Big Woods Deer Hunting

[magicman54494]

You might find this helpful
https://youtu.be/6CDABAxo-dI

[KLEMZ]

ZanderBones didn't state what time of season, so I'm gonna assume rut influenced phases. It seems to me there are four basic bowhunting strategies I see hunters using in the rut in the northwoods. I'm gonna assume mature bucks as the goal, but ZanderBones didn't state that.

1) Hunt based on terrain setups.. Find a funnel.... a river crossing, a cruizing corridor... hill country hub of ridges or leeward edges, edge of complex swamp, a saddle in the hills, a dry ground crossing through a swamp, a convergence of terrain/vegetation edges (terrain multipiers), etc. Sit and wait for the buck to cruise through.

2) Scout until you find fresh deer activity and THEN set up using the terrain based hunting method.. In this case you are typically using micro terrain influencers of movement to pick your setup....(assumed bedding, feeding area, micro funnels around blowdowns or small swamps, isolated food source, wind/thermal influencers etc... then set up on the fly in an appropriate tree).

3) Set up multiple mock scrapes/bait spots and run cell cams...

4) Scout in the spring and/or track mature bucks in the snow/rut AND figure out the unique travel tendencies of a mature buck...The good news is that each buck will stick to his unique travel pattern. Then, track and kill him with a gun or find a spot in his unique personal travel pattern that makes him vulnerable. This seems to me to require the most woodsmanship of all the methods. Also, the hunters doing this are killing the BIGGEST northwoods bucks alive. Guys like Brad Kuhnert, Bobby Worthington do this. The only reason I know of this buck vulnerability is because Todd Havel (a tracker...talking in this thread!!) pointed it out.

So, I spent 20+ years hunting method #1 during peak rut in northern Wisconsin National Forest, and had a 20% success rate on mature bucks, (one week rut hunt, mature being 3.5 yrs old for this discussion).

I swithched to method #2 eight years ago and surged to a 50% success rate on mature bucks, one week rut hunt, (this is all with a trad bow for reference). My biggest buck is 140" (2017), last year I killed a 130" using this method...again, northern Wisconsin National Forest. Scouting is just as fun as hunting to me so this is a great way for me to hunt! So fun!

I have a hunting buddy who hunts northern Wisconsin using method #3 with cell cams/bait. He hunts using Troy Pottinger's techniques and killed a mature buck with his bow around November 12th. I will admit I don't know much about this method but it does kill bigwoods bucks!

Method #4 is probably the best way to kill the BIGGEST buck in the northwoods. However, it requires the ultimate in woodsmanship to understand that the sign you are seeing is the king of the forest. Also, you must be so confident in your understanding of the caliber of the buck making the sign, and the preferred travel habits of that huge buck, to commit to sitting for a week straight in the same exact tree. I'm not man enougth for that....yet!

[perchsoup]

ZanderBones didn't state what time of season, so I'm gonna assume rut influenced phases. It seems to me there are four basic bowhunting strategies I see hunters using in the rut in the northwoods. I'm gonna assume mature bucks as the goal, but ZanderBones didn't state that.

1) Hunt based on terrain setups.. Find a funnel.... a river crossing, a cruizing corridor... hill country hub of ridges or leeward edges, edge of complex swamp, a saddle in the hills, a dry ground crossing through a swamp, a convergence of terrain/vegetation edges (terrain multipiers), etc. Sit and wait for the buck to cruise through.

2) Scout until you find fresh deer activity and THEN set up using the terrain based hunting method.. In this case you are typically using micro terrain influencers of movement to pick your setup....(assumed bedding, feeding area, micro funnels around blowdowns or small swamps, isolated food source, wind/thermal influencers etc... then set up on the fly in an appropriate tree).

3) Set up multiple mock scrapes/bait spots and run cell cams...

4) Scout in the spring and/or track mature bucks in the snow/rut AND figure out the unique travel tendencies of a mature buck...The good news is that each buck will stick to his unique travel pattern. Then, track and kill him with a gun or find a spot in his unique personal travel pattern that makes him vulnerable. This seems to me to require the most woodsmanship of all the methods. Also, the hunters doing this are killing the BIGGEST northwoods bucks alive. Guys like Brad Kuhnert, Bobby Worthington do this. The only reason I know of this buck vulnerability is because Todd Havel (a tracker...talking in this thread!!) pointed it out.

