as i was about to tighten my stand a buck came trotting right at me...i believe the noise is what drew him in..he trotted in like a bull and stopped and looked around and slowly slipped away looking around..dont think he really busted me..
the only buck bed ive ever located is marked on these maps..i havent checked it..but when that buck was alive he used it religiously..he did have a J hook rub line coming into it as if he bedded there on a WNW wind..which is pretty common of a wind..
the buck i saw came from the north..left to the southwest...
this is a odd place...big woods setting but fragmented and that is a farmed field to the north..corn and beans..they took half the corn down already..
the green is all hemlock except the big pines and Christmas trees i have marked. the big pines are big mature blue spruce or whatever..BIG pines..
i REALLY wanna get this buck killed...i just have no idea where he is bedding. I am guessing he is bedding on the ridge looking below or maybe in the mining spoil piles you can see on the topo..they are primarily hemlock but some spots of younger saplings..some tiny ponds or big puddles..some high walls and such as you go through there..
there are trails all through this set of woods...not used much but occasionally a lady on her horse, the same lady walking her dogs, hunters and once in a while ATVs but not usually..
just to the west of my stand in a trail that basically runs N/S...just to the south is another..at that intersection is ALWAYS a scrape...killed a 2.5yo over that scrape a while back..
about 20-40yds off the entire ridge is a trail..if you look at the big pines you can see the trail..it runs along the edge of the big pines with 1 row on the east of it and follows the ridge clear to the dirt road..
below the ridge trail is another trail..if you look at the Christmas tree patch you can see that trail..it basically follows the same elevation out to the dirt road..its covered in scrapes..
you can see more of the trails and how they branch out to the NW of my stand...
also..directly to the north is a clearing...thats the land owners camper...he isnt up often..if he is he doesnt seem to do much outside of his little clearing...
to the south of his clearing is white pines and to the west is some thick brush...
food in the woods....theres oak trees scattered about..and pretty abundant this year..
any ideas??? i have some early season left...then rut...and gun season...
the way that buck acted i think that is HIS turf....im wondering if next week setting up in the same general area and trying some rattling wouldnt get him fired up...