#1732566 - 01/18/10 03:42 PM
Hunting terrain
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earlytime
4 Point
Registered: 10/25/09
Posts: 129
Loc: TN
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Last season was not a great season. So this year I want to try something like hunting the terrain. I hunt the big woods and on public land. What should I look for and hunt? I know how to read a map, just would like to know if I should hunt ridges or saddles or what? Which terrain is better to hunt? What to look for, where to set up? Thanks Mike
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Enjoy the time you have with your childern, before you know it they have all grown up.
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#1732591 - 01/18/10 03:55 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: earlytime]
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Double-D-Team
10 Point
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 3483
Loc: God's Country
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Mike,
Like every hunter I also like to try new places and new terrain. All I can tell you is that the secret to any hunt is scouting. Now would be the time for you to learn this new terrain for next season. When it comes to ridges or saddles, the pressure will play a large part along with weather. I love to hunt ridges but your big bucks will rarely skyline themselves. Like always look for bedding areas, food, water. They are there somewhere close. Good Luck.
_________________________
Don and Dee (DOUBLE-D-TEAM)
THE RICHEST VALUES OF WILDERNESS LIE NOT IN THE DAYS OF DANIEL BOONE NOR EVEN IN THE PRESENT. BUT IN THE FUTURE--LEOPOLD
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#1732699 - 01/18/10 05:00 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Double-D-Team]
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mathews338
10 Point
Registered: 11/05/09
Posts: 3985
Loc: jackson co.
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saddles are my favorite types of terrain you can't hardly beat'em
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#1732708 - 01/18/10 05:03 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: mathews338]
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LIL JOKER
14 Point
Registered: 01/11/08
Posts: 9106
Loc: tennessee
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for public land hunt the thickets//if its on a saddle even better..
if u can get a idea of where other hunters are hunting try to slip in on the other side and let them push deer to u
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#1732796 - 01/18/10 06:15 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: LIL JOKER]
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Bone Collector
12 Point
Registered: 09/09/09
Posts: 6122
Loc: Murfreesboro, TN
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for public land hunt the thickets//if its on a saddle even better..
if u can get a idea of where other hunters are hunting try to slip in on the other side and let them push deer to u
Ditto. On public land nothing like letting your fellow hunters do the dirty work for you 
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Don't let the screen name fool you spikes are made of bone too  Semper Fidelis! The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. - Thomas Jefferson
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#1732956 - 01/18/10 07:39 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Bone Collector]
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Football Hunter
18 Point
Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 24550
Loc: Wilson Co/Perry Co
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Find the funnels,funnels ,funnels
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#1733538 - 01/19/10 05:57 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Football Hunter]
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MUP
Non-Typical
Registered: 08/01/07
Posts: 36143
Loc: Just North of Chatt-town
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My personal favorite is to find an area where a thicket and hardwoods meet. Whiteoak ridges that have a pine thicket on one side or the other, up above or down below them make excellent stand loc's imo.
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MUP
Amateurs: Built the Ark
Professionals: Built the Titanic
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#1733553 - 01/19/10 06:18 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: MUP]
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TN RDG RNR
12 Point
Registered: 06/28/07
Posts: 6094
Loc: Rhea County
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I bow hunt and like narrow ridge tops because I believe that my scent isn't as likely to swirl. Saddles even the slightest resemblance of a saddle are my favorites.
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WARNING: The above post may contain sarcasm and/or sophisticated satire. I will not be held liable for any psychological damage sustained.
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#1733561 - 01/19/10 06:26 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: TN RDG RNR]
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scn
12 Point
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 6976
Loc: Brentwood, TN US
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To save yourself a bunch of scouting time, go to Amazon.com and get you a copy of "Mapping Trophy Bucks" by Brad Herndon. It is hands down the best book I've found on hunting terrain features. After digesting his book it will be much easier to look at the maps and know where to start your scouting.
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#1733664 - 01/19/10 07:42 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: scn]
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Winchester
Non-Typical
Registered: 12/05/03
Posts: 25238
Loc: TN
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Smart move, the only thing remotely consistent about mature bucks is how they will use the terrain they live in.
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#1733689 - 01/19/10 07:56 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: scn]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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To save yourself a bunch of scouting time, go to Amazon.com and get you a copy of "Mapping Trophy Bucks" by Brad Herndon. It is hands down the best book I've found on hunting terrain features. After digesting his book it will be much easier to look at the maps and know where to start your scouting.
