Glad to take a look...
I want to preface this by stating that it appears you have received excellent input already from other Beast members. I will approach it from a heavy pressure public land point of view and offer a little different perspective. Perhaps it would be something to consider during your gun season. As Ken alluded to, when the hordes of hunters are present it usually becomes necessary to acquire a different mindset and approach. For example, if this public property were in my neck of the woods it would be pounded. There is no area remote enough; accessed by boat or foot, to provide any real protection from swarms of hunters... this property is a piece of cake to access. There is very little offered to provide a buck enough protection to get him to his third birthday here in Mid-Michigan.
That being said, there are always areas on a property of this size worth scouting and or hunting. One of the first areas I would check is the small potholes of water visible on the aerial photo. If a small amount of thick cover surrounds these micro environments of water and muck, it may hold decent buck bedding. A barrier of this type may allow a buck to approach it with differing wind directions and allow him to take advantage of the location. Buck bedding locations are very important in high pressure areas, as very little daylight movement is common even during the rut periods.
Another consideration where I find high pressure buck bedding on a property of this type is the small floodplain thickets surrounding the inlet / outlet creeks around the lake. I marked several with orange circles.
I also noted several other potential locations that I would consider- small pockets of cover with what I call "X-Factor" bedding. Looking down on the aerial the buck's bed would be the middle of the X, with the arms representing cover to cover escape routes (these also act as bedding approaches depending on the wind direction). I penciled in one of these "X-Factor" areas on the west side of the lake. They are really hit or miss areas with heavy pressure, but worth checking out.
Congrats on locating a decent sized chunk of public land to compliment the hunting you have in place.
Bridge
Public Land Ideas
- Singing Bridge
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- kwaldeier
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Re: Public Land Ideas
Thanks A lot Bridge! There has been a ton of info put into this thread including your post As previously stated,I am unsure of the archery pressure or even the orange army pressure for that matter. Just something i will have to find out i guess.I will put your locations into my GPS along with the others and give them a through looking at
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Re: Public Land Ideas
Unless its a draw hunt where you get all or part of the property all to yourself with minimal pressure, just based on the aerials and topo, if you're looking for a buck hunt, I would probably look for another property. Singing bridge covered why.
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Re: Public Land Ideas
Buckfever wrote:Unless its a draw hunt where you get all or part of the property all to yourself with minimal pressure, just based on the aerials and topo, if you're looking for a buck hunt, I would probably look for another property. Singing bridge covered why.
I tend to agree... however Missouri is a different animal compared to WI, MI, MN as far as pressure is concerned... recent article in Deer n Deer Hunting discussing this very topic. MI and Eastern states avg 6+ bow hunters/per so many acres when Kansas/Iowa and a few select others avg 0.25/per so many acres... that is 25X the hunting pressure! Missouri was around 2/per X acres. Despite what I preceive as heavy hunting pressure in WI, I have found public spots that rarely receive any pressure at all except during gun season (+ I prefer to hunt land that has people moving deer during gun season so it is almost a bonus).
"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values, with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." Fred Bear
- kwaldeier
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Re: Public Land Ideas
Well i got around to digging and this place is archery only! That makes me a little happy but i still doubt that increases my chances enough to hunt it
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Re: Public Land Ideas
I think this property will have a good buck on it at some point during the season and is worth hunting. I would definitely hunt it during gun season too. Bucks WILL be pushed into it. I like different spots for different conditions depending on what is around the area. You should post one or two zoomed out aerials as the surrounding area can make a big difference in farm country. I think:
1) You should glass the surrounding public land right now to take inventory.
2) Scout people and mark what you find on a map.
3) There is a good chance the crops next to the area (like standing corn) will dictate where you hunt.
4) Look for areas with no trees for a stand. This may very well be where a mature buck is during daylight.
1) You should glass the surrounding public land right now to take inventory.
2) Scout people and mark what you find on a map.
3) There is a good chance the crops next to the area (like standing corn) will dictate where you hunt.
4) Look for areas with no trees for a stand. This may very well be where a mature buck is during daylight.
You cannot invade mainland America. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.
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- kwaldeier
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- kenn1320
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Re: Public Land Ideas
I tend to agree... however Missouri is a different animal compared to WI, MI, MN as far as pressure is concerned... recent article in Deer n Deer Hunting discussing this very topic. MI and Eastern states avg 6+ bow hunters/per so many acres when Kansas/Iowa and a few select others avg 0.25/per so many acres... that is 25X the hunting pressure!
The numbers can show high pressure in some areas and low in others. When I talk to people about KS (need to stop doing that. ) they think its easy hunting cause the numbers show little pressure. What many don't realize is that I have more woods on 80 acres in Mi then I have on 1800 acres in KS. It doesn't take much pressure on a river bottom to alert the deer to steer clear of the tree lines when your talking long narrow cover. While the deer have big open fields to go hide in out in KS, the deer in Mi will likely run into another hunter and get shot. So you get older deer in states like Ks, but it doesn't take many people to educate the deer in a hurry in places like that either.
Kwaldeier, did you go scout this place yet? How about the other places I mentioned?
Singing Bridge, great advice but its rare you will find the type of seclusion you mentioned in some of these other states. They simply don't have the same big woods or wetlands typical in northern Mi. I agree though, it wouldn't take but 3 or 4 bow hunters to push deer out of this area if they are your typical hunter. I would look at this spot a bit more knowing its bow only. I would focus around the first few days of gun season when your likely to have a mature buck head here for security. However if this were in Mi, there would be a line of guys on the boundary and walkers (without guns) would be pushing this thing several times during the season. Your also likely to get some pressure the first few days to a week of archery season, then many just give up. The deer will gravitate back to this spot once the pressure has dropped, or the surrounding cover(crops) have been harvested.
"Its about taking the right shot at the right time with good equipment." Dan Infalt
- kwaldeier
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Re: Public Land Ideas
I did a few hours ago...that is the map i got from scouting^ and here is a thread i started about it viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7556&p=78702#p78702
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