So, I spent 20+ years hunting method #1 during peak rut in northern Wisconsin National Forest, and had a 20% success rate on mature bucks, (one week rut hunt, mature being 3.5 yrs old for this discussion).

I swithched to method #2 eight years ago and surged to a 50% success rate on mature bucks, one week rut hunt, (this is all with a trad bow for reference). My biggest buck is 140" (2017), last year I killed a 130" using this method...again, northern Wisconsin National Forest. Scouting is just as fun as hunting to me so this is a great way for me to hunt! So fun!

I have a hunting buddy who hunts northern Wisconsin using method #3 with cell cams/bait. He hunts using Troy Pottinger's techniques and killed a mature buck with his bow around November 12th. I will admit I don't know much about this method but it does kill bigwoods bucks!

Method #4 is probably the best way to kill the BIGGEST buck in the northwoods. However, it requires the ultimate in woodsmanship to understand that the sign you are seeing is the king of the forest. Also, you must be so confident in your understanding of the caliber of the buck making the sign, and the preferred travel habits of that huge buck, to commit to sitting for a week straight in the same exact tree. I'm not man enougth for that....yet!

Klemz, you ever bed hunt big woods during the rut? Curious your strategy outside peak rut.

[headgear]

Klemz, you ever bed hunt big woods during the rut? Curious your strategy outside peak rut.

I do, pretty much bed hunt all the time, during the rut I might target larger bedding areas that could hold larger numbers of does but in the bigwoods that is like more than two.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

If I were going to hunt the Huron national forest the 1st week of gun season, I would..

Try to gather knowledge from those I know and or hunt with from the area. Big bucks where are they frequently seen or killed. General area. I hear things all the time like man, I always see big bucks crossing at the bottom of that hill on co rd bla bla. Well, I go check those places out! I’m gonna arial scout from there and then go in. I’m looking for human sign the most because I don’t want to go to the bigwoods and setup by somebody else or have an altercation. Opener of gun is a busy day/week

Get up there in spring to scout. If not then,I’d go soon… start in areas like others have been mentioning. I wouldn’t focus so much on what they’re feeding on now but it would be a good place to start and back track to bedding. I’d be looking for areas deer are bedding, staging, feeding that have good browse species. Like ash, soft maple, dogwood, elderberry type stuff. I’d be looking for old rut sign and paying close attention to the ground and branches where I suspected scrapes. A lot of good scrapes may not be pawed up yet but you can tell from last yr quite often. Especially once you get accustomed to licking branches. I couldn’t say what trees will be best but I’d be looking at beech and pine or spruce that are in a good feeling spot and providing branches at the right height. I wouldn’t really plan on hunting said scrape in early mid November but it’s just a good indicator for that area.

When you get up there try to speed scout at a distance from where you’re going to hunt. Look for fresh sign. If you can’t tell deer are in an area cus you can’t see tracks. Look for fresh poo. No poo, no deer.

Have some backup plans

[KLEMZ]

Klemz, you ever bed hunt big woods during the rut? Curious your strategy outside peak rut.

I pretty much hunting close to bedding areas (not single beds) early season and also rut phases. My main strategy is identifying features that attract deer that are situated right next to bedding type cover. These features draw the deer out to specific spots for bow range kills. My favorite kill spot is an isolated clump of red oaks (12 trees up to 5-6 acres or so) right adjacent to bedding cover. Another great setup is a scrape/licking branch on an old overgrown log road that is adjacent to the bedding cover. Two converging old overgrown log roads that intersect near bedding is also very good, even if no scrape exists there. If no acorns are on the ground I look for low wet pockets of cover (typically in piney cover) that have wet succulent weeds and grasses/forbes, that are near bedding type cover.

Essentially, I have a list of these type of locations and scout them one by one hoping to find some sign of fresh activity. Sometimes I run out of time and just sit a spot based on the terrain, but usually that doesn't work out well.

