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Whatcha think?

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
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I gained permission on a new piece the other day. It is rough, nasty thick, steep ravines with scattered oaks on the ridges, but mostly a mix of scrub brush and cedars. There is no way to access any of it without going straight up. There isn't even an old logging road that would make the traveling easier.

I snooped around for the first time on Saturday. There is no one else hunting it that I know of, I didn't see any tree stands or boot marks in the sandy creek bottoms. I really think it is just too nasty for most folks - the landowner included (he is my neighbor and owns around 3500 acres and won't hunt it). So, on my snoop-around, I found where deer have been on one of the oak flats a good bit. Even found a real-life rub line leading from the ridge to the bottoms where there is still standing corn. After several years of using BEC's, I have sworn off cams...I honestly think I hunted more off the cams than I did my rather substantial gut. Anyway, I don't have a single picture of a living deer on this property, but I am certain there is a good one in there.

I hunted one of the ridges Sunday morning, and again on Monday. I saw a bunch of turkey Sunday, and while waiting to shoot one of them on Monday, a couple of coyotes came in and ran them off...so I killed one of the coyotes.

Anyway, I haven't seen a deer, not one. The entire time I sat in the stand those two mornings I was thinking I needed to be in there in the afternoon. The rubs are all pointing DOWN the hillside! I am guessing whatever deer have gone through in the morning were way ahead of my arrival. I am going to head up the mountain here in a few to see what I can catch heading down. It goes against high in the morning, and low in the evening, but I think it'w worth trying and may actually catch a good one early enough to shoot.

Any thoughts?
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
brock, i hunted a sweet oak flat with a heavy rub line running right across it.. i mean like every tree..hunted it like i owned it and I never saw a buck deer on the thing. post season scouting made me look to see why..80 yards away in a thicket was a huge buck bed...directly down wind.. that old boy was layin there and sniffin from his bedroom and never entered the flat at least in the light. guess where i'm hangin a stand this year? Old Roger rothaar knows his shit man.
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
Well, that almost worked.
Describing it as an oak flat may be a little of an over-statement, Milo. Its more like a dozen oaks bordering a gawd awful thicket with a few maples to the north, the thick stuff being on three sides. Maybe next time...