Eric is the bomb, great people. Met eric late 2017.
When i first joined this forum, we eventually realized we lived in same area and we never realized that our daughters actually became friends. They still are.
We used to talk quite a bit and Erich actually took me out in a state forest piece that he hunts and works in.
He showed me specific locations and explained a-lot of why , whens , and where’s.
Very, very knowledgeable man. Helped a-lot.
It was a-lot to take in but he explained a-lot of things in a more simple way.
Like i said we were getting to be friends but for some reason we just stopped communicating. No clue why but sometimes life gets in the way. Shame.
Ive been really trying to learn and share what ive learned since i joined in 2017. I still suck but im seeing a ton of more bucks but im horrible at tree selection. To be honest i sm too dar or im too close or i get picked off a ton.
I am quite a big fella.
I average 40-55 hunts a year 3 kids,jobs, and other just wont allow me to get much more yet.
Im not complaining or making excuses at all just saying.
Me and Erich are both from Delaware and live in the southern part of it. Our state is super small we have a ton of pressure on public and most of our public is accessible from all directions.
The pressure of course gets worse and worse as the season closer to rut. The the pressure just explodes with gun season opening early to mid November.
So with that said its that much harder to find the pockets of bedding that are undisturbed.
The bucks shift slot. And i mean alot. Timing is super critical here.
There are access roads and walkable ditches on or throughout most of our state forests and even some of our marshes.
It is just about impossible if you have just an inkling of direction concept to get lost here. You may get Turned around for a spell ? Yea but ya gotta just stop listen for a dog bark, passing car , or a leaf blower, you will hear it.
The bright eyes i find on the way out of some of these small parcels i find just puzzle me. Lol. Its crazy.
Small makes the deer live close to us and just about among us
They see and hear people every day.
They watch us and in my opinion keep tabs on a-lot of things. ( pattern us).
In most of our pieces of public in Delaware if you walked 2 miles or even a mile back , you would probably end trespassing on someones property. Or you would end up on the Delaware bay.
Now of course you yes you can walk a mile looping around or scouting transitions or some public areas but in my experience here. There are very few miles deep public properties. At least in sussex or kent counties that i know of.
I scout 3-4 days a week probably 8 months a year.
The other 4 i glass or observe places or check easy access cams.
Basically there is not many pieces i haven't walked in my county.
Erich is so right and most of the big boys are bedding using wind and eyes to watch in front of them.
Wind and sight bedding in my opinion especially during pressured times.
They seem to love to see and smell whats out ahead of them with a huge nasty obstacle to their back or tucked up under a holy tree that has nasty briars intertwined within its branches within a moist dark pine thicket that stays cool and just sucks thermals/scent from every direction. ( in my opinion Bullet proof bedding)
The beds i find are usually 30-50 yards inside of thick pines growth areas like described above. Then some like Erich described around small ponds or large lakes.
Bucks Back to lake watching and smelling in front.
Also i want to note from the best of my knowledge From what I've read and found out Delaware does not have many predators.
A Few coyotes here a ton of foxes, but as far as i know at least Kent and Sussex counties have no wolves, bears, cats of any sort. Humans are a deer’s main predator.
With that said the winds and thermals are super super important and with the different thinned Pine areas,
pine thickets , huge briar holes, big clearcuts, farms areas snd marshes butted up to pretty much all of this make the wind and thermals so much more important.
Access to some of these areas are so key because eyes are watching almost everywhere. Looping around a piece to get to the back of a parking lot is alot of times what ya gotta do. Its slot of extra time and work.
But hopefully very rewarding.
Also most of our public is surrounded or butts up against large chunks of private farms. So I am also finding that ( most) not all ( most) big mature deer are bedding or retreating to the large chunks of private and using slot of the public at night.
Erich is definitely one that really knows his stuff and imo if he posts you probably should read it.
Thermals , winds, and a-lot of this stuff is really for some people confusing snd to most you can explain this to a science or even simplify it to them but i think it is something that most people must see with their own eyes to make it click.
It can be simple one day then an hour later be super complex or hard. I do not ever listen to the wind direction from the weather man. I assess where i want to hunt and try ti figure how the wind is swirling in that area. Because i don't care what the weatherman says.
The wind swirls in the woods almost everywhere
