Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

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Bud TN
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Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby Bud TN » Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:00 am

I wanted to bump this thread with a podcast I recently heard. With all the commotion these days I was in need of a break from all ”the spirit of the age” Times we are currently facing.

Go to/ find:
East meets west podcast and look for “ KEYS TO CONSISTENT SUCCESS - HUNTING MOUNTAIN BUCKS” with Nathan killen.
This is probably the best tactical hunting podcast specifically geared for us back country Appalachian Mountain hunters that I have ever heard. Nathan’s information is littered with golden nuggets.

Also if you go to the website East meets west hunt .com nathan has An article with topos as examples of the things he discussed.

I had to share this with my fellow Appalachian beasts.

If you’ve already heard it, sorry that I’m late to the party. Even still it’s worth another listen either way!!

Hope you Enjoy! September can’t get here quick enough.


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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby brancher147 » Sun Jun 14, 2020 3:20 am

Bud TN wrote:I wanted to bump this thread with a podcast I recently heard. With all the commotion these days I was in need of a break from all ”the spirit of the age” Times we are currently facing.

Go to/ find:
East meets west podcast and look for “ KEYS TO CONSISTENT SUCCESS - HUNTING MOUNTAIN BUCKS” with Nathan killen.
This is probably the best tactical hunting podcast specifically geared for us back country Appalachian Mountain hunters that I have ever heard. Nathan’s information is littered with golden nuggets.

Also if you go to the website East meets west hunt .com nathan has An article with topos as examples of the things he discussed.

I had to share this with my fellow Appalachian beasts.

If you’ve already heard it, sorry that I’m late to the party. Even still it’s worth another listen either way!!

Hope you Enjoy! September can’t get here quick enough.


There is a thread on another of Nathan's podcasts going right now-The Guide to Hunting Old Bucks with The Southern Outdoorsman. https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-so ... e/69902678

Here's a link to the east meets west podcast for anyone interested. https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/podca ... han-killen

And a link to Nathan's article with topo examples. https://www.eastmeetswesthunt.com/post/ ... tain-bucks

I haven't listened to the East Meets West podcast yet but would guess it's similar to the other one. I look forward to listening to it. I have just discovered Nathan and I agree this is the best hunting info I have heard for Appalachian Mountain hunters.
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby CChunter2 » Mon Jun 15, 2020 8:08 am

When I click the link to nathen's article it won't pull up. Do you have to be a member of their site or something?
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby Benny » Thu Sep 23, 2021 3:41 am

(Bump) Checking in from the Southern Catskills and also hunt the Hudson Valley
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby PK_ » Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:01 pm

Found this thread yesterday and spent my free time reading all 19 pages. Some really strong posts in here.

Bedding and slope orientation question:

It seems many of you are finding the most consistent bedding on East and Southern slopes and are able to correlate that with the most common wind directions and thermals.

Is that generally only East/South of the main ridge line(predominantly leeward of the main ridge), or do you also find bucks bedding on the ‘windward’ points and knobs that have small faces with South or East exposures?
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby country_gbrony » Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:07 am

Tjterry wrote:I think in most cases during the rut in the mountains , your better off hunting terrain features that funnel deer as opposed to worrying about hunting on a lot of sign. One of my favorite spots is the head of a draw that is east side of a thick strip pit. There is never much sign there but I've killed several mature bucks there as they sent checked the strip pit.


What is a "strip pit?"
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby country_gbrony » Sat Sep 25, 2021 9:48 am

I have found beds right off of hiking trails. They were about 40 yds just over the ridge where a person couldn't see a bedded deer but the deer could probably hear a person walk by. Camera footage verified they were using the beds.
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby Bud TN » Sun Mar 20, 2022 7:42 am

I’ve been doing some thinking about how I hunt the mountains in my corner of the world (east TN/Western NC). I haven’t posted in a while and I wanted to bump the Appalachian mountain tactics thread.
I have hunted since I was able to walk. but didn’t really get into deer hunting till my late Teens/20's. I don’t own a farm. however, I do live on the on the edge of a huge national forest. I stayed frustrated most seasons and ate tag soup until I was 23 when I killed my “first deer”. This is where my journey REALLY began. after getting 1 under my belt, what do I need to do to be consistent???

