The Overlooked Areas-Cedar Swamps and Clear Cuts

[dan]

Since you are "Gung Ho", you could pick an area that seems like it could hold buck bedding and go in on foot right now. Sure, you will be burning the spot, but you may find a bucks bedroom. Worst case, you find nothing. Best case, you find some buck beds and can then use that experience to find other similar spots to run and gun during the season. Nothing beats in the field experience.

That is something I am planning on doing. Being that it is mid August, do you think that this spot will be totally burned for the season? Wouldn't things work back to normal by late October-November? Obviously scouting now is not ideal, but I have been wondering about why 2 months isn't enough time for it to settle.

I have done quite well scouting and then hunting. You do push some bucks out, but some return. You can go in in august or september, walk thru bedding areas and kick the bucks out try to get an eye on them scout only as much as needed, and then return 3 weeks to a month later. Trick is to get what you need and get out, don't go stand in the beds or hang out there. Get in, and get out.

[Singing Bridge]

Since you are "Gung Ho", you could pick an area that seems like it could hold buck bedding and go in on foot right now. Sure, you will be burning the spot, but you may find a bucks bedroom. Worst case, you find nothing. Best case, you find some buck beds and can then use that experience to find other similar spots to run and gun during the season. Nothing beats in the field experience.

That is something I am planning on doing. Being that it is mid August, do you think that this spot will be totally burned for the season? Wouldn't things work back to normal by late October-November? Obviously scouting now is not ideal, but I have been wondering about why 2 months isn't enough time for it to settle.

I have done quite well scouting and then hunting. You do push some bucks out, but some return. You can go in in august or september, walk thru bedding areas and kick the bucks out try to get an eye on them scout only as much as needed, and then return 3 weeks to a month later. Trick is to get what you need and get out, don't go stand in the beds or hang out there. Get in, and get out.

Excellent post!!

[magicman54494]

Check the high points in the clear cuts especially if there are small pines growing there. Most "clear cuts" aactually have pockets that don't get cut. check high on the side hills in the older cuts for beds. check for tracks and rubs on the edges. CHECK FOR DEER ACTIVITY, TRACKS, BROWSE, DROPPINGS. All clear cuts are not the same. some will have little activity some will be huge deer magnets. Cuts can be finicky, they can be hot one year then go cold the next. Trust the sign.

[magicman54494]

cedar swamps can be tricky to find bedding. The two keys that seem to always be there is some height (could be as little as a few feet) and visibility. They like to bed on the edge where there is a higher bank so they can see. It can be hard to find beds by looking at maps. Most of the good ones I find are from boots on the ground. If they are pressured they will break the rules and bed right in the thick stuff.

[Killemquietly]

Since you are "Gung Ho", you could pick an area that seems like it could hold buck bedding and go in on foot right now. Sure, you will be burning the spot, but you may find a bucks bedroom. Worst case, you find nothing. Best case, you find some buck beds and can then use that experience to find other similar spots to run and gun during the season.
Nothing beats in the field experience.

I second Klemz, go put eyes on it. One thing you'll never get from a map or Google earth, is past sign and or hunter sign. You can also do some low impact with a spotting scope, like checking on bearing oaks etc.

[NorthernMN218]

Since you are "Gung Ho", you could pick an area that seems like it could hold buck bedding and go in on foot right now. Sure, you will be burning the spot, but you may find a bucks bedroom. Worst case, you find nothing. Best case, you find some buck beds and can then use that experience to find other similar spots to run and gun during the season. Nothing beats in the field experience.

That is something I am planning on doing. Being that it is mid August, do you think that this spot will be totally burned for the season? Wouldn't things work back to normal by late October-November? Obviously scouting now is not ideal, but I have been wondering about why 2 months isn't enough time for it to settle.

I have done quite well scouting and then hunting. You do push some bucks out, but some return. You can go in in august or september, walk thru bedding areas and kick the bucks out try to get an eye on them scout only as much as needed, and then return 3 weeks to a month later. Trick is to get what you need and get out, don't go stand in the beds or hang out there. Get in, and get out.

Thank you, Dan! I am going to give it a try tomorrow

[Lockdown]

I agree with Dan on some bucks returning if you bump them out of their bedding now. IMO you're better off having a half dozen spots to work through than trying to go in blind. Even if half the bucks you bump don't come back, you've still got 3 legit sets on big buck bedding that could potentially work out. To me that's better than going in blind and hoping you're set up properly.

