While this specific stand location has been hunted occasionally on our property by me for the past 10 years, I would say I can count on one hand the number of sits in this spot in that time frame. Not because this area isn't productive, it's just, well, a little hard for me to know when to hunt. Here's a map of the spot showing the terrain (red dot is the stand, red line is the travel of most of the deer, and the blue indicates the stream flow (remember, this is either dry or a trickle at this point in the year). The steep ridge to the west is where most of the deer come off of, and I believe they are bedding on it and even up on top. The spot I'm talking about is situated at the top of a draw that gets much wider and more thick as it runs down to the SSW. A spring fed stream (very slow trickle) runs down the bottom, and where the stand is located, there is a natural crossing point because it's where the "stream" bed is the shallowest and most narrow. The stand itself sits at the base of a pretty steep and densely covered ridge that the deer bed and come down off of in the evenings. Their route (identified with the red line on the map) takes them (usually) past the stand and up across out driveway, and up toward my food plot. There isn't much in the line of food here other than a few oaks, and browse, but everytime I hunt this, I see deer (no bucks from this stand yet). The only attraction to this stand? The obvious funnel and the thick cover. The problem is the wind. Obviously a W or SW, or even a NW should work, but I worry about swirls in this spot. The thermals should be working in my advantage for evening sits, so am I better to hunt this on calmer evenings, or can it effectively be hunted with even a little more "stiff" W wind?
Bump... I want one pin out to 50yds, what bow will let me do that? Sorry, thought maybe my original topic was too specific:D
That's a tuff spot Matt. I have a couple like that on my property too. The bottom of draws where the deer like to travel. I like to hunt it when the bucks are cruising and kind of oblivious to their surroundings. The wind definately plays tricks down there. Sometimes you just have to take a chance on a spot like that and hope for the best. My deer like to travel thru the bottom. So I hunt mornings to use the thermals to take my scent up, hopefully.
Good stuff, guys. It is a little sketchy getting into that stand due to how thick it is, and how close you are getting to that ridge and bottom. Looks like a NW tonight, though.
