• 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

Hubs vs. Funnels

Jammintree

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2021
Messages
2,831
I’m interested in having a discussion about Hubs and Funnels. In my mind these two things overlap but are not necessarily the same thing. These are concepts we speak of constantly and it’s been occurring to me lately that we may all have unique definitions. How do YOU define each term?
 
Hub= A major intersection of several runways, trails, etc.. coming in from many different directions, often times a unique land feature such as elevation change whatever may be found there, but that is what I call a hub, and when there is a scrape present, all the more better.

Funnel= When certain conditions exist because of land, water, fence… something, anything that will force game through a smaller spot, that is a funnel or pinch point.
 
Last edited:
I class all these as land cover and/or elevation and/or other features like mud (I guess that's land cover) that modify deer movement by either saving them energy or making them less exposed to predators. I see hubs as usually having less of a hard constraining factor and also usually be geographically larger, however that isn't part of the definition but just how they seem in WV where hubs are often caused by converging ridges. I have found that the simple funnel with a hard constraint to movement is easier to identify and hunt and also have been more productive.

If I see a very hard funnel, basically I know I'll see deer there. The one I got a buck at last fall on Oct 13 was a funnel caused by an open field surrounded by brush so thick that a deer would not pass through it unless fleeing for their lives. I set up 10 yards from the thick brush, and within a few hours a buck that was avoiding the field came along hugging that brush line, just as I wanted.
 
I agree pretty much exactly with @Topdog but would add I sometimes lazily use hub to describe spots like he referenced as well as thermal hubs. To me a thermal hub is a point of thermal collection or the spot where thermals from multiple areas converge. They can be half or more up a ridge or they may be in a bottom.

Maybe a simpler way to say it would be, for me, most hubs are a point of intersecting features(topographical and/or vegetative) and thermal hubs are point of thermal convergence.

What would be nice to find is a spot with both in close proximity and hang right between em. :)
 
Like @Topdog said a funnel is something that concentrates or directs movement (usually topographical in my area but could be vegetation, water, fencing, etc.)

A hub could be where several funnels come together. But, I agree with @raisins, probably because we hunt similar terrain, that I usually think of a hub as a much broader area like where several ridge tops come together, or where several ravines/valleys come together as a thermal hub like @BTaylor mentions.
 
I think hubs are a type of funnel, but funnels are much broader structure. Lots of things can be a funnel, terrain, vegetation, roads, etc. Hubs are formed by interesecting features, ridges that come together, a bunch of hollers that all feed into a bowl, etc. That's how it is in my head anyway but I don't consume a lot of the hunting strategy content so I just call stuff what I wanna call it.
 
I suppose I don't spend a lot of time hunting obvious hubs.

1) Everyone and I mean everyone map scouts now and on public land these are often the most obvious looking onx spots, predictably they get pressured pretty hard
2) I don't find the feature of having "deer coming from every which way" helpful, actually, quite the contrary, because, wind.
3) I also don't solely play the "buck bedding game" but to explain it succinctly, big bucks aren't going to be spending much time in daylight in these places, because, see #1 above

However I would say almost every place I hunt I classify as some type of funnel. It's bowhunting 101, you need some kinda neck down to get deer within bow range. However I may also have very loose definitions of a funnel and oftentimes it's probably considered more along the lines of "edge".
 
Probably saying the same thing as above, in a little different way. A funnel is created by terrain features, whereas I think of a hub as an intersection of trails. It may or may not be in a funnel - it could be an intersection of multiple trails in the middle of a tall weed field or area of dense brush.

But if you backtrack those trails out from the hub, they likely pass through funnels that direct them toward the hub.
 
Hub= A major intersection of several runways, trails, etc.. coming in from many different directions, often times a unique land feature such as elevation change whatever may be found there, but that is what I call a hub, and when there is a scrape present, all the more better.

Funnel= When certain conditions exist because of land, water, fence… something, anything that will force game through a smaller spot, that is a funnel or pinch point.
^^^^ pretty much this right here. I tend to call a hub a convergence. But from the current stuff out there, a hub seems to also include some aspect of wind and/or thermal activity. So there may be lateral and vertical movement in a hub which may not necessarily exist in a simple convergence of trails. I like the term convergence because in my simple brain I look at it like everything converges into a small spot because of the terrain, the deer, water, and wind thermals.
 
Last edited:
I stick to areas where they leave cover to feed. This is what has worked for me for over a decade since I decided to shoot the does. I still see a lot of bucks, but the older deer usually avoid these areas until full dark. When I hunted bucks, the most productive stands were ridges close to heavy thickets of multifloral rose or patches of buffalo grass.
 
I suppose I don't spend a lot of time hunting obvious hubs.

1) Everyone and I mean everyone map scouts now and on public land these are often the most obvious looking onx spots, predictably they get pressured pretty hard
2) I don't find the feature of having "deer coming from every which way" helpful, actually, quite the contrary, because, wind.
3) I also don't solely play the "buck bedding game" but to explain it succinctly, big bucks aren't going to be spending much time in daylight in these places, because, see #1 above

However I would say almost every place I hunt I classify as some type of funnel. It's bowhunting 101, you need some kinda neck down to get deer within bow range. However I may also have very loose definitions of a funnel and oftentimes it's probably considered more along the lines of "edge".

Good call on the edges. I think deer travel them because they are thick and also they can use the same technique they use when bedding. They have that thickness to their back and then they can use their eyes into the more open area as they travel. I've found that they use them more when the wind is coming from the thick stuff, which is convenient for a bow hunter because a stand on the open side of the edge is also downwind from the edge. I also think that finding edges with rubs/sign is how you can out hunt the guys that just use maps because you often can't see these on maps.

I agree with you on avoiding deer coming from every which way. Before saddle hunting, I would look for those spots and try to have "jack of all trades" spots ("hey this spot I can shoot 2 benches!"). Now, I just want to set up perfect for what I think is most likely.
 
I stick to areas where they leave cover to feed. This is what has worked for me for over a decade since I decided to shoot the does. I still see a lot of bucks, but the older deer usually avoid these areas until full dark. When I hunted bucks, the most productive stands were ridges close to heavy thickets of multifloral rose or patches of buffalo grass.

I wish I could find this in WV public land. It's just browse and white oaks and maybe some weedy species they like. That and bedding is almost everywhere. So, I hunt funnels and sign.
 
Back
Top