mauser06

bruce, thanx for another good example. i would also check out that white. could be overgrown fields and could be the bedding area. i find that ALOT around here. spots of white on the map are generally a cut or field of some sort...definently worth checking into. power lines also show up white..and around here alot of them are nasty and overgrown and make good bedding areas. theres generally enough thick areas around here that the deer use them to bed. i am hoping some of the white on my maps are bedding areas...but im sure there will be others, and some wont be bedding areas at all...


bassman...expirience is always a good thing to have on your side. knowing the land well and the habits of the deer is what puts deer on the ground. ive never had to deal with flooding river bottoms...

me and a buddy were just talking about this subject last year. we were doing a project on a guys property and it is absolutely flat. most of it is swampy...very few lines show up on a topo..maybe 20-30ft difference tops...real gently rolling too. he asked me how in the world would you deer hunt this? i thought about it...and said i didnt really have a clue..i, like him, am used to hunting the hills.

guess finding the bedding and feeding areas and hunting the trails inbetween is about the only way to go about it. if you can find funnels or something of that nature, that will help filter more deer into one area...theres alot of funnels that dont rely on terrain...such as bigger fence rows, strips of timber connecting 2 bigger patches of timber etc...id look for those when hunting the river bottoms...if i could find anything like that...as well as inside and double inside corners made by fields that cut into the woods. if they were large, id hunt off one corner or another. if they were small(double inside corner) id hunt directly straight in the middle of the field just inside the woods. i read that deer skirt the corners of the bigger inside corners, and the smaller inside corners can be hunted right inbetween the corners because the deer usually pass the field just deep enough to stay in the timber...

not claiming to be an expert...just passing on what ive learned and read...

ive yet to put any of this to the test....this season will be the test...ive hunted food sources, bedding areas, travel areas inbetween...see deer but not tons....hunting funnels like i am this year, i should see more...SHOULD...

rawdawg

Hey mauser,

Im in just about the EXACT situation you are. In fact, im glad you made this thread. I was going to soon anyway, so THANKS!!! I am also in college and will be able to hunt a few evenings a week. Man, I've got that same feeling about my season too. For some reason, I just have a good gut feeling that things are gonna be really good this fall. I just bought a GPS unit when school started back. Best $$$ ive spent as far as hunting accessories go. I bought a Garmin GPSmap60 CSX. I HIGHLY recommend it. It is awesome. It is so handy. Next summer when you are seriously considering a unit, take a good look at this unit. You will not be dissappointed. I bought the topo software to put on it too. It holds alot of maps on there so you dont have to worry about not having enough memory. Right now I have all of western and southwestern, Virginia; Northeast Tennessee, and Southeastern Kentucky. I still have plenty of space left on my 64 mb card. Good luck scouting. Be safe and make sure you know your way back out of the woods.

Todd

brucelanthier

If you are using USGS maps a lot of them are pretty old. The white would normally denote a field but, because the maps are old (anywhere from 10-15 yrs), sometimes the white is not a filed anymore but a stand of small trees. Another reason to actually go to the area on the map and do a physical recon after doing the map recon.