June 2015 scouting report big woods North Central PA

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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ragecaged22
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June 2015 scouting report big woods North Central PA

Unread postby ragecaged22 » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:29 pm

greetings my fellow 10-ring lungbusters, I haven't made time to check in with everyone on here since my last post so here I am. Not sure if I should have posted this in the 2015 scouting thread instead or what? I figured since there is already 17 pages worth of content in there I would start a new one.

But at any rate...................since I got home from Outer Banks I have spent a lot of time in the woods and there is lots to discuss.

First off, sometime last week at work I was marking timber on company ground in McKean county and I jumped a good one. I didn't get a good look at body characteristics, but based on the rack he had I would say he's atleast a good 3 year old. Anyways, so I was all pumped up and meandered my way over to his bed...my findings? hair all over the bed, multiple and NOTICEABLE entry/exit routes around his bed in the high ferns. I'm guessing that's one of his primary beds and uses it quite frequently. Pretty classic big buck bedding site and consistent with most of the other buck beds I have found in my young life in the big woods. I will note though, he was not on a point...which I find probably 7/10 buck beds on points around here. I didn't take as many detailed notes as I would have liked regarding the current wind direction, barometer, etc, due to the fact that I have too many other good bucks to focus on around the house, but he was in the top 1/3 of the hill elevation wise (2,203 ft above sea level was highest spot on the ridgetop) and perhaps he was using Dan's "wind tunnel" theory to his advantage. Basically, he was just off to the side about 200 yards or so from the head of a big wide drainage. Like I said I didn't check wind so I don't know is he was on leeward or windward side of the hill at that moment in time. I got down in his bed and tried to figure out which way he would be looking but it didn't really make sense to me...it was on the ridgeline so in theory you would expect him to be looking down over the hill and watching the whole drainage, but there was a WALL of Beech brush saplings so I don't think he woulda been able to see downhill very well. His bed was down in a little depression on the ground (fairly consistent with the buck beds I find here) and uphill from him was another wall of Beech brush. So basically all you could see was East and West from his bed...if a human or predator was to be uphill or downhill from him you would never in a million years see him because of that beech brush and since he was so low in that little depression. I just so happened to be walking west to east along that elevation and was able to get a decent look at his rack when he spooked downhill into the drainage. The bed was perfect for a summer SW prevailing wind coming over the top of the hill and the morning thermal pushing up from the drainage so maybe he was right in Dans wind tunnel if it was indeed a SW wind. I'm guessing he was facing east or west and felt safe enough with the wall of beech brush to the north and south of his bed. Any thoughts or opinions? has anyone else found buck beds in these depressions I speak of? I will post a map someday when I make time of where exactly he was laying cuz I immediately marked it on my GPS.









In other news, almost every night after I work I gas up my wheeler and head out on my "Velvet Monster Circuit" loop. Some of you may not believe me, or think that I am stupid, but this is my bread & butter "tactic" I have been employing the last few years. As I mentioned in my last post, I live in an area with heavy oil & gas industry, timber harvesting, and just about every private landowner has four wheeler trails carving through their properties. So in a sense it's a bit of a luxury and blessing for me to be able to ride a wheeler around on miles and miles of big timber and lease roads and it has become one of my best scouting techniques if you will. Last year I saw a 135" 9 point off my wheeler on my loop all summer and then at least a dozen times in September (mornings and evenings) and it tipped me off and helped me narrow down his "core" area.......I had that buck @ 18 yards at 430pm opening night on a ridgetop that was surrounded on all sides by lease roads and wheeler trails that are traveled heavily by humans everyday. I had my climber set just wrong enough to where I couldn't get an arrow in him cuz he was directly behind me and then he started angling away from me. My point? I only scouted that ridgetop on foot 1 time pre season (besides spring scouting) and set my climber up during that scouting mission. He should be hanging on my wall right now but oh well...good learning lesson to be extra meticulous about what direction you angle your climber and where your shots are gonna be..apparently I was wrong in my prediction LOL. Through "scouting and spying" on him from my wheeler I marked every sighting of him on my maps and was able to kinda prioritize his favorite routes and evening feeding areas. It really minimized the amount of intrusion I would have had to do traditionally on foot...otherwise if I woulda had multiple entries in there on foot I mighta bumped him outta there considering that area is highly pressured. Pretty freaking neat spot man... Ill show yins on the maps sometime, but that ridgetop was overlooked by everybody that hunts up there mainly because when people see the lease roads and wheeler trails surrounding it on all sides they think "oh well that spot is junk"........obviously humans weren't walking through there much so the 135" and his part-time counterpart (the 155" I was actually after) figured hey this ridgetop is safe and it's dropping red oak and pin oak acorns like crazy, lets feast brotha. Was this typical? NO. Was I lucky? Yeah, probably a good bit. Was the buck I almost killed young and dumb? Yep to an extent, he was probably a 3 year old and that's why I saw him off the wheeler so many more times than his older and wiser buddy he often ran around with. An important thing to note about this spot- the red oaks and pin oaks on this ridgetop were not huge and tall big diameter seed dropping trees that I usually like to hunt around...they ranged anywhere from 6" pole-sized to 12-16" small sawtimber sized trees and were dropping just enough acorns to deem that spot a primary destination evening food source for the deer in that area....also, I don't find Pin Oaks across a large scale very often in the middle of big timber here like that...usually find them along field edges and people plant them in their yards....there was probably an acre or two intermixed with the red oaks on that ridgetop. I've never really hunted 'em before, but the deer seemed to enjoy them. So if you ever find a Pin Oak grove out in the wild maybe that's an area worth checking out.