If there is a difference between my early season vs rut spots, it is that early season I am only searching adjacent to what I know or assume is buck bedding. Rut hunts I broaden the search to check any and all of the isolated type kill spots mentioned above, then set up when I find any fresh sign at all (from any deer)

In my experience, the best chance to shoot the biggest buck in the north woods I hunt, is during the "lockdown" time frame. If there is any sure thing in deer hunting up north, it is that the dominant buck of the area does the breeding. Any time I encounter a buck tending a doe, it's a monster. The bucks cruising or chasing are seldom as big.

Two other times I think a hunter up there could kill a giant are last week of October scrape hunting (using the same location recipe as above), or early season using the same strategy as above. However, the early season stuff requires lots of time in the woods so it's a tough nut to crack for a traveling hunter (which I am).

[perchsoup]

Klemz, you ever bed hunt big woods during the rut? Curious your strategy outside peak rut.

I pretty much hunting close to bedding areas (not single beds) early season and also rut phases. My main strategy is identifying features that attract deer that are situated right next to bedding type cover. These features draw the deer out to specific spots for bow range kills. My favorite kill spot is an isolated clump of red oaks (12 trees up to 5-6 acres or so) right adjacent to bedding cover. Another great setup is a scrape/licking branch on an old overgrown log road that is adjacent to the bedding cover. Two converging old overgrown log roads that intersect near bedding is also very good, even if no scrape exists there. If no acorns are on the ground I look for low wet pockets of cover (typically in piney cover) that have wet succulent weeds and grasses/forbes, that are near bedding type cover.

Essentially, I have a list of these type of locations and scout them one by one hoping to find some sign of fresh activity. Sometimes I run out of time and just sit a spot based on the terrain, but usually that doesn't work out well.

If there is a difference between my early season vs rut spots, it is that early season I am only searching adjacent to what I know or assume is buck bedding. Rut hunts I broaden the search to check any and all of the isolated type kill spots mentioned above, then set up when I find any fresh sign at all (from any deer)

In my experience, the best chance to shoot the biggest buck in the north woods I hunt, is during the "lockdown" time frame. If there is any sure thing in deer hunting up north, it is that the dominant buck of the area does the breeding. Any time I encounter a buck tending a doe, it's a monster. The bucks cruising or chasing are seldom as big.

Two other times I think a hunter up there could kill a giant are last week of October scrape hunting (using the same location recipe as above), or early season using the same strategy as above. However, the early season stuff requires lots of time in the woods so it's a tough nut to crack for a traveling hunter (which I am).

Thanks Klemz, that makes total sense. I think I am hunting too many of the single big woods buck beds and not the larger buck bedding areas in early season. I’ve had a little luck, but the odds aren’t great.

It sounds like your rut tactics shift to include fresh sign in the doe bedding areas, assuming bucks could be tending or near by and may follow them out.

I’ve definitely seen what you are describing as hot sign in these areas. But I think my problem has been I’m always a week or so behind it. I’ve seen the areas light up with sign, but I need to be more on top of it and not prioritizing my hunts so much on what it looked like last time I scouted or hunted it.

My goal this year is to be more diligent of spot checking my areas before I throw a sit at it, and scouting old spots that still look good but we’re quiet for whatever reason the season before.

[perchsoup]

Klemz, you ever bed hunt big woods during the rut? Curious your strategy outside peak rut.

I pretty much hunting close to bedding areas (not single beds) early season and also rut phases. My main strategy is identifying features that attract deer that are situated right next to bedding type cover. These features draw the deer out to specific spots for bow range kills. My favorite kill spot is an isolated clump of red oaks (12 trees up to 5-6 acres or so) right adjacent to bedding cover. Another great setup is a scrape/licking branch on an old overgrown log road that is adjacent to the bedding cover. Two converging old overgrown log roads that intersect near bedding is also very good, even if no scrape exists there. If no acorns are on the ground I look for low wet pockets of cover (typically in piney cover) that have wet succulent weeds and grasses/forbes, that are near bedding type cover.

Essentially, I have a list of these type of locations and scout them one by one hoping to find some sign of fresh activity. Sometimes I run out of time and just sit a spot based on the terrain, but usually that doesn't work out well.

