Tips for marsh/swamp

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Ragingun
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Tips for marsh/swamp

Unread postby Ragingun » Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:38 am

Hey guys. I've hunted a very large marsh the past 5 years for deer. It's well over 20 square miles of continuous swamp, marsh, and waterways. This is a loaded question but I am looking for general experiences here. Given that there's just about every type of area one would "expect" a buck to be bedded, not every area does and only a few of those areas actually hold a buck. I've hunted this area successfully in the past even shooting a 9 year old 3 years ago but I have trouble locating these beds consistently. They seem to move around alot from year to year. One year a buck will bed in a certain location but the next there's not one in that area at all.

This year has been a challenge figuring out where the deer are moving period. This swamp was flooded almost all summer due to all the rain we've had and until the past month or a little more there wasn't deer in it. They are filtering back in but now it's the challenge to find a bed really quick without doing a lot of scouting and messing it all up. Then the crazy cycle continues next year. Frustrating multiple huge deer are shot in this marsh every year so it's more than worth my time. Plus it's 2 minutes from my house to the boat launch.

So, my question is this but not limited to this if you feel like responding to my above situation. For the swamp/marsh hunters out there, when you have a large area like this do you find the bucks in general tend to migrate towards the marsh/cat tail areas to bed or do they generally like to bed in the swamp type areas. For example is it a 50/50 ratio or a 30/70 ratio? There are no absolutes in nature and every area greatly varies as well as food sources however I am curious to see if there is a trend.

Thanks.


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Loppy
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Re: Tips for marsh/swamp

Unread postby Loppy » Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:53 am

The best thing you can do is order Dan's Swamp bedding video. There is a ton of info. You can watch it 10 times and still keep learning from it.

You can also go to The all time best tactical threads.
http ://www.thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24471 There is a lot of great info in there. The topo map section will help you learn how to break the swamps, marshes. And it's a lot of good reading.
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headgear
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Re: Tips for marsh/swamp

Unread postby headgear » Tue Oct 17, 2017 6:56 am

Generally speaking if you are finding the best of the best beds they will get used every year. Now that doesn't mean they gets used when you hunt them but on an annual basis they will get used. There will also be a pile of beds that go hot and cold depending on all kinds of stuff. Scout areas and re-scout areas if you have to, that has helped me understand what gets used every year and what doesn't. You also need to learn when they gets used, so that might mean hunting them differnet times of the year or scouting them in season or strait up blowing the deer out of there to get the intel you need for the next season. In the bigwoods areas I hunt the bucks have too many possible bedding areas and not enough deer to fill them all, probably similar to your huge swamp. Just keep scouting and narrowing that stuff down, you need to find the best of the best beds and that should help increase your odds. Larger swamps like this might take a lifetime to learn, I have some swamps much smaller that I have been working for 10 years and I am still trying to figure them out. If it was easy everyone would be tagged out already. ;)
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Dewey
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Re: Tips for marsh/swamp

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:05 am

Get in there and scout every inch of it paying attention to bedding on slight elevations higher than everything else. Those spots may only be 1-2 feet higher but those are key for high water years. Low water deer can bed just about anywhere by high water pushes them to those spots and makes bedding so much more predictable. Good to know the locations of all those spots which will set you up good for the future.


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