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- Jan 17, 2019
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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 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. Theres one spot they can come down before it gets steep and rocky again. Its 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 days in a row during peak rut with a cold front I 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 View attachment 83723
This is very close to my philosophy.
I love just being out there, so unless it is just miserable (hard rain) or dangerous (super hard wind that snaps trees or lightning) then I'm out.
If it is a really bad day (hot, weird wind, etc) then I just go to one of my spots where I have a chance, but I can't screw up any of my good spots and if I screw that mediocre spot up, then I don't really care.
Also, your hard funnel is money.
Also, looking for unconventional funnels, like your cliff. Folks can get too programmed to looking at usual topographic funnels (saddles you can see on a topo) or, usually, vegetation funnels (hourglass of woods in a field) that they might walk by other types.
Here's two unconventional funnel types:
Thick sticky mud in the woods due to a drainage. This is probably common sense to swamp guys, but where I'm at in WV there's no swamps. However, lost my boot in some mud once and noticed that the drainage of this mud was over 50 yards of no tracks. Then where the mud ended there was a lake 50 yards away, all deer have to pass those 50 yards or sink past up to their bellies in what seems like quicksand that is 10 yards wide.
Super dense brush, so dense that deer cannot get through it. Deer love thick stuff, but it can get so thick that they just avoid it. I have a 100 yard screening wall of this and I set up right by it. It acts like a drift fence used for catching critters.
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