DS20 Part 13: The Big Hill

Last night was a great scouting mission. This was my first time going to this location, I initially found it by cyberscouting the mi-hunt website. From what I could see on the computer, it was in an out of the way, overlooked place with an oak ridge that borders a small wetland that has a small trout stream running through it. People from other regions would probably call it a creek. The creek bottom is extremely dense pine and cedar with some aspen mixed in. The oak stand was supposed to be small, only about 100 acres, but as I was driving towards it, I realized it was much, much bigger. The whole surrounding area was oaks mixed with pines, flats mixed with steep up and down hill country. I drove into the area on a two track that doubles as an ORV trail. My plan was to walk the transition between the oaks and dense creek bottom.

I parked a half mile or so away from where I wanted to cut across to get a feel for the place. The top of the ridge was rolling hills of mature oaks and immature pine trees. Plenty of cover for deer to move around and feel secure in the daylight. When I got to the oak ridge I was kind of shocked by how tall and steep the hill was going down towards the creek. It was more like southern OH hills and I decided to replan my scouting route. Going in, I was certain the best bedding was going to be in the creek bottom, but seeing the size of the hills, I started thinking about possible hillcountry bedding, too, and realized this place was going to need at least one more scouting trip this spring to cover everything.

I decided to go from a south facing point on the topo and work my way north and scout the bottom first. I know, I know. Hill country bottoms are notoriously difficult to hunt. But I was really torn. The best bedding cover is down in the wetland around the creek. There is also water there. I’m sure these deer use both the hills and creekbottom as bedding areas based on various conditions. I worked south along the ridge towards the point and marked an area that had a good amount of doe scat. When I got to the south facing point, there was a monster rub that was probably 2 or 3 years old. The kind of rub that screams mature whitetail.

I looked all around but didn’t see any sign that a deer was bedding on the point. Which made sense, the rub was old, but, I was hopeful. There was a faint runway going down the spine of the ridge. I followed it down until I hit the transition line to the creek bottom, and then followed the transition line back north. It was open, but not open, if you know what I mean. The Oaks and pines came right down the hill to the edge of the thick cover. In places I could hear the creek, which is at high water, gurgling over rocks and logs, but I couldn’t see it. A deer could safely eat acorns along the edge and dive into the cover or run up into the cover on the hillside if danger came. There was another large, old rub. The kind of rub height that I would think was elk, but it wasn’t elk. A little way on I had three pileated woodpeckers fighting or doing some kind of mating ritual. That was cool. And then a scrape. I felt rushed at that point and was losing light due to being down in the valley and didn’t take the time to inspect it for tracks. 50yds later, I found another monster rub with three smaller rubs nearby. Losing light fast, I hiked up the ridge shortly after.

This is definitely a place that can grow a nice buck. I can’t imagine many guys are going to go down in that valley to hunt deer. The packout will scare 99.999% away.

The thing I’m struggling with now is how to hunt a deer down in that bottom? Gonna need to search the forum archives to find tips on hunting lower elevations. Maybe if I get close to the creek and let it pull my scent away from the woods? Definitely going to throw a trail camera up at this spot to see if anything survived to the coming season.

DS20 Part 12: A New Swamp

Scouted a cedar swamp marsh last night after work. The blue dotted line is my planned route, the yellow dashed line is my actual route. Parked on the side of the road at what turned out to be 20yds from an old logging trailhead. The logging road is the solid red line. I didn’t know it was there and decided to check it out after I did my scouting loop if I had time. Accidentally, I came to the end of it on my way back to the car and walked it back. Overall, there wasn’t a ton of deer sign. Typically in cedar swamps you will see a fair amount of tracks and some muddy runways. I didn’t see a lot of either. The tracks I did see were smaller. There was a TON of deer scat. Pretty much everywhere, which I attributed to deer who had yarded there this winter. It was challenging to find beds, but I did find two for sure beds and one that is probably a bed but I’m still going back and forth on it in my head. I also found a couple tall rubs, one that was mid thigh high to about the bottom of my sternum. I’m 6’ if that gives you some scale.

The surprise of the evening was a large island in the swamp. The topo showed a small hill, but in person it was much larger, maybe three times longer and twice as wide as the circle on the topo. The hill is shown on the map by the white shaded oval. Trees on the island were small and medium aspen/poplar, pines and cedars here and there. I saw a few ash and maple here and there, too. No oaks. Other than natural browse, I’m not sure what the “hot” food source in the area for deer here would be. There is some hill country a mile or so away to the east and a small farm a mile west. There wasn’t a lot of people sign. There was a small creek crossing on the logging road that someone laid some cedars across as a bridge. There was a trail along the NE side of that hill island that someone had discretely cut circles of bark off of trees as trail markers every 10yds or so. There was a pair of chest waders hanging in a tree that someone forgot or left there on purpose after they sprung a leak. And of course, there was a ladder stand.

This was the most photogenic of the three beds. The good thing, I think, was that the best deer sign wasn’t near the human sign. I feel like the area with all of the rubs would be a good contender for a trail camera. I may put one out there looking south over the north transition between the marsh and cedar swamp where most of the rubs were. That is definitely the best place for a stand, and there were a few trees that would work well for that area. Definitely a good place to hang a stand this fall for a hunt or two.

