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Setup breakdown in new growth pines.

NMSbowhunter

NMSbowhunter

Well-Known Member
SH Member
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Jan 3, 2022
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This is a spot I no longer have access to, so I don't mind sharing the details. I'm posting it so we can hopefully discuss the setup and maybe I can learn some new things and hopefully give some new folks an idea about how to dissect really tough terrain like this. The good thing about this thick stuff is that if you can learn to hunt it you will have it to yourself. The other hunters who were on this property hunted the plots and that was it. They swore up and down there were no good bucks in the area.

Around here we have a good bit of new growth pines. The logging operations leave some trees along the streams called SMZ's, streamside management zones. These are the places I concentrate on. The young pines are about 8 to 10 feet tall and so thick you can't see 5 yards. They are also choked down in saw briars. It took me a while to figure them out but here is the setup. I had three lock on stand locations in this block. All were 20-foot ladder sticks with Millennium brackets, and I always carried my M7 Microlite in with me.

Stand A was on a SMZ about 50 yards off a 4 wheeler track. I had a very well concealed entrance to all these spots. This is where I got the picture of the buck below. Stand B was at a creek crossing and stand C was also on a narrow strip of SMZ. I hunted these spots for several years, and although the food plots got hammered during gun season the deer just stayed in the thick stuff and traveled up and down those SMZ's. I never did get that buck, but I was in the game.

So, what are your thoughts? I feel like I can never get something dialed in all the way and there is always something new to learn.
 

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Always learning is what i try to think or do.
Entry to spots u need to be is super important almost as important as knowing the right time deer are using a specific area.
now getting to a spot especially early season should be or been planned post season unless of course its a new area.
new areas i have zero clue about are the areas im in season scouting heavily and trying to figure what and when everything is going on.
Most of these spots need a or a few observation sits.
Early season on any spot can be tough thats why im a super minimalist.
i dont carry **** i dont need.
flashlight, phone, liscence, maybe a water, release.
my pack will have my platform, knee pads, and probably my water.
when i get to the tree i take sticks off pack.
I mount one stick to tree, hang-one on each side of my hips, then carry one up with the 4th stick in my hand.
Before i leave the ground my pack is now turned around and is on my chest.
The same way a bino harness or chest pack works.
For me its just easier than swinging and having unnecessary movement while climbing the tree.
im a big bedding guy so i want very minimal movement while going to and climbing tree only because if im trying to sneak in on a certain bedding area and a buck is watching thss ast movement will probably end my hunt. i was also super careful getting there and i dont want to blow it on the way up tree with bags swinging around and noises that are not-natural.
I hope this suggestion helps someone
 
This is really helpful for me. given your user name I suspect we’re both deep south hunters, where there is a lot more thick terrain than there is nice open spots that the deer use.

i’m new to the game but one of the public land parcels I hunted last season is actively managed for pine. Like you said, there are two or three streams along which the hardwoods are left alone, but the deer sign is all over in the thick pine stuff. Trails, droppings, scrapes…

This parcel has stands of old growth, where the forest floor is totally clear, and acres of new growth that are so think you would need a machete to get through. Looking back on the season, my suspicion is at the deer like to bed in the new growth pine, because the cover was so thick. the encounters we had with deer on that land was almost always on the edge of that new growth, whether they were following a stream or moving to another acreage of thick whatever adjacent to it.
 
That is what I have observed also. The does will navigate that super thick cutover like a dolphin swimming through water, but the bucks can't or won't generally get into that really thick stuff because of their racks. I think that most of the trails leading into the super thick stuff are doe trails and the trails leading the edge of that transition are buck trails. That way the buck can scent check the openings of the trails leading back in by walking the edge. It's even better if the transition is on the downwind edge.

Another great private land strategy is to look at the cutover on Google Earth and dial it back to just after it was cut. That will really highlight the SMZ's or lone trees left on the land. One thing I learned to do was find a lone tree or small stand of trees and hack a trail out to it with a machete. Back then I was playing the wind so I wanted the tree on the downwind side of my trail. about 12 yards out. Then I would continue on past my stand spot and then start making the trails branch out in a fan shape. What this did was give the deer nice trails through that super nasty dense cutover. It was hard work but once done it was like a deer funnel. Bucks would use these trails also. Any deer hitting one of those feeder trails would eventually end up walking right by my stand tree. It was not unusual at all to chop a trail and come back the next week and see a huge quantity of deer tracks and dropping on that new trial. If you have some private land and can cut lanes it is a great strategy to make use of an otherwise nearly unhurtable block of new growth timber. If you have no trees suitable, you can use a tent blind also.

If you can't cut, finding those SMZ's are the ticket. Deer use them like roads and most people avoid them.
 

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You said “back then when you were playing the wind”…… you don’t hunt the wind anymore?
 
woodsdog2 said:
You said “back then when you were playing the wind”…… you don’t hunt the wind anymore?
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No, I use a scent control regimen now, for the most part. If I am doing a trad hunt off the ground and want to wear something like flannel, etc. then I do play the wind. If I am seriously after a big buck, then I go full scent control and don't worry about it. I've used it the past two seasons very effectively. Now, don't get me wrong, if the setup has the wind in my favor, then that is all the better, I don't go into a spot and think about wind, right off the bat. I do consider what the wind will be doing for the deer, why they would be there. Many people don't believe in it, and that is cool by me. I don't preach it, but I find it works for me.

