Blacktail -Olympic GMU area 621 scouting advice

[j.galloway]

I'm took off looking at this area in national forest area for archery season. I checked out some spots that looked decent, but I'm not sure which type of area would be more prone to deer traffic in September. I was hoping someone could give me a few pointers.

BTW, I have a recurve bow, and climbing treestand so this first area would be ideal for that area biased on the fact that there are a lot of trees that are climbable up to 100' if I wanted

These are all from ground level.

Here's a 360 of the area



and a normal straight shot pic




-or-
is an area like this better:



The second area is not clear cut per-se, but it is a little more open. The thing about both is If you look hard enough you can see some trails, but since its not really really heavy crap then there wouldn't be a 'main' artery.

-or-

360 this thick newling trees


Basically not possible to see past 10 yards, which is good during archery since cannot shoot past 30 with recurve anyway.


The real great thing about that area is it is very easy to see trails and to judge which are used more often than others. Problem is it visibility is next to nill and you would be very loud getting into position. So getting there in the morning from camp would be a problem.. and there are no large/tall trees right next to an area like this (without a good deal of branches) to climb up on with the treestand.

[raydog]

Ground blind in the second area looks hard to hunt

[johnr060]

The last one. Blacktails favorite! We kill alot of deer in thin reprod like that. Not easy to hunt though.

[Max the dog]

I would spend some time now clearing some shooting lanes and branches off your climbing tree(s).  Pay attention to prevailing winds and give yourself more than one option.  A deer call can be used with some success in areas like that too.  Especially if you don't mind taking a doe or younger buck (621 is "any blacktail" I believe).
Reprod  looks better to me, big timber with limited ground cover is really tough to hunt unless your on a good funnel/artery.
Good luck
 

[Old Man Yager]

Find an area on the shady side of the hill, they want to stay where it's cool and September is still warm. Look for an alder patch or fern patch, with reprod near it.

[j.galloway]

I would spend some time now clearing some shooting lanes and branches off your climbing tree(s).  Pay attention to prevailing winds and give yourself more than one option.  A deer call can be used with some success in areas like that too.  Especially if you don't mind taking a doe or younger buck (621 is "any blacktail" I believe).
Reprod  looks better to me, big timber with limited ground cover is really tough to hunt unless your on a good funnel/artery.
Good luck
 

Exactly why I went archery  ... can get either sex and there's a lot less people around too. Also last year rifle hunting saw 9 doe, not counting the 3 at the end of our driveway    no bucks/horns though

The last one. Blacktails favorite! We kill alot of deer in thin reprod like that. Not easy to hunt though.

Find an area on the shady side of the hill, they want to stay where it's cool and September is still warm. Look for an alder patch or fern patch, with reprod near it.

so if there's this patch of trees like this that's roughly 250x350 yards wide where could I expect bait and scent to work the best? center or edges. It appears that the area made a slow transition between area 3 to area 1. But there's this discoloration on the google earth (its low quality pic) where it transitions faster from the new plants to old and tall. I'm thinking I can get a treestand on one of those old ones and look out over an artery that's hopefully on that side.

Possible problem is the entire area is on a downhill slope pointed toward SSW toward the sun going through it was very little cover from the sun anyway, even though as far as cover from predators... you couldn't see more than 10feet in any direction. I might try putting a cam up for a week to see what it looks like, but continue looking for other areas.