Hardest terrain to deer hunt in your opinion

[bigmike23]

I've hunted just about everything but Ag. I've hunted swamps, bogs, flat land, mountains, big woods you name it.
I've been hunting big woods Mtns for 2 years now determined to kill one of these giants up here and to me it's by far the hardest.
The wind has no rhyme, reason, logic, theory or understanding to it. Thermals never do what they're supposed to. Its so so hard to get any consistency here to hunt certain spots effectively

Food is absolutely everywhere as well as acorns making deer extremely nomadic.
Bedding is absolutely everywhere making it very difficult to plan an attack

Seems like just lots and lots of time on stand during the pre rut and rut is the only way it can be done

 

[neonomad]

I’ll add to this the river valley I’m currently hunting. Wind swirls terrible if you’re in it, and if you are out of it, in the evenings the air is pulling right to em. Common denominator here is unreliable / unhelpful winds.

 

[elk yinzer]

Amen. Find the does and put in the time.

Once in a rare while you'll find an overly aggressive buck that leaves a bunch of sign everywhere in a small area and you can move in and kill him there. But like you said most of the bucks are nomadic AF and a lot of the big ones just don't seem to want to leave a lot of sign period.

I think with a TON of camera work you can up your odds of killing something earlier in the season on a pattern if doing it that way tickles your pickle, doesn't really for me.

I think a LOT of bucks in the mountains around here killed outside the rut are killed illegally on bait. I find the piles all the time.

 

[thedutchtouch]

Outside. Or it depends.


Lol more realistically, with a relative newbie archery hunting perspective, I'd say big woods. I am starting to figure out transition lines and terrain features, but big woods or wide open fields (like pronghorn) seem to be the most difficult big woods because there's not much to tell you patterns, and open because hard to get in bow range.

 

[BTaylor]

There is a case to be made for 3-8 year old skillet flat cutovers. Mountains is probably the correct answer though.

 

[raisins]

Large tracts of mature forest in high-ish elevation mountain terrain. There's often no food sources that are "the ticket" (sometimes oaks don't even grow there) and not enough edge or other features to define deer movement. You just have to hunt topography and where other hunters aren't or where other hunters will push deer to you, and then cross your fingers. On the upside, when you do see a buck it is more likely to be a shooter.

 

[PancreasBroke]

Adding to the big mountains - Appalachian/Blue ridge forests. It’s a lot of land to cover and crap logging practices means little habitat. Great for bear hunting however…

But, its not impossible.Once you find where the deer sanctuary is, i found there range isnt as ‘nomadic’ as you would think. Im not Dan Infalt, but ive been plenty successful in the mountains. No way in hell im sharing secret tactics though, Im no Dan Infalt… lol

 

[raisins]

Adding to the big mountains - Appalachian/Blue ridge forests. It’s a lot of land to cover and crap logging practices means little habitat. Great for bear hunting however…

But, its not impossible.Once you find where the deer sanctuary is, i found there range isnt as ‘nomadic’ as you would think. Im not Dan Infalt, but ive been plenty successful in the mountains. No way in hell im sharing secret tactics though, Im no Dan Infalt… lol

It's also good and bad that the forest service keeps so many roads gated shut. It protects the deer and habitat from criminal practices, but you'll see a nice spot on the map and it will be an over 3 hour hike up a mountain to hunt it....so unless you pack in and camp it is very hard to hunt it.

