Well after coming back from the beach early Sat morning and catching a few hours sleep, I, a buddy and my son went walking some public lands to check out some hunting locations on some public land local (about 30minutes from the house).
Background
The are we were eventually going to cove was about half of a 350 acre parcel. We chose to look at the southern portion of the parcel. Mostly wooded. (95%). The area was bound by roads east and south and bound on the west by train tracks and a 30' wide river.total topography change was about 250' with some flat areas and some steep ravines.
Observations during the hike.
Threw Liam into the kid pack and tromped off into the woods following a horse trail from the parking area. Immediately notice a bunch of deer trails zigzagging and crossing the horse trail though patches of fern and berry bushes and oak stands. As I walked further it seamed that the number of trails decreased but the amount of wear on the trails present was more defined. as I walked I went through many transitions as I descended down a hill to a river (about a 200' drop in topo) When we got about a half mile in we ventured off on one of the deer trails down into a a ravine from what looked like a dry creek bed. when we got close to the creek bed we came across a significantly worn trail. from there we took the the trail across the dry creek bed and up a ravine as we climbed up there were several trees along the path that appeared to have old rubs. this area was mostly mixed hardwoods including oaks and hickorys. as we neared the top it appeared that the main route then divided up into several smaller trails dispersing out through pines and ferns. We turned around and followed down the trail to see where the other end went. It appeared to also disperse into smaller trails as the hardwoods opened into a less dense pocket if you will of grass and ferns.
From there we proceeded down following smaller deer trails down toward the tracks (also the western boundary of the hunt zone) we followed the tracks north until it crossed a creek bed. From there we followed another significantly worn deer trail into an relatively flat (as compared to the rest of the area) meadow area of grass and small saplings were we quickly realized was a major bedding area. Smashed areas of grass some very recent(noticed by the green plants saplings) freshly bent, smashed, and broken in a couple locations This area was located directly adjacent to the creek bed. Looking across the creek bed we could see a number of trails leading straight up a steep hill heading back into the direction of the parking area. After finding where the deer have crossed and drank from the creek (evident by the numerous fresh tracks), we decided to cross the creek and head up the hill following the trails. As we walked up the hillside we carefully made a way through the mountain laurel, thought a pine stand through some ferns and finally back onto the horse trail we had started on. From there we made our way back to the truck passing trough berry bushes and passing though a mix of oaks and other hardwoods.
Conclusions
Based on my walk I am assuming setting up somewhere between the pines and the mountain laurel would be a good start so I get them coming from the bedding going to the oaks and berries in the morning? Also i would think that the main trail that I found tho old rubs would be another place to set up as a back up or as a efferent spot based on wind.
Is it safe to assume they are not feeding on the Laurel but rather traversing through it to get to the oak saplings and the berry bushes? I also assume when the oaks start dropping the acorns in the fall that setting up around them would also be beneficial, right?
Is there any benifit to setting up near the water crossing or near the bedding area? Of course either of those two option provide a long and tiring drag back to the truck if utilized!
This is the state land across from my house. Stand sites 1-12 are all on planted fields(beans and corn). There is also a nice water hole in there. I walked through Sunday and jumped up some deer by stand 11 about 6PM.
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