90% of the time the deer either just stand there and watch you go by or they spook a little bit and run and then stop and let you ride by.....they are pretty tolerable of four wheelers this time of year. The big older bucks most of the time don't even spook that bad and countless times I have rode past them the following night in the same general area..so I guess it's sort of equivalent to a "soft bump" just as if you were bumping one from his bed. It's almost insane how many deer I see on the four wheeler making my rounds and how many big bucks I gather intel on without even setting foot in the woods. Don't get me wrong, scouting on foot is superior to all (right?), but I have learned a lot about individual bucks just through sightings from my quad. I will start most of my intense scouting on foot once September rolls around (rainy days) and continue to do so through bow season. Sometimes it's not as easy and fun as I make it sound because there is nights where I spend 4 hours on my loop going slow and covering a big area and I don't see any good bucks or many deer at all for that matter. So if any of you live in an area where you can do something similar to this give it a try. The hills I hunt within my loop I have been hunting since I was 10 years old so I know which specific wheeler trails and lease roads to ride on every night that give me the best chance for a sighting. Certain roads and trails are definitely better than others so it takes a few years to learn your specific deer. I will note that probably 80% of these big buck sightings from my wheeler are IN TIMBER although on my way back home I shine a few big hay fields since it's dark by that time and I keep my cordless spotlight with me on the wheeler with me. I can upload a map showing my usual route every night if anyone is interested....it's probably between 5-10 miles total but I'm not sure exactly how much ground I cover. I'll pay attention tomorrow night to see how many miles I ride on a typical loop. I forgot to mention that I also bring my video camera with me in a protective case and I film any big bucks that offer me the opportunity right from my wheeler... I can upload some videos if anyone is interested.
I have been pondering on starting my own podcast type thing on YouTube and making my own videos while I'm in the woods kinda like Dan does...it would be a good way for me to show you guys the type of terrain I hunt and how ridiculously beautiful the woods are around here. Thoughts and opinions on any of the above?


Last but surely not the least, sometime in the next couple weeks I'm gonna upload some of the maps I have made on CalTopo and ARCGIS with my primary climber trees marked and some other stuff and I would appreciate your opinions and feedback. You guys can take my maps and mark on there where you think would be a good kill spot or where I should scout for buck beds or maybe you will see something that I have overlooked and need to check out. I am honestly spoiled this year as there is shooters everywhere for me to pursue within 5 miles of my house. I'm getting my NY buck tag too so I just may have to smoke a stud 3 year old if he comes by me first week :D

I have my eyes set on the prize and my #1 buck happens to be an absolute Houdini (or so he seems) .....this will be the 3rd fall I've been after him. I really wasn't expecting him to come back to this area again this summer because it's so stressful in terms of human presence and pressure and it just makes no sense why a 5+ yo buck would put himself through that again, but I am almost positive I saw him and 3 other bachelors together sunday night from my wheeler in one of his usual hangouts from years prior. So stay tuned folks! I'm hoping to get a video of him this week or atleast a better look at him to confirm if it's him or not. I'll probably faint if he shows up on trail cam or if I see him up close and personal.

155" main frame 8 pointer with a kicker on the inside of each main beam....least that's what he was last year. I can post some pics if anyone is interested :L:


A big thanks to all of you who take the time to read through my long boring novels....lmao. I'm hoping somebody replies! :mrgreen:

-ragecaged


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sethg
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Re: June 2015 scouting report big woods North Central PA

Unread postby sethg » Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:28 am

lets see some pics and video. I'm interested in the terrain you hunt. Sounds like you are definitely putting in the effort to locate some shooters.


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