So I've been wondering for a few years now about a heavily used run I found a few years back. It's at the 2/3 mark up the hill, aka military crest. HOWEVER...from everything I've read and learned from Dan Infalt and hill country stuff, it is on the wrong side of the hill. The red line is a rough estimate of the run that is heavily used. The predominant wind is West, or W/SW or W/NW. The swamp at the bottom is thick swamp and marshy. and it makes sense that the bucks would travel this run during the rut to catch the rising thermals and predominant wind bringing up the scent of any hot does. seeing as the other side of the hill is thick nasty mountain laurel and not good for cruising/scent checking. The mountain laurel is also a defense for the bucks because they can hear a predator trying to come through it.......As I type this, I feel dumb for asking because I know the answer. Hunt it, every situation/area is unique and not everything is textbook. What do I have to lose? I've never hunted it, because it goes against all the logic and evidence presented by some very successful hill country slayers. Thoughts?
Any sign (trail, scat, fresh browse, run, scrape) on that side? Apart from boots on the ground confirmation of reason to be there, or a view of the drainage below it, the only other reasons that come to mind: a warm/hot morning evening it would be cool (probably more during summer) Wind - I know you said the predom wind was W, but with that west ridge, you may have a bit of a swirl/vortex in certain conditions (like blowing toward N-E)
I'd say that side to the west is too steep and they barely use it. Not saying they never do, but it appears very steep. I'd like to see how that area progresses to the south and west to see if it dumps out into more favorable terrain. I'd walk that entire perimeter of everything circled in blue.
Well well you described both my home and our hunting camp. Both are bedding areas for doe and buck, hunt it. I'll do you one better I have stands and blinds right at the bottom of of these hills and taken many buck and doe that I've watched get up out of their beds and walked right down to me, wind at my back, them down wind up hill from me. Morning and afternoons. I shot one doe and watched her run back up to bedded area to die. As I sat waiting I had 2 buck come in and fight over her dead body trying to mount her. It got so bad I had to yell at them and make myself known before they ruined her. As it was they poked several holes in her trying to get her up. The buck at camp I got last year and a couple of years before was from a stand placed right at the 2/3 position. I had doe bedded 100yrds directly to my right that day. This said unlike stands at home, that camp position has gotten me nail by deer coming in behind me on those morning hunts wind in face. This tells me the steepness of the terrain and weather your winds up the hill are direct or a combo cross wind will make a difference. Oh also the amount of vegetation. Home open woods on hill and ridge...camp God awful thick
Yes, a well defined deer trail 2/3 of the way up the top. I think that could be what is going on, a swirling of wind and easier to navigate than the other side (which i've been hunting the past few years).
Yes, a hiking trail, which also could explain another reason why the deer don't use the leeward side of the hill.
The red X's are at the bottom of the ridge I've been hunting the past few years. It does make sense that they use the East side of the swamp because it is much easier to walk/cruise. There is a trail/run on the military crest on the west side of the swamp but it's not heavily used...why I've been hunting it? Because that's what I've read everywhere. But now I am thinking I have nothing to lose and everything to gain by hunting it to catch a cruising buck!
Thought: There are always exceptions to the "rules" that are put out there. The deer don't care what Dan Infalt says about how and where they should travel. If the sign is there and it warrants hunting, then hunt it. I don't give a crap what anyone says about what I should or shouldn't do on my hunts. They don't dictate that - the deer I'm hunting do. And if the deer use it, you better find a way to hunt them there. Also, I've never personally bought into the hoopla about deer being smart enough to use rising or sinking thermals to search for does in specific areas. I've watched dozens, possibly hundreds, of bucks actively looking for does during the rut. Most of them are looking with their eyes and ears, and have their nose to the ground, looking to cut the scent of a doe. They aren't walking around with their nose in the air. They are going from bedding area to bedding area and diving right into them, nose to the ground, looking for scent. I've also watched plenty of them walk on the upwind side of bedding areas on their way to some other, unknown location. Heck, I watched a group of four bucks looking for a doe who was literally hiding from them by putting her head on the ground as they came by. All four were on the upwind side of her, less than 30 yards away, and couldn't find her. Apparently, they didn't get the memo that they're supposed to be on the downwind side. They must not have watched the Hill Country Bucks video. Morans! IMO, we spend so much time trying to microanalyze deer movement and associating human reasoning and rationale to it that we overcomplicate things tremendously. We come up with these ideas that deer do "this" because of "that" when there is no objective justification for it. We're just looking for that secret recipe that dictates exactly when a deer will do something we want them to do, but it doesn't work that way. Deer don't plan out their week based on the forecasted wind direction; they don't travel or bed only in a specific spot based on the wind, etc. But we like to THINK they do. And when we finally catch one doing it, which they inevitably will based on the odds, we rationalize that we knew what they were going to do based on these factors.
Yeah, that is exactly what I'm thinking. Unfortunately, I've been dismissing it for at least 3 years now because a guy on the interweb said otherwise.... It really clicked when I typed it, as if I already knew the answer, because I did, once I said/typed it. Like I tell my patients/clients all day, we are comfortable with justifying thoughts floating around in our heads, but when we say them out loud, they hit differently and make more sense. That is exactly what happened here.
I was going to type almost the same thing in the first part of @Justin post. There is a similar North-south running ridge on a piece of public I hunt. It is about 500 yards long. The west side is thick and drops into a lake, deer bed there, but wind direction doesn't seem to matter unless it is a west wind. That leaves them completely exposed to the wind. A west wind would provide perfect access, but it can't be hunted because they are not there. You can't hunt an east wind because that blows your scent right to where the deer bed. It has to be hunted on either a North or South wind and coming in with the wind in your favor. Thermals will play a factor, but only on days with little to no dominant wind direction. If the deer sign is there, that is where the deer are because that offers great security than other places.