At this point, most folk on the beast are already aware of this, but for some reason i felt the need to summarize it as to how I use it. The great thing about hunting is that it's unique to everyone and yet everyone can be successful

I’ll preface this list by saying, I work a MORE than full time job, 3 young kiddos, and I am very blessed to have a wife who is VERY PATIENT and GENEROUS with me!!

The habitat I’m referencing is primarily 200,000+ acre tracts ranging from 1,500’ - 6,000’ elevation with only the random timber cuts being the closest thing to a crop field.
Here’s the “learnings” in no particular order, it’s just how it came into my mind as I typed. My intent is to come back and expand and drill down on all of these points. so please take this with a grain of salt and by no means am I an expert. I just want to ignite some thought. I don’t think there is any one item in this list that I can point to as being the 1 thing I could recommend focusing on. they are all important in there own way and all of them compliment each other

• Understand deer behavior and when/why they use the habitat they use. This in itself is a deep dark winding rabbit hole with MANY side paths and forks!! Everyone learns differently and have many different views and opinions. I’d say 95% of them are valid since deer are so adaptable and will act differently depending on their environment. But there are some basic things that are the same regardless of where you find deer (eat, sleep, bread, repeat) If you want to become consistent, I'd recommend schooling yourself on as much deer info as you can stand. Mine started with passed down knowledge from family, habitat modification and hunting related books, the Hunting Beast (Duh... ;) ), on-line courses, podcasts…Youtube….etc.

• Navigation - Map scouting should be an essential part of your hunting strategy. Learn how to use topo maps (paper or digital), Areal photography...etc. and knowing how to read the terrain live on-foot (woodsmanship). It’s almost like cheating to have access to all the technology and video content on how to e-scout that we have available these days!! It has DEFINETELY been a game changer for me!

• Time in the woods is DIRECTLY proportional to your rate of success (my personal opinion). Sometimes the best looking spot on the Map is not what you thought and there’s only one way to know that….it’s called burning shoe-leather! I’ve noticed that once you’ve found those specific features game likes to use in the mountains, they’ll use it every year and all game will use it, not just deer. However, Do not focus solely on terrain feature hunting. Try to find compounding features. I try to find terrain features that can be easily related to something deer need to use or in a direction they want to travel. I map scout terrain features, then plan a route that makes a huge circle in the area. Often when I get to these locations, I simply don't find the compounding features I wanted to see that I feel bring consistent sightings. The more you do this, the faster you'll get at bypassing low probably spots...a.k.a....time in the woods.

• What does success look like for you? Obviously killing a 170" buck every year would be preferable, but deer like that may simply not exist in the area. You can't hunt deer that don't exist. I am satisfied with a 130-150" range buck and they consistently exist in my region if you put in the effort. Most of the time, just seeing a deer is a success for me. I usually get one chance of taking a 3+ y/o buck per season, so you better not screw it up!

• Have more hunting spots on back-up than you can ever dream of hunting in one single season or even 10 seasons. That said, I scout year round. since it's getting close to turkey season, take advantage of that. I would classify myself as half hearted turkey hunter, I mostly turkey hunt as an excuse to get out and hike in the woods and scout. I purposefully go to new places to hunt/ scout that are outside of my normal haunts. If I find/kill a turkey in the process, then it was a good bonus to my scouting trip. I summer scout too. I prefer to scout summertime on rainy days as that seems to keep the ticks and mosquitos/flies down. But i'll go anytime i have the chance really. I love to gensing and mushroom hunt and the added bonus of that is....so do the deer ;)...walking north facing sloped deer trails is a great way to find gensing BTW.

• Run trail cameras all year long and carry trail cameras with you every time you go to the woods. You never know when you'll find the "next great spot" to hunt.
I try to monitor a spot for a couple years (i'll also hunt it if the sign is right) to know when I need to hunt it. In this instance it's safe to say "past performance DOES indicate future behavior".