DS20 Part 11: Swamp Oaks

You hear that? You hear angels singing that hallelujah song? I can. They’ve been on full blast in my head since I found out that the big point that goes out in the marsh I talked about in my last post has an island of mature oaks in the center of it. There is also another island across the marsh on the other point that was kind of cut out of the screenshot I took.

Definitely gonna to need to scout that other point, too, while I’m out there this weekend. I’d really like to hit both points in the same day, dial in where bedding is, and then knowing where the oaks are, start thinking about different stand locations for different winds.

So I changed my scouting plan, basically doubling the mileage to 6 miles. That will be a full day, gonna need to pack a lunch.

This whole area of the marsh feels like its ideal for a South or Southeast wind based on the terrain and the nearest two tracks for access. It could definitely work for a west or east wind, too, as deer could move to either side of the islands or points. The islands seem like they should be the place to bed for a northerly wind. It will be interesting to find out if the sign matches up with all that. Either way, it will be a great learning experience.

DS20 Part 10: A Plan

I watched the DIY Sportsman's latest YouTube video about his workflow for scouting marshes. I really enjoyed this video as it made me realize that while I've often got a plan for which terrain features I want to scout, I don't really plan the day as well as he does or make great use of my time. 

For example, the spot I talked about scouting in my last post was not a good choice to scout after work, way too much ground to cover and I was basically in a spot where I almost had to walk out when I got to where I wanted to scout and now I should probably go back one more time. 

The first spot to use his work flow jumped right out at me- a giant marsh I found this winter that looks fishy. Here is the route I've planned out, its about 3 miles and will probably need a saturday or a sunday to have enough time to see everything I want to plus have time for any audibles. 

My plan is to walk the main transitions from cedar swamp to marsh, and see whats been using the islands. Satellite imagery looks like there are runways galore going through the marsh, we will see what they look like on the ground. Check out the sign around the little island on the other side of the creek. 

This is a small chunk of this marsh, its going to take 3 or 4 more scouting trips to cover the rest. The west side really intrigues me as it is VERY difficult to access. My plan is to work from east to west. If I could get it down to two trips, that would be great, but I think I will need three. Maybe I will camp out there this weekend, do some social distancing, and knock the whole thing out at once?

I need to find a few shorter routes for after work scouting. I think 1-2 miles for an after work scouting route would be about perfect. 

I cleaned my arrow building/fly tying bench off in my man cave this weekend. Gonna take me a while to be able to find anything with everything where "its supposed to be now" 

DS20 Part 9: Along the Highway

Scouted a small part of a large chunk of land yesterday after work. Its roughly 2000 acres, so still a lot of ground to cover before I feel like I know it. I'd really love to post some topo and satellite maps of it here but I'm just too paranoid. But let me tell you why I'm excited about it. 1, censored. 2, it has some amazing topography and habitat types. 3, one side borders a heavily trafficed road.

I love places that border major roads. People ignore them, and deer get pushed into them for that reason.

I got about a mile and a half in and really hadn't seen much good sign other than a large'ish buck track in a saddle, and then I climbed to the top of a long ridge that pointed out into a cedar swamp. As I got to the top and stopped, a turkey gobbled. First one I've heard this spring. I sat there and he gobbled again few minutes later. I tried mouth calling him in and he went silent.

I saw a nice pile of buck poop. Got on the west side and started seeing sign. FINALLY! I followed a runway that spiraled along the side then down the point into the swamp. No large tracks, looked like a doe runway, but it took me to an area that looked like deer and even elk were spending a lot of time this winter. Felt like bedding cover but no visible beds. I got down into the swamp and found a massive old rub, there were even some time marks from 2019. Because of the size of the tree, I was thinking this might be an old signpost rub, but still not certain.

This had me really excited to keep exploring but I was losing light fast because of the hills and hiked out. Definitely going to be back to learn more and explore other corners of the property, especially the area that border the highway.

DS20 Part 8: An Overlooked Spot

Yesterday I went out to the big woods after work. It's a part of the big woods I'm kind of on the verge of cutting out of my hunting spots because there are just too many elk, and where there are elk, there are more people. But! There is a place that I've never been, so I thought it might be a good time to see what's there.

I walked a big oval loop, about 3 miles, total. I was just trying to cover ground and intercept mature buck tracks or sign. I came across one 3 finger track and two 4 finger tracks. I saw at least 500 elk rubs. That might sound like an exaggeration but it was probably more like 1,000.

This spot may be worth a hunt or two, I found two areas that I will use as starting points to scout during the season and see what happens. Maybe I end up climbing a tree, maybe I will just walk around some more.

DS20 Part 7: A Fresh Look at an Old Spot

Snow is disappearing, I'm guessing a week or so and south/east/west facing land will be dry ground again. Been some good finds out scouting and it's nice to be getting outside again without being all bundled up, and even more nice to be in a place safe from covid-19 headlines and people panic buying toilet paper. No better way to escape all that than the deer woods.