Now, if I were cutting a lane and setting up a spot, then I would set it up to benefit from the predominant wind. Why not?
 
NMSbowhunter said:
No, I use a scent control regimen now, for the most part. If I am doing a trad hunt off the ground and want to wear something like flannel, etc. then I do play the wind. If I am seriously after a big buck, then I go full scent control and don't worry about it. I've used it the past two seasons very effectively. Now, don't get me wrong, if the setup has the wind in my favor, then that is all the better, I don't go into a spot and think about wind, right off the bat. I do consider what the wind will be doing for the deer, why they would be there. Many people don't believe in it, and that is cool by me. I don't preach it, but I find it works for me.

Now, if I were cutting a lane and setting up a spot, then I would set it up to benefit from the predominant wind. Why not?
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^^^ this is the exact same approach I take. Up the odds in your favor. Why not?
 
HunterBob said:
Can you share why you chose spots A and C in those locations?
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Absolutely. The spots I chose I found first by looking at the aerial photos of the area and then narrowed down the exact spots by boots on the ground investigation. The two food plots are the draw for the deer. They are also high-pressure locations that see a lot of hunters. The deer want to go to them but know to wait until dark to do so. They use the SMZ's (streamside management zones) as sort of highways to access the plots in cover. The regrowth pines in this area are about 10 to 12 feet tall and are choked with saw briars. The SMZ's are relatively open. The deer bed in the thick pines and travel down the SMZ's going to the plots in the evening and from the plots early in the morning just after daylight. Bucks also use the SMZ's to cruise for does during pre-rut and rut. I find I like to be about 100 to 150 yards from a plot in order to catch deer staging up to go to a food source or returning after daylight. All the fine tuning of a spot has to be done on the ground and the best time to do that is in February or March.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Absolutely. The spots I chose I found first by looking at the aerial photos of the area and then narrowed down the exact spots by boots on the ground investigation. The two food plots are the draw for the deer. They are also high-pressure locations that see a lot of hunters. The deer want to go to them but know to wait until dark to do so. They use the SMZ's (streamside management zones) as sort of highways to access the plots in cover. The regrowth pines in this area are about 10 to 12 feet tall and are choked with saw briars. The SMZ's are relatively open. The deer bed in the thick pines and travel down the SMZ's going to the plots in the evening and from the plots early in the morning just after daylight. Bucks also use the SMZ's to cruise for does during pre-rut and rut. I find I like to be about 100 to 150 yards from a plot in order to catch deer staging up to go to a food source or returning after daylight. All the fine tuning of a spot has to be done on the ground and the best time to do that is in February or March.
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Sounds like you have a good amount of experience with this. I hunt in Northern GA and have seen similar habitats, except with a little more elevation change.

The early growth pines make great bedding but are almost impossible to access. I like your breakdown of this property already.

Did you do any in-season scouting to see where the fresh sign was? I've gone to hunting completely mobile and have had much more success when I am finding fresh sign and setting up over it. That said, I don't have access to private land and I know that you can use different strategies on private.

If you have a solid scent control regimen than maybe consider doing some scouting on the smzs to see where they are using them now?
 
Yes, the idea is transferable to public ground but you just can't cut lanes and trim so you have to be more creative in finding just the right natural openings. In that situation, in the really thick stuff, sometimes you are almost better off hunting off the ground in thick cover. I do have a very solid scent control regimen, so I do scout and hunt in these sorts of areas on public during the season.
 
I have had real good luck when I find where row pines 8-15" diameter butt up to the young pines.

The wma around here u will find what I call a "landing zone" where the main machine was placed during harvest operations. Theres usually an over grown trail leading out to the landing zone off of the road system. The landing zone itself will be small bare area with pine bark piled high and logs and normally a bunch of dog fennel. But surrounding the bare patch will be young pines they either planted when they were done or all the seeds fall off in a general area. The deer will be in the young pines or dog fennel. So if u can get down a pine row on the down wind side and jump some rows till u are able to sneak into within shooting range of the landing zone. 10-15 years after harvest is when it starts to get good
 
This is 1 I hunt....the red is the road the machine made and the blue is where the center of operations where. There's a small clump of young pines in amongst the larger 1s and 2 swampys right there close by. Whenever I draw that hunt and the wind is right I know which row to go down to lead to the landing zone walking past the red line access and coming in from the north. Early season southern winds are pretty common here

The dotted line is train tracks and the property line so u are walking in from the W/SW road

Screenshot_20230529-171653~2.pngScreenshot_20230529-171653~3.png
 
Set up 15yds from the pines in a swamp bottom....wind in my face blowing into the swamp. Mr pig didn't survive that evening but could have easily been a deer. I got no proof but imo the animals use the little pines for security cover and spend a pretty good amount of time in them.Screenshot_20230606-102023~2.png
 
Weldabeast said:
Set up 15yds from the pines in a swamp bottom....wind in my face blowing into the swamp. Mr pig didn't survive that evening but could have easily been a deer. I got no proof but imo the animals use the little pines for security cover and spend a pretty good amount of time in them.View attachment 85768
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I have found pigs and deer beds in these thick pines as well.
 
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