What Habitat Should I Look for When Scouting Public Hunting Land?

[Jsimpson]

I'm curious what everyone hones in on as far as key habitat features when hunting areas you cant control? Whether it be public land or leased ground that you cant personally alter the way you want. What are you looking for? I moved out here about a year ago and i've been putting in miles and miles just trying to learn as much as I can with my own observations and a little woodsmanship. After hunting the later half of last season and getting in a good amount of spring scouting, i've really started to narrow myself down a bit. On the maps, i'm pretty much looking for "junk" A piece with some good habitat diversity. I had really good success with oak ridges mixed with a green briar understory. A lot of times this forced me to sit all day during the season because id have deer bedded around me all day. I learned a lot watching them throughout the day and its really got me interested in finding more areas like this. Also additional areas that might produce similar results but with different habitat/structure. I'm digging into some marsh type pieces now and hoping to learn a little more about the natural browse and key areas there.

 

[NextBuk]

BEDDING... find the bedding areas of mature bucks. That's step 1. Public land = pressure... deer won't be on their feet in daylight as much in areas where hunting pressure is higher, so it necessitates hunting closer to their bedrooms. Okay, Iowa is the grand exception to a lot, I realize, but even Iowa public gets deer moving less in daylight than they would otherwise. So focus on finding buck bedrooms. Then you locate the food sources they'll use from there, and focus on travel corridors between (shading closer to bedding). For rut, you focus more on finding doe bedding areas and position yourself between buck bedding and doe bedding (downwind of doe bedding areas). If you're hunting topography, like east Iowa along the Mississippi, bucks will generally be bedding on points off of ridges...usually a little down from the top... 1/3 from top is a rule of thumb but all depends. My Hill Country Bucks (https://nextbukoutdoors.com/shop/hill-country-bucks-best-deer-hunting-dvds/) video details all of this if you're interested in more details...even has several East Iowa and West Wisconsin examples. Good luck!

 

[Sligh1]

Structural changes …. Might be where it gets super thick. Might be ridges. Where there’s tree tops. Where ever a certain type of terrain changes …. finding the trails & paths on how they use that.
I like finding areas they don’t use too…. Let’s say I got access through a cattle pasture that is thinned out… use that for access & when a guy can use that to enter & cross into areas where it’s super thick- pretty handy.
When I moved here…. Thought same things. I was trained that I needed to get “way back” on 100% of my spots. Always was in nastiest & most remote cover. I still do this but I put a lot more spots in easier to access areas too. Or by food, etc. Spots I used to call “obvious and overhunted by masses”. I’ll avoid them if they get overhunted by others but a lot of areas aren’t. #’s game IMO. I’d set up on 8-15 farms (public, whatever) & get “50 spots” that seem killer picked out. U will realize year 1 that half of them suck or need moved. Keep tweaking. I literally would try every situation possible & adjust over time. & plan on half the farms or spots getting ruined or u not hunting them if xyz happens. Tons of spots & tons of back ups. Common sense I guess but it’s Just a lotta work & prep.

 

[Jsimpson]

Thanks guys! Great points that ill keep in mind. I DO tend to push WAY back in. I think i've still got that trained mindset as well. A lot of times its a search for solitude i think but it does seem like the "crowd" is going deep nowadays. One of my goals for the next few seasons is to become better at pin pointing buck beds and community scrapes to target a specific buck early in the season. We'll see how that goes. I did manage to find a few good beds this spring. Hopefully the cams can give me an idea of the caliber of buck using them. I've been scrolling through this forum for awhile now. Its refreshing to find some like minded people without the BS of social media. I look forward to following along with everyones journey!

A couple beds from this spring. I guess this could be a different thread all together! I'll start one after I get a little more data