 

[Ouachitamtnman]

I've hunted just about everything but Ag. I've hunted swamps, bogs, flat land, mountains, big woods you name it.
I've been hunting big woods Mtns for 2 years now determined to kill one of these giants up here and to me it's by far the hardest.
The wind has no rhyme, reason, logic, theory or understanding to it. Thermals never do what they're supposed to. Its so so hard to get any consistency here to hunt certain spots effectively

Food is absolutely everywhere as well as acorns making deer extremely nomadic.
Bedding is absolutely everywhere making it very difficult to plan an attack

Seems like just lots and lots of time on stand during the pre rut and rut is the only way it can be done

I was a lowland clear cut and thicket hunter for years. When I went to straight public over 10yr ago in mountains. You are right about wind. For me I primarily worry about where I lay my ground scent and use the thermals to help me which you figure out in time. Biggest thing to get over is most of the woods you like by looking at it won't be good woods. Most all sign left low is at night for majority of it. But sometimes it sucks. No getting around, and physically I'm not sure there's anything worse then climbing several hundred feet in elevation over softball sized loose rock and deep leaf litter day in day out with zero results to show for it.

 

[Jagger0502]

Posted land….

On a serious note my vote goes to big open flat woods. To many avenues to cover and usually lower deer density. Better be on your game to set up on the correct trail. Being flat it takes away ridge runs and vantage points.

 

[Robert loper]

To be honest ive hunted every terrain but hill country.
marsh is the toughest and i say this because pressure pushes them out there and most older bucks do not get to mainland til after dark.
plus my marshes are tidal.

 

[deerfly]

Florida Everglades

 

[Exhumis]

My vote is big open woods or mountains. Agree thermals and winds in mountains can be stupid and everywhere. With big woods if it’s typical big woods you’ve got food sources throughout which means they could be anywhere. Gotta run topo at that point

 

[dalton916]

I've hunted just about everything but Ag. I've hunted swamps, bogs, flat land, mountains, big woods you name it.
I've been hunting big woods Mtns for 2 years now determined to kill one of these giants up here and to me it's by far the hardest.
The wind has no rhyme, reason, logic, theory or understanding to it. Thermals never do what they're supposed to. Its so so hard to get any consistency here to hunt certain spots effectively

Food is absolutely everywhere as well as acorns making deer extremely nomadic.
Bedding is absolutely everywhere making it very difficult to plan an attack

Seems like just lots and lots of time on stand during the pre rut and rut is the only way it can be done

Nothing I can add here, you’ve already found your answer. Big woods mountains are as tough as it gets

 

[Tim0712]

I've hunted just about everything but Ag. I've hunted swamps, bogs, flat land, mountains, big woods you name it.
I've been hunting big woods Mtns for 2 years now determined to kill one of these giants up here and to me it's by far the hardest.
The wind has no rhyme, reason, logic, theory or understanding to it. Thermals never do what they're supposed to. Its so so hard to get any consistency here to hunt certain spots effectively

Food is absolutely everywhere as well as acorns making deer extremely nomadic.
Bedding is absolutely everywhere making it very difficult to plan an attack

Seems like just lots and lots of time on stand during the pre rut and rut is the only way it can be done

Big woods is by far the hardest. Even harder when it’s flat

 

[raisins]

I've hunted just about everything but Ag. I've hunted swamps, bogs, flat land, mountains, big woods you name it.
I've been hunting big woods Mtns for 2 years now determined to kill one of these giants up here and to me it's by far the hardest.
The wind has no rhyme, reason, logic, theory or understanding to it. Thermals never do what they're supposed to. Its so so hard to get any consistency here to hunt certain spots effectively

Food is absolutely everywhere as well as acorns making deer extremely nomadic.
Bedding is absolutely everywhere making it very difficult to plan an attack

Seems like just lots and lots of time on stand during the pre rut and rut is the only way it can be done

Here's some tips for hunting the winds in the mountains, please add or subtract where I'm wrong or incomplete, everyone:

1. on light wind days if you can get on an area in direct sun then the thermals can be strong enough to make the milkweed go almost straight up, you can often hunt any deer downhill from you on those days

2. days without predicted switches in wind direction and with moderate winds from the same direction for several days will be less likely to swirl, also days without changes in wind speed are less likely to swirl due to less bernoulli effect/turbulence/etc

3. if you are hunting upper third of a ridge line, then longer ridges on days where the wind is parallel to the ridge will be better

4. windward side of a ridge without nearby ridges is more consistent because the wind hits and climbs it like a skateboard ramp

