PredatorTC your up!

[Natenlsn2]

Alot of great information! It's great how everyone has slightly different mindset & techniques, yet still get the job done year after year!

RIght on! One big piece of advice that I would give everyone Is to not do everything the way I do it, or Dan does it or billy bob does it. Take little bit from everyone and form your own ways. Back in the blood brothers video days I did a ton of bed hunting like Dan and just couldn't figure it out. I was doing everything that Dan said but wasn't getting results. I started to pick up on what I was seeing and shape my ways accordingly. I realized my situation was similar but different from Dans. Every true killer I've ever met actually hunts very different and I think it just has a lot to do with just who they are and what works for them. I've taken a lot of advice form others and fell flat on my face. The best teacher is the woods and whitetail itself.

This whole post you made is fantastic! What really sticks out to me is the challenge you face hunting specific beds. I am new to the beast, hunting big woods areas with endless spots that would be perfect for a buck to bed (most of these spots do not look to be used by any deer let alone a big buck). I have found quite a few spots that I know bucks are bedding based on sign, but I thought your concept of finding bedding areas vs specific beds is genius. The challenge with big woods is that I will most likely not be able to glass these deer in a field because there is no field. They may go to a slashing, or People’s bait piles, but glassing is for sure a challenge. How would you suggest getting after bucks in this type of scenario? Just trust the sign? Hunt the beds I know I have sign in and hope that I am hunting the right bed? Hunt areas in and around where I know he is bedding? Other thoughts?

[PredatorTC]

Hey Nathan- I recently saw your hunt for Macho man and that was top notch! Loved it!



Are these woods huge? Like thousands of acres, or are they woodlots? I honestly haven't done a ton of the big woods scouting or even hunting so I probably couldn't give you some of the best advice on this, but I have hunted some big sections and I would think that it has got to be similar. Within those woodlots or big sections in my scenarios, there are your little honey holes at different times of the year. If its big woods, I would imagine that those honey holes are like our crop fields for us in regards to the way deer head for them to feed. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but I would start by looking for these areas. I think attention to detail would be a really huge deal in big woods. There would be a few things I would be looking for.



1.Scout for those trees that are nicked up. Remember your rubs aren't always big and glaring.

2. Look for stuff that they are nibbling on. Look for where they are chewing on buds, maybe wild flowers? If this is in season scouting, this sign will be great because you can tell if they have been hitting it recently based on how chewed up it is and if the chewed up stuff has grown back or if its way chewed down.

3.Tracks is an obvious one.

4. And then poop. I know there is a lot of debate around this, but I've always believed that big body deer have big poop. The thing with poop is that it ages. You can tell if its weeks old or hours just by how it dries up. This can tell you if you need to setup that day or if they are no longer around. The poop in these areas is going to make it a bit more obvious that they are feeding there

For me, I think half the trouble would be locating them in the big woods and I would do this by finding where they are going and not necessarily where they are. Going to be much easier. I wish I could tell you what they like to feed on in those big woods. Maybe you know? Or can someone else speak to this? Hard to say for me without ever being in your exact shoes. I may be way off, but maybe you can take away one little nugget from my experiences that click for you.

I

[BradC36]

Great write up Joe. Interesting to see different tactics being used by guys on the beast in different areas. It is really location dependent I think on how any individual can hunt and see this this type of success on mature bucks. You've definitely got it figured out pretty well!

[Ridgerunner7]

Very impressive and a great write up! Well done!

[PeteJ]

Great write up Joe

[Natenlsn2]

Hey Nathan- I recently saw your hunt for Macho man and that was top notch! Loved it!



Are these woods huge? Like thousands of acres, or are they woodlots? I honestly haven't done a ton of the big woods scouting or even hunting so I probably couldn't give you some of the best advice on this, but I have hunted some big sections and I would think that it has got to be similar. Within those woodlots or big sections in my scenarios, there are your little honey holes at different times of the year. If its big woods, I would imagine that those honey holes are like our crop fields for us in regards to the way deer head for them to feed. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but I would start by looking for these areas. I think attention to detail would be a really huge deal in big woods. There would be a few things I would be looking for.



