Plan for Next Year

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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cspot
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Plan for Next Year

Unread postby cspot » Tue Dec 25, 2018 1:09 pm

New Member here and wanted to post my scouting plan for next hunting season. Born and raised in PA farm country, but 2.5 years ago we bought a small piece of ground in SE Ohio. The ground in SE Ohio is more big mature woods with steep hills and very little agriculture. My PA hunting has been pretty good, but my Ohio hunting experience has not been as good although I have had some success. Been raised hunting in farm country it is taking a little while to figure out these big woods deer. Building a cabin down there for the last 2 years has also hindered my scouting efforts. What I have found in the 3 years of hunting down there is that deer down there are far more sensitive to human intrusion. In PA I can bump deer and it doesn't seem to affect their daily routine that much. Down there it can take a while for them to go back to their routine. Also compared to where I hunt in PA the deer population is definitely lower so seeing less deer is a reality.

I have a couple of good spots to hunt, but I have been overhunting our own property instead of hunting on the public ground. Part of this is lack of time to scout and also the "I bought some property so to justify the money, I want to kill the deer on that property". That may sound silly but I know it is a part of the reason. So finding more places down by camp is my top priority as I want to find a minimum of at least 6 more "good spots". We hunt some weekends and I also take a week off during the rut to hunt. I figure this will allow us a hunt or 2 in early season and then I can hunt each location 1 day during my week off.
I had found 20 locations that I wanted to check on public ground based upon the topo maps. In addition to topography, I looked for places that wouldn't be easy to get to (ie no road on ridge for easy access, no hiking trails close by, etc). The public ground down there gets alot of pressure especially during the November rut hunting but the locations are somewhat predictable for most of the hunters. My focus is saddles on ridges although that is not a definite requirement. My reasons for this is saddles are good for movement and on top of the hill the winds are usually consistent or at least better than side hills or valleys. With the steep terrain the deep cut hollows that run up to the saddle help funnel the deer there. I am also looking for saddles that have benches that are running at about 1/3 of the way down the hill and empty into the saddle especially on the most likely leeward side. Then the saddle must have bedding close and preferably not be that wide that I can cover at least most of it with the bow. I know that this may seem picky, but I have alot of public ground around me, so I feel that I can be a little picky in trying to find the best spots. I am also checking out some spots that I like based upon topo and some places that border private that does have some agriculture. Now when I say 20 locations this isn't 20 totally different areas. Some of these long ridges have 4 or 5 saddles within a mile. My son can also hunt next year by himself, so I hope to also find a couple of spots with somewhat close stand locations so that we can split up but still be somewhat close.

Out of the 20 spots in the last month my son and I have checked out about 15 of them. Some were doing the gun season and some we checked out squirrel hunting. Out of the 15, we found 3 spots that have alot of sign or at least good sign for the big woods and had the other requirements. I have realized that I needed to do more cyberscouting, so I have found another 7 places that I want to check out for a total of 12 that we still need to walk. In addition the 3 spots that we found I want to go back later this winter to look closer at bedding and picking stand locations. We were hunting, so we didn't really walk and scouted them like I would have liked. We were more moving trying to get on deer than scouting.

PS. Last part of my plan is to get in better shape physically so that I can pack a climber and equipment into some of these areas. The terrain down there is very steep and rugged. I need to drop 30-40 pounds and get in better shape. This may prove to be one of the more difficult parts. LOL.


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wolverinebuckman
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Re: Plan for Next Year

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Thu Dec 27, 2018 2:37 am

Welcome! It sounds like you have a good plan already set for scouting this season. Good luck with it! Lots of useful information here on the Beast, so dig around.
Check out the thread titled "taking the keto plunge" here on the Beast, several of us have been on the keto diet this past year with very good results!
Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.
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cspot
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Re: Plan for Next Year

Unread postby cspot » Thu Dec 27, 2018 10:52 am

Thanks. We will see how the plan works out. Most of the time it doesn't go according to plan. :lol:

I will have to check out the Keto.
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Re: Plan for Next Year

Unread postby creepingdeth » Tue Jan 01, 2019 6:01 pm

Boots on the ground is never a bad thing. I know we are wired differently and some have more natural hunting talent than others. That being said, I really think time scouting for me, takes 3-4 yrs. to get comfy and figure cyber scouted areas out. I wish it would come faster, but, for me it isn't :shock: .It takes time...good luck
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cspot
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Re: Plan for Next Year

Unread postby cspot » Wed Jan 02, 2019 3:32 am

creepingdeth wrote:Boots on the ground is never a bad thing. I know we are wired differently and some have more natural hunting talent than others. That being said, I really think time scouting for me, takes 3-4 yrs. to get comfy and figure cyber scouted areas out. I wish it would come faster, but, for me it isn't :shock: .It takes time...good luck


Thanks.


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