3/14/10 I've been on 3 more scouting missions on heavy pressure public since my last post- covering a lot of ground. The first two were okay efforts, but I didn't find anything great except for one unbelievable funnel. Today, I got on to two different decent bucks. The first is a buck that consistently rubbed on 4-5 inch diameter popple trees, but the rubs were very smooth. I found multiple rublines, but he's a young buck- at least a 3 year old this coming fall. This area has tremendous hunting pressure, and finding a buck of this age class takes a lot of scouting. I found several of his beds, the primary bed is underneath a lone oak tree out in an expansive cattail marsh. There's only room for one deer to bed here, and he's got it wore right down to the dirt. He has X-factor escape routes with 6 different runways exiting the bed into the marsh. The little hump under the tree is surrounded by knee deep water and muck. Here's the bucks view toward the mainland, there's no tree that will hold a stand within 150 yards of the bed.
On the way back out I stepped onto a point that jutted out into a different marsh, over a mile away from the buck above. I had scouted in the marsh earlier in the day looking for bedding around the point but came up empty and moved on. On the mainland behind the point there is a very sandy woods road. When I got to my tracks on the road from earlier in the day, a lone buck track crossed the road heading away from the point- splayed and 4 fingers wide, walking tracks. BONUS!! I'm sure I bumped him out earlier in the day, I'm definitely going to have to look harder for potential bedding there.
Scouting 3/14/10
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
Good work Scott. I went out today, double checked an area I had found a couple weeks ago. He's using it alot, found a couple of his other beds today. Picked out my trees, so I should be ready to go this fall. I'm leaving it alone now. I checked another area of the marsh I had not been in and all I found were doe beds. I actually got to within 10 yards of this tiny area of thick brush, and kicked three does out of there. Now I got my spot to get my earn a buck tag. Overall a good day got alot more ground to cover. By the way my marsh was WET went over my boots three times. Had to stop and dump the water out.
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
way to keep after em Slider! We've gotten a lot of rain and everything is really high with water around here too. The day before yesterday, my hipboot broke through ice that was two feet below the surface and went down another couple of feet. Took a bridge dive into about 5 feet of water and muck behind me, with my boot stuck. Not the time to panic, I had to work to get my boot out- lots of fun, I try to swim in the swamps and marshes at least a couple of times a year ! Today I had knee high boots on in a completely different area and went over the tops twice.
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
Singing Bridge wrote: I try to swim in the swamps and marshes at least a couple of times a year !
We've gotten alot of rain too. This will be my first year diving into the marsh. How much will the water go down do you think after the snow all melts and the frost comes out of the ground?
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
It'll go down quite a bit, and keep going down gradually all summer unless we get unusually high amounts of rainfall. There's so much water right now, I had to work twice as hard as just a couple of weeks ago to get in and get out. It's definitely worth it now, seeing all the beds from last fall with the snow gone (some used on and off all year, some not) and all the ground scrapes and scrape lines are visible around here.
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
So whats your plan bridge because there is no tree close-by?
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
PredatorTC wrote:So whats your plan bridge because there is no tree close-by?
PTC, I plan on setting up on this buck in a number of ways. I’ll set up on the mainland where a heavily used exit trail approaches, and may hunt it at the end of October / early November. Bucks this age sometimes make a small mistake even with the high pressure. There is also a land bridge south of this bedding area ( I believe a main reason he sets up there) that is rather narrow with one good cow path of a runway going down it (a funnel) where I’m also planning on putting in a potential rut stand. He can quickly head over from this bed and scent check that run and it really gets used by the does. I also located a couple of other beds nearby that he uses on occasion, and will GPS stand sites there. He’s using the bed in the photo at least once in a while right now, with fresh dropping s and tracks around the bed. He only has one buck rub next to the bed.
A lot will depend on how my other stands for other bucks work out with timing and all, as I will be putting in an early season evening stand here as well. He has two main exits going west to the mainland- I’ll block one with brush here and there to make the one closest to my site preferable. About seventy yards out from the bed it approaches a thicket in the marsh, where I’m going to set up on the ground after building up a little spot with some dead wood, etc. I’ll be wearing a facemask with no eye holes in it, and yet I can see my sight and shoot my bow until dark. I’ve done this for years and am comfortable hunting on the ground.
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
I like your ground blind idea. I think it's going to be your best bet.
Scout, scout, scout, hunt
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
NatureBoy wrote:I like your ground blind idea. I think it's going to be your best bet.
On different hunts I've had a number of bucks hang up just inside the marsh until dark. The ground set up within 70 yards of his bed is the kind of thing it takes sometimes to have some success, especially on public land with a lot of hunters.
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Re: Scouting 3/14/10
Very interesting!! Thanks for sharing so I/we can learn
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