Hunting whitetail going in blind tips?

[GCTerpfan]

I don't watch Samkowiak a lot but this is one thing I agree with him on. Some of my most successful hunts are when I pick a terrain feature from a map that looks like it will funnel deer movement, go in well before dark, pick a tree, climb it and wait for daylight. I sometimes have deer move through just out of Trad bow range but, I have that happen when I've thoroughly scouted an area also. Some of my best buck encounters have occurred when going in blind.

@HuumanCreed, in your area with the high deer density you guys have I wouldn't hesitate going in before daylight to some type of funnel or feature that compresses deer movement, picking a tree and seeing what happens. Try to limit the amount of walking around you do when you get to the feature, if you have to cross the feature/trail cross it perpendicular within range of whatever tree you pick so you can shoot a deer before or when it hits your scent. Worst case scenario, you picked the wrong tree and a deer crosses out of range but, you just learned something for the next hunt.

 

[GeoFish]

Youtube Samko Trad Bow Going in blind in the dark

Ya, then you get set up, daylight comes and you see a ladder stand and beer cans.

 

[ledflight]

A slough is a wide, shallow ditch, usually forming a backwater of a larger river or creek. They can snake through low areas making lots of twists and turns. A header is a spot where a sharp bend in the slough makes a spot where animals moving from one area to another will hug the outside bend to go around, instead of swinging way out into the woods. Many times, you will find deer and pig trails right at the tips of these headers.

In the image below, you will see several examples of what likely slough headers are as seen on a topo map, and then what they look like with foliage. Boots on the ground are the only way to determine if the slough header is a great spot or not.

How sharp a turn do you think works for this ? Is this too gentle a turn around that stream?

 

[NMSbowhunter]

How sharp a turn do you think works for this ? Is this too gentle a turn around that stream?
View attachment 116607

That could be one, but only boots on the ground will tell for sure. Another type of header is where a narrow creek or cut falls off a steep hillside forming a drainage. Usually, at the top or near the top there will be a header that allows the deer to pass around the tip of the drainage ditch. These can be great spots in hill country. So, on this example, there might be another header at the upper elevation of this creek, above the 560 foot elevation line that is worth checking too.

 

[ledflight]

That could be one, but only boots on the ground will tell for sure. Another type of header is where a narrow creek or cut falls off a steep hillside forming a drainage. Usually, at the top or near the top there will be a header that allows the deer to pass around the tip of the drainage ditch. These can be great spots in hill country. So, on this example, there might be another header at the upper elevation of this creek, above the 560 foot elevation line that is worth checking too.

Thanks, I see some potential spots higher up with some drops. I will aim to check those spots out!

 

[WPS87]

One must first be blind to truly hunt blind

Bruce Lee

 

[Wlog]

If I’m going to a completely new area the first thing I do is look at maps. You don’t have to spend too much time on this. Just enough to get a feel for boundaries, access, and land features.

I’m looking for thick cover. I try to pick out areas that I think have the cover, terrain, etc. that are also in places other hunters may be ignoring or missing. That doesn’t need to necessarily be a long way in. Buck I killed last year on public was my best to date on public land and if it weren’t for the trees I think I could’ve thrown a baseball to hit my truck.

I like to go to the area around 7:30 or 8am on a Saturday when I know most people are hunting and drive by all the parking areas to see where the pressure is. Then around 9:30 or 10:00 when most guys are leaving from the am hunt I go in to start scouting. I walk until I find a place I’m convinced is worth setting up or I see enough of a lack of sign to move on.

I only go in blind in the dark during the rut. I’ll setup along an edge I’m expecting bucks to cruise or where does will be working back to bedding. All it takes is being in the right doe bedding area at the right time.

 

[Jammintree]

If I’m going in 100% blind, I’m going to a topographical / geological feature that is a hard funnel: A narrow strip of land between 2 giant swamps, a small bench on a rocky bluff, a corridor between two regenerating cuts, a break in a stone wall in a patch of woods between two presumed bedding / feeding areas.

If that’s not possible I’m probably going to still hunt during daylight until I see sign that absolutely screams at me.

I can sit the same spot for 12 hours a day 7 days in a row if I’m confident in my intel. But if there’s nothing to give me confidence I’m going to look carefully until I have definitive information.

