big woods beds

[Rob loper]

lets hear some stuff on how everyone tackles big woods pieces that are flat not much topography
pieces of timber that are 2,000-3000 acres and up where does one start what one looks for cyber scouting before putting boots on the ground whats the best to key in on when locating buck beds
i have had pretty good luck this year scouting big woods especially after big burner and jhand helped me alot ive got some good spots for next year
id like to hear a few more things that guys key in on and look for especially cyber scouting these areas

[rhaggs1616]

I don't have the most experience hunting big woods. But do have a cabin in PA surrounded by +/- 60,000 Acres in the endless mountains (big mountains of mostly timber). I try my best to break it down into pockets of focus, learn those areas and then learn a new area of focus. One area might be to focus on one big ridge, one big marsh, one big clearcut, or a big area of mixed cover, etc. Usually looking for an an area of transitional habitat, or a ridge that looks good for bedding/ cruising. I think one of the main factors is not to look at 1,000 or 2,000 acres, narrow it down based of initial instincts of a good 100-300 acres then move on, break it up. Hope that helps and best of luck.

[rhaggs1616]

My apology, I totally overlooked the fact you said flat habitat. But yet again would rely on transitional, swamp, creeks, any knobs, brushy cover, etc.

[rfickes87]

Couldn't go wrong by looking at aerials. Look for a tree canopy transition of mature big timber to something dense and thick. Then go walk that transition. Let the deer sign guide you from there.

[brancher147]

There is not an inch of flat ground in big woods where I hunt other than crop fields which is all night time movement. Sometimes my knees wish there was some more flat ground... I would think you would look for thickets, habitat/terrain changes or combinations, transitions, clearcuts, or any slight change in topography. Or wait for snow or hard rain and track some deer, or follow deer sign back to bedding.

[tbunao]

With Bigburner and Jhand helping I’d say you pretty much have a handle on it. I would suggest google earth timeline. If the area has winter photos look for the darkest locations. Those areas will be thick. If it’s thick in the winter you can bet you’ll have to channel your inner Apocalypse Now to penetrate the area during green up.

[KLEMZ]

lets hear some stuff on how everyone tackles big woods pieces that are flat not much topography
pieces of timber that are 2,000-3000 acres and up where does one start what one looks for cyber scouting before putting boots on the ground whats the best to key in on when locating buck beds

Big woods areas like you describe require both the elevation info and the vegetation density info to be combined, in order to make any sense out of finding bedding by cyber scouting. Happily, the bucks have the same tendancies bedding in flat big woods as they do anywhere else. You will find them on subtle points that project into escape terrain, with thicker cover to back.

Unfortunately, lots of big woods areas are more remote and don't offer lots of available choices in aerial photos. It is critical to find views without leaf cover in order to read vegetation thickness. Google Earth usually falls short here.. two sources I know of that will usually have "no foliage" photos are the county GIS site where you hunt,(which is common knowledge). Also, there is a website https://www.terraserver.com/

Use the viewer in terra server to see multiple dates of satellite pictures, many taken with snow cover. You will need to do the free login in order to use it. You don't buy anything, you just navigate with the viewer to get clues. They usualy have very current pictures.

For elevation info, the best easy to read topos are from caltopo. Select USGS 7.5 as your base layer. then, select "normal" in shaded relief under the additional map layers. slide the transparency slider to 50% and the topo becomes much more 3D and easy to understand. You can then save the improved topo as a KMZ map ( in caltopo) and open it up in Google earth. This allows you to see the improved topo over multiple years of aerials in GE.

The ultimate for understanding minute elevation detail is using Lidar Hill Shade maps over aerial photos. Availability of these maps is still spotty but increasingly common all the time. One big woods area I hunt has lidar available on the county GIS site. By taking screen shots and layering them over Google Earth I have been astounded how the mature buck bedding I know of in that county line up with subtle elevations that were not even on the caltopo elevation maps. There is a beast member that once offered his map making services for a fair price which took advantage of Lidar elevation...his name is Bobbo I think?

[Rob loper]

Great stuff bro thnks for sharing this stuff

[headgear]

If there are swamps, beaver dams, rivers or other wet areas I would start with those areas and work the transitions. In areas without water or hills check out the areas of extremely thick cover or places that have a mess of blow downs. Any other open areas or transitions with a view or those overlooked areas close to the road or parking.