I have been working hard on locating funnels that tighten down deer movement this off-season. I realize this is something I have rarely ever done. I marked my possible stand sight with a "+" sign on the map. What do you all think? The red is a small country road, and I cannot hunt to the left of the black line above the creek. The spot I marked seems to be in the crossroads of a north/south movement and an east/west movement....allowing bucks to scent check where I marked my stand sight. Do you think my thoughts are flawed? To the north of the map is a lot of crop fields (something nowhere else on the military base possesses)...to the south of the map is open woods that stretch for miles. I thought this location looked fantastic (but I am fairly new at finding funnels)...thanks for any thoughts guys. Brett
WIthout being there, I would say it could be. they could work both ways along the creek and working there way from the fields south lloks to be the right location. Is there a creek crossing there? If there is I would say yes it is a funnel.
130, thank you. I have hunted close to it in the past but not within 200 yards of the spot I marked. I am going to go out on Sunday/Monday of this upcoming weekend and walk it. I will look for a creek crossing, although the creek can be high and wide at some spots...thanks again for your thoughts.
gri22ly--"P.S. If that bridge to the east is high enough, DON"T forget to check it...Some of the best funnels I have ever seen were under bridges" The is some great advice. I totally have forgotten if the bridge is high. I will check this weekend. I killed a pretty good 6 pointer to the west of that bridge about 4-5 years ago. I have really been scouring this area in terms of my map study and scouting because I believe it holds some good bucks that hardly anyone ever witnesses because they have such tight/controlled movement patterns.
Sounds like a logical plan to me. But I bet you can find some nice trails leading across that road into the crops to the NW on your map too. Depending on the terrain, I bet there are a few funnels to force deer movement as they make their way to those fields in the evenings or exit them in the mornings. At the field corner where your red and black lines meet is another spot I would check out. Deer like to ease around the corner of fields just inside the woods at spots like that. Or enter the field to feed there. Do you know of any bedding areas on the property?
Jim, I am just really beginning to learn this area. It is mainly flatland north of the creek with not a lot of thick/remote cover. From my walks a few weeks ago, I noticed there to be some thicker areas on tops of some of the hills to the southeast of the creek, about 400-500 yards away from the spot I marked. I walked a general outline of the area. I am going to go back in and really walk the interior of the thickets to see what I get. I did notice some thicker deer trails that outline the pine/hardwoods inside edges but did not follow them for any length. Thanks for the suggestions. Any thoughts on what type of wind I should be looking for to hunt that spot? Hunt a north wind and sit near the creek so that any deer to my north would not wind me?
Ditto I hunt right next to a parkway at one of my spots...and it is a deer highway beneath the highway bridge....worn to mud and used daily ( or should I say nightly). there are 3 community scrapes within 30-40 yards of the mouth of the bridge, and a rub line going off in two directions. Bridges can be gold mines.
I agree totally with the creek crossings and the bridge. Deer use bridges a ton around here especially to get away from the deer hounds. You will find a worn crossing somewhere along that creek bank more than likely but don't focus completely on the worn crossing. Check 20-50 yds or so down the prevailing wind side of that crossing also. You may find a slightly less worn crossing that may yield larger tracks:d Also how far, on your side of the creek, can you go to the east? Can you go all the way to where it looks like a trail or path leading away from the field towards the creek?
Wolf, I can hunt anywhere to the east of the black line and south of the creek. Thanks for the suggestions guys. Any thoughts on what wind I should be looking for when I choose to hunt it?
Jeff, I completely understand what you are saying. The bed to food source thing I have to figure out. There are crops to the north and thicker pine areas to the south. I am thinking very general here, but the spot "looks" good in terms of the overall set-up, minus the lack of my knowledge of all the dynamics. I will have to work hard to see what is going on in that area. Thanks for your thoughts...they got me thinking.
I agree with GMMAT 123's. I hunt a lot of funnels and bottle necks. And the deer hit them at different times of the year. I do know from hunting lots of rivers and water drainages that buck in the searching of love will follow waterways. And most of the time the travel corridor is small. They will also cut the inside corner on waterways, just like on a field edge corner. I like to setup on waterways in places that have an angling 45 deg wind coming across the water, the up wind side will have large timber or CRP ground. I believe this works because the bucks like to follow the waterway and also be down wind of a large area of timber, bedding or CRP. I think bucks do this because they can cover more ground using their nose to wind the area. They can at the same time check all the waterway crossings. When I see bucks doing this they are on the move, walking as fast as they can. This setup has worked for me many times. This is when bucks are not just bedding and eating. They are in either chasing or rutting mode.
RutJunkie--"They can at the same time check all the waterway crossings"----when you say this are you talking about creek crossings? So they travel the downwind side of a thicker bedding area and at the same time scent check the creek crossings while they move along the edge of the waterway? Thanks for your thoughts. Brett
If they allow it there can you turn one of those clearings into a food plot of sorts, maybe use some no-plow? How about east of where you're hunting, it looks like on the south side of the creek there's a ridge that runs along the creek then it crosses the power lines.
Show that same map on TOPO mode as well an you'll likely get some better ideas. As it is, creeks, especially those with good clear water are always good in my parts. But if you have a really steep area that creates a bit of a bottleneck, I'd be getting to the good wind side of that spot near that creek. Especially if there is a nice oak flat anywhere near.
OH---the area north of the creek is virtually flat, hence the crop fields to the north. Below the creek it has some impressive terrain features. I have walked this area a good bit and have hunted around it several times as well. I am having some issues saving maps on my computer as of late. I have never had problem copying them and pasting the maps into the Paint program...but now my paint program will not save the maps, saying there is not enough memory. I have tons of memory on this computer as I just purchased it and have only 8-10 photos saved on it. I am at a loss on how I am to remedy this problem.