Bridge Review: "Chapter 4 - Swamp Bedding."

[Singing Bridge]

Dan's Chapter 4- Swamp Bedding, is near and dear to my heart as I have hunted swamps my entire life. I really, really enjoyed watching the final, finished product. This chapter belongs in the library of any serious hunter, and especially so for public land swamp rats like me. Some of the highlights I enjoyed the most:

** Locating bucks bedded right near the road, completely overlooked for obvious reasons with the security of the swamp backing them up. Not just any bucks either, some of the best the area has to offer.

** Another serious eye opener, just like the previous highlight, was how effective cyber scouting can be. Sometimes due to rules / distance from home / stumbling onto a big buck in a new area... we do not have effective preseason scouting in place for some swamps. Dan and Mario demonstrated how being able to read aerials and maps can put you in the right spot and seal the deal. I took one of my best bucks doing this very thing.

Both of these first two highlights are real eye openers for most hunters.

** I have preached the potential of overlooked potholes for many years here on the Beast, whether in swamps / farm country... wherever. Joe did a great job of executing on just such a spot.

** Well into watching the dvd, I was relaxing a bit when all of a sudden Dan's voice got a little higher... his speech pattern became faster... and I said to myself, "holy cow, Dan is pretty excited about this!" I sat straight up immediately and focused in... the subject at hand was dogwood thickets and their buck bedding potential, let me rephrase that... tremendous potential! When Dan is finding waist sized rubs and buck beds all over, if that doesn't get you excited you might as well hang it up!

My final commentary is that the lone tree and micro-island segments were exceptional!

Fellow Beasts, please post your own comments and reviews, I would love to hear them.

Scott

[Hawthorne]

Yeah the best educational video for the public swamp hunter. Awesome tool!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Singing Bridge]

The "X Factor" is going to be a great motivator for me. I'm referring to the spot where the crossing trails make an "X" in front of Mario when he shot that big buck.

I have just such an X crossing that I need to hunt... But I haven't because it is so hard to reach. It will definitely be more difficult than the spot in the video. My spot is fed by half a dozen bedding islands and the X trail crossing stands out like a beacon. I have found a couple of 24 inch diameter cedars that were rubbed and tracks as big as I've encountered, including Canada... But it's a godawful spot to get to.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Hawthorne]

I found a spot similar to the last one on the first dvd.It was tore up with sign . It has dogwood , cattails , and tamarack like dans spot had with all the edge between the different vegetation.All the beds were on little islands formed from the bigger tamaracks. A lot of the red dogwood was browsed and I found a shed antler in there. The only difference was the nearest hardwoods was at least a quarter mile away. Been thinking about the spot all summer. I'm gonna do some observation sits this fall just to see if its primary before I move in. I won't be able to get high in a stand maybe 8ft

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[mainebowhunter]

I really like the second DVD and how they hunted that piece of public in stages. I have always struggled with the first time stand thing..until I realized, I guess I do a lot of the same thing...I just never considered a first time stand sit because I had hunted the area multiple times, just not from the same tree. I hunt a lot of outside in, much like they did.

What i think is crazy is that if you live in Wisconsin, Michigan or any of the very similar habitat, similar pressure, you have a road map of just exactly how to go about doing it. You can follow the principles to a T and they will bring success. If you live in FL or LA, probably not so much.

What I also realized as I watched the videos of how different the pressure is than what we have here. You can scout swamps, marsh and the deer just do not use them like that. They don't have to. They are not constantly getting pushed. They use water the same way...bed the edges of the transitions but very little evidence of them busting out to islands in the middle of the marsh or swamp either. I am always looking for new tactics that I can leverage to make me more successful. Most tactics to hunt Maine involve 7600s and beaglewear. No one here wants to talk about Sept Oct tactics to killing mature deer with a bow.

That being said, it has also opened my eyes to look for more of that stuff...more or less to see if there was something I was missing. I just don't hunt a lot of marshes and swamps. Like the marsh tactic of wearing your pants over your boots to keep your boots from filling up. Except I hate the sweaty shins

[Singing Bridge]

Seeing the Magicman's homemade sling was very interesting too. I'm hoping Todd is able to get to Michigan's U.P. For snow tracking again this year. It is always a great thread when he is able to get there.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Singing Bridge]

