and thought I should wait here til dark and hunt on the ground. Well I caught my breath and was anxious to see more so I kept moving. The plan was to walk just on the public side of the property line and see what I could see. Get in a little ways and a big doe scoots out onto the private land field, guess I was right there was a deer in there Oh well, lesson learned. Just off the logging road within 100yards or less of it I found over a dozen beds (stopped counting at 12). Unfortunately I won't get to hunt this piece anymore this year but I will indeed file the map away for next season. Today was a success. Is it safe to assume that multiple sets of deer tracks casually meandering through this tiny piece of public land, and tons of doe beds, and one other set of human prints means this place recieves little pressure?

[cornfedkiller]

Track them from the food back... If that don't do it for you drive around the public till you find tracks and follow them.... If your doing it on foot following a transition line of thick cover can generate good results, but expect the deer to possibly be bedded near the transition on the thick side.

So after you follow the tracks back to where they are bedding and bust them all out of there, then what?

[BackWoodsHunter]

pat yourself on the back for seeing some deer in this barren state of WI, curse the DNR, and go home

[dan]

Depends on if your scouting or hunting. Scouting I would want to analyze the beds and why the deer were there and where exactly they are vulnerable if they bed there next year.
If hunting I would be moving slow and trying to predict where they are bedded and watching as to not get my scent to there beds and make and educated guess on where to set up, and when to stop tracking and start hunting.
Sometimes you might have to swing away from the deer trail to avoid eyes or scent if you think you getting close.

[cornfedkiller]

Depends on if your scouting or hunting. Scouting I would want to analyze the beds and why the deer were there and where exactly they are vulnerable if they bed there next year.
If hunting I would be moving slow and trying to predict where they are bedded and watching as to not get my scent to there beds and make and educated guess on where to set up, and when to stop tracking and start hunting.
Sometimes you might have to swing away from the deer trail to avoid eyes or scent if you think you getting close.

Thanks..I was referring to hunting, but just didnt know how to go about it that way.

[BackWoodsHunter]

This seems to work good for this time of the season. As I review what I discovered today I probably could have set up undetected and had the doe I encountered in range assuming she were coming to feed. However, as I scouted and discovered these beds nearly on top of the food source, I probably cannot rely on deer bedding in the same spot next fall. No? It would seem that they were there because all of the surrounding crops were down, this was a thick safe area to bed and it was near the only food source this time of year- a young clear cut. Hopefully spring scouting/shed hunting will reveal more!

[lungbuster]

This seems to work good for this time of the season. As I review what I discovered today I probably could have set up undetected and had the doe I encountered in range assuming she were coming to feed. However, as I scouted and discovered these beds nearly on top of the food source, I probably cannot rely on deer bedding in the same spot next fall. No? It would seem that they were there because all of the surrounding crops were down, this was a thick safe area to bed and it was near the only food source this time of year- a young clear cut. Hopefully spring scouting/shed hunting will reveal more!

Your scouting would be good for late season hunting next year, the deer would not usually bed that close to food unless the temps. are down and there is deep snow in early season.

[BackWoodsHunter]

Kinda figured...so the best time to scout for early season is going to be late spring as that is the time frame that most closely resembles the early season months?