Discussion / challenge

[Taylor]

Discussion
How would you..
What would you do.....

Deer hunting - unknown area.

Tree stand(climbing) or

Ground,you are mobile- no blind

Now....you have never hunted this area before
you cannot scout or do any recon other than map
the area is approximately 25 square miles

Terrain..heavy wooded with pine and hardwoods.Flat to slight rolling hills.Small hollers and dry creek beds.Can be thick brush from logging or open in the pine and oak trees.Old logging roads and fire breaks.

All you can do is drive to the area in the morning and look for a place to enter the field.

You have all day to hunt---muzzle loader (inline with optics your choice) or shotgun(slug,optics too) only.

You cannot hunt this area 2 days in a row.

"I know it's a raw deal buddy,but it's all you got."

OK...run with it!

----mods can move

[lawdog941]

Google Earth Satellite view. Look for water, power line through ways. Spot/stalk hunting with binos, if able. **** sandwich...

[Taylor]

yes it is

[44man]

You are in a pure fix.
Been there done that but it takes time to learn the country. 2 days only, stay home.

[Texas by God]

I would do it if it's free. And I would take my 870 loaded with 00 buck. Water& high protien snacks and use the logging roads. I would take binocs and a few #6s in case and have a good time seeing new country. Best, Thomas.

[white eagle]

simple find the most game sign and hunt there
for deer hang a stand and hunt between where
they eat and where they come for a nap
heavy trails with alot of tracks
I would not waste my time on a morning hunt but
rather hunt to my spot with my trusty 54 cal muzzleloader
looking for the above spot

[rking22]

Oh yeah, do it in a heartbeat! No stand as there is no prior scouting so,, just extra stuff to drag around. I'll take a 50 or 54 longrifle and just find a place to enter from google earth. Rifle, knife , rope and snacks to go with the BIG water bottle. Then hunt my way thru looking for edges between pines and feeding areas. Enjoy the day in the woods, shooting a deer is a bonus. It's better than just going hiking with a camera because you CAN shoot one, that makes it a hunt. I have done near the same, Nathan Bedford Forest MZ hunts. You can scout but there is so much sign it's a tossup. The worst part is getting the deer out to the truck, we have some pretty rough country for a mile long drag, been there, done that. Now my deep woods hunts are for squirrel with a little 36 flint gun, squirrels are easier to get back to the truck :)

[runfiverun]

that's pretty much how I hunt anyway so I wouldn't be deterred.
hunt the weather if it's cold, that means food.
if it's the rut hunt the open trees.
if it's hot hunt water.

just get in there and work a wide loop.
move and watch, move and watch, go early and stay late.

[Thumbcocker]

Back against a tree on the side of a hill overlooking a bottom with a trail in it on either side of the thick stuff. Made a pile of meat with such a set up.

[quilbilly]

Google Earth Satellite view. Look for water, power line through ways. Spot/stalk hunting with binos, if able. **** sandwich... Do this but look for "edge habitat" on the satellite photo. Whitetail deer as well as my local blacktail deer are creatures of edge habitat. You should be able to spot water and bedding areas close to the "edge habitat".

[Yodogsandman]

Use that Google Earth Satellite View and find some water with heavy cover nearby. Overlay a contour map to show ridges and natural funnels. By the time you get there the deer might be heading to bed and they like a drink and shadows to bed in. Get there by the fastest way, by logging roads or whatever. Hunt well away from any other hunter access points. Hunt the edges of those shadows with the wind to your nose. Sit where it looks good, where you're not sky lighted on a hilltop and where your outline is broken up. Carry a grunt tube and use it now and then. Look a lot, listen a lot, stop a lot, walk a little.

[richhodg66]

A map recon would help, but I'd get in early and walk and scout the first half of the day, find a place to set up an ambush. I personally will always try hard to get in a tree, especially in real thick stuff. I sure wouldn't stay home. You might get lucky and find a real good spot.

