Setup breakdown in new growth pines.

[NMSbowhunter]

Thanks. I hope it helps. Here is another analysis of a block of pines on a club I broke down for a friend of mine. The first aerial is from Google Earth in 2007 showing about a year or so of regrowth. In this picture you can clearly see what Weldabeast was talking about when he was referring to the landings. These are the spots the loggers drag the logs up to so they can be loaded on the trucks. The second picture is from early 2021. A lot of the detail that was visible in the first picture has been lost. Circled in yellow are the locations of the old skidder landings. The green lines are the old skidder lanes. The red dotted lines show the SMZ's, the low spots along the creeks where the loggers left the trees. Pay special attention to where two creeks meet up.

I like to walk all the SMZ's and look for sign and mast bearing trees (oaks, persimmons) and look for rubs and scrapes. On this block, I would expect the best buck sign to be concentrated on the spots designated A through E. These are the old skidder lanes leading down to the old landings. These spots will be thick but slightly more open than the surrounding pines. It would not surprise me one bit if one or more of these spots held a primary scrape.

 

[woodsdog2]

What did the areas where the SMZ's come together look like? I would think a saddle hang between your marked spots and those perpendicular SMZ's coming together would be good hunting?

 

[NMSbowhunter]

If you look at my original map, the picture below "July creek" is a picture taken in the spot labeled B in July. The SMZ's were pretty open but they were surrounded by new growth pines. This spot was very open in fact since they left a pretty wide swath of woods along the creek and this is where a creek T'd with another.

The other picture is a spot I cleaned out with a chainsaw back in 2016. It was a narrower SMZ and had a lot of undergrowth that I opened up so the sunlight could hit the ground. I did that in February. By summer it was green. I cut trails in the sawbriars that lead into the spot and the deer loved to stay in there. It was basically a little natural kill plot in the middle of a 75 to 100 acre bedding area and I was the only one who knew it was there.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

In fact, if I still had access to that land, I would probably put a permanent saddle setup in tree in the center of the photo where I have the red circle. That tree was in just about the right spot to cover that convergence.

 

[woodsdog2]

In fact, if I still had access to that land, I would probably put a permanent saddle setup in tree in the center of the photo where I have the red circle. That tree was in just about the right spot to cover that convergence.

But where is that in relation to your birds eye map view with the circles, SMZ convergences etc.?

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Spot labeled "B" lower center of the picture. It was a spot where a SMZ T'd into a larger SMZ creek system.

 

[Weldabeast]

Who's got the break down on open pine savanna? That is the most difficult pine ecosystem to figure out IMO.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Who's got the break down on open pine savanna? That is the most difficult pine ecosystem to figure out IMO.

If by savannah you mean just big blocks of open pines with little to nothing growing under them then the best thing I know to do is walk the edges and look for transition cover. I've heard these open pines referred to as ecological deserts, and that is pretty much what they are. A lot of the time there is virtually no browse and no cover in open pines.

 

[Weldabeast]

If by savannah you mean just big blocks of open pines with little to nothing growing under them then the best thing I know to do is walk the edges and look for transition cover. I've heard these open pines referred to as ecological deserts, and that is pretty much what they are. A lot of the time there is virtually no browse and no cover in open pines.

This was my thinking too but last couple years I've seen evidence to start thinking otherwise... if u research long leaf pine savanna habitat it's got tons of diversity and the critters are out there.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

This was my thinking too but last couple years I've seen evidence to start thinking otherwise... if u research long leaf pine savanna habitat it's got tons of diversity and the critters are out there.

Are these natural habitats or row crop pines? I've seen some pine like south Alabama, Georgia and Florida that has palmettos growing in it. I think that amount of cover changes the game. What I am referring to is planted row crop pines that have been thinned manually or have naturally killed vegetation at ground level.

What general elevation above sea level is the land you are hunting? Here I am about 400 to 500 feet above sea level, and we don't seem to have palmettos.

 

[Weldabeast]

 

[Weldabeast]

 

[Weldabeast]

Above sea level?.......hahahahahaba

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Yes, that looks like better habitat than what I am talking about. If I were looking in there I would walk the transitions and also look for little creeks and ditches in there and walk those. Do you have live oaks? If so, I'd look at those early season and see if they have acorns.

 

[Weldabeast]

I've only just started dabbling in this type of terrain but so far, as far as I can tell u gotta find the invisible features....like u mentioned, ditches/drainage thru the flats are definitely worth looking at. They are so subtle....barely 6-12" in "elevation" change will "funnel" the critters....invisible "edges" like where knee high palmettos butt up to chest high palmettos...I'm having to retrain my eyes to see those small differences. There are small oak hammocks mixed in out there but they usually get hunted really hard. Flag ponds are the main "feature" out on the flats...the deer bed alone the edges and while the deer can walk right thru the deepest parts they tend to skirt them so u can use the flag ponds to find pinch points

 

[NMSbowhunter]

These are what I would consider "thick" open pines. Some of it gets manicured and has no understory.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

This is what moderate thick pines look like. This is what the deer like to hang out in for the most part. There are very few trees that are climbable and the pines are choked down with saw briars. Visibility is usually 20 yards and in. This stuff is best hunted off the ground or along the smz's that cut through it.

 

[Weldabeast]

We got that stuff too...it seems void of life but I find deer sign in that stuff too....I think it's gonna be night time activity thou....

 

[CooterBrown]

Great information guys. keep them coming

 

[NMSbowhunter]

What's crazy is that I just realized this may be the same doe I killed on October 24th 2019, the "piebald doe". I never made the connection until now. I just went back and looked at some old trail camera pics and pulled this photo to show the pines. How wierd is that. The photo location and the spot where I shot the doe are about a half mile apart. What do you think? Is it the same deer?