Picking a setup location

[SFAbowhunter]

Good info here, SFA- entirely too much!

How so?


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[SFAbowhunter]

And what a stud H buck last year by the way! You get that thing mounted?

Thanks! Yes sir! Should be finished in a couple of weeks.


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[TN_boy]

I believe that was meant as a compliment. More like "Way to Go"!

[SFAbowhunter]

Good info here, SFA- entirely too much!

Oh you were answering to the main question when you said entirely too much. lol thought you were saying I have said too much about the H.

Lots of good info here guys.

Also, check out thehuntingbeast.com. It's another hunting forum loaded with good info on public land hunting.

Lots of people saying that late winter/early spring is the best time to scout, but as I started thinking about all of my scouting I've done, the times I was successful was when I scouted, found hot sign, and hunted. Still learning a lot though!

[Budman68]

My approach is similar, but I look for a few other things.

(1) Pinch points are important if there is a lot of open area. Deer will avoid a open field like the plague.

(2) I always have the attitude that I will be harvesting an animal. Big or small. On public land, that legal six might be the only thing you see in a week. The purpose of the hunts are to reduce deer population, take advantage of it.

(3) Hunt hard from 9am to 4pm. Most public land hunters come out of the stands early and show back up at 4ish. Deer will move to avoid them, so target those times. This varies based on pressure.

(4) Wait out the evening hunt. Hunt till the legal end.

[SFAbowhunter]

I'd like to add to my process. This year is going to be a different year for me. With my son being born last November, my hunting time will be limited. With that, I'll be pushing the envelope more and being aggressive. I believe I will be doing more scouting and hunting the hot sign this year. Less time in the stand, but that time on stand will be more productive. At least that is what I'm hoping for. I will be hunting public land that I have never stepped foot on, so I am using HuntStand to mark areas of interest where deer may be bedding and feeding. I will be scouting a bunch during season and setting up on hot sign. Can't wait to get started! Also, will be saddle hunting and going super minimal on what I am taking to the woods this year too. I will be staying mobile and efficient.

[SFAbowhunter]

https://going4brokeoutdoors.com/tips-and-tactics-for-e-scouting-whitetail-deer/

[troy_w_7]

https://going4brokeoutdoors.com/tips...hitetail-deer/

This site looks really helpful! Thanks for sharing!

[seazofcheeze]

This site looks really helpful! Thanks for sharing!

Hi Troy, thanks for the feedback. I am actually the owner/author of the website. I'm glad people are finding the info helpful.

I actually just completed my latest "tactics" blog entry the other day. Feel free to check it out if you'd like, and let me know what you think. I'd post a link, but I don't have 5 posts yet. The blog is called Top 5 Bowhunting Mistakes: How to Become a Better Whitetail Bowhunter.

[piercebronkite]

My approach is similar, but I look for a few other things.


(3) Hunt hard from 9am to 4pm. Most public land hunters come out of the stands early and show back up at 4ish. Deer will move to avoid them, so target those times. This varies based on pressure.

I have experienced this a lot on public land. The last hunt I had two bull nilgais show up in a hurry at 10:45, 45 yards away from me, stopped and stood broadside. Im pretty sure they were bumped by a tripod hunter leaving his stand that was a few hundred yards away from me.

[RR 314]

I use a divining rod. Sometimes two. They point and I stay put. :-)

[HighwayHunter]

Here’s a good one. Getting on a new lease this year, timber company. All pines. I haven’t stepped foot on the place yet but it’s huge. Mixture of old, middle aged and young pines, fire breaks and one creek running through the place. Aside from the obvious creek crossings, how should I go about hunting this and picking out spots? Also the terrain is completely flat across the property.


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[Cberry]

I've been bow hunting public land exclusively for 6 years now and through my learning from real life experiences and Dan Infalt/John Eberhart/THP videos and podcasts, here is my stab at your questions. I'm generally hunting public, walk-in land that I can scout year round. If I were going on a draw hunt or permit only hunt, my scouting efforts my be limited. But the below is generally my thought process.



While map scouting, I'll look at overall acreage size, access points (easy or hard), water sources (creeks, rivers, isolated water holes in the timber), pinch points, funnels, staging areas, and habitat transition lines. These are going to be places I think deer activity will occur most frequently. I will mark all of these spots on the OnX app so I can visit them in person. If the place has a lot of easily accessible points, I can assume a lot of other hunters will hunt that piece, which would discourage me from hunting there. So I'll either try to find creative access to that piece or find a new piece all together.

When I get boots on the ground, I'm hitting the marked places first and will fan out from there, if need be (If I find what I'm looking for in the suspected spots, that may be enough). I'll be looking for rubs, scrapes (specifically 3-4 cluster of scrapes in the timber, not on field edges), brows sign, hidden water holes in the timber or close to it, other hunters' sign, tracks, trails, and some specific trees to hang in. In my opinion, in season or post season scouting is by far the best time for this since all the foliage is gone and the sign is super obvious. If you mark all rubs and scrapes you find, then look at OnX later on, it'll basically show you the deer's highways. I found some really good primary scrape areas in December last year that were getting hit hard all the way through January, day and night time activity. Because of that, I have specific trees setup in those areas with entry routes in mind, with certain wind types. Some spots I can't hunt on certain winds because there's no way to access from upwind, that's why having multiple spots preped and ready are important. But I'm always trying to approach my spots with the wind in my face or some sort of cross wind form the direction I think deer will be coming from.

I don't really do anything with scent elimination; just try to play the wind the best I can. There's a lot of talk now about the science of 'thermals' which I'm still trying to wrap my head around. But I know that could come into play in terms of lifting you scent up and out of an area to where deer won't catch a whiff.

What would you consider a difficult access point? I know a few places that are large acre tracts with the roads closed at highways so you cannot drive through but I tend to still see quite a few vehicles always parked at them.

[Tommyh]

https://going4brokeoutdoors.com/tips...hitetail-deer/

bookmarked and thanks

[Dmcgee]

Odd days of the week tues wed thurs have been successful for me


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