What scn said. Very good book.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#1733705 - 01/19/10 08:05 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Winchester]
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Setterman
8 Point
Registered: 12/31/09
Posts: 1783
Loc: Knoxville, TN
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My entire hunting philosophy revolves around food and how deer move between where they bed and where they eat. I rarely hunt food sources, but do position myself on likely travel corridors between food sources and bedding areas. These are usually benches, tops of hollows (not ridge tops), logging decks, old strip mines, logging roads, and finger ridge intersections. Many of these can easily be found on aerial photos, like MSN maps or google earth.
Hunting food is fine and does work, but many times the deer are there when you get there at daylight, and don't show up until you leave in the evening.
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#1734322 - 01/19/10 01:42 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Setterman]
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Longhunter
10 Point
Registered: 09/03/08
Posts: 3788
Loc: Brewstertown in Morgan County...
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Dead end ridges, gaps in strip mine high walls, heads of deep hollows, junctions of several hollows, hubs of finger ridges, beaver pond dams, edges created by logging or natural edges of thickets.
Now is the time to be scouting your hunting areas.
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#1734570 - 01/19/10 03:53 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Winchester]
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tickweed
10 Point
Registered: 11/25/09
Posts: 3542
Loc: medon,Tn.
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I like funnels,pinch points,but my favorite is figure out the bedding areas,hunt him in the evening.If you can ever pinpoint his bedding area,and you hunt the routes he enters and leaves by,and hunt wisely,you are way ahead in the game on a mature deer.
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The hardest thing about Bowhunting Turkeys is leaving the gun at home!
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#1734707 - 01/19/10 05:09 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: scn]
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moondawg
16 Point
Registered: 06/19/02
Posts: 17769
Loc: Millington, TN
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To save yourself a bunch of scouting time, go to Amazon.com and get you a copy of "Mapping Trophy Bucks" by Brad Herndon. It is hands down the best book I've found on hunting terrain features. After digesting his book it will be much easier to look at the maps and know where to start your scouting.
I went and bought that book this past weekend! I plan on studying it during the next few months.
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Don't look down, BE down!--Turkeyburd (Prevous 2012)
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#1734714 - 01/19/10 05:18 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: moondawg]
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Double-D-Team
10 Point
Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 3483
Loc: God's Country
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scn,
Thanks for the info...Will get the book...
Thanks Again.
_________________________
Don and Dee (DOUBLE-D-TEAM)
THE RICHEST VALUES OF WILDERNESS LIE NOT IN THE DAYS OF DANIEL BOONE NOR EVEN IN THE PRESENT. BUT IN THE FUTURE--LEOPOLD
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#1735234 - 01/19/10 08:27 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Double-D-Team]
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earlytime
4 Point
Registered: 10/25/09
Posts: 129
Loc: TN
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Thanks for all the good information. I have been scouting and it's hard to find bedding areas in the big woods and the food is every where. I just got the book and we read. Thank Mike
_________________________
Enjoy the time you have with your childern, before you know it they have all grown up.
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#1735425 - 01/19/10 09:21 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: Double-D-Team]
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scn
12 Point
Registered: 02/05/03
Posts: 6976
Loc: Brentwood, TN US
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scn,
Thanks for the info...Will get the book...
Thanks Again.
I think it will be a book you will find yourself reading more than once. There is so much info packed in this book that it's almost impossible to digest in one reading. But, the beauty of it is that it will allow you to look at topo and arial maps and head directly to where you will be seeing "sign" and greatly cut down on your scouting time. It certainly doesn't replace scouting, but does make it much more efficient. After a while you can ALMOST put a dot on a map on where your stand will end up before you set foot on the property.
In addition to unlocking the keys of terrain features and deer travel, he has the best chapter I've seen on how terrain influences wind currents. For a serious deer hunter this comes as close to a "must read book" that I've found.
And, btw, I don't know Mr. Herndon and have no reason to push his book. And, I can't compare it against our bowriter's book as I don't have it and it is out of print.
Edited by scn (01/19/10 09:21 PM)
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#1735991 - 01/20/10 08:06 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: earlytime]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Thanks for all the good information. I have been scouting and it's hard to find bedding areas in the big woods and the food is every where. I just got the book and we read. Thank Mike
Earlytime,
When dealing with "big woods" deer, I believe it is highly suspect supposition to define "bedding and feeding areas" and travel patterns in between the two. In that habitat there really are no bedding and feeding areas, especially in a good acorn year. Having looked at detailed GPS-collar data from deer "doing their normal thing" over long periods of time in this habitat, it is obvious deer are not bedding or feeding in any highly defined pattern. They bed and feed anywhere and everywhere, and their movements are far more random than we hunters believe or hope.
