Informative day scouting yesterday, in more ways than one

[TravisB]

Well, for a day I almost skipped out on scouting, yesterday turned out to be a good one. I started out heading to a spot I’d already scouted. I wanted to clear out some dead limbs around the base of a tree I’m going to have to use to hunt a bedding area. I got there and took care of that, and decided to take another look from one of the beds to make sure I could get in my tree without being spotted. I found this bed last trip. All the rains have the water up, so he actually moved up a little higher to get out of the wet ground. The first pic is the original bed. I stuck a stick in the bed to show the original location.

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The second pic shows how close the water had gotten to the original bed.

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The third and fourth pics are the new bed up higher next to the tree.

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The last pic you can see hair in the hood print.

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[TravisB]

There is an island out in the cattails about 50 yards from this bed, with another bed on it. It is undoubtedly underwater now. The closest big trees in this pic across the cattails are where that bed is located.

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This is a buck I killed this last season about 10 yards from where I was standing taking that last picture.

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I shot him in the afternoon, about thirty minutes before dark. He didn’t come from those beds, but from further down the mainland. The next morning, about 15 minutes before daylight, I heard one walking through the cattails out to the island bed.

[TravisB]

Next I went to scout out a spot I hunted blind and saw a nice 4 point with good potential a few days later. Found one that was probably shot and never found. Second one I’ve found in this area scouting this year.

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[backstraps]

Good stuff It always make a fun day when it’s productive. Especially those days when we almost skip out and do something different. Good luck this fall, hope you tag another dandy buck from there

[TravisB]

After I found the deadhead, I was walking the road back to the truck. I had seen a sign that the state had a trapping operation going on, and heard the guy checking traps drive by on the road. I walked by one of the traps by the road, and decided to go back and take pic for the of it. As soon as I started back, four does blew out about twenty yards away. They had lain there and let the guy checking traps drive by, and me walk by, but as soon as I started back they split. They were bedded next to a small waterhole by the road. This first pic is the trap, and the trees behind it are in the waterhole.

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This is a pic of one of the beds. You can see the hair in it.

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This is looking back at the road from the bed. The road is twenty yards from here.

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This looking at the water from the bed. The wind was blowing from the road across the water.

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[TravisB]

I talked to the guy checking traps, and they’re trapping turkey and quail nest predators. It’s a three week program. I didn’t ask how many, but he said they’ve caught everything from armadillos to coyotes. They have live traps and leg traps out.

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[greenhorndave]

Some awesome stuff there Travis!