First swamp "hunt" kicked my but

[kripp53]

So I scouted a piece of public swamp this spring (first time ever scouting in the spring). I found some good sign but knew it would be difficult to hunt due to the thick brush and lack of good trees. I marked some trails on my gps and the rest was stored in the old memory bank. I have been looking at the property with aerial maps the past month or so trying to find a good plan of attack. I found one bed in the spring (pretty much right where Dan said it should be) but i decided to go out today to a spot I only cyber scouted.

This was going to be my first beast style hunt in the swamp. I packed up my new treestand and sticks. I bungeed my pack and boots to the stand and wore my hip waders. I decided to approach from the west side due to the NW wind, i knew it was going to be brushy but I thought I could push through it. Boy was I wrong! It was so thick and nasty I was on my hands and knees trying to get through everything. My stand was catching on every branch. I think I tripped on every downed log and fell into every mud hole. And that was only the first 50 yards. Not only was it taking forever but I sounded like a bulldozer. I decided to back out and try another spot on the property. Again no dice. Nothing looked familiar and I couldn't find a tree to set up my treestand. I stumbled on some fresh doe beds (this time I put it in the gps). With only 30 minutes of shooting light left i decided to back out and head to the truck (since i probably scared every known creature out of the swamp). When i got to the truck guess what, yup one of my boots were gone!

So I tried to retrace my steps to no avail. Half hour later I was back at the truck with no boot. But as they say a bad day hunting is a good day scouting. I decided to drive around the property and glass for deer. I found a couple new potential spots while driving around.

I learned a few things from this trip;
1. The swamp will not look the same come fall/summer as it did in the spring
2. Scout more in the spring
3. I need to not only mark beds and trails on my gps, but pick out trees that would be good to hang a stand and mark those as well
4. Plan entrance and exit routes! This is easy to do in farm country but I need to do some more figurin' in the swamp
5. Scout more in the spring
6. You can't hunt all locations in a swamp, I should stick to the transition lines and not a spot in the middle
7. Why didn't I just hunt the bed I scouted in the spring?
8. I need to take notes during/after scouting and hunting

I never got more than 50 yards into the swamp during my hunt. Is this typical, it just seemed to difficult and noisy to get farther in. I was wondering how others hunt a swamp and if you sneak in or just bust brush hoping you don't scare anything?

[Jackson Marsh]

Some properties can be almost impossible to hunt but if your property is that much of a pain to hunt I would think that it holds mature bucks and would find a way to hunt it.

The first few hunts of the year in tough terrain is always a bit of a shock to the system..... keep at it. Spots like yours you will need to mark entrance and exit routes on your gps as well as the actual kill tree and beds. It's supposed to be hard, otherwise everyone would do it

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[warhog23]

Welcome my child, welcome!!

If u do it this way my man then EVERY detail counts. I havent been a member here for years like some but i have hunted hard and as wisely as i can, and this beast style is what my whole hunting career was and didnt even know other people did it this way. When i heard Dan talk about how Andréa would run through his area at night to try to keep deer from being nocturnal i wish i couldve called my dad up in the pearly gates just to tell him i wasnt THAT crazy. Now granted i might not be that old as im 23 and some might have just discredited all that i just said but i still have 11 years of hunting and some good bucks as well as friends and familys bucks ive put them on to show my worth.

Now my reasoning to saying this is that ive been another state with no phone service, half lost in the dark bc i couldnt find my tree, truck ended up getting stuck in a ditch afterwards (i did get it out thou with redneck skills) and ill tell u what i thought i was the dumbest hunter in the woods bc i never did get to my tree before daylight and dag gone if i wouldve seen even 1 1/2 year old spike i would've let him have it i swear lol. But what a day like that taught me is i needed to be better prepared and if i wanted to be successful i just have to keep going

I wouldnt trade that day in the woods for almost anything

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[Dewey]

Some properties can be almost impossible to hunt but if your property is that much of a pain to hunt I would think that it holds mature bucks and would find a way to hunt it.

