Just like the title, what is your favorite terrain feature or features for targeting bucks?
-
The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
-
We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules
Favorite terrain feature for bucks
- Thread starter BTaylor
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2019
- Messages
- 6,277
Depends upon time of the year.
During the rut, it would probably be very old logging roads cut into a hillside that cut many doe trails. However, outside of the rut, I see mature bucks very rarely on these during shooting hours. They want to be able to smell as much doe as possible while covering ground but not being super exposed (like middle of a field).
Outside of the rut, it is much harder to outline but for bucks during the day, I have to be very close or in thick cover. But it's more of a "whole story" sort of thing at that point.
By "whole story" do you mean in relation to topography, proximity to food, etc? For the non-rut periods?
Old logging roads, swamp "ridges" (a 1-2ft elevation change that means a strip of land is the last to flood), and old logging roads on swamp ridges.
On non-swampy parcels I like SMZs and lately in piney woods I like a hilltop.
On non-swampy parcels I like SMZs and lately in piney woods I like a hilltop.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2019
- Messages
- 6,277
yes, unless the sign is hot, I usually look for at least 2 reasons to be there
for instance, one of my favorite public land stands is the edge of a plateau coming out of security cover on the plateau on the side with favorable wind and in an area you can only access if you know the secret trail that has an opening that is covered in brush...also, the plateau top curves near the stand so it is also a topographic funnel
so, it's hard to boil that down to 1 or 2 things
but mostly it is security cover combined with some sort of funnel to concentrate movement and also presence of sign to indicate it is useful (i spent too much time in perfect topo saddles (for instance) and not seeing any deer...because even if you have the perfect interstate the drivers still need a reason to be on it....i don't always care to know the reason....but i wanna see skidmarks or sign of travel on the road)
Old logging roads (I like them almost indistinguishable) that are near a draw, saddle, or intersecting ridgelines and some thick cover. Make it a good acorn year as well and I'm salivating.
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2019
- Messages
- 6,277
Private or public? Rut or non-rut?
I ask because on public here, outside of the rut, you'll hardly ever see a decent buck cruise a logging road unless that logging road is THICK.
(1) Private or public doesn't really matter to me, we have a ton of public here (allegheny national forest and a handful of 8000 to 14000 acre gamelands). It's easy to get away from folks in Archery.
(2) If I had to pick one, pre-rut. Our peak breeding is Nov 12th typically, I like the last week of October. Really though, anytime from Oct 15 through the end of November I've killed bucks in similar scenario's.
I have one specific spot in my head that I have hunted for years. Large draw (for western PA) with a saddle at the top, it's kind of like a bowl. Thick 15 year old clear cut off one of the ridges, 7 year old thick clearcut down the back side, and the top was clearcut 4 years ago and thick as well. Both ridgelines are loaded with oaks. On a good acorn year it's like walking in marbles. The old logging road is 1/3 of the way down from the top cut into the hill. It's almost grown in, if it wasn't cut into the hill you wouldn't know it was an old logging road. I've probably killed a dozen bucks out of different spots along that logging road. It's on public that borders private that I am able to hunt.
Shick thit first. Terrain...subtle benches and saddles, just little subtle stuff is the X. Macro level, steep stuff, big flats, swamp, ridges, whatever. I'm not really big on the playbook type breakdowns. Just whatever the deer do I want to figure it out and be there. The obvious features get pounded pretty good on public anymore now that everyone has onX and watches the Infalts n'at.
Last edited:
E'rybody an all their chilrens can have onx but what I quoted is one of the major differences between hunters and killers. I would venture the overwhelming majority of folks(hunters in general) cant pin that stuff on a map and not all of it can be. Lots cant spot it walking within peeing distance either. I say both of those things from experience and knowing I still have lots to pin down too.
There is a state gameland on my way home from work I will hunt sometimes as a quick run in evening that is a swamp and my go to spot is on the edge of a spot that is only 1-2 feet above the rest of the area but it acts as the only bridge through the swamp for deer. There is Ag on both sides of the swamp. Not my normal type of terrain to hunt but interesting and different. I've watched bucks run back and forth on it during the rut, just never seen any shooters there.
I wish I was too. I'm usually just throwing spaghetti at the wall. I think persistence is probably my best attribute. I didn't kill one in 2021, never even had a good one in range. I was closing in and just ran out of clock. But then I killed one in that spot pretty early in 2022 that was completely built on the knowledge and lessons learned during my long, unsuccesful, 2021 season. I don't even know how to describe it. Big, flat patch of thick laurel that backs up to a big oak flat. Just kept nipping away at it. Everyone wants the quick fix, but I've yet to find it, I know that.
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2019
- Messages
- 8,096
All good stuff guys..... agree 100%. I will add especially for earlier season pre-rut set ups starting to decend into the rut are thick edge runs through your normal forest canopy i.e. you know deer are using the area via sign and tracks and evening in ag fields or cuts but want to "home" in on where the bucks are likely to travel I like inside corners, outside corners, thick lines of grape tangles and high stem count areas and where those meet more open woods in a logical progression toward ag or feeding like an old orchard etc. I love creek crossings, I really, really like deep cuts that come together with a hump or a "bridge" of land everything will funnel through that. Spring seeps on side hills. Side hill trails that come to a ridge spur.... great place t set up for both pre and rut. Just tried to add some things not previously mentioned. My reluctance to get too close to bedding in the early season has both helped and hampered me. I have started to not key in on beds as much but bedding areas and finding transitions and terrain features somewhat near them but far enough away to not bust everything out. Much easier said than done.
Persistance has been my ace too. I have connected some dots this spring though that I hope pay the dividends I think they will. May not happen this season like you referenced building on the knowledge but I think I will be much better in the game. The sad part is how many of the things are glaringly obvious but were hiding in plain sight. Felt about as sharp as a rubber mallet when the light finally came on.
Personally, I have always been more concerned with mature than necessarily "big" because that is so dependent on where you are hunting. Getting better at big and mature as well as targeting a specific deer is going to be more my general focus this year though.
I like spots where I can set up and there's no way for the deer to get downwind. Like setting up right on top of a bluff. Even better if I can access it from downwind, like taking the canoe to the upwind side of the lake and setting up 20 yards up the bank.
michigandrake
Well-Known Member
Any terrain that keeps the bulk of the hunters out. Thick, wet, and steep are good examples.
I divide my stand locations by rank. So S rank, then A, B, and C. Cs are locations I go out if I feel like hunting without great conditions or spots I don't care about burning out. B locations are spots I wait for the right conditions to hunt but also don't care if I burn them out, but definitely worth a good sit. A locations demand the right conditions and I hunt them sparingly throughout the season. In all the hundreds and hundreds of miles I scouted the last couple of years, I only found 1 spot that I consider S rank. There's a shear cliff on the leeward side of the mtn. Until deer grow wings they can't come down for most of it. There's one spot they can come down before it gets steep and rocky again. It's dense and thick and loaded with mtn laurel and security cover. Although I hunt hard all season, the reality is if I didn't hunt at all and only hunted that spot for a couple of days in a row during peak rut with a cold front, I'd get it done on a good one every year. It's that good. It's that good because it's a hard funnel. They HAVE to come that way. Try to find the hardest funnels you can here the spot
Last edited: