what's the plan???

[Singing Bridge]

One of my favorite quotes... "what's the plan?" As we go through life, I am routinely amazed at the lack of planning by most as they confront difficulty in their lives...

So- lets take a look at a situation I went through a number of years ago. I saw how successful Dan was, how hunting bedding areas can produce even on heavily pressured public land... I decided to give it a try. The very first time out, using Dan's bed hunting methods, I managed to take a Michigan heavily pressured 8 point on public land. But remember, I'm not exactly a "spring chicken" and have been deer hunting for decades.

Lets put ourselves in the shoes of a new member to the BEAST- maybe they have a good rut funnel or two where they have even managed to take a good buck once. This new member can see the validity of hunting buck bedding areas, and managed to scout out 2 or 3 good buck bedding areas this past spring. So... they have a couple of bedding stands and a couple of funnels to hunt during the rut. What about the rest of the season? What do we recommend to these hunters who want to hunt October - December???

What's the plan?

Private land hunters, by all means chime in here as well- these hunters need all the help they can get.

[headgear]

You just described me two years ago. I basically did a lot of in-season scouting to re-learned some areas I had hunted for years. I hunted a lot of new property to spread out the pressure, some land was previously scouted and some not. A lot of times I would look at aerial photos and just pick a spot on the map I though I buck might be bedding and sneak in there and hunt. I tried to learn something new every time I hit the woods and wow did I ever.

Good idea for the threa SB!

[Stanley]

What I would recommend as a plan for new members that might not have a lot of salt on the hide. I would get the two videos Marsh and Hills. Watch them to get a good idea of how scouting/hunting needs to be accomplished Beast style. I would trade my ladder stand in for a stand and sticks. I would also soak in everything I could on the Beast site about hunting buck beds. I would attend the hands on scouting seminar Dan gives in the spring or whenever he has one. I would hunt hard this fall and do some serious scouting for buck beds next spring. I would also not get too pumped about results the first year or two. learning a new hunting system is a work in progress not an immediate result producer, this must be kept in prospective. Five years from now I would analyze my results and go from there.

[Zap]

Go to new areas.

Scout ready to hunt.

Find a spot, hunt it.

Learn what works and what does not.

[dan]

good post Bridge...
I think people that are new to this don't understand what it means to be mobile. Having a good, quiet treestand that is portable and the ability to get into almost every tree is very important.,..
Lets face it, we all hunt spots where we have no idea going in where the bucks are bedding...
If thats the case during the rut, the answer is obvious, hunt funnels... But outside the rut?
Well, thats when I either take an educated guess on where the bucks are bedding either based on topo elevations or aerials, or I put the stand on my back and walk the transition line with the wind blowing from thick top thin and set up when I find big buck sign or what looks like buck bedding.
One good thing about scouting buck beds, the more you do it, the better you get at recognizing them from a distance...

I would also not get too pumped about results the first year or two. learning a new hunting system is a work in progress not an immediate result producer, this must be kept in prospective.

I agree... I hear from a lot of people who get caught up in the Beast style and run out and find a couple great looking beds and think they got it made... Truth is we hunt a lot of areas that looked great but don't produce. There is more to it than just sitting in staging adjacent to bedding... Timing is key. The buck needs to be bedded in that spot the day you hunt there...
It takes some time before you start figuring out that different beds are better at different times of the year or only when certain foods are in play, or rut, or who knows...
After a while you get a good eye for beds that are only used for certain wind directions too.. But at 1st, I think hunters new to this system don't realize that some of the beds are wind specific, and some are not.

[Brad]

Excellent post, you just described me to a T. I do alrite in the rut although there's room for improvement. I did the scouting workshot, I have both video's and have a good grasp on what was said, and I have scouted 2 spots that I am confident. Here is my plan: I am going to scout with the stand on my back and if I find myself in a spot I think will work, I will pop it up. I am setting the goal low, if I am on public and a year and a half year old buck comes by and I get excited, I am going to shoot him, if not I will pass. I want some success to build off of and I think tasting victory will help. I am going to do a lot of aerial scouting and looking at topo maps, and I am going to go on gut instincts a lot too. I have killed a lot of deer with a bow by accident, I want more in the on purpose category. I am hoping to learn as I go and get on more bucks on public, I don't even care what size of the buck. I feel like I have enough foundation to be dangerous to the bucks if I let myself be.

