Hill country bottoms success

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Ridgerunner7
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Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Sat Feb 20, 2016 7:58 am

I know the general rule for hill country bottoms is swirling winds and very difficult to hunt. However I've found a few characteristics in the bottoms through a lot of trial and error that seem to create a dynamite spot. The first is a wide bottom. I get way less swirling on bottoms 75 yards or more wide. Often there is a field, creek bottom or flat area on the wider bottoms. The second thing I like that really narrows down that exact spot along the bottom is ....multiple points coming off the surrounding ridges all converging to a small general area. When the bucks are in search mode these points get cruised hard. By having multiple ridge points coming from different directions and converging into one small area you have a very high percentage spot for cruising bucks.

I like my wind blowing along the bottom away from the majority of the converging points. I will sacrifice one or two especially if the timing is right and bucks are cruising like crazy.

I rely heavily on these types of spots on my short 2-4 days out of state hunts. I've been successful on many 3 year old bucks and older on spots like this over the years on very short hunts 2-4 day avg. If you have the right conditions and timing they seem to produce very quickly.

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Anyone else have success in hill country bottoms that they can share?


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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Redman232 » Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:08 am

My first hunt in Ohio last fall was in a similar setup. I had no intention of hunting in the bottom, but the sign on the trip in told me that's where I needed to be. I hunted for about 1.5 hrs and saw two bucks, first week of november.
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Ridgerunner7
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:14 am

Redman232 wrote:My first hunt in Ohio last fall was in a similar setup. I had no intention of hunting in the bottom, but the sign on the trip in told me that's where I needed to be. I hunted for about 1.5 hrs and saw two bucks, first week of november.

Cool! I typically find great sign in the bottoms but can rarely get away with hunting it unless the bottom is wide enough that I can get some consistent currents.
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:19 am

I have had a lot of luck hunting ridges that but up against a creek bend. I've also risked creek crossings in wide bottoms.

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Ridgerunner7
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:30 am

BassBoysLLP wrote:I have had a lot of luck hunting ridges that but up against a creek bend. I've also risked creek crossings in wide bottoms.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

Yep, all the converging points lead to one area and they cross the creek in one of two areas. I can set up on the creek crossing at the base but I'm more at risk of rising thermals (typically ok though if I get the right wind blowing along the bottom, to the west in the photo). A safer play is hunting a walnut tree more centrally located in that bottom. There I can take advantage of the rising thermals and wide bottom. It has a ton of scrape activity around the stand. The downside is some of the cruising bucks pass by out of range.
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Singing Bridge » Sat Feb 20, 2016 8:34 am

Bluff bottoms buck that i recovered the following year after being shot- he was a typical 7x7 with heavy mass and pearlation. His inside spread is over 26".

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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby cameron » Sat Feb 20, 2016 9:16 am

Singing Bridge wrote:Bluff bottoms buck that i recovered the following year after being shot- he was a typical 7x7 with heavy mass and pearlation. His inside spread is over 26".

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Holy moly, awesome buck!

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tbunao
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby tbunao » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:14 am

What is it about the converging points that makes the bucks cruise these areas?

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backstraps
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby backstraps » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:17 am

Ridgerunner7 wrote:
BassBoysLLP wrote:I have had a lot of luck hunting ridges that but up against a creek bend. I've also risked creek crossings in wide bottoms.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

Yep, all the [glow=red]converging points lead to one area[/glow] and they cross the creek in one of two areas. I can set up on the creek crossing at the base but I'm more at risk of rising thermals (typically ok though if I get the right wind blowing along the bottom, to the west in the photo). A safer play is hunting a walnut tree more centrally located in that bottom. There I can take advantage of the rising thermals and wide bottom. It has a ton of scrape activity around the stand. The downside is some of the cruising bucks pass by out of range.



Man I wish I could a grasp on understand this... Autumn Ninja has marked some maps close to what youre showing!
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby BigCedarJack » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:21 am

Is that what I hear others refer to as a turkey foot?
I had a spot similar to this that I had planned to have a go at this year. But due to a drought the deer were not in the area. There seemed to be a lot of rubs at the ends of the points in the spot I found.
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Redman232 » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:51 am

Ridgerunner7 wrote:
Redman232 wrote:My first hunt in Ohio last fall was in a similar setup. I had no intention of hunting in the bottom, but the sign on the trip in told me that's where I needed to be. I hunted for about 1.5 hrs and saw two bucks, first week of november.

Cool! I typically find great sign in the bottoms but can rarely get away with hunting it unless the bottom is wide enough that I can get some consistent currents.



I was in a wide flat river bottom, probably 100-150 yards across the bottom, I crossed the river onto the interior of an open oxbow. I immediately notices a cruising trail with rubs and scraps paralleling that section of river. Several 100' ridges dumped down right there. Both bucks came down off of the converging points, crosses the river and went down wind of doe bedding thicket(I presume, never actually saw a doe) and hit the cruising trail paralleling the river. Mean while the river was sucking my wind safely down the channel. Like I said I had intended to access the ridge from the bottom(due to pressure from up top) and I just got lucky with the wind after setting up. But I'll definitely be back in that spot this fall.
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Ridgerunner7
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Ridgerunner7 » Sat Feb 20, 2016 10:54 am

backstraps wrote:
Ridgerunner7 wrote:
BassBoysLLP wrote:I have had a lot of luck hunting ridges that but up against a creek bend. I've also risked creek crossings in wide bottoms.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

Yep, all the [glow=red]converging points lead to one area[/glow] and they cross the creek in one of two areas. I can set up on the creek crossing at the base but I'm more at risk of rising thermals (typically ok though if I get the right wind blowing along the bottom, to the west in the photo). A safer play is hunting a walnut tree more centrally located in that bottom. There I can take advantage of the rising thermals and wide bottom. It has a ton of scrape activity around the stand. The downside is some of the cruising bucks pass by out of range.



Man I wish I could a grasp on understand this... Autumn Ninja has marked some maps close to what youre showing!

Bucks cruising the ridge, coming off the tops or crossing to the other ridge come down these points..usually on one side or the other. Think of them like cruising funnels where in this case many come together into one small area (black circle). The black circles would indicate deer cruising trails coming down the points.
Image

Sorry for the crappy drawing. Threw it together quickly.
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Jphunter » Sat Feb 20, 2016 11:15 am

I've had pretty good luck hunting the end of long points that end in creek bottems. Here's an example of one of the spots I've had success in. The green dotted line is the path the cruising bucks would take between the creek and the end of the ridge
Sounds like the same type of area. I know it's not the best art work..:)
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Hawthorne
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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sat Feb 20, 2016 11:26 am

Looks ideal rr7. Giving me some ideas

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Re: Hill country bottoms success

Unread postby Buckhunter » Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:15 pm

Jphunter wrote:I've had pretty good luck hunting the end of long points that end in creek bottems. Here's an example of one of the spots I've had success in. The green dotted line is the path the cruising bucks would take between the creek and the end of the ridge
Sounds like the same type of area. I know it's not the best art work..:)
Image

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image


Helpful drawing. I'll have to start looking for some spots like this where i hunt the hills.


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