how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

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wmihunter
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how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby wmihunter » Fri Dec 24, 2010 6:47 am

I want to get everyone's thoughts on this...how many hours do you scout locating beds etc vs how many opportunities at mature bucks near there beds using te beast style of hunting?


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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby dan » Fri Dec 24, 2010 8:13 am

Once again its relitive to the number of mature bucks in the area your scouting / hunting. Behind my house in the public marsh, I get about 1 or 2 opertunities per year based on my origanal scouting of about 300 hours of that marsh. I now only do a little scouting of the bedding in that marsh because I already know the marsh bedding intimatly.
So, now I scout only about 50 hours (in the bedding areas )
in spring to confirm hunches, see if something changed, or refresh my memorie.
I use the rest of the time to look at new areas and build on the number of bedding spots I have.
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Black Squirrel
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby Black Squirrel » Fri Dec 24, 2010 8:37 am

Wow, I knew you put your time in Dan, but holy cow, 300 hours and then 50 more just to refresh alittle :shock: ! I've got some work to do!
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby Wrinkleneck » Fri Dec 24, 2010 11:50 am

Black Squirrel wrote:Wow, I knew you put your time in Dan, but holy cow, 300 hours and then 50 more just to refresh alittle :shock: ! I've got some work to do!



Your not the only one :oops:
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby wmihunter » Tue Dec 28, 2010 2:05 pm

thanks again for th reply dan. Approximately how many acres are you talking about for the 300 hours??
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby dan » Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:07 am

About 3500
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publiclandhunter
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby publiclandhunter » Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:22 am

I would have to agree with Dan on this one. I can't nail down an hourly/ratio, but can definitely say more scouting equals more sightings. For example, this season I was highly unprepared (due to starting a new business and extremely limited time for ground work) and due to this only had one encounter with a borderline shooter on public land. In a normal season with a ton of scouting, I typically see an average of two good bucks per-season on hard hunted public land.

Moral of the story.....scout, scout, scout, scout....hunt.

PLH
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby DropTyne » Wed Dec 29, 2010 10:40 am

It all boils down to the fact that just when you think you've scouted enough you need to scout more. It does get to be pretty cool though once you start to learn a hunk of land, you can start to stockpile buck beds in your memory bank.
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby bowhunter15 » Wed Dec 29, 2010 11:36 am

And not to mention if you jump a buck or he gets kicked out by other hunters during the season, you can take a pretty good guess at where he relocated and stay right in the game. And you can try to stack bedding areas that are in your favor to hunt.
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby Autumn Ninja » Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:02 pm

I have time to physically get out and scout 20-30 hours a year.

If you count all the map work I do, then I scout 300+ hours a year.
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby dan » Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:20 pm

It all counts Ninja... I am getting out less and less each year it seems and it is definitely effecting my success rate.
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Re: how many scouting hours per opportunity at mature buck?

Unread postby publiclandhunter » Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:01 pm

I would have to mirror what Dan just stated..."I'm getting out less and less each year and my success rates are starting to show it"...........Life is getting busier and busier and three-kids, a new start-up business, wife, dog, etc, etc, have taken the bulk of my free-time.

The good news is that as we get older we get wiser and I don't pound the ground as much as I used to but tend to utilize the new tools available to narrow it down before I hit the woods so that the shorter forays are more productive. Google earth, Bing maps, Terraserver, etc, have helped take a few free minutes of the day and make them more productive, so that when I do have time I can be where I need to be to assess a new chunk of territory in short order.

Tip: Make the best use of your free-time! :D :D

PLH
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