Land Scouting Help - All you smart hunters (pic)

[John Nail]

terry, that's the bottleneck I was talkin' about!
 also, the little dot an inch above your big circle, if it's a couple trees, would be prime during the rut.

[stick_string]

Alright,
With what little light I had left this is what I got:

The orange circle is the only access point for the property...the rest is private (surrounding) and you are not suppose to park off the highway.

The black line is where I walked to the yellow dot (40min walk about 1.5 miles)

The small light blue area in the bottom is water

All fields are overgrown brush about 8 ft tall.

NOW FOR THE REPORT:
I never made it more north than the yellow dot.  The north black box had the combination of about 5 trails with alot of hog sign, and some deer.  The Orange box has the same sign but at the point of the wooded area there is almost no undergrowth below the canopy fro about 40yards back to the northeast.

The area with the water was a bit unique in that the water are is the lowest point and it goes up hill (about 15 elevation change to the back north west corner. The field is chest high vegitation with no paths except the path around the whole field.

Thoughts?    

(BTW...you guys are an incredible help!)

[Labs4me]

Stick,

In your post and the replies to it thus far, I see no comments with regard or concern to the prevailing wind direction (perhaps I missed it). In that your access - and presumably everyone else's access - to this parcel is limited, don't disregard the fact that these deer have more than likely learned to bed down in such a way as to be able to detect approaching hunters using their noses from the security of their bedding cover. Also keep in mind that the nicer deer in the area will more than likely bed in an area and in such a way so as to allow for a quartering WITH the wind approach to their food sources.

Whenever I investigate a new area, I constantly keep the prevailing wind direction as it relates to my probable approach to my stand in my thoughts as I do my scouting. The best spot in the area has little value if you cannot approach it without your scent OR SOME OTHER HUNTER'S scent preceding you.

MHO

[vermonster13]

Walk a little farther and check out that point on the river. If the orange is the only access point then most guys aren't going to travel in that far.

[stick_string]

I agree with walking the distance...but dont know how I will get a successful kill out.  Going to have to think of something whitty as the point on the river is about 2.0 miles from the truck.  (long way to drag a deer!!  

[DRR324]

Stick,
Don't put the cart before the horse....kill a big one then figure that part out.  Float him down the creek, assuming it flows south into a bigger one.  I like the area with the x that Terry picked out, but I'm wondering about the inside corners of the fields, and would spend time working the creek bed all the way up as far you can huff it.
Dave

[Terry Green]

Might want to use a bike to get to the end of the road...that will cut down a lot of time if its relatively flat.....and a cardboard skid might make dragging a bit easier...or one of those cheap game sleds even better.

I marked those spots based on the prevailing wind coming from the west, north west, and north....and told Brent on the phone he'd have to re-group on southernly winds that sometime come out of the gulf.

[stick_string]

The creek bed is lined with 15 to 20 foot walls...it is almost like they were cut out...provides an excellent barrier.

[stick_string]

Here is another section of the property to the east:

Dots are parking areas, Black line to the south is cut out power lines, dark blue is standing water, orange line is elevated railroad tracks...yellow spots are my thoughts on potential sites    

The river does have a branch off that runs parallel, and you can see the fence line starting at the top yellow spot and running down to the south west.

River is deep with no sand bars (dont know if there are areas to wade across).  

Thoughts?  

[ishiwannabe]

On that one the yellow spot directly below the blue looks like a great funnel. Seems like you are doing great and got all the big guns helping ya out too.
Any plans on scouting it soon? Or are ya going in for a hunt without scouting?

[vermonster13]

Do you own some good glass and can you get up on the tracks and be relatively safe? Might be able to do some long distance scouting and get some ideas without disturbing the area.

[stick_string]

ishiwannabe;
I like that area as well!!     I have to be honest and say that I did not expect this much help...just goes to show what kind of folks are on here!!  

[vermonster13]

If the river can't be waded across you have an advantage if you can use a small boat or canoe to get to the other side. Hunting pressure from the near side will likely push a lot of the deer across the river and you'll have the majority of the land to yourself and very few others in my experience.

As far as words from the wise, my wife would say you left out a very important three letter word after wise. lol

[stick_string]

I have an inflatable canoe that might come in handy...

[vermonster13]

So what did you see?

[HACKSAW]

In that part of the country I would assume river bottoms will have a lusher vegatation than that further away. So as I scout I would look for the thickest river bottom brush and take a real good look for bedding as well as smaller escape trails.
The deer know people take the easiest way most of the time. Let us know what you find.
Hacksaw

[stick_string]

Sadly, I have walked the area with much dismay.  I walked the property only to figure out that bird hunters are allowed hunt on the property and hunt small game. Apparently the property is well used and walked by them.

In light of this new discovery I think that I may have to look else where.

[pine nut]

Are you seeing deer sign in your walking?  Find the thick places and hunt them the bucks won't likely leave the area they will dodge the bird hunters and hit the thickets.  The bird hunters might well push them by you.  Just a thought. 8 foot high fields are tough to hunt and offer plenty much cover for deer.  Don't give up too easy.  I once worked out a buck's trail and realized he could lay up in the small narrow corner of woods at a fork of the roads, and that he could see and hear hunters hitting the deep woods all around his hidey hole.  It was small enoughand so narrowthat nobody even thought to consider it to hunt there.  A buddy and I decided to try it on opening day.  There were about ten cars that came and parked along the roads but we had gotten there earlier than the others and had gotten in our stands.  We heard every word the people said as they hit the woods to either side of us. There was so much noise as they got ready and left their cars they my friend got disgusted and left at 8:00 AM.  I head him leave as we were only a hunderd yds apart.  At 8:15  three does came running towards that small corner in the road fork.  I turned to watch their back trail. The nice nine pointer came oblidging so close to me that I almost touched him before I let it go. I was only six feet high in a tree.  I leaned down and shot him point blank. He was coming to check a scrape line that went to that corner.  Hope this helps.  Deer are really smart and GIFTED at finding ways to avoid a hunter/hunters.  They are also home bodies and don't like to leave home without a really good reason.  If you are seeing sign they are there.  If you aren't then look elsewhere.  Good luck!  By the way one set of tracks crossing the road led me to find that honey hole.  Where the deer came out of the woods and went back in on the other side did not look at all like a trail!  But! when I got 15 " in following the tracks It looked like a cow path- every tree in the path was rubbed and obviously some were freshened from the years before as well as some new ones.  The deer had a deformed toe that turned in markedly towards the other toe.  He's the one I killed.
I'll give you another tip too.  Ikilled the biggest deer I've ever taken on the same trail but not the exact sme place.  He was ten points and so old and arthritic that he had callouses on his knees and elbows.  The tip is that he had feet that were about the smallest of any deer I've killed.  No bigger than a small doe. I weighed about 220 lbs @ 6'4" then and I had to field dress him to move him.  Had a pretty good adrenalin rush at first but made it less than 30' when he got heavy!  I'm not suggesting to hunt deer with small feet but if your following a small track and see lots of buck sign....well it IS possible! Again good luck and be persistent.  sorry for long post.