Should I Abandon This Hunt?

[Ognennyy]

This image shows a roughly 5 acre area, located on a SW to NE oriented spur with good benches on either side. Bucks are using this area for bedding, and abiding by standard "hill country" bedding tendencies.

"HDWDS" is a large hardwood stand. I don't think anything in there is having a bumper year, but I haven't walked all of it so can't be sure. "I" is impenetrably thick pine growth, the kind that if you bust through you have small pine branches in every crevice and crack imaginable afterward (yes, I did it earlier in September on accident). "M" is buck movement that I've observed by tracks through the bedding area. Naively I cut shooting lanes and prepped sets earlier this season at "BB-TREE-A" and "11 / BBVRFD2"

I have stand sets prepped at "BB-TREE-A" and "11 / BBVRFD2". I've attempted hunting "11 / BBVRFD2" twice now. Last night I tried to sit "12", and made so much noise on the way in that I wound up sitting on the ground instead of hanging my stand, for fear of being detected. Realizing how naive I was to prep a set at "BB-TREE-A" (right in the heart of this bedding area) I haven't even attempted hunting it.

I'm having a lot of difficulty accessing here. I think my stand sets are pretty much right in their bedrooms, and I shouldn't have placed them inside the bedding area. Each time I go in there I realize why the bucks choose to bed there; it's impossible to get within 120-150 yards without being detected.

There are spurs to the north and south running parallel to the direction of that on which the bucks are bedding here in the picture. Both flanking spurs are higher than the bedding area between them. If you come down either side, the leaf-crunching sound carries right into their bedding area. And although their bedroom is *extremely* thick and you can't really see into the bedding area to see them once you get to the bottom of either flanking spur, they've certainly heard me and see me each time I attempt to hunt here.

Tonight I thought to beat the ear-drum splitting crunchy leaves by approaching through a stream bottom, and get to "11 / BBVRFD2" where I have shooting lanes cut on a movement coordidor. There is an intermittent stream that runs from the NE at the road (thin white line in the upper right) to SW into the swamp beginning directly to the W of "11 / BBVRFD2". In spite of my ninja-mode approach (and I do mean ninja-mode.... sometimes pausing as much as a minute between steps, REALLY taking my time... took me 3 hours to go 500 yards) while checking out tracks crossing the stream at "LDSPUR-SAWBUCK" I sent a buck crashing off out of "13/VRFD", 75 yards to the south.

To the point.... I know bucks are bedded here. The area is not receiving any pressure besides my own. But perhaps I lack the experience and instinct to put together the pieces of this puzzle? The only other move I have I can think of is to get to the parking area by 2am, and move directly into "BB-TREE-A" as quietly as possible. I have a route memorized from "BB-TREE-A-RALLY" that I can get to "relatively" quietly, and from there I can move to my tree also "relatively" quietly. Pretty sure that in 3 hours time I can cover 400 yards from the road to the tree.

My only hang up: This is deep timber with large hardwood flats, "HDWDS" being an example of that. I don't know if they're feeding in there, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are. I'm worried that if I move in there at 2-3am along the transition between "HDWDS" and "I" that I will spook deer and ruin the hunt before it begins. Also I don't really have the intel to tell me how they're moving in / out of the bedding area.

In general it seems to me like this is very high risk, very low reward (I don't think there are any 32 point 600 pound slobs in there). Should I just abandon this hunt as something too technical for a second year self-taught hunter?

[Bigb]

My personal thoughts would be to set up at the transition line between the think pines and hardwoods. It seems like a great transition line. Hunt the downwind side of the thick pines when its blowing into the hardwoods and I think you will have luck. It seems like it should be an easy entrance/exit that way. This would be a hunt closer to the rut when the bucks are cruising a bit more. Just my thoughts. My personal best hunts are downwind of thick doe bedding areas.

[Ognennyy]

My personal thoughts would be to set up at the transition line between the think pines and hardwoods. It seems like a great transition line. Hunt the downwind side of the thick pines when its blowing into the hardwoods and I think you will have luck. It seems like it should be an easy entrance/exit that way. This would be a hunt closer to the rut when the bucks are cruising a bit more. Just my thoughts. My personal best hunts are downwind of thick doe bedding areas.

Thanks BigB, I hadn't really thought of that. Gun season starts here on October 22, so the area will be receiving pressure by then for sure. But this state forest is large, several thousands of acres. There are plenty of other (more isolated) areas with thick pine to hardwood transition like the one in the picture above where I can apply your strategy.

I have never once seen a bedded doe up here, or found recently used beds where it's obvious that does were laying down. So doe bedding has always been a mystery to me. Can you just assume does will be bedded in areas like "I"? I can't imagine deer wanting to walk through that. When I say "impenetrable" I mean the forest floor gets no light here, where young pines grew up so thick together that now all the branches down within 10' of the ground are tangled and dead.

[Ognennyy]

Something else just occurred to me, possibly a way I can beat them at their own game in this bedding area. But it hinges on this... I've heard Dan state before that frequently bucks will j-hook to enter bedding area from downwind, but they commonly leave on the same trail regardless of wind direction. But does this hold true when varying wind directions dictate bedding on different areas of a point? Or does each place a buck bed on a point have its own exit trail, even if it's only 30-40 yards away from where the buck would bed on the same point, on a different wind direction?

So reason I got busted last night was because I wanted to approach down through the stream bed so I could be quiet, and not crunch leaves. Buck saw me because he was bedded on that side of the spur / bench, due to the E / SE wind. But next time there is a N / NW wind I believe the bucks will bed 50-100 yards away, over on the other side of that same spur. I don't know if this is actually true, because this isn't really a point technically, but it feels to me like the same general principal would apply. Because even though it's on a large spur / bench, they gain the same advantage by moving around based on wind. And I've found beds on the other side as well.

If they're on the S side of the spur next time there is a N / NW wind, then I can move down that same stream bed without worrying about getting busted. Only question is; Assuming they're exiting the bedding area to the North in the first place (which I suspect, but have not verified), will they still exit the bedding area on the same trails even though they're bedded on the other side of the spur due to wind direction?