1.Scout for those trees that are nicked up. Remember your rubs aren't always big and glaring.

2. Look for stuff that they are nibbling on. Look for where they are chewing on buds, maybe wild flowers? If this is in season scouting, this sign will be great because you can tell if they have been hitting it recently based on how chewed up it is and if the chewed up stuff has grown back or if its way chewed down.

3.Tracks is an obvious one.

4. And then poop. I know there is a lot of debate around this, but I've always believed that big body deer have big poop. The thing with poop is that it ages. You can tell if its weeks old or hours just by how it dries up. This can tell you if you need to setup that day or if they are no longer around. The poop in these areas is going to make it a bit more obvious that they are feeding there

For me, I think half the trouble would be locating them in the big woods and I would do this by finding where they are going and not necessarily where they are. Going to be much easier. I wish I could tell you what they like to feed on in those big woods. Maybe you know? Or can someone else speak to this? Hard to say for me without ever being in your exact shoes. I may be way off, but maybe you can take away one little nugget from my experiences that click for you.

I

Thanks man!! I really appreciate that! Most areas I am hunting on public are thousands of acres of unbroken timber, no ag fields anywhere within miles...in fact, we only have a handful of soybean fields in my whole county haha! I do hunt some areas that are a couple hundred acres of a wood lot, but pretty much It is just solid woods.
I have been noticing more now that near buck bedding, the buck will brake branches and twigs to get buds down at face level. I should for sure look into the whole wildflower thing, never heard of that before but would make sense!
Just yesterday I scouted the transition line of a big marsh, found over 150 rubs along the edge with numerous bedding spots (one was a hundred yards off a major road!). I think the challenge with a big woods buck is that he could bed in a hundred different spots along that marsh/in the marsh. Hunting the specific bed will be tough because no guarantee he will be where I want him to be haha. Do you generally get out overhanging the marsh? How far do you hunt from the bed/bedding area?
Hoping to see some good tracks this year!
Baiting is legal in my kneck of the woods, so that is a big draw for the deer, also slashings are major food source. I generally don’t find much buck sign unless there are slashings in the area. Logging is so good for deer!

[PredatorTC]

Hey Nathan- I recently saw your hunt for Macho man and that was top notch! Loved it!



Are these woods huge? Like thousands of acres, or are they woodlots? I honestly haven't done a ton of the big woods scouting or even hunting so I probably couldn't give you some of the best advice on this, but I have hunted some big sections and I would think that it has got to be similar. Within those woodlots or big sections in my scenarios, there are your little honey holes at different times of the year. If its big woods, I would imagine that those honey holes are like our crop fields for us in regards to the way deer head for them to feed. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but I would start by looking for these areas. I think attention to detail would be a really huge deal in big woods. There would be a few things I would be looking for.



1.Scout for those trees that are nicked up. Remember your rubs aren't always big and glaring.

2. Look for stuff that they are nibbling on. Look for where they are chewing on buds, maybe wild flowers? If this is in season scouting, this sign will be great because you can tell if they have been hitting it recently based on how chewed up it is and if the chewed up stuff has grown back or if its way chewed down.

3.Tracks is an obvious one.

4. And then poop. I know there is a lot of debate around this, but I've always believed that big body deer have big poop. The thing with poop is that it ages. You can tell if its weeks old or hours just by how it dries up. This can tell you if you need to setup that day or if they are no longer around. The poop in these areas is going to make it a bit more obvious that they are feeding there

For me, I think half the trouble would be locating them in the big woods and I would do this by finding where they are going and not necessarily where they are. Going to be much easier. I wish I could tell you what they like to feed on in those big woods. Maybe you know? Or can someone else speak to this? Hard to say for me without ever being in your exact shoes. I may be way off, but maybe you can take away one little nugget from my experiences that click for you.