The first few hunts of the year in tough terrain is always a bit of a shock to the system..... keep at it. Spots like yours you will need to mark entrance and exit routes on your gps as well as the actual kill tree and beds. It's supposed to be hard, otherwise everyone would do it

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Couldn't agree more.

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[matt1336]

Those "hunts" happen. Especially when your on new ground. I talk from experience.

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[gogebicbuckslayer]

I use waders, i crawl, i canoe to get to areas others are to lazy or just dont care to go. The more uncomfortable it is to et to a spot here in mi usually the better it is

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[hunter10]

I remember my first time using my lone wolf sticks and stand in the woods. Guarantee every deer ran for the hills when I started setting up

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[Lockdown]

Some properties can be almost impossible to hunt but if your property is that much of a pain to hunt I would think that it holds mature bucks and would find a way to hunt it.

The first few hunts of the year in tough terrain is always a bit of a shock to the system..... keep at it. Spots like yours you will need to mark entrance and exit routes on your gps as well as the actual kill tree and beds. It's supposed to be hard, otherwise everyone would do it

[ Post made via Android ]

Couldn't agree more.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Yep! I learned the hard way my 2nd season. I paid a lot more attention this spring and still almost bailed on my opening day hunt. Access is so crucial. You can have the best bed located and perfect tree picked out, but if you can't get there quiet it will be a glorious waste of time.

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[headgear]

If you haven't been turned back by a swamp you have tried, they will get the better of you plenty of times. Early season is always the worse, terribly thick and you can't see where you are stepping half the time. Keep after it, the worse it is the more the bucks will want to be there, off season scouting and access routes are key. Swamps are the most fun when the snow melts and the ground/water are still frozen, you can cruise through them in no time.

You will also need to get you legs in swamp shape, 200 yards of bog or muck or cattails is not the same as 200 on the high ground. Not as bad as a steep hill but close.

[MentatArcher]

Good effort, dude! I am in a similar situation with basically new turf this year. What has been suggested by many hunters here and what I was going to try was to do an observation sit or two to try confirm what's there and what the patterns/timing are. If there are no trees around, maybe you can just sit in a ladder and get up a bit. Once you saw something, then maybe during the day/with just a pair of snips maybe you could get some kind of access improvement happening.

Some guys are able to slow it down enough to make it quiet or clean up a route ahead of time. During a heavy rain/big weather front maybe you can bust in there and address problem spots.

[kripp53]

Thanks guys. I did quite a bit of deer sign in there. I also saw an old shotgun shell here and there, so I know people must be driving it during the gun season. With a couple different blocks of hard woods on the other side of the property I don't think there are a lot of bowhunters here (and I can see why!). This will go on my list to scout this coming spring/winter. I'm all about hard work but I want to be smart about it too

[mheichelbech]

Just imagine trying to get out in the dark! Before gps and all that I've ended up a mile from truck trying to get through briars, etc.

In areas like that I search for perimeter entry/exit. Also as had been talked about before, if you can cut your own trails, the deer will use them in areas like that. In one area, I used a substantial amount of roundup in spring/early summer to do just that. Needs to be done in a covert way so others don't find it....I went about 25 yards in and slashed, trimmed, chainsawed and sprayed a trail that wouldn't grow back by the time opening day arrived. Worked out quite well. Obviously on public land it could be different circumstances.

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[PK_]

Yea. I like to save those blind swamp hunts for gun season. I will slip through and still-hunt it. Much easier to crawl and slither through brush with just a gun vs a stand/sticks/bow.

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[headgear]

After a few swamp adventures you get better at it, find better access routes, know what places are safe to walk and other places that want to steal your boots. In a lot of cases I take the long/slow way in and stay quiet as possible, then on the way out take the speed route and make a ton of noise unless I need to come back the next night. Sometimes that first 20-40 yards is the worst and deepest and once you get away from the edges you can find better ground. I'm sure some geologist will have a reason why but I seem to fall in close to high land or islands the most.

[Stanley]

The thing about hunting when your young; you can do things you won't be able to do 40 years from now. Trust me. GPS is a great tool for almost any hard to hunt terrain. Stay in physical shape, and keep doing what your doing 20 years from now you'll look back and see how much you've learned.