Thread: Bush Hunting - tips on identifying stalkable areas

im a fan of hammering away at the same area...... if you see sign the deer have been there and will be back , if its relatively fresh but not steaming fresh then your just there at the wrong time if its months old then your there at the wrong time of the year..... deer are cretures of habit they eat shit drink and sleep .....and for a short time root , but they are random creatures of habit so you need to be flexible put the gps in the pocket (its there to take you out later or to mark spots) and focus on the surroundings... ....follow game trails and fly camp where the deer are (or have been recently).its all about being in the right place at the right time. i took another forum member for a hunt in pureora a few years back , we were supposed to be there at day break but he bought an inreach and wanted to swing by matamata to pick it up which meant a later start and we got to the carpark and had our packs on about 11am by the time we got to our campsite and set up it would have been about 1ish went for an afternoon nosey were supposed to check a clearing i know the deer like but the mate said he wanted to look at another spot (another i had identified as a regular feeding spot) so we changed tack. he got his first pureora red on that clearing at 3pm ..... what im saying is if we had stuck to the plan we may have not seen any deer ......or we may have. just keep smashing the same area at different times and widen the net
i always used to study aerial photos mark likely spots then change the overlay to topo looking for sheltered saddles creek heads (and grassy bits in the middle of dense bush for spring) i notice now some of the clearings shown on aerials are all but gone but contours dont change