I just thought this would be interesting to hear what everyone's primary hunting area is like.

Mine is atop a small hill just before it starts breaking over to the slope. It's just inside the edge of an area that was selectively logged about 6-7 years ago. It is very thick and shots are tight. I am 10 yds off an old logging road where several trails intersect. THe woods are a mix of hardwoods, a few oaks but mostly cherries. There really isn't much close in the way of corn fields. I see deer in both the evenings and mornings and they have come from every direction 360 degrees.

The general area is a mix of farmland and old strip mines that have grown in. It is hunted pretty hard, but not as much as in the past. We have pretty large numbers of deer but few large bucks.

Some things are true whether you believe them or not.

Hey Wimp.

It sounds like we have similiar settings. I am in a funnel between two large sphagnum swamps and a small brook. The deer pretty much have to use this unless they're spooked. They can feed all the way through the hardwood funnel, picking up white acorns and beech nuts.

I see a majority of deer here in the mornings but afternoons has proven successfull as well. I have another spot up in the hardwoods on the other side of these swamps for the afternoons. I take my climber to hunt this stand when the wind is right and pressure is low.

Good idea.
Jack

My hunting area is THICK and I mean THICK woods, I can't get any kind of treestand in them because there are few opening and the ones I have are very small, I go and find a place to sit, I rarely get a kill because they catch me drawing my bow/rifle.
But I'm still tryin!

Well camp is located at 10,300 ft. on a shelf in front of about a 75 acre meadow. I am surounded by dark timber with springs running through. The timber opens to meadows every few hundred yards at the level I am camped. Above camp the dark timber opens up a bit so it's not so thick, and eventually gets up above timber line with some amazing views of the surrounding mountains. ELk trails are running through the timber and meadows like you wouldn't believe. So far this season, on the weekends, I have called in ten bulls 5x5 or larger, with one being a 7x7, and one 4x4, but havn't been able to get a shot because I am trying to do this by myself and the elk have quite a nack of stopping directly behind a tree or just won't get out of the THICK stuff for a shot. I've got to find a fellow bowhunter here so we can team up on these elk. Like Deerhunter131 though, I'm still trying and wouldn't trade it for the world!

Okay, my honey hole it is then.

My stand is a loc on about 25 ft up into a hemlock tree. This stand overlooks the edge of a golden rod field littered with saplings. The tree is within a hedgerow that connects the main old hardwoods with a new sapling/small tree woodlot that is thicker than thick. I consider this area a bedding area. On the other side of the golden rod field is about 100 acres of corn, which I'm in the corner of, the edge about 25 yards from me. The deer travel the corn, into the golden rod and back and forth from woodlot to woodlot. It's a natural funnel and causes all deer that don't enter the corn to walk within 25 yards of my stand. If I didn't have rack standards, this tree is a gaurantee every year. Many times I don't even hunt the stand until the last week. The golden rod/sapling field also acts as a bedding area. Many times I'll have deer bedded within bow range of my stand and I sit and watch them chew their cudd. I narrowed down to this stand several years ago while watching the deer activity and travel patterns in this area. Few have shared the tree with me, but all who have said I found a mecca. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

<font color=blue>Good Luck and Good Shooting</font id=blue>

<font color=red>Rob</font id=red>


My other area is a oak hardwoods atop a mountain. We've narrowed down our stand placements to a oak flat that acts again, as a natural funnel/browse line. We catch the deer coming from adjacent land field crops to the dense areas of this particular wooded area. I along with my partner, brother and many friends have taken probably more than 20 some buck within a 100 yard diameter of one tree.

Edited by - Rob/PA Bowyer on 09/17/2002 21:50:15

Well i hunt 800 acres and its a big tree farm. mostly pines, there are some areas where the skidders couldnt get to becuz of it being so low which lies some old hardwoods. theres some plots that have 30 yr old pines and some with 5 yr plots and some freshly cutover plots. if you can picture that. my hot spot is thick. im in one of those older plots that has alot of under growth. what i did is found a nice used area and hung a stand and did a lil clearing, and every year i take a lil more out so im creating a nice clear area in the mix of this woods. ive killed 3 deer out of this spot including a nice 8pt. but theres alot of nice spots on this property and i have a few hunting spots. i look for the transition spots mostly from the younger trees to the older these spots hold alot of activity. cant wait till this weekend to get back in there

Where i am going to set up for the first part of the season is in the thick stuff.
To the right of my stand there is a draw that the deer have been using as a travel corridor.
There is a small clearing in front of the stand which will give me a max of a 25yd shot.
There are 5 or 6 trails leading into the clearing and they all merge into 1 and go past the stand to my left.
I am set up between a bedding area and a corn field.

My second spot is back in the timber about 25 yds from the corner of another field that also has a lot of trails merging into 1 to go into the field.

If I get my deer from the first spot I will set Matt/Pa up in the second spot when he gets down here.

I hunt deer in the desert and have fallen down a hill into a nest of cholla cactus before. Need to find heavy trails or water. I hunt elk in tall timber, easy walking but straight up and down. Some elk taken on water holes but I mostly stalk and set up in oak thickets. Elk altitide is 7500 to 8700 feet. Love to deer hunt but something about hearing that &quot;thunk&quot; as the arrow hits the ribs of a big elk gets me all excited.

Im 50 yards in from the edge of a large swamp, for the first 15 yards in from the swamp is field(no trees). 40 yards behind me is a large beaver pond. To my right about 100 yards is a beaver damn that is a deer highway. My stand is in a large cedar tree that sits on the edge of where the cedars change to a acre of oak trees. Incredible funnel. This is my primary stand.

My second favorite stand is where this same swamp comes within 40 yards of the lake. Its the only spot where you can actually see both the swamp and lake from the same spot. Another fantastic funnel!

Well my place stinks. The only place I could find.No one lets you hunt up here. More land posted this year then ever. Anyway i see the same 3 deer everytime I go and sit. A mother and 2 stupid as a door knob buttons. Think I will become a vegetarian.Aint no venison in my future. The owner says the fields fill up with deer every night. I think he smokes to much waky weed. Anyway here are the pics
http://community.webshots.com/user/midnight250
Click on nancy my Love Pics 321 tru 325