How I determine where I am going to hunt next year

[jlh42581]

Figured I would share a little insight as to things I have been doing lately. I will use PA as an example, since its my home turf and easiest to travel for a day hunt.

1: I want to know where the best possible chance of harvesting a deer is. I guess anyone would right? So how do I figure this out. I head to my wildlife agency website(PGC, yours is probably DNR) and go into the whitetails section. Usually there is map you can download, that will show you harvest figures for that management area for years depending on which you want. So, first things first, where in the state are they killing the most deer? Why hunt a unit that shoots 10,000 when your next door unit is going to shoot 30,000? Your home unit, youre going to have to work with for those after work hunts. Regardless of how sucky it is, or youre not going to hunt, but your weekend, or long weekends... whats an hour drive to tripple your odds?

2: Now you have the unit you want to try and focus on. Are there any special circumstances? Do they have different restrictions, a longer season, an earlier season?

3: Can you find somewhere to hunt in this unit? It does no good if its all private land. Thats rare in PA but some areas are pretty locked up. If the only public land option is 10 acres, you live in a highly hunted state, you might wanna move on. If not, head back into your wildlife website and search for public land within the unit. Typically this will give you a number or a name for a place to start.

4: Take that to a mapping service like cabelas recon or google earth. Find that wildlife area thats public. Take a five minute look and see if its go anything special. Is the access harder, is it away from a major town, does it have bedding points, do you have changes in elevation, where is the water. If it meets your credentials, head to step 5.

5: Now that you have found a place and have it in a mapping editor, first things first, trace the boundary and all the roads from map view. Once you have the map view of roads traced, turn on the topo, trace the trails. When you complete this, look at the topo again and mark points that have terrain features that look good. points, saddles, ridges in different directions, corners where there is a change in terrain and hidden water. Now turn on the aerial view and see where those chosen points fall. If any dont make sense, delete them.

6: If youre using a program like Recon, sync it to your phone, if using a gps, export the file and input it into the gps.

7: Now youre going to need to dedicate some resources. After you have multiple areas picked(miles well make the drive worth the expense) head out to the unit. Youre going to now cover the transitions, the points you located and look for big buck sign. Not finding what you want... head to the next. If its warm enough for you, consider driving out a friday after work, sleeping there and getting up the next day spending all day covering ground. If you want, bring cams and put them out to see if youre onto anything. Come back to retrieve the cams late spring early summer, check areas that are not bedding and prepare any stand sites by trimming if you can.

One trick here, if you cant trim stuff, get yourself a spool of cheap nylon rope, tie things down or back out of your way.

If you have any questions, ill answer the best I can. If you do anything different, please chime in.

[Black Squirrel]

Good stuff!

[ompaathao]

X2

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[jlh42581]

Just another note. Not all public land is going to have a map on the website or even be listed for that matter. You might run into areas that are not advertised. You should also be looking for state forests and state parks as most are open to hunting.

A prime example is a game lands less than 5 miles from my house. I found it by winter spotlighting after season(shinning). I just happened to know of a place where I had seen deer before. I drove up a dead end road to turn around and when I got to the end, I was greated with an 8,000 acre piece of public land. You cannot find this map online at all, the game land itself isnt even listed on the states website, its hidden in plain view. If you try to google that game land in map view of google or google maps, you will get zero boundaries of it.

[Czabs]

Good stuff man! I would like to add, some of the best pieces I've found are very hard to access public land. Don't just look that over. If you have to enter it from a stream, creek, river, lake, getting permission from adjacent private landowners, RR tracks, etc. So be it, If its hard to access that means there is less hunters. Less hunters = usually more deer.

[jlh42581]

Solid point, three locations just in my home area for next season require crossing water

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[Edcyclopedia]

Just another note. Not all public land is going to have a map on the website or even be listed for that matter. You might run into areas that are not advertised. You should also be looking for state forests and state parks as most are open to hunting.

Good stuff!

The same holds true for town/city public land as most townships have a website to tap for information once you've narrowed your search down to a few miles...

[jlh42581]

Just another note. Not all public land is going to have a map on the website or even be listed for that matter. You might run into areas that are not advertised. You should also be looking for state forests and state parks as most are open to hunting.

Good stuff!

The same holds true for town/city public land as most townships have a website to tap for information once you've narrowed your search down to a few miles...

Doe summer scrape ridge, the one I talked about being clearcut with a house now on it was township property. You wouldve never found it on a map being listed as such.

[jlh42581]

I just remembered one more source. I dont know if this exists in other states but it does in pa. They call it co-op. Basically the game commission says if you have more than 80 continuous acres that you allow open to hunting they will pay your property taxes to keep it open. These maps usually have no boundaries nor a direct address. It will be a map of points that will get you in the general vacinity. Its up to you to knock on doors.

I get this map of whatever area and then I see if the property near where the co-op could be is even worth a further look. Then, go find who owns it.

[Scot]

I have been doing many of these things in my home state of NY. Looking for better hunting opportunities.

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[cwoods]

ttt

[Bucky]

Good stuff

I will add a few things...

Public closer to metro areas will usually be pounded harder than more rural areas

**Take a look a bordering private properties and their likely access... meaning, if the bordering private is a city, huge private parcel, campground, etc or anything with restricted access or limited hunting that ticks the meter up for me. **

The other thing is, the area I focus usually 1st is the stuff that looks the best that is furthest from the access. I know you can use the other side of the coin and look for some hidden spot close to access.. but when I'm hunting I don't like to see others and most are not willing to do the extra work.

If you are hunting in high pressure public, I try to set up in areas that I believe other hunters will likely push deer to when they access.. this is pretty predictable most the time. This is usually my strategy when hunting public land with a rifle.

[Stanley]

Thanks for sharing.

[Beason]

remember this thread you started?

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7247

[jlh42581]

Certainly, its why im going to ohio. Still didnt have a ton to do with the reason if chose to hunt 2d when i live in 4d in pa. Pick up subtle tips, learn more and pass it on.

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