I've given up attempting to interpret why deer use the terrain they way they do (where they are coming from and going to) and just accept that certain terrain features are preferred by deer during their travels across a given area.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#1736009 - 01/20/10 08:14 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: scn]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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But, the beauty of it is that it will allow you to look at topo and arial maps and head directly to where you will be seeing "sign" and greatly cut down on your scouting time. It certainly doesn't replace scouting, but does make it much more efficient. After a while you can ALMOST put a dot on a map on where your stand will end up before you set foot on the property.
I just want reiterate what scn is saying. Once the terrain features deer prefer to use in their travels is understood, it can greatly increase the effeciency of scouting. Now not every "favorable" terrain feature will see equal use, nor will every favorable terrain feature be used by deer the same way each year. But once you have a list of these favorable terrain features you can assess potential hot spots on a property from a topo map and then quickly scout each location for sign that year. A particular terrain feature may be hot one year and dead cold the next. But knowing "where to look" for deer concentration points before you hit the woods greatly increases the efficiency of in-the-field scouting time.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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#1736016 - 01/20/10 08:22 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: BSK]
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Hillbilly Hunter
Killbilly
16 Point
Registered: 07/15/05
Posts: 16982
Loc: Branchville
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To me, being able to read terrain is the most critical scouting tool for killing mature deer. I rarely hunt somewhere where a terrain feature does not give me an advantage of seeing deer. I rarely hunt food sources. Food plots are great, but most of the mature bucks enter them under a blanket of darkness. A saddle is my favorite terrain feature. I have keyed in on them, and I am averaging about two mature bucks a year. When you add thick cover and a finger ridge joining the primary ridge in the saddle, you have a unbelievable spot.
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...they never call me by my name, just Hillbilly...
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#1736018 - 01/20/10 08:24 AM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: BSK]
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tndrbstr
16 Point
Registered: 10/06/05
Posts: 12157
Loc: knox co tn
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But, the beauty of it is that it will allow you to look at topo and arial maps and head directly to where you will be seeing "sign" and greatly cut down on your scouting time. It certainly doesn't replace scouting, but does make it much more efficient. After a while you can ALMOST put a dot on a map on where your stand will end up before you set foot on the property.
I just want reiterate what scn is saying. Once the terrain features deer prefer to use in their travels is understood, it can greatly increase the effeciency of scouting. Now not every "favorable" terrain feature will see equal use, nor will every favorable terrain feature be used by deer the same way each year. But once you have a list of these favorable terrain features you can assess potential hot spots on a property from a topo map and then quickly scout each location for sign that year. A particular terrain feature may be hot one year and dead cold the next. But knowing "where to look" for deer concentration points before you hit the woods greatly increases the efficiency of in-the-field scouting time.
  .....
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#1737581 - 01/20/10 09:04 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: tndrbstr]
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earlytime
4 Point
Registered: 10/25/09
Posts: 129
Loc: TN
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BSK and all thanks for all the input and I will start puting it to use. Thanks all
_________________________
Enjoy the time you have with your childern, before you know it they have all grown up.
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#1745265 - 01/25/10 01:37 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: earlytime]
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BlackBelt
10 Point
Registered: 08/09/08
Posts: 2614
Loc: SouthWest TN
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Let me tell you guys something...I took scn's advice and bought that book. Man, that is a GREAT book.
A few years ago I spent a lot of time scouting my lease. I found a few spots that just "felt" right. I didn't know why they "felt" right, but sometimes I just get that feeling. However, this year was the first time that I actually got around to hunting one of those spots. And I saw deer every time but twice that I was there. I asked myself, "What is it about this area that the deer like?". Then it dawned on me that it was the layout of the terrain coming out of the Hatchie river bottoms into the high ground. There is a large natural funnel there. But it's SO large, that I didn't recognize it as a funnel for a month or so.
This book helped put it all together for me.
Best $15 I ever spent.
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#1745892 - 01/25/10 07:40 PM
Re: Hunting terrain
[Re: BlackBelt]
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BSK
Jerkasourous of the non-typical kind
Non-Typical
Registered: 03/11/99
Posts: 59548
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Glad to hear it BlackBelt!
I just love those epiphanies when the pieces start to fit together.
_________________________
"Know where you stand, and stand there" --Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan
"There is no reasoning someone out of a position he has not reasoned himself into." --Clive James
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