Scouting big piece of hill country public land

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Kneppy75
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Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby Kneppy75 » Mon Feb 15, 2021 11:49 pm

Looking for help to find the bedding of this buck. I hung a trail camera where i found the shed all my pictures were of bucks but all at night. Went in to hunt him and didnt catch a thing wind was swirling so decided not to push far but would like to get into his bedding area next season any advice is appreciated
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UncleBuck3268
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby UncleBuck3268 » Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:56 am

Start by checking these areas on a westerly wind. Look for his bed to be on top 1/3 of hill with thick cover to back, wind coming from thick cover. He will be looking out over this ravine with wind to back.

Also, where you have your camera is a thermal hub. Extremely hard to hunt with the wind swirls and such. Hopefully you know what the winds are doing in the ravine in relationships to any given wind. These bucks are probably using this area before they return to their beds to scent anything from their beds as thermals drop.
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby PK_ » Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:43 am

Looks like steep hills with picture perfect benches. The best buck bedding will be on whichever of those points/knobs has the best (a)cover (b)wind advantage (c)sight advantage.

You just have to walk them all.
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby Kneppy75 » Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:58 am

The hill across mosquito creek has thick mountain laurel as well should have mentioned it the way i accessed it though the wind was always bad to go up there maybe come in beind on that ridge?
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby PK_ » Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:19 am

Kneppy75 wrote:The hill across mosquito creek has thick mountain laurel as well should have mentioned it the way i accessed it though the wind was always bad to go up there maybe come in beind on that ridge?


You will have a very, very tough time if you have to access from down low.

Step 1 is finding where they are bedding. Step 2 is making a good guess on where they are heading when they get up. Step 3 is figuring out if/how/where/when to access and setup.

by across the creek I am guessing you mean on the west side. If that is thick laurel then they are probably living up there and traveling the creek bottoms at night, like your cam showed.
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby Kneppy75 » Tue Feb 16, 2021 4:01 am

Yes the western ridge has the mountain laurel
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby brancher147 » Tue Feb 16, 2021 7:35 am

Kneppy75 wrote:The hill across mosquito creek has thick mountain laurel as well should have mentioned it the way i accessed it though the wind was always bad to go up there maybe come in beind on that ridge?


Steep ridges+mountain laurel +wind always bad = good buck bedding. As PK said just have to walk it and find out. Then figure out how to hunt it
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby rfickes87 » Thu Feb 18, 2021 6:02 am

Hey buddy. Just be careful what you post. You give too much away by showing off a nice shed and posting the areas names and GPS coordinates. Its always best to cross out the names and turn off GPS when you take a screen shot. You don't want to do all this on foot scouting time and effort for someone else.

That said I too hunt central pa and I'm not surprised you got night time trail cam photos down in that bottom. That is going to be 90% night time sign down there. You'll want to get up higher near that red line that another beast member called out and also further up on the main military crest. Also per the satellite view I see different change in the tree canopy where it looks to have been logged? It appears much thicker there. That needs scouted on foot. Walk the outer edge of that entire area and look for sign. If it is as thick as the map appears to show then you should find trails in/out of it or parallel to that edge. Those trails will lead to bedding and scrapes. Once you get into all that good stuff start looking for trees to climb and mark them on your phone.

I agree with Brancher about that thick laurel area too. I see that same pattern in my area of central PA too where the western slopes have mountain laurel. That cover is year round bedding for nice bucks.
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Re: Scouting big piece of hill country public land

Unread postby <DK> » Fri Feb 26, 2021 1:41 am

I agree Rfickes

An admin should delete this for him and send a pm. We should probably pin Lockdowns mapping thread to the top again


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