I hunt on a lease in northern PA and it’s big big mountain top woods and I have never hunted big woods ...always farmlands!! Now I have a trail camera out and have been getting pics of a couple nice bucks and bears regularly! I am wondering will the bucks pattern stay mostly the same From now Say to end of September to October 15? That way I can get plenty of time in to hunt... plus will the bears pattern change by the time the archery season for them open? Any info is appreciated or any experiences! Thanks in advance
No. Beginning, to the middle of Sept will probably have the deer looking for and feeding on acorns. Try to locate the oak trees, that's where the deer will be.
No oak trees for miles though not that I’ve come across at least?!? Tons and tons of beach every where... so are they eating nothing but browse and beach?
if you're positive there are no oaks or Apple trees there is a good chance they're just eating off the native browse. they may not be using the chunk of timber you're focused on for the purpose of feeding. see if you can locate some bedding, water or travel corridors where they're moving through and accessing the land on, and hunt that accordingly. you may have located the pinch the animals are using to cross the woods. Stay at it! Leaves change, behaviors will change but if you locate a heavy movement trail it could stay like that, heavy moving!
I've spent a fair amount of time hunting Potter County when I was younger, and also hunted many similar areas in the Adirondacks. Deer will browse on a lot and it will change quickly. You'll still need to find a general area that a mature deer lives, and then narrow down the spot to kill him. Finding him will be the hardest part as the populations in the area you are targeting is quite low. Primary food I've found in your area tends to be beech nuts, new growth briars from areas logged in the last few years, and honey suckle. If you can find oaks somewhere in there you've struck gold but I know they are few and far between in that area.
If you can locate an area that you know consistently holds a mature buck in big timber areas you then need to locate the closest family group of does adjacent to the bucks area. The does will be much easier to pin down . Find their general bedding areas, either benchs or points ect then use topographical features that connect or link the bucks general area to the doe groups bedding areas. I have had way more sucess with that then trying key in on specifics of the buck. Big woods buck have sense of randomness that will drive a bow hunter nuts.
There are several does ”some small yearlings “ constantly on the camera... so I’m sure they are gana stay right in the same area and not roam to far. Hopefully the bucks don’t wanna roam to far
I been hunting Potter Co. for the past 15 yrs. I don't worry too much about the pics I get in August till mid Sept. Just try to get an idea of what's roaming around. The pics I concentrate on is when I go up with the family for Columbus Day weekend early Oct. I have 4 -5 cameras out and try and see if I'm getting the same buck at different locations. Then I usually hunt the last two weeks of the season up there. For me Halloween week seems to be the best. Pull my cards the first day up and see what has disappeared, what different showed up and what is still cruising around. Best thing to do is get multiple cameras up. Once rifle beer comes in they will not be any where to be seen.
I hunt some in the ANF and yes you can pattern big bucks. it took me 3yrs but finally got it done. get the hill country video from nextbuk outdoors online and your questions will be answered. I think it is under $20. best instructional videos out there.
