Cranberry/blueberry/peat bogs

[elk yinzer]

Obviously I see a lot on this site and Dan's youtube videos about swamp hunting. I can't say it is something I am the least bit familiar with.

In my part of the country, a lot of our swamps come in the form of acidic peat bogs. All I ever see in them is bear sign, but that is in the summer picking berries. A couple I've been curious about island and funnel features and plan to check out this fall. Does anyone hunt these brutal places for big bucks?

[Josh_S]

I hear ya, I scouted a few areas similar to what you described in Quehanna last year. Deer sign was there, just not much to get me really excited. I just wish I lived a little closer to make a few hunts. One particular area did peak my interest though....I may re-scout and hunt it in the future. Like you said, seems like a better place to go on a bear hunt.

[headgear]

Yep I hunt all kinds of bogs, couple of long drags through the bogs too, they sure work the legs. A lot of the bog can be too open for the deer to hang out there but if you find the thicker area surrounded by bog you will probably find some bedding. One buck I shot was bedding on a large island, a point of that island jutted out into the surrounding bog. Another one was a thicker bog near a river with some bush and islands so look for those different terrain features in and around a bog and you will find the bedding. Or a place where the bog meets up with thick cover, they are very similar to cattails or any other swamp, just some subtle differences.

[elk yinzer]

Yep I hunt all kinds of bogs, couple of long drags through the bogs too, they sure work the legs. A lot of the bog can be too open for the deer to hang out there but if you find the thicker area surrounded by bog you will probably find some bedding. One buck I shot was bedding on a large island, a point of that island jutted out into the surrounding bog. Another one was a thicker bog near a river with some bush and islands so look for those different terrain features in and around a bog and you will find the bedding. Or a place where the bog meets up with thick cover, they are very similar to cattails or any other swamp, just some subtle differences.

Thanks great info. I know what you mean, one I pick berries in actually has quicksand. I've been up to my chest in that stuff one step from dry land, it is nuts.

Do you have to deal with Rhodedendron thickets lining the perimeter? I've gotten trapped in those a few times too, about as nasty as it gets. But I imagine if you find funnels through it, that would be killer. Because the deer don't mess with rhody thickets.

[swampyak]

Had ok luck in some of them. A lot of time there is black spruce in them. Points are good. The years that there have good berry crops we find more sheds in the spring

[elk yinzer]

Bump to see if there are any more bog hunters out there.

[jhpa]

It is funny I came across this thread today. I just started thinking that finding some marshes to scout would, at the very least, provide good practice in the hunt for bedding. I am new to the beast style and have had some trouble locating and identifying primary buck bedding in the PA and WV hill country I scout. The posts on this thread are encouraging when I consider the types of wetlands within a feasible hunting trip.

I was just looking up swamps in PA to take a look at some aerials and almost all of them are acidic bogs, as you mention. I, too, was wondering if deer will be active in these areas in the same way. I recently checked a small bog with heavy, almost hedge-like brush (not sure what it was) and found no sign in the bog itself, but heavily worn trails surrounding the perimeter. It seems that majority of the 'swamps' in the areas I hunt are just wet hemlock groves within the hardwoods or bogs. Any additional advice for the hardwood swamps?

Are cranberry bogs a decent food source for deer?

[Josh_S]

Bump to see if there are any more bog hunters out there.

I took off work some days to hunt big woods in north central PA during rut. In early April I went up and scouted for a weekend. Once particular area I had on my "to scout list" is a boggy area on top of a plateau. The sign was definitely there and looks promising. Bumped some deer bedding along the edge. As jhpa said, most sign and bedding was along the edge, the interior of the bog just seemed too open and sign was minimal.

If I don't connect on one in early season I will most definitely get a couple hunts in this particular bog. Looks to be a good area to intercept cruisers along the edge.

[mauser06]

I hunted something similar in Michigan this past season.









I don't know the plants...maybe low bush blueberry...but not sure? It was mostly wet. Low brush and trees pretty much throughout with a very distinct edge where it was dry ground...


I didn't really scout it as it was rifle season when I came across it...1 side is a road...it's maybe 100-200yds wide and several hundred yards long. Off the top of my head I think it was like a mile long.

The interior side had a crazy worn parallel trail.

I did poke around 1 point and it definitely had a distinct trail going out into it I'm sure was bedding access.

Both sits there produced deer sightings. I am fairly sure I saw a shooter buck at one point. Very confident I saw a decent legal rack behind a blowdown...a few doe emerged and I never saw the buck...after further investigation...he could have easily been checking the does and they didn't want his company and he could have easily turned and slipped away without seeing him.


I had a spike cruising the edge. And the day I stumbled on it, I had a buck rubbing and scraping down the edge on the parallel trail. I was RIGHT behind him but never caught up and opted to sit half way in till dark opposed to burn the entire area..


Wish I could go back to scout and hunt it again. I can...but my free lodging...and reason for going up there is gone...so not sure I will ever go back... typing that is somewhat saddening because I loved the hunting and an to the point I am on the deer in several areas and habitats.

[jhpa]

I hunted something similar in Michigan this past season.

The second image looks very similar to the brush I encountered in the area I mentioned. The shrubs I came across didn't look like berry bramble, but was similarly thick. The area I checked, though, had no apparent trails entering the brush. But, as you mentioned, very distinct and worn perimeter trails on the interior of the hardwood/swamp edge.

[mauser06]

I walked the entire edge and there were only a couple trails going into it off a finger/point. I really think it may be too wet for bedding except in a few locations. Most of it didn't look wet till you stepped on it. Others had visible water.

They definitely use that transition though which makes me curious if there is more bedding than what I think. Probably a question I will never answer unless I do go back up there to hunt..and kinda doubt I ever will. I loved it. But the hunting wasn't good enough to warrant the expense..I can go elsewhere and see new ground..

[jhpa]

Same here. If I'm in the area for a rifle hunt, I'll give it an observation type sit. But, off of what I saw scouting, it doesn't warrant much more than that.

[Jonny]

I walked the entire edge and there were only a couple trails going into it off a finger/point. I really think it may be too wet for bedding except in a few locations. Most of it didn't look wet till you stepped on it. Others had visible water.

They definitely use that transition though which makes me curious if there is more bedding than what I think. Probably a question I will never answer unless I do go back up there to hunt..and kinda doubt I ever will. I loved it. But the hunting wasn't good enough to warrant the expense..I can go elsewhere and see new ground..

I see the same thing by me. Not much bedding and some sign. Find much better stuff towards more traditional swamps (tamarack, dogwood, brush swamps).

Cranberries are a good food source. I used to hunt by ocean spray bogs. Swear they put crack in that stuff for the deer. Things went crazy for it

[kdawg_901]

My brother works on a cranberry marsh and I'm going to scout the public land thats near it. Interested to see what it actually looks like when my boots are on the ground. Lots of little islands when I cyber scout it.

[headgear]

Do you have to deal with Rhodedendron thickets lining the perimeter? I've gotten trapped in those a few times too, about as nasty as it gets. But I imagine if you find funnels through it, that would be killer. Because the deer don't mess with rhody thickets.

No Rhodedendron up here but we have tag alder swamps that line a lot of swamps, one wrong step and they will try and steal your boots.