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military crest with saddles and funnels?

raisins

raisins

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2019
Messages
6,277
Dear All,

I'm new to the idea of the military crest. In hindsight, that is where I've often jumped bedding deer. Makes sense now.

I am about to go scout a pretty big piece of public land. There is a 1,500 acre area that is pretty remote and I expect low hunting pressure. I plan to walk the military crest of the various valleys while taking notes and marking points on my GPS map (iphone), etc. Let's say I come to a topographic funnel (hourglass pinchpoint) or a saddle....do you guys tend to hunt/scout the whole ridge of the pinch point/funnel or the whole saddle....or within these features, do you still concentrate on the military crest area of them?

I have a lot of ground to cover, I guess the best thing is to look at all parts of high value areas (funnels, etc) for sign. That will increase my scouting time and reduce the area I can cover perhaps. In general, how do you hunt saddles and topo funnels?

Thanks - R
 
I’m not an expert, but...

If you are walking the MC for let’s say a half mile, and you find 10 good pinch points, pick the best 1 or 2 with good access. You can go crazy chasing your tail looking for multiple trees.

I like the tops of draws/ditches, where they meet the MC.
 
Definitely do not mark everything you see or youll have a cluttered mess on a map. Mark only what is really significant in the grand scheme of the puzzle.

I more often than not walk into somewhere i did work on a map online and say "NOPE". Theres times I under estimated things and never even got out of the truck. A map only tells 1/3 (see what i did there) of the story.
 
ekelsey15 said:
I would like to know as well.
Click to expand...

It's where the hill just starts to rapidly descend. It keeps the buck from being silhouetted since some hill is behind him, and also he has maximum viewing area and thermals rise to him.

Basically ask yourself "if I was going to set a machine gun nest up to defend an entire hillside, then where would I place it?" and that's usually the military crest. Works for bucks also.

Before I knew what this was called or why bucks were there, I would walk ridge tops and also spook bedded deer that were just off the trail but on the military crest.
 
Appreciate it... so now that I know what it is, is it recommended to walk the MC when scouting, rather than the crest or hill bottom? Thank you for the education. Delaware is pretty flat, so this is great info.


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Gr33n Arrow said:
Appreciate it... so now that I know what it is, is it recommended to walk the MC when scouting, rather than the crest or hill bottom? Thank you for the education. Delaware is pretty flat, so this is great info.


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Click to expand...

I just bought a DVD from Dan Infalt (spelling?) from the hunting beast. He is all about the military crest. He stated that unless you have time to scout the whole area (smaller pieces of land), then if you want to cover a lot of area quickly then just stick to the military crest (about 1/3 down the hill usually) unless you also see some killer areas like saddles and funnels. The bucks bed on that crest with the wind to their backs and looking downhill. So, if you have a west wind, then if you've already found the beds then you know where to hunt with that wind.

With everything, YMMV and this is just a "probably" thing and weird stuff happens all the time.

Also, Dan states that this can somewhat work on smaller hills as well.

As soon as the weather calms here, I am going to scout a big piece of public land and outside obvious funnels and saddles, I'm planning to walk this crest all over because I simply don't have time to look at the whole thing. It's over 10,000 acres and 1 hour away.

Minerals licks are legal on public land here. So, once I find my spot, I'll make licks in key areas and put up cameras.
 
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Isn’t there a MC on both sides of the Ridge??


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USSHornet said:
Isn’t there a MC on both sides of the Ridge??


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Click to expand...

Sure but the top of the hill could be a 500 or 5000 acre field. One side is the side bucks prefer with the best routes, food, wind, safety and bedding


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Even in flat terrain bucks tend to bed watching downwind with the wind over their backs. They usually will put some kind of thick cover behind them that when a predator tries to go through it- it will alert them while they watch an area down wind in front of them that they can detect predators as well. The whole military crest thing is where they can catch scent in the rising thermals (warming of the earth makes air rise upward) from below and smell the wind from behind them as well. Acording to the Hunting Beast and many other successful scouters/hunters bucks like to find that spot where the two winds meet and actually make a tunnel of sorts giving them a secure feeling from front and behind. They also tend to cruse these elevations during the rut looking for does from above and below......if you don't understand this use milkweed seeds at different elevations on side hills until you do.... once you do.... it shows you why whitetails have such a huge advantage with such a small brain......
 
USSHornet said:
Isn’t there a MC on both sides of the Ridge??


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Click to expand...

Yep. Supposedly they tend to bed on the side where the wind will be at their back while they look down the hill. I've heard that days where the wind changes direction will have more deer movement because they will change their bedding location when the wind switches. Of course, these are hard days to hunt, especially from a tree where you are more anchored.
 
Your starting a process that I started this year as well. What I saw this year is the signs are not so obvious. And finding the bed in the areas I have been hasn’t happed this year for me. I am going to keep at it till it gets easier though. Like everything else it may take a year or two to get on the right path. Hill bedding is harder than the rest it seems.
 
I wouldn’t look too deep into the “beast” style of hunting. It’s been a great help to me, but it is not step by step instructions to kill bucks. Develop your own style of scouting and hunting.
 
once I knew about this and looked deeper into this it explained why I was finding beds a 1/3 down where I was hunting
now it's much easier and faster to seek out areas like this, especially the lee ward side of hills
I learned this from the hunting beast, with those techniques I've been on more deer than all the previous years
insights and answers I've been looking for instead of walking around and wasting time
 
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