[44man]

When we first went to PA for archery we never hunted in the AM, just never seen a deer then. Everyone else would leave before light and never got a deer, they all hunted trails.
We made a big breakfast and went chipmunk hunting to walk for sign and food. Best place was 3 miles downhill on the game lands road. Only seen one other guy down that far. We always got deer but 3 miles up hill had me make a cart out of conduit with wheel chair hubs and spokes, balloon tires. It came apart and folded in half. There were times we hauled out 3 deer on it.
It took time to find many good spots, most of a week the first season to get set up. Then years and years to learn the forest.
Truth is with the whole campground full of guys, we were the only ones to get deer. I don't remember seeing another deer shot in over 20 years. Getting home, not a single archer in the club had a deer. Recurve days. Took the average archer 17 years to kill a deer. I killed 3 the first year, PA, MI and Ohio. The foot work needed added up to a million miles. I always had topo maps and a compass. It was to get in and out and a map never had deer pictures on it.
Get Field and Stream or Outdoor Life, they show where to put up a stand! :bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:
You learn with footwork. Yes you might get lucky and walk in to shoot one. My favorite was tracking in snow and never failed to track them down and shoot one. Flint lock. Deer circle as you track so walk in deer tracks so when they come around again, you know what tracks to avoid. One day I went past my truck 7 times, 7 lines of tracks to sort so walk in them.
There were days in Ohio in a blizzard when it took half a day to cut a track but I still shot one. I went past another guy twice, last time the deer went by him about 30 yards and I shot it just after.
A trick for you in snow. Deer will go down a steep hill and stand at the bottom to watch the back trail. Get down and crawl way off to the side to peek over.
To know what I learned with over about 560 deer kills is not found in 2 days.

[44man]

On foot a white tail can make you look silly but once you learn them, they are easy. They don't go cross country like a mule deer or elk. They don't like to leave home. About 2 square miles but a buck in rut can do 15 square miles. What went by on the trail today might take a month to come back. You find scrapes and rubs and might never see a deer during season. You get excited with a rub line and hang a stand. You sit daylight to dark for weeks. Set cameras to see deer at night. Kind of funny! You can't hunt at night. Put up a sign to tell them to be there during the day.
How do you break it down? You must learn where they come from and go. How long to get where you are.
What about the moon? I feel they feed more with the moon bright and go to bed earlier and have passed where you sit before sun rise. On darker nights, they feed and lay up to chew cud. Get some rest. I have not figured the moon affect. Deer bed with wind one way and vision the other. A slope is favored. They do NOT pick thickets. Thickets block wind and sight.

[ammohead]

Two days of a long nature walk in good country with a fine firearm. What's the downside?

[44man]

Two days of a long nature walk in good country with a fine firearm. What's the downside?
I can go along with that. Sorry I said to stay home. Any time spent out doors is better then working. Smell the air and look at the beauty of nature.
Being old now does not have the same as when I could not sleep to just go fishing. Opening day meant no sleep.
I told you when a neighbor took me fishing as a kid. A string on my toe out the window he pulled to get me up. You don't know the wonder.
Go out.

[ascast]

I would do any or all above and ad if I missed it -- LOTS of buck lure. Put some in a tree near parked car, walk up and down the car trail, maybe off trail if possible, or big circles. Drag a rag off your boot with buck lure of some kind, just touch the ground every 5-10 steps. Watch behind you when you stop. Maybe leave a open pac of oatmeal cookies on your car hood. Really! I have seen it work. Worst case you get out for the day to scout new country. Let us know how it goes.

[quilbilly]

Two days of a long nature walk in good country with a fine firearm. What's the downside?
Well said sir!

[44man]

You might think it funny but a friend I put in a stand had animal crackers to snack on. He bumped the box out of the stand and could not get out or back in without help. Funny tree.
He heard noise to see a buck eating his cookies, nose in the box.