How would you guys/gals eliminate spots

[wkpjs]

I am a newbie so if I am posting in the wrong area, let me know. I am making the switch to public from private this year. A large part of my strategy will be to hunt MFL land in the 1st couple of weeks of the season. So far I have digitally scouted and driven by 13 places (have much more to go) that I would keep on the list. My question is how would you go about eliminating spots.
Is there something digitally that you all would key in on that would make you straight up cross something off the list? Assume that there is agriculture present in every spot I have eliminated those that dont have3 beans or alfalfa. I know that this is a vague question but after getting home from my drive last night and printing out 13 maps I am feeling overwhelmed. I will never get boots on all these spots. Any help is appreciated.

[Boogieman1]

Open woods gets a big "X". I look for densities of cover first, then edges and terrain. I put a X on everything else. I'm awful with maps and have never cyber scouted so I don't know if it all can be done from home or not. But guessing to the trained eye yes.

[tgreeno]

I am a newbie so if I am posting in the wrong area, let me know. I am making the switch to public from private this year. A large part of my strategy will be to hunt MFL land in the 1st couple of weeks of the season. So far I have digitally scouted and driven by 13 places (have much more to go) that I would keep on the list. My question is how would you go about eliminating spots.
Is there something digitally that you all would key in on that would make you straight up cross something off the list? Assume that there is agriculture present in every spot I have eliminated those that dont have3 beans or alfalfa. I know that this is a vague question but after getting home from my drive last night and printing out 13 maps I am feeling overwhelmed. I will never get boots on all these spots. Any help is appreciated.

A difficult question: Is this hill country? Vast woods? Marshes? Farmland? I actually have a bunch of spot that aren't directly related to agriculture. Never getting boot on the ground also makes things more difficult.

[Kybowhunter]

I cyber scout a ton of hill country and small mountain type terrain. Around my parts if I can park my truck on the side of the road and have to walk up a good steep I can seperate myself from about everyone else. Anything behind that big steep hill will usually be good. Other than that I look for thick transitions around the upper 1/3.

As far as public farm land goes that gets pretty tough. I usually look for very thick transitions and start there. I will scout it, then go back to my map and see where I didnt go. What did I overlook or discount. Then I go back a second time and scout everything that I passed up the last time. I've had some very good luck with really thick oxbows in creek bends. Found two of my biggest bucks a couple year ago in those oxbows. One was an oxbow that was just corn and he bedded where the corn met the creek edge. The other was in an oxbow that was thick with creek canes until you got back to the point of the bend.

[MN_DeerHunter]

Look for properties that are hard for the average guy to access. If you have to cross water that will deter a lot of people. If you have to walk a mile + back to the spot that will deter people.

The last two years I have focused on properties that look more like duck hunting spots than deer hunting spots.

[Jackson Marsh]

I am a newbie so if I am posting in the wrong area, let me know. I am making the switch to public from private this year. A large part of my strategy will be to hunt MFL land in the 1st couple of weeks of the season. So far I have digitally scouted and driven by 13 places (have much more to go) that I would keep on the list. My question is how would you go about eliminating spots.
Is there something digitally that you all would key in on that would make you straight up cross something off the list? Assume that there is agriculture present in every spot I have eliminated those that dont have3 beans or alfalfa. I know that this is a vague question but after getting home from my drive last night and printing out 13 maps I am feeling overwhelmed. I will never get boots on all these spots. Any help is appreciated.

I wouldn't reject a property just because beans or alfalfa isn't nearby. I've seen too many bucks bed well over a mile or two from ag fields.

I look at access- is there one or two parking areas or ten? If the access is low and you have a steep hill and then down and then up another ridge that will significantly decrease the number of hunters. Top parking access (no walking up hill) near obvious funnels (inside corners, ravines etc..) usually will be hammered. Any difficult barrier like big hills, deep creek or marsh will stop most hunters. For water barriers anything over knee boot depth is what you are looking for.

Lack of man made trails is a big plus. Some properties have bike or horse trails all over the place. If those trails are present, I would look for a ridge/area of the property that the trail doesn't go to. Most guys will follow the easy walking trail (even if it's way back) and then dive off a short distance into the cover.