[ Post made via BlackBerry ]

[Ack]

Sounds just like me too Scott! I'll admit I am still green at the ways of the Beast, but am catching on a little more each year. If only I had known about these tactics 20 years ago. Time is my biggest enemy.......finding the time to scout, driving time to get to the decent spots I have scouted, and actually having time to hunt are all factors for me right now. I'm sure in 5-6 years when my son is a little older that will all change, plus I'll have more Beast knowledge under my belt for when I do have more time to put into it. Anyway, my plan, when not hunting a bedding area or funnel for a buck, is to be out trying to fill the freezer.......if there's one thing I can't stand it's running out of venison in the spring! I still plan on hunting the beds I have found, but I won't be using those tactics 100% of the time this season.

[jlh42581]

You have GOT to pay attention to weather and by weather I dont mean the temp and what wind is for the county.

You need to really think about the situation.

Example:

Theres a ridge that runs north to south with ag on both ends that the deer feed in during the night. Both ends come to points, which give the deer a bedding option for every wind. How are you going to take advantage of the situation without getting busted? If its blowing out of the west, theyre going to bed on the east but how are you going to get there undetected? Are you going to go before daylight, way before daylight and wait him out ALL day. Or are you going to check the hour by hour wind forcast and KNOW that at say 2pm, that wind is going to switch from west to coming out of the east and setup in the area which for the moment you get there will be totally wrong in anticipation of a bedding shift with the wind?

You cant just blunder into a bedding area, set up shop and hope it pans out. Thats called hoping, not hunting tactfully. I know because I did it for a long time!

[headgear]

Just to expand on what I was talking about earlier, if you are just learning beast tactics you can get a little bit of a head start by hunting land you already know well. I had scouted out land before that I knew held some decent bucks, I just learned that I was hunting them all wrong. What I discoverd by looking at the big picture was that the bucks were picking me off on the way in or well before they got to me, I never had a chance at them. I was just like all the rest of the hunters stumbling around on the high ground hoping a buck would show up, however the buck knew exactly where I was and what areas to avoid. To get the point if you know a chunk of land really well you can get a big head start by avoiding all the areas you have hunted for years and you can take a much better educated guess at bedding and hunt it the right way. You can change up your entrance and exit routes and stand setups and keep the deer guessing instead of them knowing your every move.

You might also have a few light bulbs go off, think of all your past encounters with mature deer and use that information to try and pinpoint bedding or other spots to setup on them. 10 years before I found the beast I kicked a nice buck out of a bed. At the time I didn't even realize it was a bed but once I started focusing on buck bedding something clicked and I went back to that area and found a bed on a small point on this ridge and a pile of rubs close to the bed. It was a perfect spot for a buck bed but I had never realized it.

[Stanley]

Just to expand on what I was talking about earlier, if you are just learning beast tactics you can get a little bit of a head start by hunting land you already know well. I had scouted out land before that I knew held some decent bucks, I just learned that I was hunting them all wrong. What I discoverd by looking at the big picture was that the bucks were picking me off on the way in or well before they got to me, I never had a chance at them. I was just like all the rest of the hunters stumbling around on the high ground hoping a buck would show up, however the buck knew exactly where I was and what areas to avoid. To get the point if you know a chunk of land really well you can get a big head start by avoiding all the areas you have hunted for years and you can take a much better educated guess at bedding and hunt it the right way. You can change up your entrance and exit routes and stand setups and keep the deer guessing instead of them knowing your every move.

You might also have a few light bulbs go off, think of all your past encounters with mature deer and use that information to try and pinpoint bedding or other spots to setup on them. 10 years before I found the beast I kicked a nice buck out of a bed. At the time I didn't even realize it was a bed but once I started focusing on buck bedding something clicked and I went back to that area and found a bed on a small point on this ridge and a pile of rubs close to the bed. It was a perfect spot for a buck bed but I had never realized it.

