I'm sure that some of you have noticed my absence the last few days. Some of you most likely celebrated that fact. Others likely laid awake at night worrying. ( I'm fine mom.) The fact is, I have been doing quite a bit of soul-searching and self evaluation as to my deer hunting abilities and strategies. Long story, but I have scoured a two acre bedding area counting deer droppings on my best property. The final total was 6,387,462. My problem is, how long does a deer dropping last in the woods? I know how many times a day a deer poops, but I don't know how long the poop lasts. So, I'm not sure if I have 3 deer or 113,712 deer and one unicorn. I wish I was better at this scouting thing. By the way, this was in an 80 acre woods. Is that big wood? Would my wife know big wood if she saw it? (Sorry mom.) Did I ruin my spot by spending two days in the bedding area? Would my time be better spent fertilizing plots?
Fletch you fool counting poo is not the key, you have to get back out there and measure the poo, dimensions indicate maturity. You could be on a bedding area of a bunch of unmanaged bucks with poor genetics. Unless of course you have moved from trophy hunting to hunting cull bucks.
This is the only type of place I'll hunt. If I even see a road, foodplot, or any other advantage I stop hunting immediately and leave.
I've never been at counting past 10( not a big fan of taking off my boots to help after my fingers are used up) but i feel your argument warranted effort on my behalf... So I've sampled a bunch and I assume the more oaky poop is from a mature buck right. But without further instruction I guess I'm sh!t out of luck
I do the same. I just walk and walk.... until I no longer hear the banjos. Then and only then, I climb a tree. I climb trees like a boss. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The saying that comes to mind is "Work smarter not harder". All I hunt is forest land, both public and private, not a farm field within miles. Everything we as hunters do is to remove luck and increase our odds of seeing a deer we want to shoot. On the public land I just can't do as much.
The first time I went deer hunting, my dad and I found this great piece of public land. We had maps printed and studied them everyday before the 3 day hunt. Once we got there, the terrain was so ruff and hilly we knew know one would bother hunting hit. We've hunted it and dragged deer out 3 miles uphill every year and know other guys hunt it.
Like going easter egg hunting except without the eggs or the candy or easter Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
