Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

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Buckfever
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Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Buckfever » Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:16 pm

I needed to ride my bike a couple miles from the parking lot to get to this part of the park. So pretty much I start by walking the transition along the marsh looking for trails running into the marsh and where they dump into the woods. It was very clear that their running the edge of the cattails and surprisingly not as many runs into the cattails as you might figure and there's reasons for this. It's part of how the story gets developed. At the point which also happens to be the closest to the runs that run across the marsh towards the ag fields I found this:

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It's pretty much what I expected really a cocoon, unapproacheable, but as I'm figuring it to be an ag related bed, I'm not interested. I want to go back into the marsh a mile.

To where this finger jets out into the Marsh to a small swamp island. Tough tough to get to. Once on the island I get immediate confirmation that there is buck presence:

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So from the island I notice a small clump of trees that might have a bed, clear trail in that direction:

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Looks like a bedding spot:

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A few rubs old and new:

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Fresh Poopies:
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And he's got 6 ways out.

Right at this time my phone rings and it's daughter. So I take it and I'm talking to her and about 20 seconds into it the buck busts out of a bed about 10 feet from me in the marsh grass. So I find the bed:

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Back to the island and I notice another clump of high ground which had a trails heading towards it from the first bed:

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Rub:
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So I find his track, I should of taken a picture but it was not what I'm looking for. So now I head back and this time I run the edge within the edge maybe 20 yards in from the transition and really nothing. Till I get back to the area of the first bed and it's littered with tall rubs:
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The rubs are staging before heading up towards the Oak flat on the private. All the rubs were skirting the private.

I got more work to do. But it's a start.

But man I got tore up:

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Too much fun!!!


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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:26 pm

Very productive scouting trip! Great pics! It is amazing how much of a pain in the but walking some marshes can be.

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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby dan » Mon Oct 15, 2012 12:26 pm

Sounds like a good day in the marsh! 8-)
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Swampthing » Mon Oct 15, 2012 4:36 pm

Good stuff! A lot of good intel you just gained.

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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Buckfever » Tue Oct 16, 2012 12:25 am

This is a hunt I'll do after Christmas when the kids, are out of school. Not sure I'll get it in but I want to have the story down so that it's available to me. Probably can figure the rest with one more trip. I definitely got staging on a good buck. We'll see, I'm luke warm on it.

For sure though if I do it, I'll use the pressure of the private to determine my path in to my set. I'll skirt the line above the staging. If you look for it, there is publc with much less pressure than the private. This is a property that I found 5 years ago and scouted in the snow. The only human footprints the entire late season, were mine. I have another spot that I have to climb up a rock face, non. technical climb, same deal. There's definitely unpressured public out there.
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Tue Oct 16, 2012 4:28 am

Nice post - thanks for taking the time I enjoyed it and laughed at the end!
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Oct 16, 2012 4:49 am

Looks like a very productive marsh scout and I really liked how you used your bike to acesss a remote area as I do this myself. Great way to get away from the hunting pressure! 8-)

Good luck hunting that spot and hope you connect with a slob!
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Swampthing » Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:30 am

Like Dewey said the mountain bike is agreat way to cut down some scent and legwork.
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:35 am

awesome story and intel. can't wait to her the end of this story this coming late season.
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Buckfever » Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:54 am

So I went back today to finish out the scouting. I basically skirted the border between the public land the private to get some reconnaissance on the private pressure. On the 3/4 mile of border there were only 2 stands, one was clearly over the line in an opening covering a scrape, but not really imposing on the public. What the pressure did do is establish the main trails on the public, literally the herd was largely avoiding the private pressure. So that tells me that for the most part the public border is being respected. I did go back down to the finger feeding the swamp island and picked a tree at the base of the finger, just in case late season the sign changes and I want a set there:
Tree:
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Foreground cover towards the trail:
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View from trail to the tree:
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I really don't have to get that high here maybe 4 sticks and it's a chip shot.

It's just the sign right now isn't that compelling.
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Buckfever » Thu Oct 18, 2012 11:10 am

But on the North point off the lone big bed it was a different story. He's dumping down into the thicket towards the woods on both sides and staging.

Trail from the point bed:
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Huge track:

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Rubs like these:

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Cluster rubs(30-40):

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Cross trail connecting the other staging area he's dumping down to:

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From the outside this rub:

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He comes in:

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Just tearing stuff up. His track is just littering the thick stuff where he's staging:

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And his track is just so tell tale it's just so much bigger than anything else on the property.

So from that end I come in and this is the tree will let me cover both of the ways he's dumping in, kinda looping around winding up and the cluster rubs:

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I'm still luke warm on it because it's late season and things can change by then. Probably would go one more time to
trim and set a camera after the rut if I decide. But at least most of the leg work is in my pocket, if I feel like getting out late season.
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Southern Man » Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:46 am

Are you passing you usual rut time huntin or is this property a no go for that time period? Or is there another property that takes presedence during rut? I ask because I haven't seen you post about your rut hunt. Property looks good and thick just like you like it :mrgreen:
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Buckfever » Fri Oct 19, 2012 12:55 pm

Southern Man wrote:Are you passing you usual rut time huntin or is this property a no go for that time period? Or is there another property that takes presedence during rut? I ask because I haven't seen you post about your rut hunt. Property looks good and thick just like you like it :mrgreen:


You're a very smart man. I am hunting the rut.
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Re: Scouting new property(Marsh) for a late season hunt

Unread postby Southern Man » Sat Oct 20, 2012 12:58 am

Nah, not smart, just observant. You've been a man of habit the last few years and when you talked late season, it threw me. But I do like late season, cold and lonely. I've seen some of my best bucks during late season. Lookin forward to your results, good huntin!
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