Scouting 1/22/2011

[Dewey]

I did some scouting yesterday in the public marsh. Even though the temps were in the single digits it was fairly comfortable for doing some heavy duty walking. We had a few inches of fresh snow overnight and I was amazed by the amount of fresh deer sign that was layed down. The deer movement must have been extremely heavy in the morning.

Here is one of the decent rubs I found...


I would like to see the size of the beaver trying to take this tree down.


I checked out some of the islands I haven't been out to for awhile and every one was covered with fresh tracks even though they were over a mile from the mainland. I chased up a group of 15 deer that were bedded way out in the cattails. So much for the theory that deer bed right by their food source in frigid weather. I tracked these deer from a cornfield to their beds in the cattails over 1 3/4 miles. Here are a few of the beds....




Here are a few beds in the open on the islands...




Here is a pic of one of the islands I saw a 140" back in early November. This is 1.5 miles out in the cattails...


It was a pretty good day of scouting although I didn't find any mature buck beds. I walked about 4 miles and it felt good to get out and stretch the legs a little and do some exploring. Everything I found was doe's and fawns mostly but it was nice to see so many deer around it's looking good for deer numbers next season.

Here is a video of one of the deer I chased up in the cattails...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvgogCmDhvY

[Jackson Marsh]

Very nice. I was out in the Horicon Marsh last sunday, covering 5 miles. I'll definitely be hunting it this coming season. It was my first time there and It was very impressive the amount of deer sign and beds I found.

[Swampthing]

Cool post Dewey.I like the video along with it too. I agree with the deer bedding close to food theory.I really don,t ever see that .

[dan]

I do see deer bed near food sources, but its important to realize that to a deer safety will come before ease of getting to the food. This is especially true with adult bucks.

[huntinfool14]

nice pics!

[cwoods]

Thanks for sharring!

[Singing Bridge]

Looks like time well spent to me, Dewey- GJ with the pics and vid too.

[DEERSLAYER]

Great job Dewey! We have knee deep snow over here, but your getting me tempted to go anyway.

[Dewey]

Great job Dewey! We have knee deep snow over here, but your getting me tempted to go anyway.

Time to use some snowshoes!!
I didn't need any because we have less than a foot of very light powder.