• Learn to hunt mobile (whatever that looks like for you, given all the choices today). I can count on 1 hand how many deer, I’ve killed from a tree stand. However, being elevated from a tree stand is REALLY nice, but it’s not a must have to consistently kill bucks in the mountains. It’s usually not hard to find an elevation advantage around here that doesn’t involve a tree stand. That said, I carry a tree saddle and one stick 100% of the time until December and the majority of leaf cover is gone. By December, I hunt mostly from the ground and carry my saddle/stick MAYBE on a third (1/3) of my hunts.

• I only pay attention to the wind once I get to the hunting spot I want to hunt. Most of the places I hunt are 1 way in/ 1 way out and taking a longer route is just not an option or practical. I would say 90% of the time, the wind is NEVER what was predicted. If you rely on the weather to wait to go hunt a spot, then you’ll probably never go hunt it. However, for my spots that are 3/4 to 1/2 mile from the road I absolutely try to watch the wind and plan my route accordingly (when possible). I also found it's OK to hunt a wrong-ish wind. Just pay attention to your stand location relative to the feature your hunting and plan accordingly. Needless to say, Just GO hunt. Figure it out when you get there. If the wind ain’t right, then move and make it right. Don’t make it so complicated. Don't assign cognitive abilities to animals that function on pure instinct (as sharp as that may be).

• I Never hunt a specific bed. I think knowing where multiple beds occurs is more critical. Don’t focus all your time finding “THE BED” to hunt over. I do find the rare bed wore to the dirt up here but it is only by exception rather than the rule. I’d rather find a patch of thicket that has 20 beds in it than look for 1 bed and hang/hope. Because in low density woods, they seem to roam around more than huddle into a specific spot (mostly because they have lots of ground available) and I have to share the woods with hound hunters in the fall too. But, If you find 5-10 beds within 100 yards or less…..you better find a tree near by.

Well, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I’ll try to dive deeper into these as we go through spring/summer or if you think I'm full of &%$# and I'm just regurgitating the same old info, then just tell me to stop, I'm a big boy HAHA :lol: .
But either way, I hope you all enjoyed these thoughts! I AM NOT AN EXPERT like Dan. I just love to hunt and love to learn new things to make me better at it!! It's all about the little nuggets of info I pick up randomly from places just like the beast forum and many others (i'm addicted to podcasts now) THANKS JOSH since "before the echo" is now on my rotation list :lol: . I realize that this probably does not apply to everyone's cases, but I hope it sparks some questions/conversation. Till next time!
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby Stingray713 » Sun Mar 20, 2022 2:36 pm

Great post and bump. I’m planning on hunting the National Forests here in Virginia this season for the first time. Just gotta keep that vacation in the bank for the next six months!
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby dan99 » Fri Mar 25, 2022 10:29 am

Bud TN wrote:I’ve been doing some thinking about how I hunt the mountains in my corner of the world (east TN/Western NC). I haven’t posted in a while and I wanted to bump the Appalachian mountain tactics thread.
I have hunted since I was able to walk. but didn’t really get into deer hunting till my late Teens/20's. I don’t own a farm. however, I do live on the on the edge of a huge national forest. I stayed frustrated most seasons and ate tag soup until I was 23 when I killed my “first deer”. This is where my journey REALLY began. after getting 1 under my belt, what do I need to do to be consistent???

At this point, most folk on the beast are already aware of this, but for some reason i felt the need to summarize it as to how I use it. The great thing about hunting is that it's unique to everyone and yet everyone can be successful

I’ll preface this list by saying, I work a MORE than full time job, 3 young kiddos, and I am very blessed to have a wife who is VERY PATIENT and GENEROUS with me!!

