Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Starting over in big woods

I've always been a northern woods deer hunter and I admit that after hunting the same ground for the last 20 years, I've refined and hunted the same spots year after year. This year late as it is, I've decided to hunt the National Forest closer to our place up north. How would you go about doing that? Timber typing it for deer food, tracking with snow, find some logging areas, topo maps, easy access, hunt the creek bottoms, look for deer sign... What? Low deer density there with a lot of flat ground and mostly old growth maple. Not the best, I know and low hunter density so people don't move the deer around much if at all. The state banned all baiting and deer feeding in the NE part of the state and guys are at a loss knowing where to start?

Sat photos, topo maps, a good GPS or app. Look for crossings, bottlenecks, travel funnels to adjacent croplands. Refine your search before you go to scope it out.

At my age, a light collapsible stool or tree seat is crucial for ground hunting. Helps me stay still, and in the woods longer. Good stumps or logs for sitting ain't always to be found where you want them.

Sounds like an adventure. Good luck.

If you are referring to Northwoods Wisconsin, I would work on my patience.

They move. They get water, and feed. And socialize.

You just have to figure out travel, bedding, and food sources which change.

Just like feeding, you go where they need to go to feed. Sometimes its far, sometimes not IE how far they have to travel to get all of the above.

Takes a lot of scouting too. Remember animals are like humans for the most part, they take the easy routes until pressured, hence use of trails, saddles etc...

If possible, driving the back roads at night is the best scouting you can do in low Deer density Bigwoods. Sooner or later, they will show you where they are currently making a living.

Find one at midnight, and there is a good chance he will be close by come morning.

Everthing said above. I've hunted Maine, Vermont, PA and CT all my life. Mostly big woods/state land and National Forests. Topo maps are a great place to start, look for ridges, draws and breaks in woods to open areas(clear cuts, powerlines, small meadows) and start your scouting there. Snow is always great to have. Good luck

I have hunted the Huron National Forest in MI for about 30 years. Topo maps etc... are a start. Lay down some boot leather. Deer like the edges. Hardwood ridges meeting stands of conifer or ceder swamps, or hardwoods and low brushy wet spots where tag elders grow. Any small openings or fields in a stand of otherwise mature timber. Eliminate open, thin featureless areas, especially if there is significant pressure. Figuring out natural food sources are a must also. Go places others aren't willing to walk due to how thick, wet, or far it may be from the road.

I used to hunt up near Land O Lakes and Watermeet and found a lot of the lakefront property owners still fed deer. I was able to setup between bedding and catch them on the way back in the morning. Clearcuts are something to consider but also floating down the rivers, buddy missed a monster one year and we saw quite a few. Large marshes seldom get walked by hunters , especially this year and have been good for us also.

Tag

I'm old school I guess. I forego the electronics and start with a plain old map. I then drive the dirt roads to learn the look of the land and where the parking is etc. Then I walk. And walk some more. I cover a lot of ground on multiple trips before I decide on setup locations.

Giant corn piles.

Logging areas would be your best bet. But in that particular National Forest, they never friggin log.

I’d look for swamps and other hunters and get between em.

Nothing wrong with maps. Terrain isn't likely to change over time. Vegetation does, and pretty quickly. The sat photos, if fairly recent, combined with your maps, gives the best picture you can get without getting on the ground. Can save a bunch of boot leather for someone starting fresh in an area. The time saved can be used to find food sources, trails, bedding areas, etc.

The only GPS I've used is the one in my iPhone, and results have been spotty. Also, if you don't download your maps in advance, you're screwed when you have no signal. I also carry a simple Bushnell unit that lets me mark the location of my car and maybe a good spot or even a downed deer.

Windfall, if you were see in deer where you used to hunt, I would go back there. I dont know where in the N.F. you are going to hunt though. I hunted east and went of Mountain but that was 30 yrs ago. On thing you dont want to do is hunt less than 5 miles from the reservation. Those folks hunt any time they want and the deer numbers close to the res. was very low. Where I hunt, Price co. Wis and the Flambeau River State Forest , it is all but impossible to pattern deer. There are so few that they hardly use the trails anymore. The wolves changed deer hunting there forever. Now days deer do not follow patterns or trails. If they do the wolves figure them out fast. There is enough food for the deer and food is so plentiful that they just browse randomly . I know this cause I see deer tracks in the snow. They browse here and there with no direction or purpose. I have found that seeing a deer is more by chance than scouting. It is that hard to pattern deer . If I were you I would follow a river and find where they cross. They still cross at shallow areas however . By me there is so much logging it is impossible to find that pattern too . If I were you , I would stick to where you were if you were seeing deer.

Hunt near swamps. People hate 'em, deer love 'em.

All good info above. Also maybe call the local forester and or wildlife biologist. And there's a guy that hunts nothing but public ground in MI and is very knowledgeable in the big woods. Name is John Eberhart. He has books and videos. Good luck.

Go to the US Forest Service office and obtain information on logged areas within the last 3 years and current logging operations.

I use OnX to help my find areas to hunt in the Croatan NF. It’s relatively flat but the topo feature helps me identify subtle differences in terrain, allowing me to narrow down the places that I should scout on foot. I primarily look for creek bottoms and saddles if available.

I’d hope it snows.

Some great responses here guys, thank you. Lots of area comes to mind with the logging, creek bottom, swamp, dirt road responses and the Local Indian element unfortunately as well. Dad always would tell me that deer are creatures of edges and edges are harder to find in a big flat sterile National Forest. Bird hunting might be a good way to cover some area and I did get that On X chip for my GPS for topo info. Reading the Hal Blood and Larry Benoit stuff, where they hunt and track can't be too much different than a big forest area and given those distances, I'm sure that they are in new woods most of the time. Post rut isn't likely to be much good for calling. Probably the bedding areas because the bucks are tuckered out. I sure hate to leave my nw honey hole, but the culture has changed and the severe winter and wolves up that way have taken a toll on the deer herd. Might be a building year and the wife makes a pretty convincing argument to hunt from the place up there for nothing, come back to a hot meal, her, 200 miles closer, a bed partner and buy Angus for the freezer that she will actually eat.

When I am scouting here, I tend to look for old beaver ponds and or some kind of swamp. Even better if they are surrounded by some sort of ridge, and better still of that ridge has some sort of green finger running up it. For whatever reason, these old blown out ponds seem to attract deer, probably the edge effect.