Feeling overwhelmed cyber scouting for 5 people hunt.

[Tufrthnails]

So we (my cousins and brothers) drew Zone 10 LBL 2 day gun hunt in KY. I am the ONLY one that has ever hunted public land. They are pretty excited for the hunt. The problem is I have no issue whatsoever sitting somewhere that I doubt I will see a lot of deer, but I got a high chance of a good buck. But they measure their days in he field by how many deer they saw. So I have been marking up my map with all kinds of places I think could be good. And they will be happy sitting on a field edge and shooting a doe unless they have a buck tag in their pocket. So I could easily have 5 guys that I got to scout for in one day and pick them a spot based on an unknown wind direction at this point and unknown hunter pressure. Too make it worse two of them will be sitting popup blinds (which I usually hate). I got my 2 LW alphas and my Api climber for the rest of us.

Would you just give them a point on the gps and say go figure it out or do I put boots on the ground with each guy. They are just learning to use the wind.

[headgear]

I've done something similar with 4 of us, not easy to find a big enough area with enough quality spots to hunt. I usually put the guys with the least amount of experience in spots just to see deer, more experience in better buck hunting spots. I would wait to see what the wind is doing before you pick spots, it can affect entry and setup so good to keep your options open. I try and drop them all off and then hit the last spot on t he map.

[Tennhunter3]

lbl is tough to hunt good bucks in it though.

Since they like seeing a lot of deer put them in funnel areas? Course most hunters look to hunt those saddles.

Walk them to a saddle and drop them off it will be rut so the 1 and 2 and a half year old buck should be running saddles looking for does.

[RidgeGhost]

Possibly consider setting them up on oak flats where they can see does and little bucks but also in such a way that maybe stacks your buck bedding options

[PK_]

Been there done that. It's a lot of stress.

With 5 guys I would think heavily about covering several funnels on a ridge system and then have two guys who know how to still hunt have at it.

If I hunt lbl with rifle I wouldn't bother bringing a treestand I don't think.

[Edcyclopedia]

I'd pick a handful of spots based on wind & point them in the direction...
Recap after lunch or that night for day two, etc...
Radio or cell contact throughout the day can help a lot too!
This type of hunting is conducive with using a Garmin Rino.
You can send locations to each other & work strategies like post & push...
Record you tracks if you can, it's amazing to see what you want to hit - but never did!

[seazofcheeze]

Use one of the wind websites...I forget the names, but I've seen posts on here, or use the historical weather feature on wunderground.com to look at historical wind direction trends for the dates of your hunt. You know what to do from there, get out the topo and focus on leeward terrain features (points, tops of draws/ravines/ 1/3 elevations, saddles, benches, etc.) I would literally mark-up every feature I could within your hunt zone. In hill country, I also like to mark up a separate aerial map looking for transition areas from cover type to cover type. If I find areas that have good aerial and topo transitions, those are the areas I try and key in on first. From my personal experience hunting in Ohio, about 1 out of 3 or 1 out 4 of the places I thought looked good cyber scouting ended up panning out when putting boots on the ground. If I were in your shoes, with 5 guys, that would mean to me, I need 15-20 spots per guy, or 75-100 points of interest for the whole group (if you plan on having them sit a fresh spot everyday). I can see why you are overwhelmed, that is a bit of a tall order.

I will say this though, it's the rut, and if one of you guys shoots something early or gets in an area that has hot sign or good in-person observations, I would put another guy in there right after guy number 1 tags out and hunt it until it goes cold.

[Twenty Up]

Not sure how close you are or how early you plan on getting there but I'd do some deer drives first to get a feel for the bedding areas then setup guys near bedding areas or funnels

[Southern Man]

So we (my cousins and brothers) drew Zone 10 LBL 2 day gun hunt in KY. I am the ONLY one that has ever hunted public land. They are pretty excited for the hunt. The problem is I have no issue whatsoever sitting somewhere that I doubt I will see a lot of deer, but I got a high chance of a good buck. But they measure their days in he field by how many deer they saw. So I have been marking up my map with all kinds of places I think could be good. And they will be happy sitting on a field edge and shooting a doe unless they have a buck tag in their pocket. So I could easily have 5 guys that I got to scout for in one day and pick them a spot based on an unknown wind direction at this point and unknown hunter pressure. Too make it worse two of them will be sitting popup blinds (which I usually hate). I got my 2 LW alphas and my Api climber for the rest of us.

Would you just give them a point on the gps and say go figure it out or do I put boots on the ground with each guy. They are just learning to use the wind.

I don't know how many deer they need to see to consider it a "good day", but at LBL they may be disapointed. The deer numbers are not that great. Without a doubt the crop fields and the surrounding woods will have the most deer activity but I'll say 85% of the hunters drawn for a quota hunt gravitate to the crop fields. Area 10 can be a good area and some good bucks have come out of there in the past but beware of the horse riders, they're everywhere if it's decent weather. Wranglers is a very popular spot for them. There's some good ridge country in 10 and I'd suggest getting a ridge or 2 away from the fields. Generally field hunters will push deer away but they don't go too far. If they hunt the fields, get there early and stake your territory. The areas close to the state line may be your best bet.

