How to Hunt a Pine Thicket
 

Our lease is a pine thicket. Only openings are a few small food plots and the roads planted in clover. Hard to walk through this stuff and you cant see down into it from a tripod.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

RE: How to Hunt a Pine Thicket
 

Pine thickets are very hard to hunt. If there are logging roads in there, and if it is legal to hunt them, find an area where the deer are crossing and set up there.
Another very good spot would be any fire breaks, fence lines and creeks. These areas are usually funnel areas and you will see more deer there.
If you find ANY hardwood areas, that should be a very good spot also. Especially if it is the only hardwood area on a large piece of property!
Other than this, be ready to hunt from shorter stands (as you said, if you get up too high you just lose visibility), and you will also have much shorter shooting lanes.
Since you will probably be closer to them, scent control and wind direction will be even more important than usual!
Pine thickets can hold good deer, but sometimes you might swear that there are no deer there at all. If the deer are not moving much, (and in most pine thickets, they don' t HAVE to move much) you' ll have a hard time seeing them! It is very important to be able to hunt them hard during the rut, because that may be the only time that they will be moving much. Good luck!

RE: How to Hunt a Pine Thicket
 

Farnsworth,
I have hunted pine thickets all my life. Luckily, I have always had some hardwoods mixed in. If there are any hardwoods at all, walk the edge where the pine thickets and the hardwoods meet. A lot of times, you will find a rub line just inside of the hardwoods.
One advantage you have in the pine thickets is the deer trails are very easy to spot. I would try to find were a heavy trail and a rub line meet.
There may be a pipeline, or a firelane cut through the thickets. These offer a brief opportunity (and I say brief) the first day or two of the season before the deer wise up to the idea that hunting season has started.
If the land offers different elevations, study the low points. If the land is flat, it is even harder.
It has already been stated that scent control and wind direction is a must, because shots are going to be close.
You will probably find that you will have to cut some of your own lanes. Especially if you find a hot place in the thick stuff. This is when you put the chainsaw to work. This type of work is best done right after the season ends. The heat is gone, and your cutting will be old news to the deer when next hunting season rolls around.
Thicket hunting is tuff. So tuff that it turns deer hunting into an all year sport. Some hunters like me kinda like that.

C. Davis

RE: How to Hunt a Pine Thicket
 

I have a lot of my property planted in young pines. I love hunting these spots as they hold a lot of deer. Your right about it being a hard place to hunt though. What I like to do is find a spot inside the pines that isnt too thick but has some good activity near by. I will place a ground blind in the pines and do a small amount of clearing of limbs, briars etc... so I will have a clear spoting and shooting area. Good luck! -- CDH

RE: How to Hunt a Pine Thicket
 

Thanks

Have passed on 2 small bucks so far. They were on the brushy edge of the hardwoods bordering.

Also saw a TROPHY Copperhead! Archery season is still a little too warm for my comfort.