If you entered into an average hunting area one year for the first time and were armed only with topo/aerial maps of the spot, what type of hunting plan would you put together? The area would be around 20,000-30,000 acres. You will not have any time to scout prior to the season and this is the only spot you have to hunt this year. Would you feel confident using your existing knowledge of an area to predict what other types of areas in your hunting spot would hold deer and just go for it each hunt? I added about 10-12 new spots here in the off-season, but have a bunch more that I want to look over. The reason why I ask is because I have 20-30 spots marked on an area that is pretty large this year. I have never stepped foot on them. I have hunted areas around it but never the exact spots, some being miles away from places I hunt. I have scouted a good amount this year but with a wife and three children, my scouting time the past 3 months has plummeted. I researched these spots for months, thinking of when I would hunt each spot, based on the wind and timing of the hunting season. I have comparable spots on the place I hunt, but if they go dry, I want spots to slip into and hunt. It seems pretty exicting to just slip into the woods and give it a go based on a hunch. I have enough spots to hunt a new spot each time I hunt. Need some thoughts gentlemen. Thanks. Brett
I almost choke on my lunch when I saw "average hunting area" and "20,000-30,000" acres being used together. Around here a 100 acre piece is pretty big and anything over 250 is huge. So what you are describing would fall into the category of ginormous. With that said I would guess that by looking at topos and aerials you could narrow down where you could go on property that big pretty fast and eliminate a lot of it. Assuming it is not featureless blocks of timber you should be able to identify some potential bedding areas and destination feeding areas and then look for pinch points created by topography or land features such as creeks or rivers.
Bry, I should have clarified..."average" in terms of overal deer numbers. It is a military base that is huge.
Gotcha. In my experience military bases that have that much land do have some diversity in cover and are not just giant blocks of timber so you should be able to narrow down some good areas from looking at the maps. Just make sure you don't put your stand in an artillery target zone.
Josh, thanks for giving me some confidence. Some things are changing with my wife and her job and it is going to tighten down my time to hunt in the am's and such, so I am looking to be more mobile and productive...in essence, I need to be more efficient where I hunt. In my attempts to do that, I need to keep the hunting areas fresh by moving my stand locations even more than I do now. I am still gunning for those two bucks I had close calls with last year as I know neither one of them was killed. That would put those bad boys at 4.5 years or older each. But before moving in on those two at the right time, I need to have some back-up spots that I can be aggressive around each hunt. I don't want to waste a hunt. I am going to put up a map here soon, so you guys can give me some thoughts on one location that is a few hundred acres, if not more. Just some thoughts on this section. I hope to get out and see all the spots in late August...but not sure if I can make it. I would like to put the aerial overlay as a lot of the spots I marked seem to be thicker cover.
