Hunting in the south

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Jon308
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Hunting in the south

Unread postby Jon308 » Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:05 pm

let talk tactics on hunting in the south. Mainly wanna focus on how people are getting on mature bucks.


Tennhunter3
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Re: Hunting in the south

Unread postby Tennhunter3 » Sun Aug 16, 2020 5:53 pm

Find spots other hunters arent soon as the pressure starts the bedding not near hunters will be best. If theirs orange flag tape, beer cans or trash you can bet it is left by a uneducated hunter that will hunt it on the wrong wind. They will be pushing bucks further into cover. Smart hunters leave no trace.

Saddles on public they get hunted hard and most are not good anymore. Transition lines near roads are often walked by hunters they probably will be bad to sit.

Avoid easy parking places.
People tend to park and walk a logging road in and turn left or right.

Early season I see alot of bucks get up and head downhill to water before going to acorns.
You can use hunter sign to your advantage.

If you take a map and predict where hunters go you should have a few spots left these are usually good. You might miss and cross out a few good spots but it's part of the game. The mature bucks are where no human scent is. Often in areas with very little sign at least in my areas.

The one and two years olds tear up the woods that is most of the sign hunters find.

Hopefully this helps.
It's really more about understanding other hunters and not hunting the nighttime sign.
Mature bucks do not move far even during rut on public they are hidden in little pockets. They like cover and water.

If it's open woods it will probably not be worth sitting unless it is a connection between 2 patches of cover.

Mature bucks watch parking areas and logging roads hunters walk. They will slip out of the bedroom into cover deeper in or overlooked. If you enter the woods the way everyone else does you will probably have the same result as everyone else. It can be annoying to walk a mile to hunt 300 yards from the road but often time it is best.
Never give up Freedom for imagined safety.
A5BLASTER
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Re: Hunting in the south

Unread postby A5BLASTER » Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:18 am

Jon308 wrote: let talk tactics on hunting in the south. Mainly wanna focus on how people are getting on mature bucks.


That's a very tuff question to answer. I primarily hunt 5 different wma's in louisiana and each one is very alike but ohhhhhh so different. What I mean by that is tactics that work like clock work on one, is worthless on several of the others.

Deer activity on one is almost completely different on the next.

With a bit more info on what kind of ground your hunting I'm sure we could give some better advice too help you out.
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Csradeerhunter
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Re: Hunting in the south

Unread postby Csradeerhunter » Mon Aug 17, 2020 6:21 am

Im in georgia and there is so much cover for deer its hard to key in on them . the biggest thing is pressure . finding a spot no one is already in is the hardest thing for me . once you find an area no one is in then you can usually find a spot where a mature buck is holding up within the area . ive had success hunting thick creek , swamp edges , short pine , clear cut type edges . i have started to key in on old homeplace type areas also . alot of times it will be a small area where they didn't log or cut where a house use to set maybe on a corner of a road . most people drive past these spots and no one would think to key in on them .
Jon308
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Re: Hunting in the south

Unread postby Jon308 » Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:53 am

A5BLASTER wrote:
Jon308 wrote: let talk tactics on hunting in the south. Mainly wanna focus on how people are getting on mature bucks.


That's a very tuff question to answer. I primarily hunt 5 different wma's in louisiana and each one is very alike but ohhhhhh so different. What I mean by that is tactics that work like clock work on one, is worthless on several of the others.

Deer activity on one is almost completely different on the next.

With a bit more info on what kind of ground your hunting I'm sure we could give some better advice too help you out.
I mainly hunt wmas that have different ages of pines on top with hard wood bottoms and drainages. I do hunt some swampy river bottom too tho , it seems to be very open timber and floods a lot in that wma.
Jon308
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Re: Hunting in the south

Unread postby Jon308 » Mon Aug 17, 2020 8:01 am

Tennhunter3 wrote:Find spots other hunters arent soon as the pressure starts the bedding not near hunters will be best. If theirs orange flag tape, beer cans or trash you can bet it is left by a uneducated hunter that will hunt it on the wrong wind. They will be pushing bucks further into cover. Smart hunters leave no trace.

Saddles on public they get hunted hard and most are not good anymore. Transition lines near roads are often walked by hunters they probably will be bad to sit.

Avoid easy parking places.
People tend to park and walk a logging road in and turn left or right.

Early season I see alot of bucks get up and head downhill to water before going to acorns.
You can use hunter sign to your advantage.

If you take a map and predict where hunters go you should have a few spots left these are usually good. You might miss and cross out a few good spots but it's part of the game. The mature bucks are where no human scent is. Often in areas with very little sign at least in my areas.

The one and two years olds tear up the woods that is most of the sign hunters find.

Hopefully this helps.
It's really more about understanding other hunters and not hunting the nighttime sign.
Mature bucks do not move far even during rut on public they are hidden in little pockets. They like cover and water.

If it's open woods it will probably not be worth sitting unless it is a connection between 2 patches of cover.

Mature bucks watch parking areas and logging roads hunters walk. They will slip out of the bedroom into cover deeper in or overlooked. If you enter the woods the way everyone else does you will probably have the same result as everyone else. It can be annoying to walk a mile to hunt 300 yards from the road but often time it is best.
yeah I definitely try to avoided other hunters . Luckily one the place I hunt it super steep terrain and one floods pretty bad so i feel most guys are not willing to hunt there
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MrT
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Re: Hunting in the south

Unread postby MrT » Mon Aug 17, 2020 1:51 pm

Only started beast style hunting last year. Learned a lot just doing things talked about on this forum. Treated the season as a learning experience and saw more shooter bucks than the last 10 years combined just sneaking into suspected bedding areas and bumping deer. My aggressiveness last season was based on the fact I had 0 prescouted buck beds. This season I will be a little less aggressive.

That being said, I learned a thing or two from wading through some cypress swamps. I found multiple times that bucks will bed at the base of a cypress tree that are completely surrounded by water. As long as there is enough earth for them to lay on they will bed there. I actually shot one bedded down with the rifle that ended up being a bit smaller than he appeared in my scope. I take my time moving through the water and can be pretty much silent, especially since I'm not crunching any leaves.

Another guy posted late last season that he uses a shotgun primarily while still hunting as it's easier to get on deer that you've jumped close by from their beds. I definitely would have capitalized on some nice bucks had I used this method as opposed to trying to pick them up in a scope as they're running at 30 yards.

If this is your first year using beast tactics and you haven't scouted bedding areas I highly advise being aggressive and still hunting your way in there. You'll mess up a lot but you'll encounter a lot of nice deer and confirm big buck bedding areas for future seasons.


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