All scouting, no pouting
Contributors to this thread:Massachusetts
From: Cougar
19-Jun-19
Found a big woods buck bed this week. Tiny flat spot on a steep SE facing slope. White oaks mixed w other hard woods above and a stream 50 yards below. Looking around that oak to a bench that's been cut off recently. Visual down hill, wind to back. Good stuff, hope he's there in Oct
From: lunker
19-Jun-19
O YEA
From: Will
19-Jun-19
Enjoy it - finding beds = hours of fun on google earth for me... it's fantastic fun to try and figure out what may be going on and where he may be!
From: Proline
20-Jun-19
Get your cameras on it and see what appears. Then do the same sept/oct
From: Huntskifishcook
20-Jun-19
Nice find, cougar. Any sign that he's using it during the fall?
From: Cougar
21-Jun-19
There was a significant rub line coming in from above, which I initially thought was rut cruising but could be his entry trail or one of them at least. the cut below likely wiped out rubs etc dropping down off the bed but I picked a tree for him to drop down to the stream, as well as one on the military crest rub line above. Theres another bed I already knew about on the opposite side of the brook, rub and scrape lines coming out so it might be the same buck on different winds. the area to the N NE of the brook was select cut and has grown in very nicely, tons of browse and cover. I hunted it last year but it was too open and there was very little sign other than travel through, no does staying there. Picked up a nice shed there from 2016, so I'm excited to get it pinned down a bit more.
From: Cougar
22-Jun-19
A little mock up for visual. Access from the brook most likely, hugging the oppo side to bet the thermals. Picking stand based on wind Stars are beds, circles are rubs, red platforms are stand trees
From: Cougar
22-Jun-19
i can access from 3 sides, everything except the upper left, kind of where that white plus sign is.
From: lunker
22-Jun-19
Looks like new killing trees will have to b named
From: Cougar
24-Jun-19
im thinking I can get to either if the leaves are still hanging on. the thermals are the part im worried about
From: Cougar
26-Jun-19
Couple more bed pics from this week
From: Cougar
26-Jun-19
Both on oak ridges way back out in a swamp
From: Will
26-Jun-19
Cougar, interesting. Are they set up so the deer have good visual below them with a W oriented wind? How do you expect the deer to slide off those sites?
From: Cougar
26-Jun-19
the top one is on a point that runs straight south. its about 40 yards wide by 100 yards long with a slow taper. 25 feet of elevation with white oak and ash above wet mucky swamp on 3 sides. I kicked a doe out of that bed, and it was bedded just over the crest on the SE side 1/4 of the way down the point. wind was W NW. The second one was on a secondary ridge that sits between a 60 foot elevated plateau and that pond in the background. Ridge is 35 yards long , north/south and 20 feet in elevation, bed is at N tip. There's a horse shoe bowl to the North where a rub line comes out of the swamp and swings around toward the high ground. This overlooks that trail. I was expecting bedding out on the tip of the horseshoe, but there was a deep channel I couldn't cross without swimming that kept me from finding the exact beds out there. Water was pretty high and I jumped multiple deer up high in the ridges. A tricky spot to get into as the pond blocks an easterly access and the thermals off that ridge are going to suck down to the bedding in that bowl in the evening. Buck sign was just OK, guessing bc there were no acorns here last year. Caterpillars the size of my index finger were just crushing the white oaks :( :(
From: Proline
26-Jun-19
I stay away from bowls typically. They suck to hunt unless it is brutally cold with a strong wind (20plus MPH). Creep to the edge with a gun and its a good spot to find deer down in the bowl escaping the wind.
From: Cougar
26-Jun-19
might be an east wind cold front spot
From: Cougar
03-Jul-19
Cheeky little doe bed right there!
From: Cougar
17-Jul-19
Buck rub
Buck rub
Buck rub
Buck rub
Scrape worked recently!
Scrape worked recently!
My take on scouting is, if you don't know, GO! There's only so much free time to carve out to be in the woods. Sure deer patterns can be different per time of year, but they can also vary fall to fall based on mast crop, hunting pressure, logging, etc. U ain't gonna learn much woodmanship looking at an aerial. (Maps on smart phones are so helpful tho!) Here's a few pics from today's jaunt. Found a sweet bedding area torn up w rubs from last fall and put some pieces together in a spot I'd scouted once before but never hunted.
From: Cougar
17-Jul-19
Bedding on ridge point
Bedding on ridge point
Caption to post upright?
Caption to post upright?
2 rubs in the background from diff years
2 rubs in the background from diff years
Military crest bedding
Military crest bedding
Bedding examples
From: Shanation
17-Jul-19
Looking good seth! Curious what your main objective is after finding something like this. Do you planning on putting cameras on the trails leading in and out too see what's using these spots or trying to find trees to set up in and leave it alone till the season starts?