The habitat I’m referencing is primarily 200,000+ acre tracts ranging from 1,500’ - 6,000’ elevation with only the random timber cuts being the closest thing to a crop field.
Here’s the “learnings” in no particular order, it’s just how it came into my mind as I typed. My intent is to come back and expand and drill down on all of these points. so please take this with a grain of salt and by no means am I an expert. I just want to ignite some thought. I don’t think there is any one item in this list that I can point to as being the 1 thing I could recommend focusing on. they are all important in there own way and all of them compliment each other

• Understand deer behavior and when/why they use the habitat they use. This in itself is a deep dark winding rabbit hole with MANY side paths and forks!! Everyone learns differently and have many different views and opinions. I’d say 95% of them are valid since deer are so adaptable and will act differently depending on their environment. But there are some basic things that are the same regardless of where you find deer (eat, sleep, bread, repeat) If you want to become consistent, I'd recommend schooling yourself on as much deer info as you can stand. Mine started with passed down knowledge from family, habitat modification and hunting related books, the Hunting Beast (Duh... ;) ), on-line courses, podcasts…Youtube….etc.

• Navigation - Map scouting should be an essential part of your hunting strategy. Learn how to use topo maps (paper or digital), Areal photography...etc. and knowing how to read the terrain live on-foot (woodsmanship). It’s almost like cheating to have access to all the technology and video content on how to e-scout that we have available these days!! It has DEFINETELY been a game changer for me!

• Time in the woods is DIRECTLY proportional to your rate of success (my personal opinion). Sometimes the best looking spot on the Map is not what you thought and there’s only one way to know that….it’s called burning shoe-leather! I’ve noticed that once you’ve found those specific features game likes to use in the mountains, they’ll use it every year and all game will use it, not just deer. However, Do not focus solely on terrain feature hunting. Try to find compounding features. I try to find terrain features that can be easily related to something deer need to use or in a direction they want to travel. I map scout terrain features, then plan a route that makes a huge circle in the area. Often when I get to these locations, I simply don't find the compounding features I wanted to see that I feel bring consistent sightings. The more you do this, the faster you'll get at bypassing low probably spots...a.k.a....time in the woods.

• What does success look like for you? Obviously killing a 170" buck every year would be preferable, but deer like that may simply not exist in the area. You can't hunt deer that don't exist. I am satisfied with a 130-150" range buck and they consistently exist in my region if you put in the effort. Most of the time, just seeing a deer is a success for me. I usually get one chance of taking a 3+ y/o buck per season, so you better not screw it up!

• Have more hunting spots on back-up than you can ever dream of hunting in one single season or even 10 seasons. That said, I scout year round. since it's getting close to turkey season, take advantage of that. I would classify myself as half hearted turkey hunter, I mostly turkey hunt as an excuse to get out and hike in the woods and scout. I purposefully go to new places to hunt/ scout that are outside of my normal haunts. If I find/kill a turkey in the process, then it was a good bonus to my scouting trip. I summer scout too. I prefer to scout summertime on rainy days as that seems to keep the ticks and mosquitos/flies down. But i'll go anytime i have the chance really. I love to gensing and mushroom hunt and the added bonus of that is....so do the deer ;)...walking north facing sloped deer trails is a great way to find gensing BTW.

• Run trail cameras all year long and carry trail cameras with you every time you go to the woods. You never know when you'll find the "next great spot" to hunt.
I try to monitor a spot for a couple years (i'll also hunt it if the sign is right) to know when I need to hunt it. In this instance it's safe to say "past performance DOES indicate future behavior".

• Learn to hunt mobile (whatever that looks like for you, given all the choices today). I can count on 1 hand how many deer, I’ve killed from a tree stand. However, being elevated from a tree stand is REALLY nice, but it’s not a must have to consistently kill bucks in the mountains. It’s usually not hard to find an elevation advantage around here that doesn’t involve a tree stand. That said, I carry a tree saddle and one stick 100% of the time until December and the majority of leaf cover is gone. By December, I hunt mostly from the ground and carry my saddle/stick MAYBE on a third (1/3) of my hunts.

