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New to Hunting in CT

Hey there everyone, I'm new to hunting in CT and hunting in general. I was planning on hunting the Tower Hill section of CSF with crossbow from an improvised blind. I'll be going scouting soon. Any advice on what to look for? I know about saddles and draws but I don't have much experience. Also would it be worth investing in a caller? Thank you.

Welcome. What do you plan to hunt for? Good time of the year to get out and scout, especially after a fresh snow.

Whitetail deer. I was thinking about using a fawn in distress call early season because I heard that could bring in does. I also hear that CSF has a lot of deer but the harvest reports don't look so good. What's your take?

I see incredible deer sign over there during woodcock season. But i see it where it’s thick with saplings in the woodcock cover. An arrow couldn’t fly 5 yards. But there are deer over there.

scout more than you hunt. look for the highest concentration of fresh sign, tracks, droppings, scraps, rubs, etc. a blind is not really needed, sit with your back against a tree as wide or more than you and you will not likely be noticed. always try to be downwind of the expected deer travel. I don't recommend calling, you want the deer to have no idea you're there.

The L'il Doe in a Can has lured many deer to me. An old scrape line is a fall hunting season activity, to indicate where they might be during hunting season.

You might also look across rte 80 which is a much bigger section of CSF with much less competition. From Tower Hill You can walk straight across to 148 in places. if you go east you end up on Rte 145, north end. and go west you can work around several reservoirs. The section behind Tower Hill is good but gets hammered pretty hard. Since Doc Weber died and left his section to the state and my former neighbor sold off 80 acres to build developments, there is much more access and many more hunters using the area. I took a walk out there this past winter and was surprised at how many people I ran into. There was a time when I never saw another soul out there. You can still find deer there but there's competition for them for sure.

Dragonbob, welcome and good luck out there. As was already said scout a lot more than you hunt. I go out about four times a week and with hardly any snow you can see all the scrapes and it’s easy to follow all the deer trails and find bedding areas ,food sources ,and rut sign. bb, I did a little scouting just north of the tower hill section.. it’s the 4000-ish acre area. Would you say that gets hit pretty hard? Saw some ok sign but only scouted a few hundred acres on the northern end.

Treebeard, you are talking about north of Rte 80 Right? Tower Hill would be south of rte 80. It's a big piece were you out by rte 148 or Butter Jones road in Chester? If it were me I would look in the area more to the South, behind Starr Lake and east toward Rte145 North. I never thought the area gets hit as hard as the section between Tower Hill and Chittenden Hill Road in Clinton/Westbrook, plus there is much more area to disperse hunters. Star lake is the lake that is at the intersection of Rte 145 South and Rte 80. Ther is a good access point there across from the old Valley Cycle, which it appears to now be a pizza place. There is a trail going in across the street and a small parking spot

bb, yes, north of 80 and 148. I went in at the trail head from Beaver Meadow RD.I meant to check out that new clear cut up that way but I didn’t get to it. I scouted the other side of the ridge and some swamp edge areas. Thanks for the info. I work as a service tech all over the state and come up route 9 a lot. I prefer to hunt closer to home in Litchfield County but it’s nice to have a few spots if I’m running late from work to jump off the highway for an evening sit.

You're north of 148 also? I've never really hunted in there. Although I hunt private land South of Beaver meadow road by several miles along Rte 9.

Nice! I’ll definitely check out that area you mentioned and probably expand that area I scouted previously.

bb. So you would say that the area just north of route 80 and tower hill lake would be my best bet? I thought that the increased access would make it more pressured.

I don't know if there is any increase in access, they are both accessible. My opinion is that there is a lot more area and doubtful if there are any more people accessing the area so intuitively that should mean there is more space available to hunt without running into people or at the very least hunting farther away from people. One thing is for sure, other than the old main roads that ran through The north side, there is very few trails. unlike the Tower hill side where doc Weber had roads criss crossing the entirety of his property and there are all kinds of hiking activity going on from hunters to horseback, joggers, hikers etc. There is certainly deer there but the human activity is concentrated due to the smaller overall area.

Go to the deep site and find the link to hunting areas. Itll bring you to the ct arcgis site. You can find every hunting area in the state. Each area has maps. Some are satellite and some are topographic. Cockaponsets maps are all topo. You'll be able to find every draw and saddle.

Thanks I know about Arcgis. I use it in a combination with google earth and Caltopo to look at places.

Welcome and good luck.

Try asking permission. It's a hundred times better than public land.

Ask friends of friends, fellow workers, ect. Make sure it's Bow only, people freak out thinking about guns on their property. Just get ready for a lot of NO's, but all it takes is one Yes and you forget about the rejections.

Use the Onx hunting App, knowing the landowner's name when knocking on the door is a plus.

Good luck.

a hundred times better?? it is kind of frustrating when someone walks through your setup after you have been waiting for hours, but other than that, public has plenty of opportunities. I rarely ever see another hunter, I basically have thousands of acre areas to myself. It's pretty hard to find and get permission on a 2000 acre piece of private land. When your hunting a 5 to 10 acre piece of private land and you make a bad hit on a deer, it's almost guaranteed the deer is gonna end up crossing several property lines and turning your hunt into a nightmare. Bow hunting is a game of inches, it doesn't matter how good of a shot you are, things just happen. It's really nice to have some wiggle room to track.

Welcome

HolePunch YES a hundred X better, probably more. I'm not getting up 2 hours before light to walk in and see someone sitting in "My" spot, I know when I hunt private land it's not been over hunted all week by some one else. I leave camera's, stands even leave my Bow in the tree overnight. Nobody steals it. Tell me that doesn't happen on public land.

Between the public and private land I have hunted, I have had more hunts interrupted on private than public from trespassers, and would feel safer leaving stands and cameras out on public.

Private tends to more accessible and have more foot traffic. Seems crazy, and counter-intuitive, I know, but just my experience.

Toonces, Maybe on your private land, but that's not the norm.

Private is generally better.....but there’s some bad private too. I’ve had them. Some spots I’ve never gone back to....told the owners thanks, but no thanks.

Public gives you a lot of options and if you choose your spots carefully, you’ll rarely run into anyone during bow season. It’s definitely hard, but rewarding when you kill. Use the DEEP map website....it’s full of good info for access away from the typical spots and finding hidden gems.

I have had plenty of different private spots in a variety of towns, a few under paid leases one that my family owned, and have had to deal with trespassers on all of them. All variety of trespassers too, dog walkers, horseback riders, ATV's, mushroom hunters, poachers, everything. I can't think of a single property where that wasn't the case.

That said, in general private will have more deer, but I think that is result of habitat, not people pressure. Most public is mature forest that doesn't hold a lot of deer. The most unpressured pristine private land in the world won't hold many deer without habitat.

Good point toonces, wide open mature timber will hold very few no matter if its private or public.

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