Out of town advice

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Indianahunter
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Out of town advice

Unread postby Indianahunter » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:28 am

I really would like to start hunting some public land. How do you guys approach a large parcel that you can't get to often enough to scout out a particular buck. I know from the Hill Country you pick likely bedding areas based on Topo information, but that seems kind of like a stab in the dark. Your ideas and knowledge are really appreciated.


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magicman54494
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby magicman54494 » Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:23 am

I would suggest at least one scouting trip before you hunt it. I use the internet to find public lands and make a lot of phone calls to natural resources departments. I will admit that it's tough to get info over the phone. After finding areas start looking at topos and aerial photos and pick likely spots to scout. I don't know if it's well advised but I look at the first hunt as a throw away hunt. I take chances while scouting and get right in to areas without worry of ruining the spot. I believe that if the area is good I will be coming back again someday and want to learn as much as I can in a limited time. Hunting is a building process so I try to cut down the years it takes to learn the area. On return trips I try to scout new areas while hunting the areas I scouted and hunted in the past.
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:43 am

Good advice from Magic, it takes me a few years to get a "comfortable" grip on new hunting areas. A lot of my recommendation would depend on the time of year you are going, what type of terrain it is- hill country / flat land swamps / wilderness etc.

A very abridged version: for rut hunts I check a lot of possible funnels for buck sign, sometimes for days before actually hunting, and then set up based on my best bet and conditions. Example- on public land in Ontario I found a funnel created by a sheer bluff that butted up against a beaver dam / pond that had an outlet with a very short run to a large lake. The top of the bluff had a clearcut, and the beaver pond had food/cover/bedding potential and water. A saddle in the bluff created another funnel dumping into this one spot, a four-way funnel. I spot checked it and found good looking rubs / scrapes and tracks that were fresh. I hunted it one time for three hours and shot a public nine point.

Outside of the rut, I look for combinations of food and water in close proximity- usually there's already plenty of cover. For example, a river or creek that is near a clearcut already has food / water / cover for the deer. If you find a crossing on the river or creek near the food source, you can put a funnel into play outside of the rut. A lot of times deer will show up to water at these crossings throughout the day.

These are some pretty basic examples based not really knowing much about where you are headed. Hope it helps a little!
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby dan » Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:45 am

I agree that every time you hunt an area you go in a little smarter than the last time. But there is no reason you can't kill bucks 1st time on a new property. I wander around a lot. For me, I get bored of hunting the same old areas and love the challenge of figuring out a new spot. I am sure its more productive to hunt the same areas year after year. Just not as fun and challenging and I am hunting to have fun.
I am not advocating everybody hunt like that, just stating my way.
I have pretty good results on new properties. I believe scouting 4X more than you hunt is a good formula. Scouting trip at this time of the year after studying aerials and topo's works great. I think the biggest thing holding you back is confidence.
You have to dive in. The spring scouting trips work in an unexpected way too...
They build that confidence and confirm that what you were seeing on the topo or aerial is real. The more you do it, the better you will get. After a while hunting / scouting this way, it will be easy for you to look at some maps and hunt a property based on solely the map without ever walking the property and still have decent results. Especially during rut trips.
If your really unsure about scouting with a map, post it or any map in the land management forum and we can pick it apart as a group and talk about how we would go about hunting it...
I think Hill country is bt far the easiest to pick apart with a map, then marshs that have large cattail expanses, then farms. Once you get into large expanses of the same type of cover it stats getting harder to map out. Like swamps, big woods,etc...
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby GRUD » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:44 pm

Indiana can be tough when it comes to public, most of the public is down south. You can still find some good spots if you scout now. I have found a couple public spots that I have never seen a hunter on. One piece in particular I had 46 deer walk within 20 yards one hunt, including 6 bucks! Get out your platt books and topos. I look for areas that have no parking and or very difficult access. One spot we found you can only access by water, and only if the water in high enough so we don't get to hunt it too often. Another we can only hunt if the water is low enough or you cannot cross the large creek. Dont overlook the small parcels either, some of the 10 and 20 acre spots noboby bothers with and can have prime habitat.
Another thing we like to do is go for a long walk during Muzzleloader season because you can scout and hunt at the same time.
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby Indianahunter » Sun Mar 14, 2010 6:05 pm

Cool thanks everyone I really appreciate it. I didn't mean to make the stab in the dark comment sound so negative. I guess my thing is that the place I am wanting to hunt is about a 2 1/2 hour drive just to get to it, not counting getting back to where I want to scout. If I can't get in to scout I am not sure how strong my confidence will be. I guess I will just apply what you guys are saying and learn all that I can each time I get in there. I can definitely see the fun in it if I can do it right, but I could see it sucking badly to trek back a mile and a half and end up in the dumbest spot on the property...lol. I am going for it though, "Gonna HUNT LIKE A BEAST"!!!!
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby Zap » Sun Mar 14, 2010 7:02 pm

A day or two spent scouting that property this spring might make the fall trips better.

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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby Spysar » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:23 pm

Indianahunter wrote:Cool thanks everyone I really appreciate it. I didn't mean to make the stab in the dark comment sound so negative. I guess my thing is that the place I am wanting to hunt is about a 2 1/2 hour drive just to get to it, not counting getting back to where I want to scout. If I can't get in to scout I am not sure how strong my confidence will be. I guess I will just apply what you guys are saying and learn all that I can each time I get in there. I can definitely see the fun in it if I can do it right, but I could see it sucking badly to trek back a mile and a half and end up in the dumbest spot on the property...lol. I am going for it though, "Gonna HUNT LIKE A BEAST"!!!!


Geeze, your out of town spot is only 2 1/2 hours away??? There's no excuse not to be able to go there at least once and scout it. My "out of town " spot is 21 hours away, lol.
A buck will see you three times, and hear you twice, but he's only gonna smell you once.
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Re: Out of town advice

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:53 pm

Indianahunter wrote:I am going for it though, "Gonna HUNT LIKE A BEAST"!!!!


Now we're talking, Inianahunter- Attitude is Everything!! Get after 'em and HUNT LIKE A BEAST :!:


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