I like this thread. I always learn alot when people give their reasons for picking one area/feature over another. Without fail, someone always mentions wait till the shooting starts then get downwind of the thickest, nastiest area you can find and wait for them to show up. I would start looking along the darkest/distinct shadow lines showing up on the pic just a little left of center towards the top. Looks like a large variation in the height of the canopy to me. I am really interested to see what everyone says.
I have literally climbed a tree in the parking area and once everyone walked away shaking there heads i shoot a hog. I have done the same thing with a deer. Read articles on back yard bucks: If you hunt public land. Private I only hunted a lease one year. I passed on an old buck that just looked like it would be leather in the pan. I also hate sitting one little area and or using a feeder. That just not fun to me. So to sum it up deer are generally were most think there not.
So to sum it up deer are generally were most think there not.
Or perhaps where people are not willing and/or able to go.
After we get done reveiwing this one, I think I am going to upload an aerial as well and get some opinions. I have a new lease that's never been hunted, I have some ideas but would like to hear from hunters with more experience.
Ok, here you go. Once again haven't been her in like 7 years, but this is how it worked back then anyways, and where I am gonna start looking
Yellow line is a creek
Red lines are travel routes that deer used regularly when I hunted it
Blue X and lines are where I parked and walked in, black x is stand placement
green circle is a little higher spot in the hammock that had some magnolia trees. They would walk the edge of that little ridge heading e/w
Bedding area is a myrtle ti-ti thicket in the middle of that hammock
I always try to find those little higher ridges within a hammock. If you find magnolia trees you are on the right track. They usually are full of buck rubs and sometimes are bedding areas
BTW, I probably saw 150 deer from this spot. I killed my first M/L buck here (a spike) chasing a doe. After I shot, when I looked up there were 5 more bucks (2 8pts and 3 spikes) behind her, me with an unloaded gun and a spike kicking on the ground
Here is another example of what I am talking about. This is in a WMA I hunt. The areas circled are higher, what I call "magnolia ridges" within or along a wetter/deeper hammock. One thing I find consistently in these spots is they are always full of buck sign
