Hey guys, I am new to the forum and a new resident of New Hampshire. I will also be bow hunting for the first time this year! I used to hunt farmland in PA with a shotgun, so I am in a whole new dimension by hunting in the woods in New Hampshire and was hoping I could get some ideas of where I should put up cameras? I have attached a topo map of my area. My house is up on the little hill directly Northwest of Crooked Pond. North of me there are some houses, but to the East out to Bog Pond there is nothing but forest so I was thinking of hunting in there, or directly to the west of my house in the lower elevation area. Am I on the right track? Any advice is greatly appreciated! By the way, North of Bog Pond is an apple orchard, and to the West/Southwest of Crooked Pond is more farmland... I just can't hunt on any of it... only near it.
Looks like a nice piece you've got there. Swamp and Hilly terrain. I would walk to the edges (transition area) of that swamp and search for bedding. Also I would hit all the points on the hilly terreain and look for buck beds. This will give you a huge advantage come fall. I would assume the more pressure the deer gets they will back off the hills and hit the swamp to bedding and stage in however everywhere is different. I would think a pretty nice buck would use that terrain as seems to have a lot to offer. Go burn up some boot leather and report your findings!
Thanks for the insight! As soon as it stops raining here (we've had a week of rain straight) I plan on doing some exploring. No one really hunts the property, so I'm expecting to find some nice deer come fall given the terrain and abundance of food sources with the farms.
Where exactly can you hunt? Is that swamp area able to be walked or is it unpassable? Is this about right?
There aren't too many houses around me, and I am pretty sure the land is public land for the most part since I haven't seen any posted signs. To be safe though, I can hunt the hill just north of Bog Pond all the way down to Crooked Pond. I can hunt the big hill to the East of Crooked Pond too, since that is all forest. The white line in between Crooked Pond/Bog pond is a power line. Like I said, I live on the smaller hill to the Northwest of Crooked pond on 11 acres. Unfortunately, there are posted signs that don't allow me to get onto the hill directly to the West of Crooked Pond. My landlord tells me they travel in between the ravine between my little hill and the bigger hill to the West of Crooked Pond. There are probably too many houses in the swamp area to the north where it says "509" and "W501." I'm thinking my best and safest be is going to be the ravine to the West of Crooked Pond (in between my house and the posted signs on the next hill over) and the area around Bog Pond and North of Crooked Pond. I know that is really convoluted, so if you are still trying to follow that I appreciate it! Thanks so much for the input guys.
I can hunt all of that in your red box. The far left of your box may be iffy, since that little stream runs along someones property, though I may end up talking to them to see if they are comfortable with me hunting the area.
tpme, here is a cool website that allows you to look at the weather history. I looked up the wind history for November 2010 to get an idea of what the prevailing winds will be like so that I could get an idea where you should set stands come November. I just chose November even though you should probably check out Sept-November to get a true idea. It looks like in November you all have a strong N/NW wind prevalance. You can play around with that website to give yourself an idea of what you will be dealing with come fall, I will mark up a map with my opinions and post it back on here. They will be just my opinions, so take them as a grain of salt. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KCON/2010/11/3/MonthlyHistory.html
Thanks! Very very much appreciated. I hope to spend a good amount of time in the woods this summer so I can be familiar with the area, and then set up some camera's and try to limit my activity so that I don't spook anything out of the area.
VA, yet again you go out the way to help another hunter! Hats off! Keep us posted on the progress and your findings tpme.
What he said^^^, what Brett marked looks good you have some real potenial choke points there! Also Id walk it when you get a chance and see what you can find as far as beds. Ive found thus far that they tend to bed your close to there primary food source this time of year so take this into consideration while your scouting.
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I'll let you know what I find when I get out next week! We have had about 6 days of rain straight... so not the best time to get stumbling through the woods
GrassHopper - When you snatch the pebbles from my hand you will get a big buck. Great to know Sir Josh is on board - almost goosebumpy Good job!!!
