archeryrob

Pines can be particularly horrible to hunt. Most of them are a food desert, so deer just meander through them to get some where else.

Focus on where are the thick areas and where are the food areas and where the deer move between them. Are there any natural funnels, a valley between two hills, a trail cut in a thick area or a hole/low spot in a fence. You can't see it now as much but in late winter you'll be able to see the trails better.

Deer will normally have patterns they always follow and can vary by days. Gun season can also change all those patterns for a short time. As Rockport said pre season scouting and binos in ladder stand can teach you a whole lot about the deer movement on a place. Every place is different, so anything we tell you could be right, or wrong at your place.

Oldtimr

I disagree, pines can be a good place to hunt if it is snowing and or blowing. The property I hunt has a big stand of mature pines and while there is little food there is great shelter and it really harbors the deer. The minute you enter those pines you can feel the temperature is several degrees warmer and hardly any wind. When the deer from surrounding properties get moved around they head for the pines on the property I am on and stay there. We have taken a lot of deer from that stand of pines

Champlain Islander

I have found the same thing. Pines are dark and offer a wind break which attracts deer when it gets nasty. If it is a heavy snow and I am near some pines I always still hunt through them.

rockport

Around here the deer like the pines but so do the yotes so a lot of times that factors in.

thomasj1107

So the hardwoods that run along the north edge of the pines with the creek running through, any reason that I would not see any activity post rut for several sits? Do yall think that is would be a good travel corridor along the creek there and maybe they just weren't moving due to gun season/dogs running?

Oldtimr

Walk the perimeter as see where the deer trails are, then try to find an appropriate spot or spots for a stand or stands.

Champlain Islander

Hardwoods, bordered by softwoods and add in water...that has all the makings of the type of area I would be hunting. The still hunter in me would be using that creek and softwoods to work very slowly into the wind when possible. I never was much for hunting the hardwoods though since even though you get long visibility the deer are most often in the cover. They do like the transition between the two as evidenced by deer runs which will skirt the open spaces.