Let's talk about scouting WMAs in Florida..
10-01-2007, 05:53 PM
#1
Dominant Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Central Florida
Posts: 25,116
Let's talk about scouting WMAs in Florida..
So many of us are not doing good in FLorida...On the behalf of us who consistently strike out I'm asking the following questions to you who do pretty darn good..
Here's the scenario...You are hunting a place like the Green Swamp..58,000 highly pressured acres.
Terrain ...high and dry pines
bayheads
cypress domes
palmetto fields
little river running through it surrounded by a huge hammock
Questions
1. Which terrain do you start scouting and why?
2. What are you primarily looking for?
3. Do you examine deer droppings?
4.Do you bag deer yearly in WMA?
5.When do you use calls? {What months and how often?}
6.If you see other hunters in your area do you leave and look around for another spot or just stay?
Thanks so much ,
Chuck7
Here's the scenario...You are hunting a place like the Green Swamp..58,000 highly pressured acres.
Terrain ...high and dry pines
bayheads
cypress domes
palmetto fields
little river running through it surrounded by a huge hammock
Questions
1. Which terrain do you start scouting and why?
2. What are you primarily looking for?
3. Do you examine deer droppings?
4.Do you bag deer yearly in WMA?
5.When do you use calls? {What months and how often?}
6.If you see other hunters in your area do you leave and look around for another spot or just stay?
Thanks so much ,
Chuck7
10-01-2007, 06:28 PM
#2
Join Date: May 2005
Location: georgia
Posts: 3,297
RE: Let's talk about scouting WMAs in Florida..
ORIGINAL: Chuck7
So many of us are not doing good in FLorida...On the behalf of us who consistently strike out I'm asking the following questions to you who do pretty darn good..
Here's the scenario...You are hunting a place like the Green Swamp..58,000 highly pressured acres.
Terrain ...high and dry pines
bayheads
cypress domes
palmetto fields
little river running through it surrounded by a huge hammock
I haven't bunted in Florida, but I have in S Ga,and SC which is very similar.
Questions
1. Which terrain do you start scouting and why? High and dry edges, where 2 different terrain types meet. Palmetto fields are usually bedding areas, or at least a part of them, but are nois to gery through, so stay outof them and on the edges.
2. What are you primarily looking for? Trails coming in and out for general deer sign,and then rubs just outside of them for specifically bucks.A concentration of rubs means he is spending time there-- a staging area most likely. Rubs in a line wil tell you where he us travelling, and depending on which side of the tree, the direction he is going.Follow the trails out and to the feeding areas.Try to get as close to the bedding areas as you can in the evenings going to feeding,and then as close to the feeding areas going back to teh bedding areas in teh am. Be careful about your scent on both your approach,scent left on teh ground where you walk,and what you touch, and also scent that will drift into the areas you are expecting the deer to come from. Sound is important as well . You maybe in a tree very near a bedded bcu, and ned to act as if he could hears everything that you are doing.
3. Do you examine deer droppings?Notreally--except for whether they are fresh, how concentrated they are,and their size.A lot of droppings that vary insize usually means does and fawns. Bigger droppingd, and less numbers, butuniform insize , usuallly indicates a buck.
4.Do you bag deer yearly in WMA?
5.When do you use calls? {What months and how often?}
Grunts are pretty good all of the time.There are diffeent typres of grunts, depending onteh stage of the rut and the sex of teh deer grunting. Doe s grunt too.Rattling is useless unless the buck to doe ratio is close. If there ar a lot of does there won't be much competition. The same goes for rubs. No rubs or few rubs doesn't mean no bucks necesarrily. Most probably it means few bucks with a lot of does.
6.If you see other hunters in your area do you leave and look around for another spot or just stay?
Move deeper, an d further,but still look for thesame kind of sign. One kind of sign that you really want to look for is that of other hunters. They may be able to find the right spot,just like you but unable to not ruin it for you and them.
Thanks so much ,
Chuck7
So many of us are not doing good in FLorida...On the behalf of us who consistently strike out I'm asking the following questions to you who do pretty darn good..
Here's the scenario...You are hunting a place like the Green Swamp..58,000 highly pressured acres.
Terrain ...high and dry pines
bayheads
cypress domes
palmetto fields
little river running through it surrounded by a huge hammock
I haven't bunted in Florida, but I have in S Ga,and SC which is very similar.
Questions
1. Which terrain do you start scouting and why? High and dry edges, where 2 different terrain types meet. Palmetto fields are usually bedding areas, or at least a part of them, but are nois to gery through, so stay outof them and on the edges.
2. What are you primarily looking for? Trails coming in and out for general deer sign,and then rubs just outside of them for specifically bucks.A concentration of rubs means he is spending time there-- a staging area most likely. Rubs in a line wil tell you where he us travelling, and depending on which side of the tree, the direction he is going.Follow the trails out and to the feeding areas.Try to get as close to the bedding areas as you can in the evenings going to feeding,and then as close to the feeding areas going back to teh bedding areas in teh am. Be careful about your scent on both your approach,scent left on teh ground where you walk,and what you touch, and also scent that will drift into the areas you are expecting the deer to come from. Sound is important as well . You maybe in a tree very near a bedded bcu, and ned to act as if he could hears everything that you are doing.
3. Do you examine deer droppings?Notreally--except for whether they are fresh, how concentrated they are,and their size.A lot of droppings that vary insize usually means does and fawns. Bigger droppingd, and less numbers, butuniform insize , usuallly indicates a buck.
4.Do you bag deer yearly in WMA?
5.When do you use calls? {What months and how often?}
Grunts are pretty good all of the time.There are diffeent typres of grunts, depending onteh stage of the rut and the sex of teh deer grunting. Doe s grunt too.Rattling is useless unless the buck to doe ratio is close. If there ar a lot of does there won't be much competition. The same goes for rubs. No rubs or few rubs doesn't mean no bucks necesarrily. Most probably it means few bucks with a lot of does.
6.If you see other hunters in your area do you leave and look around for another spot or just stay?
Move deeper, an d further,but still look for thesame kind of sign. One kind of sign that you really want to look for is that of other hunters. They may be able to find the right spot,just like you but unable to not ruin it for you and them.
Thanks so much ,
Chuck7
