ok guys i found a new place to hunt. its a large public area that borders two rivers, innumerable creeks, and the vast majority of it is relatively swampy. in driving the roads and fishing the creeks iv narrowed it down to this general area due to sightings. where would you guys hunt? I apologize for the clutter, i havent figured out how to crop it off of the map.
From the maps, it's a bit hard for me to tell where exactly the piece of land is that you can hunt. All of it, some of it, etc? So I'd have to just give you general advice for now, some of this may be obvious to you... 1) Get out and scout and look for sign. (scat, rubs, scrapes, bedding areas, etc). Not just new rubs, but old rubs in certain areas year after year can give you some "past history" insight into the area. Typically I've found, in good areas, you'll find years and years of rubs in the same general area. If it worked for bucks/deer years ago, you can bet it'll work now. 2) Because their is " innumerable creeks" and it's a swampy area, there's lots of places for them to water so you can't necessarily focus on the water to find the deer. However: A) wide/deep areas of water like a big river (too tough for deer to normally cross, though I've seen them swim across some crazy water when they have to) can help you "border" the land and help you determine/confine the deer movements when looking at a large track of land and make your focus "smaller". B) small creeks, etc can be great for walking on the banks and looking for tracks in the mud to help you determine crossing routes. If you find a creek w/ lots of crossings in a short span, you can bet the deer are moving thru there to bed/feed on a regular basis. Then you need to think like a deer...why are they moving thru there then? There must be food or bedding areas on this "route"! It could be a ways away, but they are moving thru there for a reason.... Obviously, the fresher the sign the better....the more concentrated the sign (less trails crossing that same stream but def being used) the easier it is to hunt, because you can focus on a few crossing areas as opposed to say 20 on the same creek. In swamps, it's been my experience that deer like to stay dry when they can, though I've killed a buck on a hump in the ground surrounded by water, so it can be tough. It's a fact that deer like creek bottoms and swampy areas for protection so I'd defenitely check it out good. Problem for you is, it sounds like there's creeks and swampy land everywhere.. 3) Figure out the food, are there nearby farm crops around, if so what kind. Standing corn for example is very different than cut corn late season. It's been my experience that deer love cut corn and when it's standing, they often bed, eat, and sleep IN the corn field which makes them really tough to hunt. If there's no corn/crop fields in reasonable proximaty to bedding areas in the timber than you probably need to focus on acorn flats. The only way to do that, is get out there and look for acorn trees that are dropping or are ready to drop. Take the binochulars w/ you to glass up at trees... If you want to give me some more info, I'm happy to shed my thoughts. Big thing is, food, water, and shelter for bedding. The whole big "puzzle" can be tough to figure out, but once you begin to put some of the pieces together, it'll help you narrow down what's going on and you can go from there. Then, there's no substitute for days and days in the stand. But when starting w/ nothing, tracks give you a huge head start if you can't find a lot of rubs, scrapes, because you know deer where there...if you find a particular tracked up stream, go for some hikes around that area and see what's around it. Is there acorns nearby, thickets, good bedding areas, maybe it's a natural funnel, etc. If you start to find addtl parts to the puzzle, it'll make that spot, or spots around it, that much more exciting to sit and spend some time. From there, you can start hanging a stand and be in the game... Good luck!
i can hunt everything on the map except the extreme NE portion which is private. i havent had a chance to scout it any, will get to that this wkend, i was just hoping for some quick insight on where to begin
I have scouted some of the swampy river area here in Illinois. The one thing I was looking for in this type of area was elevation. I was walking through about a foot to 2 feet of water and would come up on a small "island" that would be loaded with rubs, beds, and tracks. This small little raised spot was no more than 4-5 feet higher than the ground holding water, but it offered a safe place for a buck to bed. I found about 7 of these throughout the entire swamp, and 3 offered the similar scenario. The pain in the ass part of it was trying to figure out how the river levels were going to effect the deer movement through the area. The only thing that a map really helped me with was an aerial that aided me in just knowing where I was and locating any possible funnels. Things ended up being very frustrating hunting this land, but there are some that do it very well around here and have the bucks on the wall to prove it.
Caveman, can you zoom in on that a little bit? Trying to figure out the vegetation. Not trying to hord in on your spot but is this in Oklahoma? If it is I can pull up some sweet aerials on it...
