Travel route deer?

[Riverdeer]

Alright guys I'm hunting the same river bottom property I was last year, what I learned from huntig the property last year is that the deer are only using it as a travel route when they come through, is there any way I could get them to use it more then just as a travel route?

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[Bucky]

If you own it... yes. If not... probably not. If you own it I would hinge cut trees or go in with Forrester and thin out junk trees to open the canopy. Within 2 yrs of doing this deer will hang out more in your section of the river bottom. If you can't cut trees... wait till first cold front nearest Nov 1st in Midwest and hunt your spot back to back days if the wind works. Look for U shape bends or L shape bends in the creek... the corner of L or the outside bend of the U should help funnel the deer past your setup... search river bottom hunting for examples and maps

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[Riverdeer]

What makes te corner of the "L" and out side bend of the "U" funnel the deer?

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[huntinsonovagun]

Think of the way you cut the corner of a sidewalk when it has a 90 degree turn- deer do the same thing. Deer are going to take the shortest distance between Point A and Point B, which is definitely not always a straight line. They're going to take the shortest distance that offers the greatest amount of cover MOST of the time.

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[Bucky]

What makes te corner of the "L" and out side bend of the "U" funnel the deer?

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Deer coming down both legs of the L will meet at the point... similar for the U... plus deer typically cross the creek from one side to the other in the bends. Search river bottom hunting for more discussion and some maps

[Riverdeer]

I've looked at what you suggested looking at, I understand a deer dosent want to lay down in mud he's gonna sink up in, I figure he's like us he wants to bed down jn what's comfertable to him, the only high ground there is on this property is a little leve that has a ridge on top of it it's not big u can walk across the top of it in about10 steps but it's thick on top of the ridge is he likely bedding on top if the ridge with his back to the river channel and watching the woods in front of him?

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[Stanley]

I have done a lot of river bottom hunting. I seriously doubt you will fund deer bedding in mud or water. Get a topographical map and see if there are any high spots in the low lying areas. Pin oaks are about the only hard wood tree that like the wet lowlands bottoms. Seems like high water kills off the other hard wood trees.

When hunting river bottoms you need to figure out why the deer would be in there. Security, food? Water is not a consideration usually. In dry years the grass will provide a lot of cover as it can get up to 3+ feet high. In wet years it can very barren in the bottoms.

Flooding will push the deer to higher ground. Droughts will draw the deer into the bottoms. All of these things play into how to hunt the property. Where the river is next to, like hills or agriculture. This all plays into the equation. I have killed a lot of nice bucks in river bottoms over the years. I hunted every year in accordance to the above described situations. It is never the same so you must adjust accordingly.

[Southern Man]

Alright guys I'm hunting the same river bottom property I was last year, what I learned from huntig the property last year is that the deer are only using it as a travel route when they come through, is there any way I could get them to use it more then just as a travel route?

Are you talking all deer? Or just the bucks? How big a property is it?

Deer using your property as a travel route is not necessarily a bad thing. I hunted a small farm (60 acres) for several years that I considered a "pass thru" farm. Most of the deer (good bucks) bedded on an adjacent farm and traveled through my farm going to crop bottoms on the other side. I did have some doe bedding on my farm.

Not owning the property there wasn't much I could do in a permanent way, so I did little things. Probably the best thing I did was keep pressure off the interior of the farm and only hunted the perimeter. The farm was small enough I could still hunt it properly by accessing it from the perimeter without walking thru the farm itself and not put pressure on the farm itself. As the season progressed, I would sometimes move a little deeper in. The deer felt safe there. Prerut and rut, the surrounding farms had hunting pressure from scouting and gun hunting, but mine didn't, where do you think the deer went?

All of my scouting was done in the winter and early spring. After a couple years the movement patterns were easily identified and the only time they changed was due to crop rotation. And even then you could predict movement based on what crop was growing. I had 11 prehung stands on that 60 acres. some I hunted and some I did not, depending on what was going on, crop rotation, weather, pressure on surrounding farms, etc. It paid off having an intimate knowledge of the property. I also made a couple salt licks and fed during January, February, and most of March until spring greenup, for inventory. I planted clover and other foods wherever I could, all very small spots wherever it would grow.

All said and done, the deer liked it there. The property was just too small to hold them there. Opening morning of gun season I could sit in one of the perimeter stands and watch the deer pour into that farm. I killed a few nice ones on that farm, but there were some really good bucks I never had a chance at for whatever reason, some my fault, some the property's fault.