 

[Buckhole75]

I try to do a lot of map study on areas that I am going in to if I try to choose a few spots i like looking at the topography From there I choose the best spot according to what I think will be the best wind I may walk a long way in the dark with a light but when I get close to the area I have chosen I ease in with daybreak More cover noise I believe you draw lots of attention to yourself just before daylight with a light Public land deer around here are highly educated and I believe you can get away with more slipping in without a strobe light running Besides the noise factor picking a good tree a little late is way better than a crappy tree plenty early JMO

 

[ledflight]

...Besides the noise factor picking a good tree a little late is way better than a crappy tree plenty early JMO

Yes, sometimes I stress about picking the tree as the light is growing but it's worth being choosy. I just hate when I feel like I've trampled around the area too much leaving my scent fresh on the ground.

 

[dhoff545]

What is a slough and a slough header? Pictures help.

All a slough header is an "inside corner" if we are using Mapping Trophy Whitetails terminology or a "short range funnel" using Worthington's terms that concentrates deer movement in a huntable area at relatively small scale. Just like me most deer won't wade through 3' of mud to cross a slough/ditch/gully etc. They will walk 20 yds out of the way and 20 yds back to avoid the obstacle and then get back to their direction of movement. This works on all kinds of things where you have an edge created by one habitat feature protruding into another. Could be a field edge, pine plantation, different age trees due to logging, edge of a swamp or slough etc.

Alot of times the deer will have a very diffuse travel pattern, all willy nilly through a stand with no discernable trail. Then come to a feature like I described, neck down to a trail they all walk on past the feature, and then go back to a diffuse travel pattern with no trail to set up on.

 

[dhoff545]

So anyone that hunt locations going in blind have any tips?

By going in blind do you mean in the morning? or just going to a new spot for the first time without ground truthing your map scouting?

If you absolutely have to go in blind in the dark, trust the topo. Vegetation changes the general shape of the land can't. Find a good feature that you think will have movement back to bedding through a funnel, along a ridge system etc and then don't be afraid to move early. Don't pick a spot off the map and then go sit there all day.

I think going in blind in the morning is unproductive. If I do that I try to do it from the ground with a rifle. And I'm really planning on still hunting. Even if you only have half a dozen spots a morning hunt in a location you know is generally going to be more productive than a hang and hope. Even if you are good at map scouting, sat imagery is generally a couple years old. Even when you can pick out a tree you want to be in that is no guarantee it's still there or sets up the way you want.

I develop new spots by hunting a known location AM and moving and scouting into the new spot PM. Then I have plenty of time to pick a tree get set up etc. If I like it better as an AM stand I can prep it for the next day and then go hunt a PM stand I already know or keep scouting towards a new PM stand. The biggest issues there is not pushing too far in and blowing it out, yet still being in the shooting light movement bubble. Sometimes even if you are in the right spot it's hard to be in the right tree in the right spot the 1st time.

This changes if it's a rut cruising location, then I might be on the edge of the spot I know I want to hunt on the ground well before light and then confirm my map sat image analysis, push into a tree in the spot and get set up. The downside to this is that you don't want to walk past a location and then come back, the furthest you push in is where you should be setting up. This is not an exact science, very frequently I will find a spot, hunt it and then figure out that the spot on the spot is actually 30 yds away. It's way better to scout that spot this time of year find the best tree and have it preset.

To give you a story a buddy and I set up 200 yds apart during the prerut. We dropped in to a marsh and sat the points of two swamp islands that protruded to the west into the marsh expecting AM movement from corn to the north along the marsh edge catching the islands and moving farther south into the public to bedding. We had the movement pattern dialed in but the island my buddy was on had some white oaks and we discovered climber sign on our way out. Likely hunting PM staging area as they hit acorns before moving to the corn. The deer skirted this hunting pressure farther into the marsh taking them by well out of range right at daybreak. I had picked out a tree from the sat imagery that was right on the tip of the island, looked like the last good hardwood canopy tree. The deer came by 30 yds in front of me right under a white pine I had thought was too aggressive a push into the marsh and I wasn't able to get the buck to turn with a grunt tube. The spot within the spot was 30 yds away.

 

[dhoff545]