Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all beasts

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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dbltmn
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Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all beasts

Unread postby dbltmn » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:10 am

Wow I have been turned on to this site from another hunting site, and I must say you guys are all 100 per cent more helpful than the other forums Ive been to. I have read hundreds of topics and not once have I seen anyone bicker, argue (respectfully disagree though), belittle or chastize each other. This is a fantastic site and I am thrilled to have found it.

I am 38 years old and decided this year (along with my girl) to start bow hunting. I have been a 9 day hunter of Wi gun season for my entire life and have had very limited success. Practicing the old walk in the woods twice before gun season, look for some rubs, throw a pile of logs up to create a blind and wait for something to happen just isnt doing it for me any more.

Well I hunted very hard this fall. 12ish weekends in a row now including every weekend of bow and 7 days of gun, one day muzzle loading and back at it with the bow soon. I am still having limited "success" though I am hooked on bow hunting as I have seen more deer and some totally cool things in the woods to turn me ON about all the things that made me a hunter in the first place.

So I have just ordered Dan's Hill country DVD and cannot wait to get it. I have read hundreds of posts and have hunted this area for 25 years only to shoot one big buck when I was 16 yrs old. I know the area has a few mature bucks because over the years I have seen the sign and some nice ones come out of here.

I am hopeful that Hill country will help me to understand some of the ways you guys pick deer bedding locations based on Topo maps. For now I would like to try and ask for some advice. I am going to put topo and arial of where I hunt and ask for some input on my area. Deer locations, bedding, feeding ect.

In years past it seems to me as if I have not figured out anything about the area except that there are deer and they seldom walk past me. (I did smoke in my deer stand for many years and have given that up as I know that has reduced my chances of seeing deer by a thousand per cent. But now I am getting more serious about hunting and my health and would like to have some more encounters with deer while I am in the woods.

Once again you guys are true sportsmen and I am looking forward to being a part of such a "stand up" community of gentlemen (and lady) hunters.

What I havent found in my 25+ years of hunting the hills hills and swamps of Oconto county is a pattern to which I am reading about typical bedding, thermal tunnels ect. Can someone point me to another forum or article on this site which puts some of the pieces together. I cant wait to watch the DVD, but would also like to understand more about deer home areas, bedding, thermals, swamp bedding, and feeding habits. Any good reading I can get my hands on would be appreciated. I can sum it up by saying after 25 years of "hunting" I feel like I know nothing about deer. That changes this year.


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Mountain Man
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby Mountain Man » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:17 am

dbltmn wrote:What I havent found in my 25+ years of hunting the hills hills and swamps of Oconto county is a pattern to which I am reading about typical bedding, thermal tunnels ect. Can someone point me to another forum or article on this site which puts some of the pieces together. I cant wait to watch the DVD, but would also like to understand more about deer home areas, bedding, thermals, swamp bedding, and feeding habits. Any good reading I can get my hands on would be appreciated. I can sum it up by saying after 25 years of "hunting" I feel like I know nothing about deer. That changes this year.


Welcome to the Beast!

Thermals and bedding are covered in Hill Country. You should also get the marsh bucks video. That will also discuss bedding and help with some of your swamp hunting. Both videos are excellent and after watching those along with this forum you will start putting more of the pieces together.
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby headgear » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:24 am

Welcome dbltmn! I am a bigwoods hunter myself, I 2nd Mountain Mans post of picking up Marsh bucks too. A lot of the bigwoods areas I hunt feature both hill and marsh bedding characteristics. I really advise anywhere to watch both videos even if you don't hunt anywhere near the hills or swamps, there is just too much valuable info in both to make it well worth your time.
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby cornfedkiller » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:32 am

Welcome to the site! As MM mentioned, alot of what you need/want to know is covered in the videos, and even if you do not hunt marsh, that video will do you very good as well. The videos go over things that would take forever to type out here and would be much more confusing to read than watch on a video.

With that being said, there are a couple threads that come to mind when you ask about better information..

Here are a couple that I could dig up to get ya started..

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3677

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2951&start=0
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headgear
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby headgear » Fri Dec 09, 2011 6:33 am

Also one other quick thought, since you are a rookie bowhunter I would advise not going after the big boys right away until you get a few kills under your belt. It really helps to gain some of that valuable experience.

