Sorry if this ends up long but hope you guys can help! I made a post a few days ago about how many rubs and thanks for the replys but I need some advise on this property. I have never hunted thick stuff or a swamp for that matter, all my hunting has been on the edge of a woods by a field and walk in out with no problems. I posted some pics below of what it looks like along with an aerial photo of it marked up with what I know. The front half is all swamp with some sign but not much. The "swamp pic" is were the main trail starts and goes around the little ponds and then to the left over to the ditch and out to a tree line. This is thirty five acres and I can only hunt from the RR tracks to the ditch and then all the way to the bottom where it ends in another field. Over on the "ditch pic" is where the main trail comes in and starts. But you can not tell in the pic but on the other side of that ditch pic is thick stuff, like a high wall of thorns and briar's, the only way I went in was hunched up and made all kinds of noise on the deer trail. The swamp pic is kinda clear, but no good trees to set up a stand in and plus its all wet and I get wet or start to sink in when I try to walk in it! I set up a ground blind by the RR tracks and used a machete to make a path from the RR tracks to the blind. This whole area is just thick and impossible to get into with out sounding like a freight train coming in and I know the deer would hear me.

My main question is I want to hunt were the main trail pic is. The pic does not do it justice, but on the other side of that ditch is a trial that looks like a highway a foot wide and solid tracks, rubs every were. Have any of you guys used a tripod stand and does it work setting out in the open high up? I was thinking about setting up one or a ground blind but to do it I would have to cut a trail into the thick stuff so I can get in with out a lot of noise. If I do cut a trail in the thick stuff will deer see it and think somethings up and stay away for a while? Also if I cut a trail and set up a ground blind in the thick stuff would this be a mistake since it is to late in the season? I did not find this property until a week or so ago so I may be to late to do to much this year. Any advise is appreciated, thanks!



Swamp pic


Main entry trail ditch pic were I would like to set up.

One of my best spots is in a thick swamp, the other is just outside of it. Your pics are strikingly similar. I have two permanent stands in this area. One in a high oak tree, which is the one just outside the swamp where the small swamp streams meet the river in some hardwoods, and the other is in a beach tree in a slightly high spot in the swamp. It is in a small patch of woods about twenty yards wide. The wet spots get confined and travel as one small stream through that area since the ground is a bit higher, and that is why there is a tree suitable for a stand. The swamp that I'm in looks a lot like your area since there seems to be a field right next to the swamp area in the aerial photo.
I wanted to hunt in the swamp this year also, but had no real stand. I found a buddy who had some good wood that had been sitting outside and I talked him into letting me have it. Of course I bought new stinky wood and replaced it, but didn't want the new stinky wood in my hunting area.

If I were you I'd go inthere andput some really small stands at the bases of some of those smaller trees, but off of the trails. I'd put them on both sides of the trail (wind direction thing). I'd check the wind direction before getting to the property to decide which stand I was going to and just march in there like a foot soldier with my swamp boots on, but again not on the trail and get on one of those small stands. You can make them real easy and they only need to be two or three feet high to get you above the tall grasses. After all, you know where they're going to be walking if they come in. I'd also get some deer poo from another location and put a big pile of it right where you'd want the deer to stop and take a sniff. Sine you don't have much time to build a really good stand and don't know where you're going to be hunting for sure, being scent free and motionless is absolutely the key on this one. If you only have one shooting lane which may be the case, and that is fine if you only have one trail, there is no reason to be looking around all the time.

I do have a tripod stand. The one I have would sink in a swamp unless you modified it. Not real sure why, but I've never really liked my tripod. I'd go with the multiple small stands. All you need is one piece of lumber nailed to the small tree. Another one big enough for you to stand on parallel to the ground and two gussets at 45 degree angles lag bolted or nailed to the tree and supporting the piece your standing on.
Good luck

Thanks for the response Killer. I never thought of just making a short stand in staying in the swap and waiting like that. Will have to consider it. And you are right it has fields on the left and bottom side and RR tracks on the right which has a field on the other side of it. I feel this is a hot spot but think I found it a little to late though for this year.