From: lunker
17-Jul-19
One thing I noticed in all those pics every single thing is in an open area what do you make of that
From: Cougar
17-Jul-19
I've never really used cameras at all, I think if I were going to start I'd have them out in the food source somewhere, stash It up high and look to get after dark pics for an inventory of whats around for bucks. I basically am trying to get an idea of how an area lays out, whats around for sign and then if I like it, pick a tree and take a best guess on AM / PM , rut / all day etc. I'm looking at parking, access, non hunting human presence, hunting pressure. basically making a plan. I hunt mobile, so I'll get back there, hang and hunt it, then move on to the next spot unless the sign says stay. Lunker, each of the beds is set up to use elevation/sight, wind and thermals to stay safe. Right at the edge of the flat in each bed picture is a steep drop that doesnt quite show up in the photo. This is mountainous state land that hasn't been logged in forever, and actually the beds on this small secondary ridge, ARE in the thickest cover around that also offers the wind advantage (not in the bottoms / edges). The rubs are either rut travel or made at night IMO
From: Cougar
17-Jul-19
There were dozens of rubs in the bedding area , I just took pics of these two that were more on travel routes
From: longbeard
17-Jul-19
I’m curious as to why you would read those particular spots as beds?
From: Cougar
17-Jul-19
Worn down to dirt, deer belly hair in them. Jumped a deer out of one. With the really humid warm air u can actually smell the deer if they are there.
From: Cougar
17-Jul-19
Worn down to dirt, deer belly hair in them. Jumped a deer out of one. With the really humid warm air u can actually smell the deer if they are there. The tricky part is deciding buck or does. Take topography, rubs, bed size into account.
From: longbeard
17-Jul-19
I’ve never seen a deer bed in the same exact place in my life. Worn down to the dirt? You mean like a scrape?
From: Huntskifishcook
17-Jul-19
I've found alot of places like cougar has mentioned. Many times it's a pear shaped impression where the deer has been laying consistently on the correct wind for that particular spot.
From: Cougar
18-Jul-19
Itll be a lima bean shaped depression , not scraped away but void of leaves like the rest of the forest floor if it gets used a lot due to the deers body crushing them or blocking them as they fall. There might be tracks, but not scraping marks like a typical scrape would have. A scrape would also have licking branch.
From: Huntskifishcook
18-Jul-19
What if pears and lima beans have been stringing us along this entire time?
From: Cougar
18-Jul-19
Because bucks typically bed alone, they'll use a wind to back and look downwind to give them nearly 360 degrees of safety. Either that or they will have a barrier like water on the downwind side, smelling what's out in front. Rut bedding is similar but just a bit downwind of the does typically.
From: Cougar
20-Jul-19
Last fall's rubs
Last fall's rubs
From: Huntskifishcook
24-Jul-19
Scouted out a new, very suburban piece of woods today. It's about 3/4 of a mile long by 1,000 feet wide. It slopes downward from the S to N, toward a swampy mess. There's good bedding near the top of the ridge and great bedding on the edge of the swamp. The woods ends with a road on both the Eastern and Western side, with much larger chunks of woods beyond both those roads. I think it could be a killer rut spot with deer funneling through this section from the larger chunks of woods on either side. I found this massive rub that has been used for years right on a break in a rock wall. 30-40 yards south of that rub is another break in the wall. I set up a tree for roughly a 20 yard shot to both rock wall breaks. I hate all day sits, but this spot might be worth toughing one out.
From: Huntskifishcook
24-Jul-19
Also found these chicken of the woods earlier than any I've ever found.
From: Will
25-Jul-19
Joe, get tot he ER, looks like you got yourself with that knife when you took the chicken down... :)
Spots sounds AWESOME man!
From: Huntskifishcook
25-Jul-19
Lol! Turns out tattoos that seem badass when you're 24, make people outside of the food industry think you're a murderer at 34.
From: Will
26-Jul-19
Ha ha ha ha!!! Hilarious Joe!
From: Proline
26-Jul-19
Changing the subject somewhat............fair amount of acorns are already falling............
From: Huntskifishcook
26-Jul-19
I noticed that also, Proline. I jumped a doe last night right where I practice shooting. She was standing under a white oak eating the tiny acorns that were falling.
From: Cougar
27-Jul-19
Red oaks in my yard are dropping tiny green ones now too
From: Proline
28-Jul-19
The ones dropping up at my NH place are about 90-95% mature red oaks. At my sons house in groveland they are falling non stop and they are half size. These are all falling without caps.
From: Cougar
28-Jul-19
Spot I hiked today almost all the oaks were dead. Understory was growing up and moose were browsing it hard. Most moose sign I've seen.
From: Cougar
07-Aug-19
Check out all the horizontal rubs! ;)
Check out all the horizontal rubs! ;)
Scoping out that rub line yo!
From: Will
07-Aug-19
Cougar, hope he made it through the winter!!!
From: Cougar
08-Aug-19
Bingo
