Hello,

I am looking to become a better whitetail hunter and hunt some public land that instead of my typical private land food plot I sit and stare at for dozens and dozens of hours each season.

Last year on December 26th I encountered several rubs like this on a squirrel hunt with some friends along with scrapes in the area including a primary scrape with a licking branch. These findings were in the blue circled area in the attached aerial photo.

I’ve hunted that area several times and the blue area and similar looking trees are 40-60 feet tall and include hickories and oaks.

To the inmediate southwest of the aerial are 5-6, several hundred yard long bushhogged fields for rabbit and dove hunters. The parking area is approximately one mile away to the west of all the map. So I think this area is fairly accessible, a mile of woods stops a lot of weekend hunters but probably not the bushhogged fields. I’ve never been here during muzzleloader season (first two weeks of Nov) or the first couple weeks of rifle so I don’t know how busy it gets, but hear that it does.

The yellow spots are very thick, few to several year old cut overs. Like, you need to crawl in there. I think that is going to bebedding locations for the type of bucks making the sign in the blue circle.

Is the red circled strip a good spot to check out and sit in the rut all day? If I follow the green path to get there, that would be 2+ miles from the closest parking area. Anyone cutting and just walking one mile from their truck to the blue circle would push deer my way I think.

To the east-northeast of the map is a river. So we are in hardwoods strip connecting two hardwoods areas that have bedding areas in the middle of them.

I think I need a wind blowing south to north, northwest for this to work and that’s definitely the hard part. Walking is not a problem. I am going to go this weekend and see if the green path is walkable, or 10 feet tall grass, or swamp.

I think you've got a pretty good plan. I like hunting strips of woods like that. Another place to consider would be the strip of woods between the two yellow areas.

Maybe a north wind would let me get into that area. I worry about walking through all those crunchy leaves near bedding areas like that.

Depends on which direction are those rubs facing It will clue u in on there direction of travel.. If your finding those rubs in the blue facing the yellow areas, then they are traveling from blue into yellow in the morning for bedding.. if they are facing out, then they are headed out of the yellow past the blue.. might have success in between the yellows for mid day, but I would set up to the left of your blue area for morning night hunts.. if u wanna try the middle for mid day get close to water.. bucks will always travel midday for a drink especially during the rut..

Can you post a terrain map of this area too?

I don’t have one but it is extremely flat. This particular area doesn’t have any draws coming off stream beds or anything like that.

What's the white line that goes across everything?  Two-track, creek, what?

Old logging trail.

Here is another overhead shot of the area. The two parking areas are circled in yellow. Yellow circle to red circle is about 1 mile as the crow flies.

OK, that provides some more perspective.  What are those water features south and east of the dove fields? Are they potable?

Is this years acorn crop any good?  Is any of that land planted farm field?

What side of the tree was the rub on?   Usually they'll have a scrape line that they travel.  Mess with his scrapes and make a couple mock ones and ambush him along it.

The red x would be my first choice. It's a good funnel, and if you get there early, you can probably get in there before anyone else. If not, you can always talk to other people who are in the parking area, figure out where they are going to hunt and just go a bit further in to that funnel.

Attached File

Thanks. I also like the spot where the woods follow the river on the north side of the map (where I followed the green-path I marked on the first image, and took basically a 180 as i went around the bedding areas to the north).

I've marked a few other similar natural woods features on the GPS. I'll take a walk in the next few days to check these spots out a few weeks before I come back for Muzzleloader. And I will definitely be doing post-season scouting in January to check rublines etc.

On your original photo, I'd either go with red or park along your rub line, depending on the wind and operate on the assumption that they'll be coming to/from the thick stuff (so don't waft your scent in that direction).

Ok all, thanks for your help today. I put in several (7) miles of hiking today scouting and feel pretty good about my foray into a new property!

So I found this type of opening in the woods between these two overgrown fields with hundreds of deer trails running through them. Most of the area was totally impenetrable with the underbrush, but I did find this opening with the sign on the ground and the rubs. Is this a bedding area I will ruin by trying to hunt it or does that just look like trails? I really don’t know what I am seeing here .





I thought these overgrown fields would be the bedding areas. And there sure are there are thousands of trails in here.

It may just be the pic, but the first area looks like they're bedding in the area in the first pic. I see trails too, but it looks like there are enlarged flattened out spots.

@Riflenoob

I would find any ditch lines and low spots near those bedding and feeding areas and any pinch points, ridgelines or valleys between the bedding and feeding areas or leading to the feeding areas from the bedding areas. I hunted the WMA's in the southeat area of VA and found that they don't touch those clearings until well after dark, if at all once hunters flood the area. That and tons of other hunters flock to them because they think a clearing equals seeing a deer. If you fund food sources on the perimter of those fields, those are really good for evening hunts.

All the deer I've taken on state land has been in ravines, ridgelines to and from bedding/food and the thickets along the swamp areas. If there is swamp/marsh there, find their trails to food and setup there. During the rut, stay all day. Other hunters and does keep them running like crazy.

Those pictures remind me of Dragon Run and Chickahomony. If you're near Dragon Run, I highly recommend hunting that area. If I was still in VA, that is where I would be. It is hunted way less than all the other WMA's. Dragon Run is also surrounded by state land that has hunt clubs, but they put a lot less pressure than the other clubs around other WMA's.

I got this buck on opening day of muzzleloader at Dragon Run 2 years ago. He was coming out of a thicket, in a ravine that fed out of a swamp. He was grazing on grass and acorns in the ravine that led towards the fields about 300 yards away at the edge of dark.

I would definitely focus on the red spot as a "funnel"

Check out mapping trophy bucks by brad Herndon.  No $ interest here.

@Riflenoob

Any luck?

I hunted both funnel looking locations 2-3 times in Muzzleloader, all day hunts. I didn’t see any deer. However , I did have a lot of fun in those areas and felt confident in the spots. At each spot I heard numerous grunts. I plan to be back next year, with a grunt tube.