I

Thanks man!! I really appreciate that! Most areas I am hunting on public are thousands of acres of unbroken timber, no ag fields anywhere within miles...in fact, we only have a handful of soybean fields in my whole county haha! I do hunt some areas that are a couple hundred acres of a wood lot, but pretty much It is just solid woods.
I have been noticing more now that near buck bedding, the buck will brake branches and twigs to get buds down at face level. I should for sure look into the whole wildflower thing, never heard of that before but would make sense!
Just yesterday I scouted the transition line of a big marsh, found over 150 rubs along the edge with numerous bedding spots (one was a hundred yards off a major road!). I think the challenge with a big woods buck is that he could bed in a hundred different spots along that marsh/in the marsh. Hunting the specific bed will be tough because no guarantee he will be where I want him to be haha. Do you generally get out overhanging the marsh? How far do you hunt from the bed/bedding area?
Hoping to see some good tracks this year!
Baiting is legal in my kneck of the woods, so that is a big draw for the deer, also slashings are major food source. I generally don’t find much buck sign unless there are slashings in the area. Logging is so good for deer!

What kind of marsh is it? Is it a big cattail marsh? Or dogwood and cedar? Or just cedar? and how big is the marsh roughly?

[PredatorTC]

Hey Nathan- I recently saw your hunt for Macho man and that was top notch! Loved it!



Are these woods huge? Like thousands of acres, or are they woodlots? I honestly haven't done a ton of the big woods scouting or even hunting so I probably couldn't give you some of the best advice on this, but I have hunted some big sections and I would think that it has got to be similar. Within those woodlots or big sections in my scenarios, there are your little honey holes at different times of the year. If its big woods, I would imagine that those honey holes are like our crop fields for us in regards to the way deer head for them to feed. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do it, but I would start by looking for these areas. I think attention to detail would be a really huge deal in big woods. There would be a few things I would be looking for.



1.Scout for those trees that are nicked up. Remember your rubs aren't always big and glaring.

2. Look for stuff that they are nibbling on. Look for where they are chewing on buds, maybe wild flowers? If this is in season scouting, this sign will be great because you can tell if they have been hitting it recently based on how chewed up it is and if the chewed up stuff has grown back or if its way chewed down.

3.Tracks is an obvious one.

4. And then poop. I know there is a lot of debate around this, but I've always believed that big body deer have big poop. The thing with poop is that it ages. You can tell if its weeks old or hours just by how it dries up. This can tell you if you need to setup that day or if they are no longer around. The poop in these areas is going to make it a bit more obvious that they are feeding there

For me, I think half the trouble would be locating them in the big woods and I would do this by finding where they are going and not necessarily where they are. Going to be much easier. I wish I could tell you what they like to feed on in those big woods. Maybe you know? Or can someone else speak to this? Hard to say for me without ever being in your exact shoes. I may be way off, but maybe you can take away one little nugget from my experiences that click for you.

I

Thanks man!! I really appreciate that! Most areas I am hunting on public are thousands of acres of unbroken timber, no ag fields anywhere within miles...in fact, we only have a handful of soybean fields in my whole county haha! I do hunt some areas that are a couple hundred acres of a wood lot, but pretty much It is just solid woods.
I have been noticing more now that near buck bedding, the buck will brake branches and twigs to get buds down at face level. I should for sure look into the whole wildflower thing, never heard of that before but would make sense!
Just yesterday I scouted the transition line of a big marsh, found over 150 rubs along the edge with numerous bedding spots (one was a hundred yards off a major road!). I think the challenge with a big woods buck is that he could bed in a hundred different spots along that marsh/in the marsh. Hunting the specific bed will be tough because no guarantee he will be where I want him to be haha. Do you generally get out overhanging the marsh? How far do you hunt from the bed/bedding area?
Hoping to see some good tracks this year!
Baiting is legal in my kneck of the woods, so that is a big draw for the deer, also slashings are major food source. I generally don’t find much buck sign unless there are slashings in the area. Logging is so good for deer!

What kind of marsh is it? Is it a big cattail marsh? Or dogwood and cedar? Or just cedar? and how big is the marsh roughly?