Any area that has good looking bedding (you can make an educated guess from aerials, especially in marsh and hills) deserves a look.

[<DK>]

When you say never get boots on the ground did you mean this year or ever? Bc that is the only way to confirm suspicions or learn this stuff. I highly suggest the best tactical threads, DVDs and youtube channel for go to info.

You need to learn cyber scouting for bedding, understand mature buck bedding by seeing it and unfortunately due to photo buckets greediness the newer members will have a hard time seeing examples to learn from... I might start a thread in the future to combine alot of info w map examples. There are some excellent old posts on here that are golden, all of them took a hit w the pics gone now.

Simply measuring distance from access will help eliminate most of your map. Anything easy walking will probably be pressured. One key there is when is it pressured? Since you do alot of drive by scouting, checking parking lots to get a sense of this might be a good idea. Especially for specific areas in the public land you hunt getting pressured. If your not sure about bedding in general then mapping out some does or rut locations wouldnt be a bad idea - just for this fall. You could just do the best you can, learn as much as you can until rut activities pick up.

BUT since you spoke about the first few weeks of the season, then what your doing is great! Confirmation of early season bucks can be essential to a successful start of archery. Even more important though is confirming access to spots when its green and thick! It sucks... Im sure based on what youve found so far that you have your own suspicious and set ideas so I say trust your gut there. One more thing I suggest you start learning is tracking. Checking field edges or crossings for large tracks can tell you a lot and whether to mark off that specific spot. It seems impossible but once things start clicking for you in the future, it will be a great tool.

I will say if your hunting marshes or swamps then there is a TON of info on here to learn from - w or w/o pics.

Here is Dan & Mario on the BB registry marking maps - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeVepvZqkqA

Hope this helps! Good luck this year!

[Jonny]

If you are hunting MFL land, typically those are smaller parcels. So if anything I would eliminate the areas that do have beans and ag right on them or bordering. All of the weekend warrior hunters I know hunt food sources since that is where all the sign is. So me personally, I would hunt where those guys don't. Hard to access, wet, nasty, and maybe not the textbook pursuit channel deer hunt on a field edge.

But if they are small, don't be afraid to go for a walk opening week with a stand on your back and bow in hand. If you find something good, hunt it and make note of it. If not, well then you didn't waste a day hunting an unproductive area and you just scouted a property. Either way, you had a productive day, which is good.

Be different than the other public land hunters. Once I started doing that, I started seeing a heck of a lot more deer. Lots more than the guys I hunt with who hunt "good spots"

[Tennhunter3]

I'm still learning this myself.

Currently I'm basing it on several factors.

What areas hold pressure or possibly will.

What areas will be logged.

What is the cover like in the bucks bed thick or more open.

Can I enter it undetected and setup quietly.

[Lockdown]

I would eliminate the spots that look like they can be effectively covered and driven by gun hunters. Focus on the spots where deer can get away due to terrain and poor hunter access.

[wkpjs]

Thanks much for the tips. I am planning on putting boots on the ground on my top 10 spots (all of which are MFL Land). I am going to be taking off the 2nd half of the 1st week of the season. I figure most folks will have gotten it out of their system by then and I can get into one of those 10 spots depending on wind etc. My plan was to then scout 2 pieces a day that first week prior to hunting in the afternoon. I have learned a lot from Dan and the Hill Country Bedding video and have the Swamp one in the mailbox when I get home. I don't know if my plan is a solid one in terms of starting with 10 and working from there but I had to start somewhere.
What I can tell you for certain is that this forum is an encyclopedia of information. You guys are great and I appreciate any of you taking time out of your day to answer my questions. You all really challenge someone to think truly outside of the box. Thanks so much.
BTW the plan for the rest of season is to hunt Public closer to home where I have put a few miles on and have some great bucks located. I will likely use what I learn in sept for oct/nov but I want to try and figure out some of the bigger pieces around home. Thanks again.

[TNstalker]

Areas that hold water constantly or logging cuts! Hunt those or the thickest stuff u can find anything else don't bother with it