5. leeward side, complex topography, and bottoms are nearly always unpredictable

6. high plateaus can be pretty good for wind as they are somewhat similar to flat land

a good thing about big woods is you can have so many spots that if you booger one up due to the wind not being right, then you just move on to another spot and try to learn

we really need wind simulations models that predict surface winds.....like my buddy's stream flow model that can do a decent job at predicting microcurrents if you know the stream bottom and other variables

if you don't already, drop tons of milkweed and think about the topography like a stream bottom and the wind like water....it helps me at least develop my understanding, along with overlaying this with wind predictions and measurements

 

[raisins]

I was a lowland clear cut and thicket hunter for years. When I went to straight public over 10yr ago in mountains. You are right about wind. For me I primarily worry about where I lay my ground scent and use the thermals to help me which you figure out in time. Biggest thing to get over is most of the woods you like by looking at it won't be good woods. Most all sign left low is at night for majority of it. But sometimes it sucks. No getting around, and physically I'm not sure there's anything worse then climbing several hundred feet in elevation over softball sized loose rock and deep leaf litter day in day out with zero results to show for it.

also, lower elevation is easier to create and hold deer prints.....the soil is deeper due to erosion into the valley and it is also wetter because of drainage....up top the rocky, harder, well drained soils can take a lot more deer movement without showing it....if you notice most of the 'dang that looks like a cow path' deer trails are low where they are stomping around in semi muddy areas

 

[raisins]

I’ll add to this the river valley I’m currently hunting. Wind swirls terrible if you’re in it, and if you are out of it, in the evenings the air is pulling right to em. Common denominator here is unreliable / unhelpful winds.

i have an area on relatively pressured public land that borders private and i get large bucks there on camera but never in person.....the topography is a horsehose shaped bowl with fingers (looks cool on the topo)....the dominant wind conditions here cause the wind to swirl and do 180s all days....those big bucks can walk into that and survive because all they have to do is walk slowly and smell...they will smell any human within the area

 

[raisins]

Amen. Find the does and put in the time.

Once in a rare while you'll find an overly aggressive buck that leaves a bunch of sign everywhere in a small area and you can move in and kill him there. But like you said most of the bucks are nomadic AF and a lot of the big ones just don't seem to want to leave a lot of sign period.

I think with a TON of camera work you can up your odds of killing something earlier in the season on a pattern if doing it that way tickles your pickle, doesn't really for me.

I think a LOT of bucks in the mountains around here killed outside the rut are killed illegally on bait. I find the piles all the time.

yep, found some piles of bear poop last year in the middle of 1,000s of acres of public and it was just nothing but corn (and corn does not grow anywhere nearby)....it happened too many times in very remote areas to be some weird coincidence

one of my main areas is nothing but super dense cover along the road.....folks can't road hunt there at night due to no visibility so the deer have a shot....anywhere remote where yahoos can shine spot lights into fields at night from trucks is going to have illegal pressure....in those areas, the young males don't have much else to do with themselves, it seems

 

[neonomad]

i have an area on relatively pressured public land that borders private and i get large bucks there on camera but never in person.....the topography is a horsehose shaped bowl with fingers (looks cool on the topo)....the dominant wind conditions here cause the wind to swirl and do 180s all days....those big bucks can walk into that and survive because all they have to do is walk slowly and smell...they will smell any human within the area

At least you can walk away, go somewhere else! This is the valley I hunt, private I own so I’m committed… about 120’ of drop. I try to use the river, a week ago I was at the red dot and finally met my target deer after three years, but couldn’t get a shot. A younger me woulda been depressed for a week. They come up the hill at that green dot but thermals make that almost impossible. Puzzles!
Edit: property is only about 25% of the map. One other fun fact there’s some nice spots to hunt along those creeks cut into the bank but if you get near those in the evening I’m pretty sure they flush your scent right into bedding in the bottoms… milkweed taught me that.