Well I think I can speak on the subject Johnny brought up. I too live and hunt in the middle of East Tx in the thick Piney Woods. I will agree with him 100%. I want someone to come down here and find me a bedding area. I have hunted here my whole life and have yet to see one. Also the "funnel" theory goes out the window most of the time. I'm sure there are some natural funnels out there but I've everytime I find a textbook funnel in a high traffic deer area, I find out that the deer use the funnel no more than anywhere else.
On the subject of bedding areas, I think that East Tx deer stand 24hrs a day and never acutally bed.<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle> The layout of East Tx is about 80% wooded acres to 20% open acres. I don't know if those figures are exact but that would be my guess. Our open land is just pasture and hay measows, no crops other than small gardens are grown around here. The woods are hardwood and pine but pine is dominant in many areas. The bottoms and low land are hardwoods but many of them are as thick as the pine woods. I hunt on over 650 acres of land with only 20 acres being open, the rest is THICK woods, hardwoods and pines. I'd say that well over half the land I hunt it is so thick with underbrush and briars that you litterally can't crawl thru it. Somehow deer can move thru it with ease but not a human. It is impossible to scout and just as impossible to hunt. That is why many folks use bait and hunt on the log roads. I try to get back in the woods where there is less underbrush but the deer really like the thick cover. When you are in the woods and are surrounded by literally thousands and thousands of continous acres of woods and timber it is pretty tuff to find bedding areas and pattern deer. Finding sheds........that is almost a joke around here. Better go play the lottery if you fine one, because you've beat the odds.
All that being said, I love hunting the big woods here but take most textbook wisdom and throw it out when you come here. Deer are still deer but the habitat here is a whole new ballgame. Oh, if you think East Tx is odd, try South Tx! Nothing but scrub brush almost so thick you can't walk thru it for miles and miles. Like the ads for Texas tourism say, "
Welcome to Texas, it's like a whole other country.
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Hunting the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas.