Scouting question about lack of sign

[mheichelbech]

I covered several spots that Dan had tagged on a map for me. One of them had a really old permanent stand on it in the exact same spot Dan had tagged! It must have been or be a great spot because it is a heck of a hike, at least a mile or better to this spot. Anyhow, in all of the areas I checked, there just wasn't a lot of fresh sign. Very few fresh trails and not a lot of good tracks, several old rubs but nothing huge and only a few that appeared to be from last year. This area is near agriculture...I still have a lot more looking around to do but I am not really expecting things to be any better.

This is public ground surrounded by private that, like I said, is adjacent to corn/bean fields. This area was hit really hard by tornados in 2012, still lots of devastation from that which I actually thought the downed trees would help funnel the deer.

My question is, this area seems like it should be awesome...the topography is awesome....would you guys hunt the topography and best sign available or possibly just the forget the area for your better spots but keep checking now and again for improvement? I am wondering if the tornados didn't do major damage to the herd or caused them to move off. I'm just perplexed that there wasn't a lot of large rubs, tracks, and altogether better sign. At first I figured i wasn't I just hadn't found the "spot" but I just didn't see much anywhere.

What do you do in a situation like this?

[cbay]

I have some areas like that as well. Went back to one of them last week (which was scouted two months ago and had little to no use) and it has a buck where expected now.
As soon as i found a buck there it immediately made me think of the other areas i haven't went back and checked but really expected to have beds / more sign.
Most important to me is trying to figure out why there was a lack of use. Still working on that but cover, pressure and food is in the equation somehow.

[headgear]

I would move on, like Dan says the sign don't lie. If you aren't finding at least some big buck sign in the area they may just not be there or they are rarely there and near impossible to hunt. I've walked away from a ton of promising land because the sign was just not there but obvious signs of pressure were. On public land you sometimes have to look a lot harder to find "the" spots. Most of the places I scout have beds in them but you have to ask yourself is this where a mature buck will feel safe most of the time and be able to live to a decent age. Once you start find the best of the best buck beds you will start to see a pattern.

One thing that has jumped out at me the past couple years is the degree of difficulty to hunt a certain bed and buck sign seem to go hand and hand. The more ways they have to bust you (sight, sound, wind, swirling wind, thermals) the better the buck bed.

[dan]

I would move on, like Dan says the sign don't lie. If you aren't finding at least some big buck sign in the area they may just not be there or they are rarely there and near impossible to hunt. I've walked away from a ton of promising land because the sign was just not there but obvious signs of pressure were. On public land you sometimes have to look a lot harder to find "the" spots. Most of the places I scout have beds in them but you have to ask yourself is this where a mature buck will feel safe most of the time and be able to live to a decent age. Once you start find the best of the best buck beds you will start to see a pattern.

One thing that has jumped out at me the past couple years is the degree of difficulty to hunt a certain bed and buck sign seem to go hand and hand. The more ways they have to bust you (sight, sound, wind, swirling wind, thermals) the better the buck bed.

Pretty much what I would of said!

[wiscbowhntr]

I had the same experience this weekend on a new piece of public. The area looked great on a map, but it just didnt have any big deer sign. I almost walked it again to see if I missed anything, but didnt. You can find something that is not there. You move on and hope the next area is better.

[mheichelbech]

Thanks, the surprising thing is that it isn't that far from some ag fields. I did find a lot of old rubs but nothing like 4 inches or bigger. I keep thinking about some of the rub pictures I saw posted in the scouting thread and there just are not any around that are fresh or very big. I really wonder if the tornadoes didn't do a number on them or push them away and they hadn't come back yet. I really expected to see good sign with the thick cover from all the downed trees...you can see where either a tornado touched down in various places or various tornadoes touched down...just acres of downed trees but some other areas are okay....it's about 75% good and 25% almost unpenetrable. I went through as much of the unpenetrable stuff as I could just to be sure I wasn't missing anything. I checked along what would be the thermal tunnel line and all but 3 of the points Dan recommended.

Last weekend's trip in a different block of woods nearby, I saw 6 deer, found fresh sign, beds and rubs (but no big ones). That block looks to be not as good topographically but did have much better sign.