Tips for hunting pine thickets

Tennessee Deer Sporting & Deer Hunting Community Forum

Help Support TNDeer | Tennessee Deer:

C

caseyb73

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2010
Messages
110
City & State/Province
Chattanooga
I got on a new lease this year and one of the properties has a lot of pine thickets on it. I went out there on Monday and saw a lot of sign and tons of trails throughout, but it doesn't look like there are very good shooting lanes. There's one small area of hardwoods in the area that run along a creek, but other than that it's all evergreens.

I've never really hunted pine thickets, but it looks like this is a pretty active area. Any tips? I'm hunting bow and gun, so I'm all ears!

Thanks!
 
Play the wind and hunt the edges. If you can get a blind in the thickets i would find intersecting trails and hunt those. I would deff. hunt that patch of hardwoods especially if there are any acorns dropping. This being your first year on the lease i wouldnt get to aggressive until later in the season.
 
Thanks! I don't know that I'm going to find many trees to hang a stand on, unfortunately. The hardwoods that are there are pretty scrawny, but I did find a couple of spots that I can put up a ground blind. I'm also looking into possibly getting a Ghostblind or something similar to see how close to the transition I can get. I'm heading out there this weekend and I'll cut some lanes. Thanks for the advice!
 
I love pine thickets! Hunt were the pines meat the hardwoods. Or any edge of the thicket. Look for sign! Trails entering into it, or even low spots. They will funnel to low spots to enter and exit it. Look for food around edges! It really can be easy hunting them , bc alot of time you know there bedding there. just figure out where there going.
 
Much depends on the age of the pine plantings. Have they grown to the point there is little in the way of natural browse under the pines? If so, concentrate on the closest food sources to the edge of the pines, ESPECIALLY any pockets of hardwoods that will be dropping acorns in late September through October.

In addition, through scouting, you should be able to find particular locations where deer prefer to enter and exit the pines. Often they do not do so randomly. They use a few concentrated places to do so for whatever reason (usually terrain driven).
 
I've leased from timber companies and hunted pines more than anything else that I've hunted. When the pines are small, it doesn't take much to trim some limbs and make a few good shooting lanes. Use the limbs you trimmed to cover a ground blind. Most pine thickets are really thick and tough to navigate through quietly. Therefore, it is a good idea to cut a trail into your hot spot. I try and perform this work several weeks before I hunt the area to allow my scent to leave and the spot to settle back down. You'll find that the deer will start using your trails and shooting lanes to walk.
 
relentless said:
I've leased from timber companies and hunted pines more than anything else that I've hunted. When the pines are small, it doesn't take much to trim some limbs and make a few good shooting lanes. Use the limbs you trimmed to cover a ground blind. Most pine thickets are really thick and tough to navigate through quietly. Therefore, it is a good idea to cut a trail into your hot spot. I try and perform this work several weeks before I hunt the area to allow my scent to leave and the spot to settle back down. You'll find that the deer will start using your trails and shooting lanes to walk.
Click to expand...
Be very careful what you cut. Timber Companys and land owners may not appreciating you triming thee trees.
 
If pines are very thick, and you arent able to walk through. Make your own funnel. This takes time but will work. Cut narrow dim trails all the way thru pines. Then hunt the edge of pine thicket where trails come out. Deer take over these trails. I discovered this when I cut trails for myself to get to an area of hardwoods. Kept running deer off. We have over 500 acreas of company land 400 hundred of it is very thick pines. We started cutting trails to get here and there on the land. Now those trails are the best places to hunt. We dont use the trails ourself . Sometimes I will have to walk around the world to get to a certain spot where a trail comes out of pines that we have made.
 
Thanks to everyone! Great information. The pines are pretty mature (anywhere from 20-50 feet), but it's the underbrush that's gonna be hard to navigate. One good thing is that there are a ton of well traveled trails back there with a couple of areas I found that have 6-10 trails converging. It sounds like I need to get back out there and stake out a spot by the creek that has those trails running in. I can't wait to get back out there and use what y'all have recommended.
 
Lots of variables to consider. When you start hunting them, you will find the answers. One thing I do know is that deer are very hard to hear coming in those pine thickets. Put the smartphone away and stay alert.
 
A hangon will work in pines even when you're hanging them at a heigth where the trees are only 6-7 inches in diameter. If you can find a thicket within or bordering the pines you're probably going to see deer. Usually they thin every other row of pines out beforete pines are mature creating somewhat shooting lanes and allowing for some undergrowth for browse. The deer will bed in the pines or at the very least use them for traveling. Alot depends on how big the pines are, how big the pine plantings are, and how they are situated between surrounding terrain and topography.
 
StalkingWolf said:
Lots of variables to consider. When you start hunting them, you will find the answers. One thing I do know is that deer are very hard to hear coming in those pine thickets. Put the smartphone away and stay alert.
Click to expand...

Hilarious.........i know of several folks last year who missed great bucks because they were trying to text "what they saw" to others instead of just paying attention and being alert! How stupid is that?......great point friend!!!! texts and pics are for after the deer is down!!!! just hunt! :)
 
TENN.BOY said:
the most fun way is to make a deer drive and let the lead fly!!!!!!!!LOL
Click to expand...

Deer drives are considered tradition in Wisconsin and I took part in alot of them when I was young. I didn't realize how little it was like hunting till I got older and actually hunted deer. I was always nervous being a "pusher" or "shooter" and really dislike them.
 
Great thread! I too just got on a lease that is for timber and loaded with pine thickets. Having never hunted thick areas like this I am glad someone else asked this question and got so many replies. I can't wait to get in there! Thanks Casey!
 
Np, coach. I'm glad I got so many replies, too. This is going to help a lot!

Hopefully we'll both have some good pics once the season starts with all of this help!
 
Best way is to find a small clearing...plant something delicious and park a stand downwind. They will come.
 
Thanks for all of the advice! So how would you set up? Natural blind? Ground blind? I haven't seen many trees around there that I would feel comfortable hanging a stand on, but I'm going to look harder the next time I'm out there.
 
A friend of mine has had a stand in a pine thicket for several years now. He sees a world of deer and has seen a couple of dandy bucks. He even took to using his decoy in there. We went so far as to run cables between trees and hung his deke from it. It can be slid back and forth along the cables. One of his most exciting mornings hunting ever came when he had bucks come into his deke and start posturing around it. He's had a couple of bucks do this and got some of it on camera.
 
Do you know if it was a hang-on stand, tripod, or homemade? Sounds like one of those days where I wouldn't ever want to leave!
 
oldmanelrod said:
relentless said:
I've leased from timber companies and hunted pines more than anything else that I've hunted. When the pines are small, it doesn't take much to trim some limbs and make a few good shooting lanes. Use the limbs you trimmed to cover a ground blind. Most pine thickets are really thick and tough to navigate through quietly. Therefore, it is a good idea to cut a trail into your hot spot. I try and perform this work several weeks before I hunt the area to allow my scent to leave and the spot to settle back down. You'll find that the deer will start using your trails and shooting lanes to walk.
Click to expand...
Be very careful what you cut. Timber Companys and land owners may not appreciating you triming thee trees.
Click to expand...

You are correct. When I'm talking shooting lanes I am trimming low branches and non-pine trees that the timber company is ok with. They will not be happy if you kill some trees.
 
We hung a hangon in there. There's not as much browse in there now as there was when he first started hunting it and the deer sightings are dropping. I think one of theattractions was because there was a thicket within the pine thicket he was hunting. There is still alot of sign.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top