If there is a difference between my early season vs rut spots, it is that early season I am only searching adjacent to what I know or assume is buck bedding. Rut hunts I broaden the search to check any and all of the isolated type kill spots mentioned above, then set up when I find any fresh sign at all (from any deer)

In my experience, the best chance to shoot the biggest buck in the north woods I hunt, is during the "lockdown" time frame. If there is any sure thing in deer hunting up north, it is that the dominant buck of the area does the breeding. Any time I encounter a buck tending a doe, it's a monster. The bucks cruising or chasing are seldom as big.

Two other times I think a hunter up there could kill a giant are last week of October scrape hunting (using the same location recipe as above), or early season using the same strategy as above. However, the early season stuff requires lots of time in the woods so it's a tough nut to crack for a traveling hunter (which I am).

Thanks Klemz, that makes total sense. I think I am hunting too many of the single big woods buck beds and not the larger buck bedding areas in early season. I’ve had a little luck, but the odds aren’t great.

It sounds like your rut tactics shift to include fresh sign in the doe bedding areas, assuming bucks could be tending or near by and may follow them out.

I’ve definitely seen what you are describing as hot sign in these areas. But I think my problem has been I’m always a week or so behind it. I’ve seen the areas light up with sign, but I need to be more on top of it and not prioritizing my hunts so much on what it looked like last time I scouted or hunted it.

My goal this year is to be more diligent of spot checking my areas before I throw a sit at it, and scouting old spots that still look good but we’re quiet for whatever reason the season before.

[Exophysical]

Hey everyone! Just curious of everyones strategies and tactics on BIG WOODS HUNTING! I'm from Michigan and hunt the Huron National Forest, a lot of variety from steep terrain to flatlands and also still with creek bottoms and swamps and bowls. All types of places for really Big Old Mature bucks to hide. So if you were coming into some new Big Woods property how would you tackle it out with zero prior boots on ground scouting. What are you looking for in when it comes to finding the bucks that run the woods?

Check out this thread here, theres allot to pick through but theres a tone of good stuff... as well as my personal recipe for success spelled out in great detail, starting on the second page, which has to count for something.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60012

[perchsoup]

I applied your advice Klemz! Been scouting many oak patch’s adjacent to some known bedding areas. Found only one that had acorns and also fresh sign. Poor acorn year around here apparently. Unfortunately, I was 20-30 minutes too late today, bumped one on the way in and then another lone deer already feeding right where my tree was on my approach. I’ll take it as a win though, early season sightings are hard to come by for me.

[KLEMZ]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60012

Great information Exophysical, thanks for sharing that!

I applied your advice Klemz! Been scouting many oak patch’s adjacent to some known bedding areas. Found only one that had acorns and also fresh sign. Poor acorn year around here apparently. Unfortunately, I was 20-30 minutes too late today, bumped one on the way in and then another lone deer already feeding right where my tree was on my approach. I’ll take it as a win though, early season sightings are hard to come by for me.

I'm glad that is helpful for you. I would suggest revisiting that oak clump again as the rut heats up. Where I hunt in northern Wisconsin we only have red oaks. My whole hunting life I've heard that deer don't like red acorns when they first drop, but over time the tannic acid "leaches out" and then deer will eat them. Personally, I don't believe that. What I've seen is deer will hit the red acorns heavy when they very first start to drop. I think it must be a welcome change of pace for them. However, in a couple weeks the deer seem to fade off the acorns and go back to their favorite browse food...grasses, forbes, leaves. It seems like they don't forget the acorns totally, but rather just mix it up because they have lots of options? Anyways, once the weather gets cold the deer will get back on acorns more (probably just because of availability). Thats my take on it. They may or may not taste better after they've been on the ground awhile.

Also, it seems like the same trees that are hot in late September are the trees you will find all pawed up when scouting in November.

[Chuck B]

I applied your advice Klemz! Been scouting many oak patch’s adjacent to some known bedding areas. Found only one that had acorns and also fresh sign. Poor acorn year around here apparently. Unfortunately, I was 20-30 minutes too late today, bumped one on the way in and then another lone deer already feeding right where my tree was on my approach. I’ll take it as a win though, early season sightings are hard to come by for me.