• I only pay attention to the wind once I get to the hunting spot I want to hunt. Most of the places I hunt are 1 way in/ 1 way out and taking a longer route is just not an option or practical. I would say 90% of the time, the wind is NEVER what was predicted. If you rely on the weather to wait to go hunt a spot, then you’ll probably never go hunt it. However, for my spots that are 3/4 to 1/2 mile from the road I absolutely try to watch the wind and plan my route accordingly (when possible). I also found it's OK to hunt a wrong-ish wind. Just pay attention to your stand location relative to the feature your hunting and plan accordingly. Needless to say, Just GO hunt. Figure it out when you get there. If the wind ain’t right, then move and make it right. Don’t make it so complicated. Don't assign cognitive abilities to animals that function on pure instinct (as sharp as that may be).

• I Never hunt a specific bed. I think knowing where multiple beds occurs is more critical. Don’t focus all your time finding “THE BED” to hunt over. I do find the rare bed wore to the dirt up here but it is only by exception rather than the rule. I’d rather find a patch of thicket that has 20 beds in it than look for 1 bed and hang/hope. Because in low density woods, they seem to roam around more than huddle into a specific spot (mostly because they have lots of ground available) and I have to share the woods with hound hunters in the fall too. But, If you find 5-10 beds within 100 yards or less…..you better find a tree near by.

Well, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I’ll try to dive deeper into these as we go through spring/summer or if you think I'm full of &%$# and I'm just regurgitating the same old info, then just tell me to stop, I'm a big boy HAHA :lol: .
But either way, I hope you all enjoyed these thoughts! I AM NOT AN EXPERT like Dan. I just love to hunt and love to learn new things to make me better at it!! It's all about the little nuggets of info I pick up randomly from places just like the beast forum and many others (i'm addicted to podcasts now) THANKS JOSH since "before the echo" is now on my rotation list :lol: . I realize that this probably does not apply to everyone's cases, but I hope it sparks some questions/conversation. Till next time!


This is outstanding. I hunt the Ozarks in Missouri and agree with most of what you posted here for mountain tactics. I do like using a tree stand though. I always try to set up on the hardest funnel I can find that has a good rub line leading in and out of it. It's the main way I've found to narrow deer movement down, since they have acorns everywhere. Saddles and the ends of long draws are my favorite types of spots.
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby 515Raven » Sat Mar 26, 2022 6:07 am

I plan on hunting a WMA adjacent to the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia this year. Looking forward to (hopefully) banking on my off-season scouting and threads like these.
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Re: Appalachian Mountain terrain and tactics

Unread postby Bud TN » Wed Apr 06, 2022 12:24 am

As promised, Here's an expansion of the bullet on "Understand deer and wild game behavior". I'm sure I missed/forgot something, but feel free to add/subtract as you see fit!

