And the work continues...scouting inseason for next. Fun stuff.

[Lockdown]

Maine do you feel your aggressive in season bed invasions would work in other states? Or do you think it’s due to the low pressure in Maine? I’m really thinking about this concept a lot.

Dan is a one and done (for a while) kinda guy. You just had a buck return same day. In my mind those bucks in Maine get bumped so infrequently that they’re not scared to come back in short order. Kind of an unusual occurrence for them. Higher pressure areas will likely see a lot longer time frame before the buck returns.... thoughts?

This summer I jumped a buck out of some CRP 5 days after I’d just went through the same area soaked in sweat and mosquito spray.

I like this topic.

[mainebowhunter]

I totally agree about the fact that these big woods bucks will put up with a lot of human intrusion. I can't remember how many times a good buck will walk right in my tracks the same day I walked there. This is why I stress in season scouting. Your trail camera pics is actual proof that we can scout and hunt without ruining a spot. these deer are so few and far between that just hopping from bed to bed is not a very good tactic. They relocate too much and there are so many bedding options. I can't hunt the earlier season because of work and distance but if I could I'd be running cameras and scouting without worry. as soon as a good buck is located I'd hunt him NOW! I'm excited for your success and I think you really are getting this type of hunting dialed in.

Yeah. We do a LOT of inseason scouting here. And your right...the bed hopping thing kind of always made me scratch my head. Because I just did not see it really working like that. The deer are just more random. Trail cams really kind of tell the story. 14 stand sits without a deer spotted kind of tell the story 2. I think the phrase for me is "you only got to be right once".

Its kind of an adaptation of my own experience I suppose. Definitely a different method...its kind of a mashup. I hang and hunt more so because it saves me a pile of money and no one steals my gear. Plus it allows me flexibility and saves me a pile of time in the off season. I can prep 60 spots with a pole saw and hand saw. I have always hunted this way but with a climber. The beast guys offered bunch of different ideas...really made sense. Just a lot of great ideas float around here.

I have experimented with all kinds of things over the last bunch of years...figuring out just HOW MUCH work it actually takes off season is mind boggling. I thought I was doing a lot before. Than I doubled my efforts.

I read a lot. Listen a bunch. And my brain never stops. Watch the deer...try and understand them. Have I really figured anything out? Ehh. Who knows. I just keep my head down and keep plugging.

[MATexbow]

Really resonate with what you are saying re: hang and hunt saving time and money. This is my first season really doubling down on the strategies i learned here and I am learning so much more about deer movement and bedding patterns. Had a morning hunt yesterday go awry due to a tree I thought would be good. Turns out, a crooked tree in the dark without previously checking it out would not be fun. So I scratched the morning and did some scouting/still hunting. Bumped the 3.5 yr old I have been hunting since an encounter opening day and finally located the beds he was using on a north west wind. Never would have gotten that info, or even knew where to check in a climber or fearing in season scouting.