I agree, a poor acorn year it seems. At least where I was hunting in northern Wisconsin. I was hunting our private land and it hasn’t been touched all year. I saw only 3 deer in four sits. Very unusual for me when there hasn’t been any pressure on our land. There is an ag field next door that is usually planted in corn, but wasn’t this year. I think that not having that ag field planted, and a poor acorn drop, has led the deer to some other areas. I expect them to be back, hopefully soon, but it was odd to see. I wasn’t able to do the scouting that I wanted before setting up, as I had my boy with for youth hunt and he would have been happy with a young buck so I went to some terrain features spots. Didn’t see a lot of sign but thought we would get a crack at one anyways. We didn’t. So, just reinforces that need to find the sign before setting up, especially at this time of year. Scout scout hunt.

[Ognennyy]

You can hunt all the edges in the world but if there’s no deer there then there’s nothing to hunt. I honestly think that hunting your way in is key ( fresh sign ) but also knowing past years deer history is a plus.

Truth!

True for sure. I've always used magic's gem of an article from years back in an application to scouting and locating deer. Basically, an edge is another type of funnel.

When I'm up in the big woods trying to locate deer as quickly as possible I think of a funnel as more of any feature that might show sign of nearby deer using the area. I look at several such funnels; terrain, edge / transition, and food sources.

I suppose once you find deer to hunt the term "funnel" takes on new meaning, as those useful for locating deer and those that help kill deer are slightly different.

[Exophysical]

You can hunt all the edges in the world but if there’s no deer there then there’s nothing to hunt. I honestly think that hunting your way in is key ( fresh sign ) but also knowing past years deer history is a plus.

Truth!

True for sure. I've always used magic's gem of an article from years back in an application to scouting and locating deer. Basically, an edge is another type of funnel.

When I'm up in the big woods trying to locate deer as quickly as possible I think of a funnel as more of any feature that might show sign of nearby deer using the area. I look at several such funnels; terrain, edge / transition, and food sources.

I suppose once you find deer to hunt the term "funnel" takes on new meaning, as those useful for locating deer and those that help kill deer are slightly different.

Very sound advice on funnels throughout the whole post.

My own formula, extremely simplified, is this: Find somewhere that a hard edge and a ridge or other topographical feature exist in close (ish) proximity. The clearing represents a large chunk of real estate that the majority of deer will not move through during shooting light, portions of the edge will act as a funnel or travel route, and the deer will be using the ridge to take advantage of thermal drift in relatively predictable ways.

This is about as predictable as bush deer are going to get, and locations with these features are about the highest percentage for producing good concentrations of deer as you will find in big timber. As long as you rotate your spots and dont chase off your does there will be some good bucks cruising through durring the rut.

Then I stillhunt along the deer trails, doing my best to make my daily movents mirror that of the game, and at some point good things will happen.

[KLEMZ]

I have some information that will help "northwoods" big woods hunters. Up north we don't have white oaks, only red oaks. Red oaks in my northern area are still holding leaves in late October even after all other upland trees have dropped. With todays availability of aerial/satellite photo's it is easy to identify red oak tree patches and relate them to other cover...if the picture was taken at the right time. (October 18---28th ish...in my area...later if further south, earlier if further north).

Is that a big deal? Heck yeah!! Knowing the location of a 2 acre isolated oak patch near deer security cover is as good as it gets in the northwoods!! Granted, not every isolated oak patch is good each season, so it takes on the ground scouting during season to decide if it's worthy. Each season is different, but, 75% of the time there are oaks being fed on somewhere. It's up to you to find them.

Here is a link to a satellite website that will give you the information you need to find those oak gems.
https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/eo-browse ... 2MAPZEN%22

Here is a general look at what you should be looking for...this is northwest Wisconsin.




A closer up view of what you should be looking for....these a 1-2 acre patches




Here are the settings you want to use to make the oaks stand out



I hesitated to post this info\rmation because I'm concerned that other hunters may find my hidden gems. However, I have decided That only 10% of northwoods guys reading this will actually do the homework to figure out how to use the software. Also, I factored in the fact that Dan has shared everything he knows on this public forum and doesn't seem to be suffering too much...did you see the buck he shot last early season?

Anyways, let me know if you have questions on how to navigate the EO Browser.