Big Woods Public - Your favorite areas

[headgear]

Just for fun I dove into a thick beaver pond area this weekend to do a little scouting, not hunting this area this year so I figured it won't matter if I mess it up. I couldn't find much sign and what looked to be some doe beds. Then I started to think this area might not get used as bedding until the leaves are down and the rest of the woods gets a little too open for those big bucks.

[publiclandhunter]

You may be surprised at how it will attract deer when the cover gets sparse in the open woods. Great bedding area! Keep tabs on it. If there are a few good trails being used to enter/exit the marsh, there will ususally also be a "stitching" trail that crosses these at right angles along the transition edge that bucks will cruise to check the trails for hot does as late October approaches. I can almost bet that you will find buck tracks/rubs along the trail and possibly a scrape or two where the trails intersect. Good early-rut set-up!

PLH

[Rhino Hunter]

New member here.

I was reading through a lot of the older threads that might pertain to advice for big woods hunting and found this thread. What a GREAT thread!

I wanted to bring it to the front for other new members like myself to read.

Thank you to all that contributed.

Rhino Hunter

[Jonny]

Bump

[AJB]

The big woods I hunt are in north central PA and is very steep rugged terrain. My favorite feature to hunt is small narrow benches on an otherwise very steep mountainside. Sometimes these areas can't be seen on a normal topo map. You can get 10' contours from lidar downloads that really show these features well. I mainly hunt these areas during the rut to maximize my opportunity.

[ihookem]

I have never found a pattern in the big woods except one thing . When there is an area of high grass I find deer beds. High grass is hard to find in the big woods but I always find beds there. I also seem to find the most sheds there , back in the day when you could actually find a shed up in the big woods that is.

[elk yinzer]

The big woods I hunt are in north central PA and is very steep rugged terrain. My favorite feature to hunt is small narrow benches on an otherwise very steep mountainside. Sometimes these areas can't be seen on a normal topo map. You can get 10' contours from lidar downloads that really show these features well. I mainly hunt these areas during the rut to maximize my opportunity.

This. And subtle edges. I like to sit convergences. A bench is fine but where a bench meets a saddle or some other feature, all the better. Subtle is key. A lot of big woods mountain features just take boots on the ground and a finely tuned eye. And that is one of the things I love about hutning it.

Another area I hunt, different type of terrain, a certain type of tree. I won't even say what it is because it's not all that common but almost everywhere I find them in this ridge complex I find good deer in that area.

[KLEMZ]

I have never found a pattern in the big woods except one thing . When there is an area of high grass I find deer beds. High grass is hard to find in the big woods but I always find beds there.

I hunt north Wisconsin bigwoods forest as I believe you do ihookem, and I agree with your observation on grass and bedding. One thing I have noticed is that a small grove of giant mature white pines (areas that did not get cut 125 years ago), will promote grass growth beneath them, while the rest of the forest is typical ground cover. Something about those giant pines allows a semi open under story that promotes grass growth. And the big bucks love these areas!

I figured this out by following big tracks to see where they led. They don't all lead to small groves of giant white pines but many of them do! If you can decipher aerial photos and topos and see where these pine groves are lined up with an east or southeast facing slope or an isolated hump in thicker surroundings, you have found a high odds place to check on foot for mature buck bedding. This is based on a general westerly component wind in north Wisconsin.

[ihookem]

Klems, I hunt western Price and eastern Sawyer co. We have very few White pines around . I have noticed that big old Hemlocks seem to be a favorite for deer to bed down in especially in winter.

[Jonny]

Love this thread

[Dhurtubise]

I like hunting Canadian bigwoods.

[brancher147]

I am always drawn to the highest, steepest elevations and most remote areas, and hunt the upper 1/3. I find the areas with the best habitat and look for areas with multiple bedding points or maybe a couple square miles with a handful of good bedding points, and then bounce around. During the rut I hunt benches that connect bedding points or multiple ridge intersections with secondary points for bedding.

The only time I strayed from this was when I lived in Adirondacks and there were swamps. There I hunted deep in the swamps mostly.

[ghoasthunter]

no preference hear i enjoy them all equally . they all have there challenges but i really love the spots that i need to really work to hunt the the more blood sweat and tears the better for me.

[Boogieman1]

I primarily hunt small parcels but I am curious what constitutes as being BIG WOODS? I mean is there a certain amount of acerage that is required, where it no longer is just woods but it's now big woods? Or is it certain terrain or lack there of that makes a feller have himself some big woods?

I hunted thousands of acres of continuous thick mesquite brush as a kid. We called it brush country, is this pretty much the same thing as what is referred to as big woods? I keep reading about these big woods and realized I don't have the slightest clue what a big woods exactly is. Someone educate me por favor.....

[MikePerry]

In PA we have plenty of Big woods hill country public land but I only hunt big public swamps with beaver dams, marshes, and meandering waterways with ox bows dead water and swamps. You have to go where others won’t in PA to see mature bucks on public, that’s through water, wouldn’t have it any other way.