Aerial Reviewing

[ncboman]

I've been studying different aerials and topos of some of the places I hunted in Ohio last fall and it sure makes a difference in image comprehension once you've actually been to a place. ;D

The hink is, in reviewing the images I see areas that look really interesting that I never checked out when there. You go to a place and have but a short time to learn and hunt so we do the best we can. This means lots of real estate gets only a passing glance. Looking at the topos and knowing where deer activity was/is 'hot' really helps put things into perspective when planning a rematch.

[freedomrules3]

Ussually the first time at a place you just start getting the feel of the place. my experience is that the second time around things are much easier , not that taking a deer is any easier but you do have some starting points from the previous year.new places are fun to hunt but nothing replaces knowing an area well.

[indianadan]

I will echo Rick's post.

I like to study an aerial/topo of unfamiliar ground and try to figure it out. It doesn't even have to be ground that I hunt. I think 60-70% of the "hunt" for me is figuring out the deer movement on a piece of property.

At Green River last year was the first time in a few years I had hunted unfamiliar ground. There was so much ground that trying to cover all the spots I wanted to cover in such a short amount of time was impossible. I felt sort of lost even though I had studied on the maps for a good while. LOL This year when I go back I at least have a clear starting point. Like Boman said in the first post after you have put boots to soil, and then look at the maps again you begin to see the light. But, you see ground that you haven't covered that looks promising also...... My way to deal with this is hunt what I'm familiar with and scout the unfamiliar between hunts. If I see something that I think is promising on the unfamiliar territory then I would hunt it.

I've also found that 2-3 days of hunting unfamiliar ground is not nearly enough time. I found deer, and was able to put on 2-3 decent hunts in that time, but I plan on staying for 4-5 days this time. That's still not enough, but it's all I can afford.

I believe you could hunt a place like GR for 2 solid seasons and not thoroughly cover it all. I bet the same goes for the large public tracts in any state.

[Rock Chuck]

Even that can be deceiving. Last year a friend told me about a ridge where he'd always seen elk. He said it was a bit of climb but a herd always hung out on the top, about 2 miles from the road. I checked it on a topo and it didn't look too bad. But when I went to look at it, holy cow!!! was it a bitch. There's no way I could get an elk off there without a horse. It was covered with loose rocks and low brush, the kind of stuff that a topo doesn't show. No wonder the elk stayed up there. And they're likely to continue to stay up there as far as I'm concerned.

Dick