Another thing I was thinking. In your situation, If your trying to figure out if bedding is in the swamp in certain situations, go back into your old trail cam photos and scroll through them and look and see if they have mud on their legs. This is one small tip that has been handy for me. Lets say you have a photo of a good one 20 minutes after dark coming sort of from the direction of the marsh that your referring too and he has mud on his legs. Based on direction of travel and if he has mud on his legs yet, you can then narrow down that he came from something wet and that the specific buck is not bedding on dry land. Time of year matters for this too. Obviously a rutting buck not on a pattern can mislead you if your looking at this.

When I figured that little trick out, I went back through a lot of my old photos and it solved a lot of old mystery's for me and helped me to understand what was going on in my area.

[Uncle Lou]

I saw this when it was started and haven't sat down to read it all yet. And now its up to 6 pages of technical content I have to catch up on.

I'm a big fan Joe, you are a BEAST.

[Jeff25]

How early are you in the tree on your morning hunts

[PredatorTC]

I saw this when it was started and haven't sat down to read it all yet. And now its up to 6 pages of technical content I have to catch up on.

I'm a big fan Joe, you are a BEAST.

Haha! Thanks Lou!

[PredatorTC]

How early are you in the tree on your morning hunts

I try to at least sit in the dark for an hour before light. All of the best action seems to happen right in Gray light and I feel like if you're not super early you are bumping them on your way in and making a big scene.

Ideally I would like to be earlier but I just don't have the patience for that and I'm not willing to give up that much sleep unless I'm on to a giant and I really can't screw things up.

In my opinion, setting up quietly in the morning is just as important as setting up quietly at night over a bed. I always assume that a lot of deer are bedded down during the middle of the night in weird spots and you never know, they might only be a few hundred yards off and one good metal Clank while setting up can ruin the whole deal.

[Jeff25]

And Do you usually set up on the down wind edge of the bedding area

[ScottSpitzley]

I feel a little bit foolish typing this because I am so young and have so much to learn yet. I look back at some of my footage from 5 years ago and listen to the stuff that I said and I just look silly and foolish. I hope I don’t come off arrogant, but these are all my ideas that have been shaped not only through the forum, but mostly in the woods.

Great write up, Joe! Very good intel. You got me even more pumped up for this summers scouting and glassing.

This may have been asked already as I did not go throughout all the pages, but do you use video or pictures for trail cameras trying to get that direction of travel? I'm assuming video?

Also, you ever find yourself sneaking into setups in the tree glassing as well?

[PredatorTC]

I feel a little bit foolish typing this because I am so young and have so much to learn yet. I look back at some of my footage from 5 years ago and listen to the stuff that I said and I just look silly and foolish. I hope I don’t come off arrogant, but these are all my ideas that have been shaped not only through the forum, but mostly in the woods.

Great write up, Joe! Very good intel. You got me even more pumped up for this summers scouting and glassing.

This may have been asked already as I did not go throughout all the pages, but do you use video or pictures for trail cameras trying to get that direction of travel? I'm assuming video?

Also, you ever find yourself sneaking into setups in the tree glassing as well?

Thanks Scott!

I sure do use my cameras for direction of travel. I used to have all my cameras set on video mode for this reason until a bunch of my cameras had issues with the video mode. Now I just set most of them on a 3 shot burst which gives me a sense of direction as well. There are a few posts where I go into detail a bit more about this that may be worth a read.

I don't have any setups that I can sneak into because I setup the stand and sticks 100% of the time. On many occasions, I have brought my stand along and glassed from that. Its a real sun of a gun in the summer heat, but I look at it this way; I'm not the kind of guy to go to a gym but I want to try to stay in shape. Why not turn my workout in to something fun and beneficial and put in the hard work of setting it up and tearing it down. Doing it a few times is a must especially last year when I was hunting the two booners. I didn't want my first stand setup of the season to be opening night and screw it up and bust out the two big boys. I got my practice in in the summer and could make sure my stand wasn't popping or creaking.