Hello all! This year I've decided to hunt public land here in PA, my question is when scouting, what should I be looking for? Besides the obvious deer paths/trails, what kind of vegetation should I be looking for to set a stand? and how do I use the terrain to my advantage? This game land is about 4 minutes from my house, so I can afford to spend a lot of time exploring early this year, but how much time is too much? I don't want to spook any deer out of the area I am setting up in.
Tip #1, for Pa games lands, don't hunt near any roads, parking areas, etc., unless you want to see more hunters than deer. Tip #2, Many game lands are not close to crops so I like to locate oaks (whites if I can) and apple trees. Then back trail to try and find their bedding areas.
Look for areas where branches have been pruned by deer. If you find an area with lots of deer crap you are either close to a feeding or bedding area.
Look for ridge tops with oaks on them, especially if the ridges are thick. The deer will use the ridge tops as vantage points and will eat the acorns on the ridges. Bucks love to cruise ridges come November as well.
I have been using this mapping center provided by the Pennsylvania game commission and it shows there are 2 food plots in my game lands (its gamelands number 307 in WMU 3C) should I set up by the food plots? or ignore them, There are lots of deer in this area and I am assuming there are lots of hunters, and the plots are on the border of the gamelands.... plus The land is only about 1 mile long and 2 miles wide, is that enough land to avoid hunters anyways? PGC Mapping Center Thank you for all your advice so far!
Well at that size it is doubtful you won't get away from hunters. But what you can do is hunt when most people don't/can't. From my experience with Pa state game lands, Saturdays will be the worst, with evenings closer to the rut second. Any youth rifle, senior rifle, or muzzleloader season will bring crowds in also. I have hunted an SGL on the first Saturday and saw 6-8 other archery hunters, but go back on the following Tuesday or Wednesday and you have the place all to yourself.
