Diving On In, but Struggling in the PINES!

[BA-IV]

I hunt primarily in east texas in the piney woods my self. And let me tell you. Deer here are virtually impossible to pattern. Best case is to find a cut over with an SMZ running through it and hunt the transition. Deer use the SMZ's to travel.

My private ground in east texas is harder to hunt than public in Kansas. Its hard to kill mature deer with a 60 day rifle season that runs through the entire rut.

I kill good buck regurally but it is usually over a food plot or corn, and I really don't enjoy it.

Have you ever applied any beast tactics or had any luck applying them?? I've scouted my but off on transitions and am still batting zero.

[Twenty Up]

A topo map would really be helpful.

I've had some decent luck finding mature buck beds in pines (not rows). IMO pines are only good for a small period of time, when the pines are still 10-20ft tall with good underbrush like switchgrass, briars, etc...

The BEST places have been on ridge tops near creeks where the cover gets thick and they can dart out into. The does will bed in the center with satellite bucks on the edges near the military crest. The mature buck beds I have found were in the center and had their wind blowing towards the does or satellite bucks. This would give him time to get outta dodge if the satellite bucks saw something they didn't like, they retreat into the pines and will alert the big guys. Same aspect for does, they seem to really rely on eachother for protection with it being so thick...

These areas will have few, if any, possible access points due to creeks/rivers, property lines or other bedded deer. If your wind drifts into the wrong direction or you get more of a swirl I could see it ruining a hunt.

I've yet to hunt any of the beds in pines that I have found so far, so I cannot help you out that far... But that's what I've found.

[BA-IV]

Same image, I just stacked the first picture so you could get your bearings a lot easier.

[tgreeno]

What I've seen is the deer tended to bed off the edge of the pines in better terrain. Not actually in the pines. Until is gets cold and snowy. Then I'll see them bedding in the pine. These are younger/thicker pines, not the real tall ones trimmed high.

[Twenty Up]

I'd key in on the area just West of the #1, where that draw jets into the pines. Also check out the Southern & South Eastern edge of the pines, walk the edge of the pines/open timber and count the beds!

This is all based on the fact that these pines are somewhat established with lots a grasses growing between them... If that's a very recent clear cut it will take several years before this area produces.

[Buckshot20]

Honestly in the pines I like there to be some kind of water. Pond of some kind. They will hold to that. If it's mature with a canopy skip it. I have a place I hunt that is pines covered in galberrys. The galberrys are the food source so there is not much travel. I will bounce around on the ponds and usually have quite a few encounters. With no ponds I would look for tiny openings in that 10yr old clear cut. Also check that creek where the mature pines come in to a point. Great rut funnel on the creek. In my opinion this may only be worth a couple sits until rut. Hard to lock down specific beds in places like this

[BA-IV]

I appreciate the input guys. I'll be doing a scouting trip to see what all I find and go from there. I'm not going to get to discouraged to fast, its hard terrain to hunt and the deer numbers aren't super high, so it's going to be tough hunting regardless. I know there has to be deer in there somewhere, and they have got to sleep and eat.

[BA-IV]

Well I dived in today and scouted a transition edge and treated the Pines like a marsh and cattails, which I haven't ever hunted, but they seemed like they had similarities. I didn't find any rubs along the transition edge, but even the transition edge was extremely thick and I just didn't see any buck sign whatsoever. I fought briars and made my way to the tall tree's out in the middle of the short pines, looking at em like they might be small islands. The tall trees did have some openings, not much but had some doe sign in there, it'd be to get to, but if you could it prolly wouldn't be a bad rut sit. I think I'm going to abandon that spot as far as bucks go due to lack of sign and move to the other sections of the property.



The bigger tree in the middle had some openings and you could get a set in there, but it would be heck getting in there quietly.




And it had rained pretty recently but did come across some Doe bedding.

[Graham_van]

I hunt primarily in east texas in the piney woods my self. And let me tell you. Deer here are virtually impossible to pattern. Best case is to find a cut over with an SMZ running through it and hunt the transition. Deer use the SMZ's to travel.

My private ground in east texas is harder to hunt than public in Kansas. Its hard to kill mature deer with a 60 day rifle season that runs through the entire rut.

I kill good buck regurally but it is usually over a food plot or corn, and I really don't enjoy it.

Have you ever applied any beast tactics or had any luck applying them?? I've scouted my but off on transitions and am still batting zero.

I have had ZERO luck trying to identify consistent bedding areas in the Piney Woods. There are areas they bed in, but never specific spots (like you would see in a swamp or hill country).

My East Texas hunting is really just to keep me from going crazy when I can't go to Kansas.