Double Creek

Below is a crude map of my place. I've only hunted for one year, but did get the basic idea for deer movement, etc. I would like to hear your thoughts on what areas you would key in on. I've basically done some editing to a topo map. Sorry for the qaulity, for some reason the pic shows up small when I put it on a hosting sight.

LEGEND:

Red line: Is our boundry, everything inside the red lines is 460 acres
Blue: 10 years old pine. Too small to hang a stand in.
Purple: 2 year old pine, basically just grass field
Yellow: Corn
Green: Oats
Other Green: The natural green that runs North to South is Mature Hardwoods
The terrain is primarily rolling hills with some draws, drainages, etc running through the hardwood sections.

mrfritz44

[]Too small an image to view the contour lines.......sorry...........

Double Creek

I can't understand why it shows up so small?? On my PC it is rather large, but when I upload it to photobucket, it gets very small.

silentassassin

DC,

The areas that stick out to me are th funnel areas. On the east side of the property the bottleneck area of hardwoods that runs between the two sections of 10 year old pines would be a good spot to at least look for sign. Now moving directly West there is another bottle neck area between two areas of 10 year old mines that should be good as well. The next would be the Mature hardwoods on the west side of the property the run between the two cornfields. Then I would just go to the foold plots and start wlking trails back until they started intersected and I would be looking for those staging areas. Are most of your deer bedding in the 10 year old pines or in the two year old pines?

Double Creek

When I first looked at a map of the place, I thought basically the same thing....... However, once one the ground, the funnels aren't nearly as pronounced and the deer seem to show no preference between walking down the hardwood riges and bottoms or the through the pine... On paper the setups look great, but in reality, there is very little predictibility.

The deer seem to bedding in thickets within the 10yr old pines and on very pronounced points within the hardwoods as well as small clear cut logging roads, etc.

After the first year of hunting it, deer travel seemed random.... BUT, for the most part the places you pointed out, the funnels and choke points did produce the most deer sightings.....

Just goes to show, on paper it may look like gold, but in reality, it could be quite different.

I spent most of my season trying to exploit the terrain features, such as trails leading around large washouts, etc.... However, I found that the deer have no problems with climbing nearly vertical hills and will do so before walking out of their way to go around the steep areas. Maybe the terrain we have isn't "tough" enough to really influence movement... I've been a flatland hunter for 20yrs, so this hill business is new to me.......

silentassassin

It's hard to tell in the Southest IMO. A lot of things that look good on paper just don't look nearly as good once you start walking them out. Now that being said I would still probably hunt those spots during the rut because when the bucks are chasing they are going to try to chase does into more open area becasue it's harder for them to follow in the thick stuff so I would probably keep those places in mind but you certainly have a better feel for it than we do since you have actually hunted. Do they key on any particular food source?

TURKEY FAN

Definietly between the bedding and food source, in a funnel, maybe set up a blind in some of those mature pines, that would be a good set up on the ground, who says you cant kill a big buck on the ground? YOu dont need a deer stand, get in there those pines and getchya one!!

gutshot

I think that I would concentrate on that areain the northbetween the river and oats or btween the oat and corn field.

Chuck7

Dead center below the blue and just north of the water supply.You may need a tri pod stand
Chuck

BobCo19-65

I'd try to nestle (either a natural ground blind, or a double bull) on the edge of the 10-year old pine stand on the west side maybe just north of the corn field which butts up to the pines and face west. I presuming that you have a western prevailing wind direction (if you don't already know, find out). Make sure to use what works to your advantage. Again, I am presuming you are using your longbow this year.