davidmil

Well, without seeing your place it's really tough to say. I will say that hunting down at the bottoms like you describe is a real bear as far as wind currents. I don't care what's going on, down there the wind currents of a tight valley can really screw you. How much do you hunt the area. IF it's only once a week or so I'd move up ridge and find the quietest sneaky way in. The area you're hunting sounds like the deer have the wind in their favor. I'd get up top more, but that's without seeing it you understand. It's all about wind when you're in that close. If you're quiet and careful you can get in and out. I've literally had deer bedded within sight and climbed down a tree with my climber and left with them still bedded. Get the tree between you and them and you're good to go if you're quiet.

bowhunterjohn

I think a major problem with watching the "pro's" scout in season is that they are hunting thousands of acres on pristine hunting ground.

Most of us, myself included , have woodlots of 10-30 acres or maybe a farm land with woods in the 100-200 acre. Hard to in season scout without educating and or bumping deer. Heck its hard some farms to get back out of your stand early season without bumping a deer or two off beds.

I'm not a fan of in season walk a bouts either. Edge scouting to a minimum. If you've hunted an area long enough there should be a pattern season after season. The one farm I hunt you can be guaranteed theres going to be a scrap/rub line from the east to the west just inside the wood line.

archer58

I don't hunt the bottoms at all ...I'm just over the lip of the ridge top about 30 yards.
The bottom is about 150ft below.
The ridge line runs north and south and I hunt it with a westerly wind only so my scent blows out and over the valley.
I can however get closer to the entrance of the bedding area. I have just avoided it so far.
Do u think the top of the ridge would be more productive. There's lots of buck sign up there but I don't THINK bucks use the top in daylight???

buckeye

I can tell you in my experiences bucks mostlybed on top of the thick ridges, I also hunt a lot of reclaimed strip mines as well. I actually took my buck this year hunting reclaimed strips on public hunting land.....

TJF

While I agree with " no walk abouts " in the immediate area that you hunt, I disagree that you should not scout during hunting. I am constantly scouting " while " I hunt. When Iam not hunting, Ilong range scout and watch areas.Our area is much different from yours though.Our area is open and pretty much voidof trees.

The deer are constantly changing patterns as the fall progresses due tofood sources,the pressure of waterfoul hunters/rifle hunters and changes in cover. It is pretty much ag land here and there is a lot more cover for the deer at the beginning of hunting season versus the end of hunting season.

Heck our summer scoutingis just for locating certain buck's main bedding areas. They are not feedingin the same area once bowhunting starts which means they are traveling through an area differently then just a week before bow season started.We know from experience what theyprefer to feed on and seek out these spots well before bow season starts. Once we find the bucks bedding areainlate summer, we plot which travel route they are more likely to takethe 1st of September when season starts. Since it is open we carryspotting scopes and good binocs to watch the area we hunt to adjust depending how the deer use it during hunting.

Scouting is very important to us during hunting. What was hot one week could be cold a week later. From experience we know what to expect in the yearly habits of the deer. In-season scouting is for fine tuning our hunting. We scout " all year ". Well the1st two weeksof June, we take a break. That is how important scouting is to us.

Tim

archer58

O.K. I'll go to the top. That still puts me below the bedding area.
There's no way to get in there anyway. It's too thick with tight rows of those Christmas tree.

buckeye

Tim,

I agree with what you said. When I say no in-season scouting I am speaking of busting brush and disturbing the deers daily routine. I am not saying to not use a keen eye and to leave the binos orspotting scope at home. Standtimeis very valueable information on where you should setup if you need to tweak your locations. I have at times hunted field edges just to see where the does are entering and exiting the fields trying to get a drop on what bedding areas the does are preferring at that time. But I will almost never put my boots to the dirt trying to decipher what area is "hot".

GregH

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Greg / MO

Great post, Scott.

I've pretty much lived by this mantra for the last couple years, but became even more zealous about it this past year after reading Don Higgins' Hunting Trophy Whitetails in the Real World... For those interested, you can learn more about this book at http://www.higginsoutdoors.com/

Scott's post goes hand-in-hand with most of the thoughts layed out by Don in this book, and probably explains why both have some monster bucks to their credit.

My favorite line from the book, as GregH pointed out above, is that most hunters hunt sign instead of hunting deer.

kwaldeier

wow that is true