What are "interior" travel corridors?

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


User avatar
Country
500 Club
Posts: 1218
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:41 am
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby Country » Fri Nov 22, 2013 10:59 am

dan wrote:I have been hunting a huge swamp that gets a lot of pressure this season, I scouted it last winter. When I studied it on aerials I found many transitions, funnels and corridors. I immeadiatly pointed out a very remote transition area and said "If I were a smart old buck, thats where I would be living... Everything seemed mediocre till I got to that spot... All of the big buck sign revolved around that small spot in that huge swamp... The bad part is it takes two hours to get to the spot, and longer to get back in the dark... But thats why the big bucks are there... Everyone else seems to be focusing on the food.


:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

And I thought I was all John Rambo hiking 45 minutes in one direction.


User avatar
Country
500 Club
Posts: 1218
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:41 am
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby Country » Fri Nov 22, 2013 11:03 am

Timmy wrote:
dan wrote:Look at this section of swamp... I marked the key transitions. If you look close I have marked them with different colors, see an arrow in the same color, that arrow signifies the wind direction they like to bed and travel that transition on... They do break that rule however sometimes, especially if both sides of the transition have good cover, or if there is a swamp thermal ( warm water )
Yellow dots mark good bedding points
Image


Dan I'm curious.. what are the blue lines? Marking a small transition, or water? Also, the yellow line that marks that transition, what tells you that deer would prefer that wind for that transition if you dont find any beds on that edge?


X2, I was wondering the same thing.
User avatar
Sam Ubl
500 Club
Posts: 1647
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:38 am
Facebook: https://www.carbontv.com/shows/chase-na ... red-slider
Location: Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby Sam Ubl » Fri Nov 22, 2013 11:08 am

I'm guessing the hardwoods are clearer for the deer to see into then the thick and probably tall "brush", be it tall grass, cattails or a mixture of both with dogwood mixed in. The deer would walk that edge with the WSW wind to smell danger coming from the thick stuff to the west, meanwhile he looks through the more open timber to the ENE. He covers his right and left as he walks, one with smell, the other visually.

If he sees danger through the woods, he disappears into the dense grasses, cattails and dogwood. If he catches the crosswind of something he doesn't like coming from the WSW he can make a break for it through the woods and disappear out the other side.

The aerial makes it look like the terrain to the west is more open, but I'll bet on the ground it's a totally different ball game. That's how it is on the aerials in the lowlands I hunt. Seems open and vast, but when you're there you're like, "wow, this stuff is thick!". The canopy from those hardwoods block out the sunlight for the most part, I'm guessing, and more than likely undergrowth is probably less dense in those woods to the ENE.
Chase Nation | Reality Hunting TV | http://www.chasenation.tv
Watch Chase Nation on Carbon TV: https://www.carbontv.com/shows/chase-na ... red-slider
Huntmore | http://www.huntmore.io/
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby dan » Fri Nov 22, 2013 12:56 pm

Timmy wrote:
dan wrote:Look at this section of swamp... I marked the key transitions. If you look close I have marked them with different colors, see an arrow in the same color, that arrow signifies the wind direction they like to bed and travel that transition on... They do break that rule however sometimes, especially if both sides of the transition have good cover, or if there is a swamp thermal ( warm water )
Yellow dots mark good bedding points
Image


Dan I'm curious.. what are the blue lines? Marking a small transition, or water? Also, the yellow line that marks that transition, what tells you that deer would prefer that wind for that transition if you dont find any beds on that edge?

The blue line marks the river, where it crosses and where it creates a funnel along another transition. Two edges meeting or crossing ( or more ) is a good spot for activity unless it has human activity.

On the yellow line, bucks would prefer the wind to come from thick to open. Wind to back, looking towards the open area.
JV NC
500 Club
Posts: 607
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2011 2:25 am
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby JV NC » Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:07 pm

Dan....I call these "breaklines". It's just a different name for the same thing (I think)....and over the years I've come to realize I hunt them almost exclusively.

It's not because I'm a hunting guru.....or, I figured this out scouting the herd. It's because they are the places that have proven themselves to be the best spots to kill bucks (in other words, I learned by default!). I hunt the breakline of cutovers a lot, during the rut. I always try to get a wind blowing from the cutover, and set up just inside the hardwoods. It's rare I get that situation (due to the orientation of the grounds I have permission to hunt and our prevailing winds). So, I learned a while ago that I'd rather sit one out than hunt the right spot at the wrong time.

Cool stuff.
Lateral Bowhunter
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby dan » Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:42 pm

JV NC wrote:Dan....I call these "breaklines". It's just a different name for the same thing (I think)....and over the years I've come to realize I hunt them almost exclusively.

It's not because I'm a hunting guru.....or, I figured this out scouting the herd. It's because they are the places that have proven themselves to be the best spots to kill bucks (in other words, I learned by default!). I hunt the breakline of cutovers a lot, during the rut. I always try to get a wind blowing from the cutover, and set up just inside the hardwoods. It's rare I get that situation (due to the orientation of the grounds I have permission to hunt and our prevailing winds). So, I learned a while ago that [glow=red]I'd rather sit one out than hunt the right spot at the wrong time[/glow].

Cool stuff.

Yep.
User avatar
Singing Bridge
500 Club
Posts: 7162
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2010 1:11 pm
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pro ... 1329617473
Location: Logged in - from above
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Sat Nov 23, 2013 3:43 am

Image

Thought I'd add a swamp comment or two... dan mentioned that at times both sides of the transition will have thick cover and low visibility. This happens a lot in most of the swamps I hunt. If you look at the red transition line that dan marked, for example, I would most likely find tagalders on the creek side of the transition that are so thick there is no visibility. When this happens, the bucks often will use the beds dan marked in yellow with several different wind directions rather than being "wind specific." The cover is so thick / wet / nasty that the bucks feel safe there and they are exceptionally difficult to approach.

Yet another buck bedding area in these swamps are tiny islands, maybe 3-6 acres. If the islands have some mature timber, the bucks like to bed on the upwind edge of the island and watch down through the mature trees that have little undergrowth. To summarize the island approach... they like to travel toward the island along a transition like the one dan marked in red. When near the island, they will break off onto a run that approaches the island (unless the transition goes straight to it). Once on the island they like to hook downwind and scent check their intended bed on the upwind edge of the island. They then move (often, anyway) straight upwind to their bed on the edge of the island. When you find the bed, you will see their advantage... good visibility downwind and the brutalness of the swamp behind them. These beds often have "more to them" than just the upwind edge of the island. There may be some trees blown down there, or a small and very dense thicket is adjacent to the bed, or the island juts out into the swamp on a small "knob"... you get the idea. If a predator "tracks" them by ground and airborne scent to the island, such as a wolf, they follow the bucks entry route which puts them in plain sight of the bedded buck and he dumps off the back.

These island beds will be similar in appearance to buck beds that you may find on the end of a point that juts out into the swamp... except that they are on an island. It goes without saying that if other hunters have been on these very tiny islands the bucks bed elsewhere.
mike_mc
500 Club
Posts: 505
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 5:30 pm
Location: Wisconsin
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby mike_mc » Fri Sep 16, 2016 7:04 am

A buck I will be hunting this fall beds on a transition like the red and purple lines Dan had posted, wanted to re-read this post and figured I would bump it.
User avatar
whitetailassasin
Posts: 3404
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:34 pm
Location: Michigan
Status: Offline

Re: What are "interior" travel corridors?

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Fri Sep 16, 2016 8:22 am

Very good bump. I enjoyed re reading that again.

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: adrenalin and 64 guests