Whenever you get around to posting any topos/aerial I am sure many of us would be happy to take a look at them.
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dbltmn
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby dbltmn » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:26 am

I am working on getting topos loaded into documents, and then reading about how to load on this site.

LMAO about "worrying about going after the big boys". I shook so bad the first time I drew back on a doe this fall I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Ive never had a deer 12 yards from me before unless it was in the back yard at midnight, or I hit it with a car.

My goals are to learn deer habitats, scout better, practice shooting year round, and give myself the honest chance to put a doe in freezer every year. As far as my buck expectations.... Im torn. I think that at this point in my archery career I'd be thrilled with a small buck, but I also hunt an area where there are not tons of deer and I may try to stay more along the lines of one doe and IF I happen to find myself face to face with a buck that "I" would consider a trophy, go for it. I do however treasure every deer I have been lucky enough to take. Ther have been some lean years for me. I once went 9 years of gun seasons without a single deer. (That was before I branched off from a hunting camp that was completely against shooting does). I would never consider myself a slob hunter. I do believe there is a good enough deer herd for all hunters who put in their time to go home with venison at some point in the year, but for me, 1-2 per year is plenty, and much more than that (in my area) is over harvest.

Thanks for the help. Cant wait to get back out in the woods.
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby Black Squirrel » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:33 am

Welcome dbltmn! I'm sure you'll like it here. 8-)
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby Stanley » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:49 am

Welcome to the Beast.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby BackWoodsHunter » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:49 am

Black Squirrel wrote:Welcome dbltmn! I'm sure you'll like it here. 8-)



X2

I'd also recommend marsh bucks. I hunt bigwoods as well and find the bedding to be less consistent and more spread out than featured in the videos HOWEVER they totally open your eyes to what to look for about deer behavior and bedding and definitely give a guy the motivation to get out scouting even when the amount of land available seems overwhelming. If you can find any reads on transition edges on here that has been a big help for me hunting big woods. I'm not sure what the food sources near you are like but I have had good luck locating bedding relatively close to clear cuts and setting up somewhere in between. Lots to learn on this site, unfortunately being hunting season there are a lot of kill posts and excited posts related to one or two particular hunts but if you dig back a few pages in the deer hunting forum there is a TON of good info to be had.
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby dreaming bucks » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:00 am

Welcome to the beast, easily best hunting website I have ever visited.... you will love the hill country video, but yes, I recommend the marsh video as well. I have never hunted marsh before, but I learned a lot on that video that I can apply to my hill country hunting.... also, I would suggest going way back to some of the beginning pages of scounting on this forum, lots of great stuff covered there...

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dbltmn
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby dbltmn » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:35 am

OK here's a few questions I cannot seem to find an explanation of. Alot of guys post topos and some of you help out with bedding area locations. Can you tell me based purely on the topography, what specifically are you looking for? Also thie 1/3 rule you speak of, Is this that deer wil typically bed about 1/3 of the way down from the highest point of a ridge top?
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby BigHunt » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:40 am

dbltmn wrote:OK here's a few questions I cannot seem to find an explanation of. Alot of guys post topos and some of you help out with bedding area locations. Can you tell me based purely on the topography, what specifically are you looking for? Also thie 1/3 rule you speak of, Is this that deer wil typically bed about 1/3 of the way down from the highest point of a ridge top?



yes after a wile looking at topomaps yuo will get good at pin pointing bedding


1/3 elevation just over the top the points sometimes on top of the points ..but mostly over the edge ...bucks like it with it open in the front with back cover ....does like thick all around
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby BigHunt » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:47 am

dbltmn wrote:OK here's a few questions I cannot seem to find an explanation of. Alot of guys post topos and some of you help out with bedding area locations. Can you tell me based purely on the topography, what specifically are you looking for? Also thie 1/3 rule you speak of, Is this that deer wil typically bed about 1/3 of the way down from the highest point of a ridge top?



what i look for is sharp steep points
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby BigHunt » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:50 am

do you have a map to show us......this would help out alot for you to understand better
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Re: Public land-big woods- please help- And: Kudos to all be

Unread postby dbltmn » Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:57 am

I have been trying for 2 hours to figure out how to post images. It seems a little more involved than most forums.


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