Also I hear the overlooked bedding thing mentioned often. This is just my speculation, but I think that tactic is most effective where pressure is high because they've got fewer options for safe bedding. Granted, if you find a nice bedding area where people never go, security is security no matter where it's located. That said, in a low pressure area such as yours I don't think most big bucks will choose the "overlooked" roadside and just off the beaten trail type bedding areas. Why bed near human activity when you've got a vast expanse of solitude? Maybe I am wrong but that's just my perspective.

[NorthernMN218]

I agree with Dan on some bucks returning if you bump them out of their bedding now. IMO you're better off having a half dozen spots to work through than trying to go in blind. Even if half the bucks you bump don't come back, you've still got 3 legit sets on big buck bedding that could potentially work out. To me that's better than going in blind and hoping you're set up properly.

Also I hear the overlooked bedding thing mentioned often. This is just my speculation, but I think that tactic is most effective where pressure is high because they've got fewer options for safe bedding. Granted, if you find a nice bedding area where people never go, security is security no matter where it's located. That said, in a low pressure area such as yours I don't think most big bucks will choose the "overlooked" roadside and just off the beaten trail type bedding areas. Why bed near human activity when you've got a vast expanse of solitude? Maybe I am wrong but that's just my perspective.

Oh I agree with you! I have recently got my wife into bow hunting, and I will be spending a good chunk of my season trying to get her a buck. Not necessarily a big one. This means the spots that I scout now will more than likely sit until October at the earliest, and I will be fully prepared at that time.

The places that I hunt have many permanent stands that will consistently produce the 2.5 yo deer, but rarely the more mature animals. One of the things I have done in trying to pin point potential buck bedding was using arial photos to remove the permanent stand locations, as well as, places that shouldn't hold buck bedding. What I found was a lot of cedar swamp and old clear cuts.

[headgear]

Hey NorthernMN281, we probably hunt all the same stuff, the bucks use a marsh in a lot of the same ways they use a swamp. Get the swamp hunting DVD because like mentioned that will be a huge short cut to your success. I took the tactics from marsh and hill country and applied them to swamps years before the swamp dvd came out, those bucks all have similar bedding tendencies so you just have to apply those tendencies to the land you hunt. Cedar swamps, beaver dams, tamarack swamps, alder swamps, bog swamps, red brush, grass, black spruce swamps. Find the points, find the islands, follow those edges, find those little bedding humps out in the nasty stuff. Find those thermal mixing zones where a buck can sniff a large area just before or after they leave their beds at night. Look for more hill country bedding on the high ground, they don't have to be huge hills, sometimes just a 20 to 50 foot rise will be plenty for them to get a good view. Not all bedding is created equal so you have to learn slow and find a few good spots and study them to see all the ways a bucks uses that area for safety. Once you find a few they become easier to find. Those large clearcuts are great for the rut and for does but they have to be special for a buck to use them, there has to be multiple reason for a buck to bed in a location, learn those reasons and only focus on the best bedding locations.

[Net Guy]

I hunt thick tamarack and tag alder swamps and have had pretty decent luck focusing on interior transition lines. These interior transition lines can be hard to locate on maps sometimes but they seem to hold good bedding. I'd focus on these interior transitions.

When you say interior transitions, is that like a patch of buck brush within or a creek running through?

I learned this tactic from Dan in the swamp bedding DVD (worth every penny IMO). If not there then one of his other videos, either way, I'd get the DVD if I were you. To me, I focus on the transition lines that are inside the piece of land you are scouting which is surrounded by other vegetation or terrain that may or may not be connected to a road/or easily accessible. Confusing, right?! You're right about the buck brush or creek within the cedar swamps. Those would be interior transition lines.

Points on interior islands are good, but if you can find thick cover off those points not far away, I think you're golden. Those would be interior transitions. The best bedding I've found thus far up north in the thick and nasty tag alder/tamarack swamp is a small low-density Tamarack island surrounded by an impenetrable tag alder swamp. That tag alder swamp is then surrounded by more tamaracks and hardwoods - which eventually connect to the road (easily accessible). So that small tamarack island would be an example of an interior transition line as well. Dan does a lot better job explaining than I do! You'll have to watch his DVD.

I know I didn't explain it the best, and perhaps someone can help, but I know it when I see them on a map. Hope this can help.