Understand deer and wild game behavior and when/why they use the habitat they use. This in itself is a deep dark winding rabbit hole with MANY side paths and forks!! Everyone learns differently and have many different views and opinions. I’d say 95% of them are valid since deer are so adaptable and will act differently depending on their environment. But there are some basic things that are the same across the species. This is gained by consuming as much deer info as you can stand. Mine started with passed down knowledge from family/friends, then learning how to create deer habitat, habitat and hunting related books, the Hunting Beast (of coarse), podcasts…Youtube….etc.
There is not much I can really add here on deer/buck behavior. There might be some SLIGHT variations based on deer density, hunting pressure, location, blah blah…etc. But in the “for what it’s worth” category here’s what I’ve noticed down here. From my perspective, deer focus more on food here. Buck bedding is usually always relatable to a food source early season, and transitions to security as the season progresses. Deer seem to be a little more nomadic here. I usually notice a specific buck will only use a specific bed maybe once every 3-7 days. Even though acorns may be raining in the immediate vicinity. It may sound odd, but its like the bucks are playing musical chairs. I have noticed that different bucks and small bachelor groups will rotate through an area and maybe once a week or ALL the bucks that rotate there will meet up for a few hours, then disperse again into smaller groups. And it’s not always the same groups either. But I have noticed the oldest deer seem to have the fewest (one buck if any) “followers” in the group. Middle aged bucks (2-4) y/o seem to stick together more and will have 3-4 in a group. The older bucks don’t pass through as often. Once velvet drops, everything changes. This is where I really struggle. Usually velvet drop coincides with Bear/Hog season with dogs and that drastically alters their bedding and movement. During that time I usually go to the flat lands to hunt (freezer queens) or turn my attention to bear/hog hunting (if you can’t beat’em, join’em).
Finding acorns as everyone knows is critical to success. However, you are not going to find a buck under every white oak or even a 1/4 mile square patch of white oaks. That will depend greatly on the habitat around it. This is how you learn the LITERAL definition of “carrying capacity”. Not all woods are created equal and it literally can change depending on what side of the mountain you’re on based on the amount of quality understory that goes with the area. Finding THE feed tree near bedding is tricky, so be prepared to do a LOT of hiking and no hunting. Living in a sea of oak trees and finding THE area of trees they are using is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.
I try to locate bedding (bucks/does both) at every chance I get, once you find that, try to find travel routes a that give me a terrain advantage, then run trail cameras all year (or 2) to see when the best usage time is. I strike out A LOT at this. However, I have been able to time when the most rut based travel occurs in my area and it is consistent throughout the majority of the ~500,000 acres I have surveyed. Peak rut movement dates (here) to BE IN THE WOODS (11-20 thru 11-27 and 12-15 thru 12-22) give or take a day or two. I see the most movement around those dates year after year and my trail cameras back that up. I also don’t notice the moon phase making much of a difference on these dates. However, I will say I do not “like” to hunt on a full moon (personal preference). Season is only open 1 week in November and 2 weeks in December, I hunt when I have time to hunt. I as most folks do only get a limited time to hunt, so I don’t let weather, moon, wind…etc. dictate if I’m going to hunt. You either hunt or you don’t. TRY to no focus when you go on moon, weather, wind…etc. Go hunt, enjoy God’s creation and count your blessings! Yes I love killing big bucks, but I also just enjoy spending time in the woods, enjoy the chase!
Back to those movement dates I mentioned, I also notice movement (for a given rut funnel) occurs regardless of mast crop, but movement will be increased in higher mast areas (Duh…”I say to myself”). Basically, find the food, find the game. Acorns don’t produce in the same trees every year, so it is reliant upon you to do your summer scouting (and spring turkey season) to judge the acorn crop for that year. Turkey season scouting is the best time to see last years sign, if the white oaks are blooming (oak tags) and for you to observe real time weather impacts (freezes/frosts). If it frosts during oak bloom time, then that area will have a lower acorn crop and thus less game traffic in general.
Another benefit (besides the obvious) of scouting during turkey season for monitoring for USFS/DNR prescribed fires. Depending on when the USFS/DNR perform the burn(s) (pre-emergence or post emergence), then that can also greatly impact game activity. This is based on the fact that more than half of a deer’s diet consists of forbs and woody browse. Prescribed fires will also have boundaries/fire breaks. Walking along those fire breaks is a good way to pick up hoof traffic, find scrapes/rubs…etc. Fire breaks create great “edge” for the deer and all game. I love to hunt 1 or 2 y/o fire breaks due to all the great edge habitat it creates. If you can find a secluded white oak flat, on the edge of a clear cut that has ALSO been burned in the last 1-2 years, then start looking because the sign will be there! In those cases, I usually have no issues with finding plenty of sign in a location like that. Last season, I passed up a young bear early in the hunt and was later able to take ~200# hog by finding a spot just like this. I stopped at this spot because it had all the makings for a late evening buck encounter, beds, rubs, fresh scrape…etc. However, it just so happened that the hog showed up first. I am a hunter of opportunity. Yes I LOVE killing big bucks, but I’ll shoot a hog(or coyote) if I get the chance without question! Hard to pass on fresh wild pork and they are overtaking the land here.

If you’ve made it this far, Thanks for reading! Hopefully, you got a nugget or two from this. Feel free to support/refute as necessary. I’m doing this to hopefully provoke learning some little “nuggets” myself. Thanks y’all!


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