Next Step Outdoors

No matter where I went, the closest obvious buck sign from the access points had a stand next to it (sometimes multiple). This was expected. If you are hunting public land and want to get a crack at a mature buck during daylight hours it is imperative to get away from the main access points. The further from the access points and main trails I went, the more buck sign and core bedding areas I found. Don’t get me wrong…most of the stand setups I came across looked like they were in awesome spots, however with the amount of evident hunting pressure, the chances of the elusive bucks we are all after plummet. The one thing I’m unsure about is how many of the blinds and stands I found were actually used during bow season, or if they were just left after they were used in gun season.

Before even stepping foot in the woods I had certain properties picked out and had specific features marked. Personally, I am a huge fan of Onx Hunt but there are other apps like HuntWise and HuntStand that perform similar functions. Onx Hunt outlines public land boundaries, provides topo maps, as well as satellite images of properties. While in the field, it can be difficult to see the bigger picture so I was constantly using my phone to help aim me towards terrain features that I had identified from my computer at home. As I scouted, I was able to drop waypoints for every rub, scrape, bed, and trail that I felt was notable. The best part about Onx Hunt is that the mobile app is linked to the website so as long as you have an account, all of your waypoints and markings will show up on both. This way you can go back and study the results of your scouting trip on a bigger screen and hopefully notice patterns and correlations that you might have missed in the field.

The first weekend I went out, there was still two inches of snow on the ground. I could see exactly where the deer had recently traveled and follow their tracks all the way back to the oval beds that were melted down to bare earth. While I think deer bed closer to food when they are unpressured and there is limited browse, it was still educational and led me to some THICK cover that I’m sure very few hunters ever penetrate. I came out of there scratched, bleeding, and exhausted. The good part is, I was able to see just how far you can see out of each of the beds and mark trees just outside of the bedding areas that I plan to potentially set up in if the bedding in-season is consistent with my findings. The challenge then is to figure out the most efficient entry and exit routes for different wind directions, which I have been narrowing down while studying my Onx Hunt maps on my computer. The downfall of the snow is that it prevented me from seeing any scrapes on the ground that would still be barren of leaves and debris. My hope was to identify some primary scrape areas but was still satisfy identifying specific bedding areas to target.

By the second weekend, the remaining snow had melted (we have gotten dumped on with snow since). As I explored some different properties, I was able to point out well-used buck beds that were obviously used throughout the year, as well as doe bedding areas. These beds were big depressions in thick cover that were bare of foliage and debris. There were lots of deer droppings around these beds and in a lot of cases, the browse had been eaten all the way down to the stem in a 5-10 foot radius. Every time I came across a big solo bed, I marked it on my app. I also squatted in the bed and observed how I could access and get as close as possible without being spotted by the buck that was in that exact bed. Putting yourself in the deer’s perspective is a valuable opportunity that you can’t always take advantage of mid-season.

Confidence kills and the more time you spend on a specific piece of property, the better you know the terrain, understand how the deer use it, and how you can effectively hunt it. The more I get in the woods, the easier it has become for me to predict where deer are bedding and how they are using a property. The more you can learn about how deer use a specific property and WHY they use it that way, the better you will be at hunting new properties as well. The key is learning and understanding. It has also been interesting to watch myself develop in terms of scouting satellite maps and translating that into “boots on the ground” scouting missions. I will be applying my learnings on some out of state hunting trips this year, so the better I get, the better my odds will be when season rolls around.

Every expert will agree that hunting pressure is one of the main factors to consider while hunting mature bucks. After scouting 4 different properties in two weekends, I will be shifting my criteria and will target properties where I can get at least a half mile from any road or public access (easier said than done in some places around here). Onx Hunt has a feature that allows you to draw a line and estimate the distance, so I have been relying heavily on that while scouting from my computer. After identifying several new target properties, I will check these properties out and report back. Sometimes it is hard to ignore obvious sign so close to the access points but there will be more competition among hunters and even if you do see deer, they will likely be young bucks and does. Mature bucks do not get old by being stupid. To shoot mature bucks, you must go where they live. To get something different, you have to do something different. Most people do not consistently get opportunities at mature whitetails, so do not do what most people do…