Arizona Hunting Club & Outdoor Adventure Group

Top 10 Steps to Planning a Successful Hunting Trip

1. Buy Delorme's Topo USA 7.0 Topographic Mapping Software
2. Buy a GPS unit like the Garmin eTrex
3. Using topo software, draw a line that marks areas that are at least 1/4 mile from all roads. Areas at least 1/4 mile from the road will be considered hunting zones.
4. Using topo software, locate all water sources and mark their GPS coordinates. In addition, draw a circle around the stock tank with a perimeter that is 1/4 mile away from the stock tank or water source. Many times elk and deer will bed down within 1/4 of water.
5. Using topo software, locate all big grassy fields and mark their GPS coordinates. When looking at open fields, look for fingers of grass that jut into the forest and bend, providing grazing with a limited field of view.
6. Using topo software, locate benches on the upper 1/3 of hills near stock tanks and/or grassy fields. Also look for nice gradient slopes at the tops of drainages and draws, which contain enough moisture to cool the air and provide good growing conditions for grass and other forage plants. Mark these GPS coordinates.
7. Using topo software, look for funnels or chokepoints between water, food and bedding areas. For example, many valleys will have a grassy field surrounded by hills with ridges. If you can locate a dip in the ridge which leads to a bedding area or a water holes, mark these locations at the narrowest part of funnel. Without looking, I can bet you money their will always be a game trail in these natural funnels. The only question is are they hot?
8. Now use Microsoft's Live search to fly over these areas and learn what the cover profile looks like. Some times you will be able to see roads, game trails and natural travel routes, simply by looking at the area from satellite images. Using the tilt feature, you can see the natural terrain and the easiest routes to travel for you and the animals as you move from one area to the next. This will save you an immense amount of time allow you to GPS even more spots to evaluate.
9. Plan a camping trip to scout all the potential areas you have researched with your topo software. When scouting look for and record the following information to build your own scouting reports, which can be reviewed prior to a hunting trip or years in the future by friends and family.
   • Stock tanks - record the number of tracks and all game trails leading to the tank. Walk a full circle around all stock tanks. Use a zig zagging pattern to cover all ground within 1/4 from the tank. Walk slow. You will be surprised how many animals you will jump using this one strategy. Also, look for staging areas usually on higher ground than the tank, where animals stage and wait for the hunters to leave after the sun goes down. Massive amounts of green droppings grazed grass are tell tale signs for staging areas.
   • Grassy fields - record the amount of fresh sign (green and squishy), the "green" factor of the plants and how much the area has been mowed by animals grazing. There is a tremendous difference between brown grass and green grass in an animals mind. Green means moisture for all plants in the area. Find green grass and you are guaranteed to find all kinds of animals, not just elk and deer. Walk the entire perimeter of the field. Look for finger than jut and bend into the wooods. When a finger goes into the woods, many times it bends so much that the view of the grazing area is obstructed from all views unless you are feeding there. Animals love protected feeding areas.
   • Bedding areas - You can find bedding areas just about any where in Arizona. Most of the time they will be onthe top 1/3 of a hill in thick cover. Look for the darkest areas with stands of young trees in high concentrations. Areas that overlook feeding areas and water holes are great. Other areas that animals seem to love are the tops or beginning areas of draws or drainages. These areas holds moisture which make the food grow great and chills the air by a couple of degrees. Animals prefer areas that help them save energy due to cool air and less walking to food. Beds are egg shaped ovals. Beds with pee in the middle and scrapes around the perimeter are bulls. Poop on the outside means cows or does. The best way to find these areas is use your nose, or take a dog with you. Regardless of whether the dog is trained or not, their nose instinctively hits the ground when they smell a game animal. Watch them, then use your own nose and eyes.
   • Game Trails - Once you hit a game trail in any of these areas, walk it to see where it goes. Walk on the trail and you will tell any animal in the area, you are stalking their security zone. Use cover scent, or better, if you find any fresh sign, step on it and smash it so that your boots smell like an elk. On game trails, note which way the animals are going. Also note how close the hoof prints are together. Are they running because they are spooked or walking their every day stride. Also look for scrapes and rubs. These are sure signs that you are on a sidewalk that at least one animal thinks is his personal travel lane and wants the female to know this is where to find him. As you walk these trails, GPS them and download the waypoints later. GPS enough trails and you can build your own personal database of where the animals travel year after year.
10. Using these steps you should be able to effectively find the animals. Once you do, then you can plan more precise hunting strategies, such as building blinds/installing tree stands, planting bait such as salt blocks, molasses, alfafa pellets, apples or corn and building funnels of dead trees to make sure animals walk where you want them to walk. I also use game cameras to record which animals are using the area and to learn exactly what time of day they are walking down the game trail. You will be disappointed to learn that they are using the water hole at 9:00 pm, but you might be surprised at what you see coming to get a drink at 1:30 pm in the afternoon. Animals are smarter than you think. They pattern hunters, just like we try to pattern them. They watch hunters and know when they are hunting and when they are usually back in camp sleeping or eating. The secret is surprising them!

If you take the time to get out of your truck and spend a little bit of time researching the items above, your hunting success will go up dramatically. You would be surprised how cool it is to find secret game trails, deep pools in a creek bed or hidden feeding areas. Find all these things located within 1/2 mile of each other and you are guarateed to see lots of animals.