[Tufrthnails]

So we (my cousins and brothers) drew Zone 10 LBL 2 day gun hunt in KY. I am the ONLY one that has ever hunted public land. They are pretty excited for the hunt. The problem is I have no issue whatsoever sitting somewhere that I doubt I will see a lot of deer, but I got a high chance of a good buck. But they measure their days in he field by how many deer they saw. So I have been marking up my map with all kinds of places I think could be good. And they will be happy sitting on a field edge and shooting a doe unless they have a buck tag in their pocket. So I could easily have 5 guys that I got to scout for in one day and pick them a spot based on an unknown wind direction at this point and unknown hunter pressure. Too make it worse two of them will be sitting popup blinds (which I usually hate). I got my 2 LW alphas and my Api climber for the rest of us.

Would you just give them a point on the gps and say go figure it out or do I put boots on the ground with each guy. They are just learning to use the wind.

I don't know how many deer they need to see to consider it a "good day", but at LBL they may be disapointed. The deer numbers are not that great. Without a doubt the crop fields and the surrounding woods will have the most deer activity but I'll say 85% of the hunters drawn for a quota hunt gravitate to the crop fields. Area 10 can be a good area and some good bucks have come out of there in the past but beware of the horse riders, they're everywhere if it's decent weather. Wranglers is a very popular spot for them. There's some good ridge country in 10 and I'd suggest getting a ridge or 2 away from the fields. Generally field hunters will push deer away but they don't go too far. If they hunt the fields, get there early and stake your territory. The areas close to the state line may be your best bet.

Thanks for the comments to all of you.

Southern you are the third person to tell me to stay away from the crop edges and get in the ridges. That is where I was targeting.

I'm thinking I have got a tentative game plan together. I spent a bunch of time marking transitions and then comparing to my map I marked for interesting terrain features. The big thing will be the wind direction and reading shifts.

I know the numbers are pretty low density wise and this really is supposed to just be a fun get their feet wet public hunt, hence I got them a cabin to stay in.
If they see a couple deer a sit they should be happy.

I talked to everyone yesterday and breaking down the tentative gameplan to them and two of them have decided they want to hunt my gameplan the first day and take a shot at picking their own spots on the second day, which I thought was super cool. Just the fact they are willing to swing and miss is promising to me.

I didn't realize we were gonna be contending with horses thanks for the heads up. Can't believe anyone would be crazy enough to ride a horse in the woods during a 2 day gun season. Or that it would even be open to them to do so. In Florida most public places have designated areas for that kind of stuff during hunting season.

I got a full page of stuff to contact LBL about as far as regs and common courtesies.

[Tufrthnails]

Not sure how close you are or how early you plan on getting there but I'd do some deer drives first to get a feel for the bedding areas then setup guys near bedding areas or funnels

We are rolling in Friday and hunting sat and sun.

This is on the back side of our Nov hunt on the farm. Me and my brother are getting started on the 7th with our bows on a local WMA to the farm then the rest of the guys show up and we will pound the private farms we got from the 11th-16th then on 17th- 19 we are at LBL. On to home the 20th.

[Southern Man]

I didn't realize we were gonna be contending with horses thanks for the heads up. Can't believe anyone would be crazy enough to ride a horse in the woods during a 2 day gun season. Or that it would even be open to them to do so. In Florida most public places have designated areas for that kind of stuff during hunting season.

I got a full page of stuff to contact LBL about as far as regs and common courtesies.

Yea there is no segregation between horseback riding and deer hunting there. LBL recommends horseback riders wear orange but very few of them do. They don't stick to the horse trails either, like they are supposed to. There is an area around Wranglers Campground that is no gun hunting but these horse people go all over. That's the reason I stopped hunting area 10. But I'm not complaining, if that's their thing, go for it. There are other places up there I can hunt.

I'm glad your buds are looking forward to it. I hope they have a great time. And kill some! I've been hunting LBL since back in the late 80's and we've had a ball up there for sure. Quota hunts, bow hunts, & youth hunts. I took both my sons for many years up there.

Don't discount the field edges either, play it by ear. Since the tag change there may not be the amount of people up there as in the past. A lot of people are pissed that it's not a bonus tag anymore. And I think the applications were down for this year. I personally wouldn't hunt the field edges but if there was no one around I might be on a ridge close by. If yall need any help, just holler. We'll be up there that weekend too.

[Tufrthnails]

I didn't realize we were gonna be contending with horses thanks for the heads up. Can't believe anyone would be crazy enough to ride a horse in the woods during a 2 day gun season. Or that it would even be open to them to do so. In Florida most public places have designated areas for that kind of stuff during hunting season.

I got a full page of stuff to contact LBL about as far as regs and common courtesies.

Yea there is no segregation between horseback riding and deer hunting there. LBL recommends horseback riders wear orange but very few of them do. They don't stick to the horse trails either, like they are supposed to. There is an area around Wranglers Campground that is no gun hunting but these horse people go all over. That's the reason I stopped hunting area 10. But I'm not complaining, if that's their thing, go for it. There are other places up there I can hunt.

I'm glad your buds are looking forward to it. I hope they have a great time. And kill some! I've been hunting LBL since back in the late 80's and we've had a ball up there for sure. Quota hunts, bow hunts, & youth hunts. I took both my sons for many years up there.

Don't discount the field edges either, play it by ear. Since the tag change there may not be the amount of people up there as in the past. A lot of people are pissed that it's not a bonus tag anymore. And I think the applications were down for this year. I personally wouldn't hunt the field edges but if there was no one around I might be on a ridge close by. If yall need any help, just holler. We'll be up there that weekend too.

Sounds good southern. We are at cabin 3 at wranglers swing by if you knock a stud down or just want wet your whistle.