[NorthernMN218]

Hey NorthernMN281, we probably hunt all the same stuff, the bucks use a marsh in a lot of the same ways they use a swamp. Get the swamp hunting DVD because like mentioned that will be a huge short cut to your success. I took the tactics from marsh and hill country and applied them to swamps years before the swamp dvd came out, those bucks all have similar bedding tendencies so you just have to apply those tendencies to the land you hunt. Cedar swamps, beaver dams, tamarack swamps, alder swamps, bog swamps, red brush, grass, black spruce swamps. Find the points, find the islands, follow those edges, find those little bedding humps out in the nasty stuff. Find those thermal mixing zones where a buck can sniff a large area just before or after they leave their beds at night. Look for more hill country bedding on the high ground, they don't have to be huge hills, sometimes just a 20 to 50 foot rise will be plenty for them to get a good view. Not all bedding is created equal so you have to learn slow and find a few good spots and study them to see all the ways a bucks uses that area for safety. Once you find a few they become easier to find. Those large clearcuts are great for the rut and for does but they have to be special for a buck to use them, there has to be multiple reason for a buck to bed in a location, learn those reasons and only focus on the best bedding locations.

I appreciate your response! I have a spot that I am really focusing in on has a large hardwood ridge that is about 50 yards west of a transition from cedar swamp containing a series of beaver ponds. It is one of those things that seems to suggest that a buck could bed anywhere in that area. It seems that a buck could bed on the 2/3 of the ridge with the western wind coming off the top while catching the rising thermals from the bottom, but I am confused with the cedar swamp and water at the bottom of the ridge. Would that not cause a change of the thermals with water at the bottom?

[headgear]

Sometimes I have spots where they might be in multiple locations depending on the wind and pressure and time of year. For instance one spot kind of sounds like yours, the bucks seem to bed on a ridge with a south wind during the summer but once a few hunters hit the woods and pressure the area a bit they move down into the swamp below the ridge and bed on a small island. All the while watching a trail where the other hunters in the areas access their ladder stands during rifle season. The buck has another spot on a point jutting out into the swamp just a few hundred yards away, they seem to like areas with a few good spots to bed, it just makes them easier to feel safe in that area no matter the wind. Those ridges cause all kinds of thermals and swirling winds too, they love locations where they can smell all over without having to move too much.

[NorthernMN218]

Sometimes I have spots where they might be in multiple locations depending on the wind and pressure and time of year. For instance one spot kind of sounds like yours, the bucks seem to bed on a ridge with a south wind during the summer but once a few hunters hit the woods and pressure the area a bit they move down into the swamp below the ridge and bed on a small island. All the while watching a trail where the other hunters in the areas access their ladder stands during rifle season. The buck has another spot on a point jutting out into the swamp just a few hundred yards away, they seem to like areas with a few good spots to bed, it just makes them easier to feel safe in that area no matter the wind. Those ridges cause all kinds of thermals and swirling winds too, they love locations where they can smell all over without having to move too much.

Being that you are a Northern MN guy, how do you see the wolves affecting this pattern? When the wolves swing through your area, how long would it take the deer to move back to these patterns? The main property that I hunt has its northern and eastern borders along the Mississippi, and it seems like once every season the wolves will swing through and mess everything up for the "upland" deer. Not sure if those deer just end up buried in the swamp and waiting it out or if they are moving out of the area for a bit.

[headgear]

When the wolves move through you have two options, hit the deepest wet stuff you can find or move to a new area 10+ miles away. Generally speaking when I bow hunt I am hopping all over so if I see some wolf tracks I will still hunt that area if I don't have time to move but the next day I will go somewhere else a good distance away. Unless you see a pack or find a ton of tracks it can be hard to tell if they are on the hunt or just passing through. Many times a pack or smaller group of 1-3 wolves will move through the area and don't mess with the deer at all. Other times they are on the hunt and the deer vanish for a good 3-4 days. I use to think they would leave the area completely (and some of them do) but many of the deer will just lay down for a several days until they know its safe. We have witnessed this many times and some guys have even seen a same doe and fawn day after day in a very small area after the wolves move through. I suspect they don't want to move and leave a scent trail for the wolves to follow. Most of the time I just ignore the wolves and focus on the buck sign, if they are there I want to be hunting them wolves or no wolves.