Didn't mean to Gomer Pyle anyone with the title... but this afternoon I drove to a big woods area to scout, no agriculture available for these deer. I had a destination in mind, a spot I had located on an aerial photo that was pretty remote and very difficult to get to... after parking my truck and grabbing my gear, I headed down the woods road (impassable right now with a truck) to get near where I would begin the difficult trek to my intended spot. After walking down the big woods two-track for nearly a mile, I noted yet another deer track in a small patch of dirt. After taking several quick steps by it, I thought "whoa there, hold'er up a minute... that track looked BIG.". I turned around for a closer look. I found a very fresh, casually walking track that was almost four fingers wide, wider with the splayed hooves, and a flat walking track with both dew claws making clean impressions. The ground was very hard here and the track did not sink far at all. This flat-footed buck has some poundage on him. I also found older tracks here from the buck that were also going the same direction. I decided to back track him, as I knew that direction held some cover while the other side of the road had some oak ridges, aspen thickets, dogwood and lots of wintergreen (wintergreen is a favorite for deer in this bigs woods area in December and January). I began sniffing the run like a blood hound during a jail break... 140 yards off the road I found a buck bed, with one rub right in the bed. The bed was right on the transition line of big woods and a willow thicket, with the thicket being backed by a tagalder swamp. I found one more bed the buck uses about forty yards away with one rub in it as well. Both beds had old rubs from previous years adjacent to them. Before I turned around I knew what I would find... not a single tree within a couple hundred yards large enough to hold a tree stand- that's a main reason he is there. The exception was a lone white birch (oh, brother) that is mature but within bow range of two primary exit trails from the buck. The tree is forty yards off the road... but, you do what you have to.
Finally I was off to my remote area. As I plowed through the swamp knee deep with water I finally approached my intended micro-island. About fifty yards off of it a lone deer went crashing off the back. I found one rub in the bedding area, and a couple of very hard to find rubs back on the mainland- if the buck that made the rubs was the one that crashed out, he is mature.
Both spots need more work before season to be fully prepped, but it was a productive scout despite all the rain.
