Where to concentrate my time?

[bentley30-06]

Sundace, that is primo BT habitat.  It is exactly what I picture to see them in and where I like to focus my time.  Great post.

[Tbob]

That's a great blog! Thanks for the post!!

[aorams]

Sundance, seriously thanks for taking the time to do all this and post it up on here! That's the most info on scouting I've ever gotten from anybody! I will take all the advise and pix and apply them to my scouting/hunting! Just awesome!! Thanks again for the valuable and detailed information! It's one thing to hear about the places you mentioned/described, but the pix bring it all together! Thanks again!!

I second TBOB's sentiment sundance.  Please keep writing!

[Tbob]

Been out scouting the last few weekends and it's amazing how different I look for spots to hunt now thanks to the great info on this thread alone!! Amazing!! Thanks ever so much and keep it coming! I like a sponge soaking all this up! I know this year will be different! Hopefully more steaks and less tag soup!

[bur04024]

Just to throw in my  on the issue. (I agree with everything that has been said) I have spent most of my time hunting timber company land and focusing on the clearcuts and reprod. I found the reprod really hard to glass if the trees were much taller than a man, but it all depends on your angle/point of view. One afternoon as I sat on a logging road overlooking a fairly flat area of reprod 300 feet below, I watched a hunter drive his big bronco in and park on the road down below. He walked down a short spur road and dove right into some patchy reprod and as he drew close to a tiny stand (6-8) mature pine trees all of the sudden a nice buck stood up, and I heard his gun go off! That buck leaped out of there and made it about 30-40yds and then fell down to never get up again. This must have taken place around 11am-noon. I turned to my Grandpa and said I can't believe that dude walked in there "blindly" from the way it looked, and in 5 minutes had himself a buck. I had been "glassing" that place for like 20-30 min and didnt see a thing, I thought I had heard some antlers knocking together faintly,  a ways off in the thick thick reprod, but the breeze made it hard to tell, but I knew there had to be something in there. We drove down after a few minutes and I picked the guys brain as he was loading his nice buck up. I realized that these BT will hide in "plain" sight and stay still until the last second, because many times if they have been around hikers or hunters they tend walk right past them as they lay still. With that new found knowledge I moved to a clearcut about half a mile down the road. I had seen a doe on the edge of the clearcut that same evening but no bucks to be found. I told my Grandpa we should be back to that same clearcut at first light. It had some small patches of brush maple and a small stand (6-10) of old trees. I went and sat on the end of a spur road overlooking the stand of trees just before legal shooting light. I saw some movement and watched as a doe almost crawled on her belly to make her way up the small hill into some patchy brush that stretched toward the timber. I kept glassing her hoping to see any sign of antlers but nothing. After I few minutes some other hunters pulled up across this draw I was glassing(no matter that I was already sitting there, looking like a neon orange pumpkin) they got out proceeded to glass from their little spur road and kick around the little landing for about 2 minutes. Then they hoped back in and drove away. I said to myself, "well after that nothing in this clearcut after that much noise and activity. Mind you the doe had taken a path right past the landing they were just on. So I decided I would follow her trail and see if it would take me to more deer. I managed to make my way through the clearcut breaking every stick and twig in the process and as I climbed the small slope away from the seasonal creek bottom I slipped making even more noise! As I walked another 10yds I saw this 2x2 buck staring at me. All I could see was from his brisket up. I didnt care about how big he was I just knew he had enough antler for me to put my tag on him! I snuck over to a small stump, steadied myself and let one fly. He collapsed right where he stood. I was about 50 yds from him, and when I came upon him I noticed that the grass was matted down like a dogs bed. He was sleeping out in the open and a little hillside............not 15yds below the logging landing those "hunters" had been on 15 minutes before! They glassed right over his back, he laid there quiet as a church mouse knowing that they would miss him. My Grandpa drove over to the spur and I wanted to test out if I could see the buck glassing from the same spot. Had I not known he was laying right there I probably would have never seen him, the only thing that sort of stood out was his antlers! Lessons:1. Glass hard, and look for BT parts, not whole animals. 2.Never leave a clearcut without kickin some brush!!! Its like leaving a stone unturned. They are there!!! 3.Never be afraid to try a crazy idea or technique, it just might work.

[Tbob]

Hey Bur,
     Cool read man!! Thanks for chiming in on this thread! Great advise !! I hunt mostly timber country and a lot of the things you said and were feeling during your hunts wrang very true to some of my experiences.. Thanks again, always makes me feel a little better when I'm not the "only" one having these frustrations! I see everybody's pictures of all these deer and elk and think I must be the only one in Washington going home with tag purée every year.. HA!