I found a spot similar to the last one on the first dvd.It was tore up with sign . It has dogwood , cattails , and tamarack like dans spot had with all the edge between the different vegetation.All the beds were on little islands formed from the bigger tamaracks. A lot of the red dogwood was browsed and I found a shed antler in there. The only difference was the nearest hardwoods was at least a quarter mile away. Been thinking about the spot all summer. I'm gonna do some observation sits this fall just to see if its primary before I move in. I won't be able to get high in a stand maybe 8ft

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Based on your description the observation stand is a great idea. A lot of guys will sit for observation once or twice, not see a mature buck and write the place off... I recommend not doing that. The right weather changes / changing food sources / changing rut stages ... And most importantly changes in hunting pressure can sometimes load those areas up.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Singing Bridge]

I think some of you will find differing perspectives to be interesting. I recently listened to Jason's podcast (wta) and watched Dans chapter 4 swamp bedding. I know they will both forgive me...

Jason mentioned he was hunting a big swamp that was about a square mile in size... Dan mentioned he had a huge swamp by his house of about 3 square miles...

These comments raised an eyebrow on me and put a smile on my face. Those areas are so puny I would have a hard time calling them a swamp!

Maybe a pocket swamp or small swamp...

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Edcyclopedia]

Seeing the Magicman's homemade sling was very interesting too. I'm hoping Todd is able to get to Michigan's U.P. For snow tracking again this year. It is always a great thread when he is able to get there.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

I thought that was a rare sighting of an albino Monkey

[magicman54494]

Seeing the Magicman's homemade sling was very interesting too. I'm hoping Todd is able to get to Michigan's U.P. For snow tracking again this year. It is always a great thread when he is able to get there.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Where did you see my sling?

[Singing Bridge]

Seeing the Magicman's homemade sling was very interesting too. I'm hoping Todd is able to get to Michigan's U.P. For snow tracking again this year. It is always a great thread when he is able to get there.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Where did you see my sling?

Chapter 4 swamp bedding!

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[stash59]

Like I mentioned in another post . I liked how 'Swamps" tied in with "Marsh". Many of the more detailed points mentioned in 4 cleared up what was fuzzy from 3. All the diagrams helped immensely.

Once "Hill" comes out. Everyone should have a decent blueprint on how to go about hunting most any terrain!!!

[Singing Bridge]

I really like the second DVD and how they hunted that piece of public in stages. I have always struggled with the first time stand thing..until I realized, I guess I do a lot of the same thing...I just never considered a first time stand sit because I had hunted the area multiple times, just not from the same tree. I hunt a lot of outside in, much like they did.

What i think is crazy is that if you live in Wisconsin, Michigan or any of the very similar habitat, similar pressure, you have a road map of just exactly how to go about doing it. You can follow the principles to a T and they will bring success. If you live in FL or LA, probably not so much.

What I also realized as I watched the videos of how different the pressure is than what we have here. You can scout swamps, marsh and the deer just do not use them like that. They don't have to. They are not constantly getting pushed. They use water the same way...bed the edges of the transitions but very little evidence of them busting out to islands in the middle of the marsh or swamp either. I am always looking for new tactics that I can leverage to make me more successful. Most tactics to hunt Maine involve 7600s and beaglewear. No one here wants to talk about Sept Oct tactics to killing mature deer with a bow.

That being said, it has also opened my eyes to look for more of that stuff...more or less to see if there was something I was missing. I just don't hunt a lot of marshes and swamps. Like the marsh tactic of wearing your pants over your boots to keep your boots from filling up. Except I hate the sweaty shins

I agree, breaking that public into sections and burning it one piece at a time makes huge sense. If you pounce on the best spot right up front it can fry most of the area.

Another takeaway was the fresh sign that suddenly appeared in an area they had already travelled. Rather than dismissing it they acted immediately. When I see fresh rubs like that I know I may only have a day or three before that buck moves... Especially during the rut periods. But even in the early season your time until being detected by a good buck is limited... Plus food sources and weather changes... On and on. There are many reasons a buck may only be in an area for a short time.

Jason (wta) also gave a great example in his podcast... He took a couple of personal days because the clock was ticking.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[mainebowhunter]

I also think this kind of thing is good to have in a library. Even though I do not spend a lot of time hunting this type of terrain, its always a good reference to come back to ...it just may spark an idea that was missed.

[Singing Bridge]

I also think this kind of thing is good to have in a library. Even though I do not spend a lot of time hunting this type of terrain, its always a good reference to come back to ...it just may spark an idea that was missed.

I couldn't agree more. Could you imagine how many hunting magazines you would have to save somewhere to try and come close to the information this dvd has?

[ Post made via iPhone ]