Please help me hunt this property

[South MS Bowhunter]

I have access to this 840 acre parcel and at one time it was over 1500 but the owner has sold off nearly half.

I have hunted it for around 8-9 years and still have not been consistent in patterning the deer movement.  It is a mix of mostly pine and yaupon holly trees and shrubs. It has a few ridges with mix oaks mostly pin and water oaks and one ridge with a small grove or two of white oaks.

There is water in the drainage from rain run off and usually will maintain some water during the late fall and winter.

This time of year I of concentrate on the whites but the winds are contrary in the bottoms.

Where would you guy choose to set up stands/blinds and why?  I'm looking to learn, thanks.


 

[South MS Bowhunter]

And forgot to add that we have about 12 food plots planted on the property now (some not showing on google earth at this point).

[Cyclic-Rivers]

That is an Overwhelmingly large piece of land.  As you already know, it will take a lot of time to learn it.

I wish I could help you more but I would  focus on natural funnels this time of year or during your rut.  

an example of this may be an area where a large drainage starts and hopefully is proximate to some great cover and food.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Charlie,

Your right it is a very large area and the cover is thick with honey suckle and browse all around, so the deer don't have to move much.

I'm not the the best hunter and i'm trying to improve on my abilities by seeing what you smart guys would do and why. Thanks

[Sean B]

I'll be on s flight to help out...what's the nearest airport???  

[Sean B]

Charlie's right. It's going to take a while. But it's large enough for multiple stand locations for various winds. Look for the signs in and around the food plots. Bucks will be cruising now for the next week or so, but the Does will still want to feed.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Guys,

It may be easier to type in this address in goggle earth

"Bilbo Rd and Hwy 57, MS"

And then slide over to the left just a tab to coordinates 30 Degrees 40'21.92"N X 88 Degrees 46'21.79" W

This will put you around center of the property picture and maybe using the picture boundary lines you can compare it better.

Anyway any help would be appreciated and I'll post pic's of any success and what information helped, thanks.

[SELFBOW19953]

Are there any really thick areas, like a cut over that's 3 or 4 years old, that could be bedding areas?  Do you have much topography-ridges, saddles, hollows, etc?  Are those clearcuts on the adjoining property at the northwest corner?  They were timber in 2013.  Check for trails and sign along your property boundary-could be a good morning/evening spot.  Look for trails/sign along the northern edges of your white oak flats.  

In the lower left corner of your Google Earth picture, there is a "1992".  Click on that and a slide bar with dates will appear in the upper left portion of the image.  Just slide the tab to the various dates, you can see how the property has looked in each aerial since 1992.

Look at the 1996 image and you can see fingers of timber growing in an area that looks bare-immediately below your pin marked "Power Line Shooting House", but is planted on more recent aerials.  Edges formed along different age patches of trees are good travel corridors.  You can also see them in the 2015 image as bluish tinted trees-probably hardwoods-growing into very green patches-probably pines.  

Hope this helps some.

Phil

[South MS Bowhunter]

Thanks Phil,

I've hunted the 2 area 's marked white oak groves quite a bit but the wind is squirrelly and I get busted more time than not.

The property has been forested over the last 3 years and there is a thick underbrush growing in between the rows of trees left.

We have plans to bush hog every 5th row and open these areas up some.

[Doc Nock]

if you bush hog, they will come... and use the bush hog lanes...Deer are lazy...smart, but realize how to conserve energy...like us old guys, but smarter!  

[calgarychef]

If I had long term access I'd take the bush hog suggestion.  After this season do a walk and mat the very best game trails,then go to work on some of them.  Haul in branches to divert two trails into one, widen other trails a bit etc.  I have no experience with food plots but with that many I'd think that it must give too much choice to the deer and allow them to avoid you.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Tracy,

It is, and has been my suspicion that is what is happening. To many food choices (Mast, browse, and plots) and land available that the deer don't need to move much.

I've sat Wednesday and today without seeing a thing.  Plenty of signs in the food plots and I pick the best ones for the wind given, but alas the deer don't mind what the wind direction is as long as they know i'm not there.

[Msbow]

840 acres is a lot of land! Try focusing on ONLY smaller sections like 40 acres and then break that down into even smaller sections. I would start with those oaks and the nearest cover in relation to the oaks. You have to find a constant to be able to find consistency and that is hard to do on that much land because things are changing all the time, but they might not change so much on that 40 acres.

[old_goat2]

If I had some vacation time, I'd come help you!

[calgarychef]

One of the best spots I hunt is "impossible" to hunt on, by that I mean no good trees, and the bush where they hang out is so thick I can't shoot an arrow anywhere in it.  I've resorted to decoys and calling on the edges and after learning to bring the animals to me I've done very well off that piece of land.  I won't go into techniques because others have already posted info about it but one thing I will say is don't overdo calling and don't wear out your welcome.  Once they're wise to you it's game over until next season.  

Also if a really good spot doesn't have a tree, improvise.  I shot my buck from a pit blind this year at 10 feet, I had to wait for him to walk away a bit as he was too close to shoot initially.