Huge advantage for any hunter, any skill level.

[goingoutback]

Awesome topic! This describes me perfectly at this point. I found the beast about a month ago and I absolutely can not stop reading and learning. I have both DVDs on order and I have watched the online episodes about five times each.

I have had a little success setting up in funnels during the rut and gun season, but I have had almost no success in the early season. After reading this site I now know to concentrate more on buck bedding areas and I will try to find the actual beds next winter/spring. I have always looked at maps but until I found the land management section of this website I really didn't know what I was looking for as far as bedding areas go. I always just looked for funnels to set up in, but since I have found the Beast I have been looking at all of my areas trying to pick out potential bedding spots that I can set up on. Hopefully a few of those will pan out this year, but either way I will at least learn if I am on the right track or not. I also plan to post a few maps for everyone to look at to try and pick up a few more spots to check out this fall.

What does everyone think about hunting in the morning if you are only going off of maps for finding bedding areas? I am starting to think it won't even be worth hunting the mornings early in the year until I have a better information on bedding sites...but I am curious what everyone else does/did when they first started hunting beds.

[dan]

What does everyone think about hunting in the morning if you are only going off of maps for finding bedding areas? I am starting to think it won't even be worth hunting the mornings early in the year until I have a better information on bedding sites...but I am curious what everyone else does/did when they first started hunting beds.

I would hunt areas I can't get to in the evening without spooking, or areas I have no intention on hunting in the evening, if you don't have a good morning plan... Or do some scouting, get some honey-do's done...

[backstraps]

This is a very good topic...and one I can relate to.

I have been hunting now for only 17 years. To be honest, I can go to land and scout the "old"way and usually whack a couple descent bucks a year. When freezer hunting comes along, my buddies and I have mentioned for several years now, that we can almost harvest a doe anytime we want.

That being said, I have to admit, 3 years ago I decided I wanted to hunt and harvest deer outside of the 3 year old and under club, and hopefully exceeding 120 inches. Last year was my first year of letting a few deer above 125-130 inch walk due to them being 3.5 years old or younger. Now granted had I not seen or known of an older buck on the property that may have been a different story letting them walk. But I did know of a few really desirable bucks, thats the reason I was trying so hard on that property.

Hunting bucks 3.5 and older has proven over the last couple years to me that I dont know how to hunt them correctly. I am eager to learn all I can and try and relate some of the pass hunting practices I had to see my errors.

I did get a chance at a true giant 2 years ago. My shot placement was back on a quartering buck. I would have gotten liver on entrance and one lung on exit. I located good blood right away, both dark blood from liver and a little pink bubbled blood I think from his nose. I gave the buck several hours and went back to try and retrieve the deer. When he exited the woods where I was set up though, he went into a huge wide open field. I lost track of sign and never recovered the buck. That "wouldve" been my first mature 4 year year old and older buck. It saddens me to think I wasted an opportunity I was given, and more so than that, I am certain the deer died.

So, hard lesson learned there for me too, I was so eager to shoot a big old buck, that I should have let him walk rather than taking such an extreme quartering shot.

Back to the subject (didnt mean to get off chasing rabbit tracks there)

I am trying to study the "ART" of reading the maps with parcels of land I already know real well (even though I dont hunt them correctly)

BEAST tactics are for real. I know you guys have tons of experience hunting this style, and I am realistic, and have set goals for trying to learn these tactics, and see results.

One thing I learned growing up, if you want to be good at something, you have to dedicate time to it. It also helps to surround yourself with people who are much better than you are to learn from. I have done that here :)

[blackwolf]

When hunting the rut period Oct 28-Nov 18 plan on hunting a lot 10am-2pm. Your success on nice bucks wil go up.

[PLB]

When hunting the rut period Oct 28-Nov 18 plan on hunting a lot 10am-2pm. Your success on nice bucks wil go up.

X2!!