Hunting a funnel

[Halfright]

I was walking around the swamp today and found a small “path” of land that goes through the swamp. On this path, I found 5 rubs in that 75 yard strip. There is still about a foot of snow here in New England and I didn’t find any tracks in the 4 miles I walked. How would you hunt it? I’ll see if I can post a satellite view.

 

[Halfright]

Here is a picture of the area

 

[Rg176bnc]

The key to any spot is:
Your entrance
Where your wind ends up while your hunting
Your exit
Timing (where they are going and coming will determine that) Ideally with a funnel you want to be able to go undetected from the deer going both directions.

 

[Bogle]

I would be hunting it with a north or south wind and would come in from either the north or the south depending on the wind. In my opinion there needs to be a reason for them to travel through a funnel ie...... does, food etc......

 

[shwacker]

Does that swamp come to a point to the south? If so how is the sign there? That acts as a funnel too.


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[Letemgrowitllshow]

Id come at it from the South and get to the pink dot. If sign is good I'd hunker down there. If not, depending on the wind, I'd continue north on that edge and scout my way to the funnel. If there's trailgood sign where they're cutting across that swamp, or maybe they're bedding in the swamp and coming from beds to the woods, I'd sit on it. Otherwise move up to the funnel. Green arrow=wind for green dot
Red arrow=wind for red dot

 

[Nick Grider]

Find the tightest pinch point in the funnel so you can shoot the entire width of it and set up there. If there’s a little standing water in the swamp, hunt it on a calm sunny day for an evening hunt when you’re sure to get a good strong thermal when the sun just hits the treeline to pull your scent toward the water.

 

[Kurt]

I hunt a similar funnel. Not only do deer transition across the swamp using the high ground, the bucks bed on it. I don't go near it, ever. I approach down wind onto the end I think they will want to move to on their own, ie a food source in the evening. get set up within shooting distance where that land bridge hits the main land on the down wind side. Then I'll call. Soft bleats, and soft immature contact grunts, social stuff. SPARINGLY. They'll want to come. I've had great luck with this setup. For me it's primarily an evening stand. But I've caught a couple of nice bucks going to it in the morning. It's prime bedding cover.

 

[Bourdeau]

I agree with @Kurt except for the calling, depending on the deer density sometimes in real low deer density even sparingly social calling is a crap shoot. I think what I would want to know for sure is why and when are they crossing the land bridge. Obviously it's easier than wading in the water but what direction is food source and what direction is bedding? Like @Letemgrowitllshow said the edge is key here, scout the edge all the way around the swamp to find the buck bedding before they come back from winter herding, it'll give you an idea of where to set up and when their crossing the bridge. I hunt one very similar to this, except the land bridge is longer and wider. The bucks tend to bed in the edge close to it but they seem to know it's a very risky place to get caught- so much of the sign is night time sign, if that's the case you won't find mature deer on it during day light. But what a great find to explore the edge around it. Be careful of the wind -in my swamp it swirls in places, and is very different than the prevailing wind of the day, big bucks in my swamp know this and tend to bed near the edge with a view into the swamp that they will travel when threatened right through the water. Usually I find I have to go through water to get to their beds. They want to hear you coming from behind them where they can't see. Nice job so far but where is the big buck bedding?