Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

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Eddiegomes83
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Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Eddiegomes83 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 12:33 pm

So i live in florida and most of the land i hunt is pines or overgrown clear cuts. I am wondering what peoples experiences have been with finding beds. I feel that the deer will bed in the overgrown cuts with real young pines. They also seem to bed in pines that are about 10 to 12 feet tall. Do you approach a cut like a marsh or swamp, paying attention to isolated trees and fingers? Also what about the birms that they pile length wise every 50 to 100 yards or so? Any bedding there?


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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby GoInLight » Mon Aug 07, 2017 12:49 pm

I've only been looking for beds for about 4 months, so I'm not an expert by any means. But I have walked countless miles looking for beds in that time. If the cutovers border open hardwoods the beds I'm finding are right on the edge with wind to back looking out into the open woods. Normally they are on any higher ground I can find. I've been just walking the transition line after I look at everything on an aerial. Also a lot of times there's a stream running through the hardwoods that border the cutovers, around here they're called SMZ's. Anyways there are generally rubs along that stream, I follow them back and a lot of times they'll be a rub right in the bed or leading to it. I hope this helps. I'm not sure it's the case everywhere, but it seems to be pretty consistent where I am.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Buckshot20 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 1:19 pm

Ok, my experience on that is there is so much good bedding in those pines it's very hard to find a single worn out bed, however, the deer are there. There is usually a wrinkle in the somewhere being a pond, Cypress dome, poor soil spot that didn't grow when replanted. The best bedding will be around that and they seem to use those as landmarks. It's kinda like fishing the grass Flatts. You find a pot hole in the grass and throw a mullet or shrimp in there and you will catch a trout or red fish. Find the potholes in the pines. It's not easy hunting because there is no guarantee they will be there but when in the area that's where they will go...usually.

Now finding one of these spots that's holding big buck sign is tough but they can be there. It's tough hunting also because there is really nothing to funnel deer movement down in spots like that. They are there and I know they are there but it's hard to figure where they are going because there is so much browse everywhere.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Hooks1 » Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:15 pm

I second Buckshot20's post. I find this to be case here in Louisiana. And also in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby BA-IV » Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:41 pm

Hooks1 wrote:I second Buckshot20's post. I find this to be case here in Louisiana. And also in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.


Exactly. Pines period are about as hard to hunt as any terrain out there. I have yet to find a true worn down bed. I think the best bet is going to be the transition edges honestly, and that's what I'm focusing in on this year.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby 1jody256 » Tue Aug 08, 2017 12:15 am

i have found beds on or next to the piles of dirt push up around were they have thinned the pines out in areas the more the vegation is grown up around them the better they like it,also have seen buckks bed in the tops from freshly cut pines.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Bigburner » Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:17 am

You can find beds around old slash piles. or turns of tops or logs that they left on site. The sites that are whole tree chipped suck and will suck into the near future. If the stand is naturally regenerated and not wind rowed and burned or sprayed its my likely that the structure will be different in the sense that little openings and clumps of trees will be the norm and in turn make allot of subtle inside transitions. If you get some grassy patches or briars you get the diversity that makes good bedding and creates those inconsistencies. One thing that helps me key in is if I get a patch of American holly if you have those that far south. Always bedding underneath those. I also find beds either right on the transition or just no more than 50 yards inside. They like little cubbies as well that are shaded and created by a tight clump of pines surrounding some hardwood regen. If you have an irregular shaped cut that also helps. You need points and depressions in the edge. Straight edges are horrible. All the areas I hunt are in flat ground as well. Looks just like the coastal plain of Georgia where I hunt. And I can tell you they will always hold does. But they don't always hold bucks. if the ingredients aren't there they are just a travel area and you are wasting your time. One other thing I would point out. If you have any ditches that were buffered with hardwood or any ditches with turns or bends I'll find beds along the ditches on the bends. And don't forget the high spots. Even a five foot elevation change is these areas is enough to set a spot up for a buck where he gets a sight advantage.
A little video I put together last year. I shot it on my GPS so please excuse the Blair witch camera work but It may help somebody out.
https://youtu.be/B-lG_Czdf_c
You have a very finite amount of time that these spots are worth a go. about 5 years on to 15 years. Once the canopy starts to close and understory is shaded all out that good stuff is gone. If its typical industrial forest land where it gets a pulpwood thinning around age 15-25 those can pick back up in activity after a thinning (about another 4-5 years plus) when the thinning rows start to regen back in pine and you and up with a two layered canopy. I know and hunt allot of those spots that once I find bedding the deer don't hesitate to move in daylight in these spots just b/c the cover is so good. It's also easy as all get out to lose a deer in one of these spots. When you have a thick understory and you can get up high enough to get a good vantage point. It opens up for you to get an arrow where you need it. It seems funny sitting on a telephone pole practically with no cover but I usually hunt these spot out of my tree saddle and face the direction the deer are coming from and use the tree for cover. Works like a charm. I killed plenty out of a summit climber as well back in the day but I would set up on the back side of the tree and stand facing the tree.
I explain some set ups in my journal from last year hunting around and in these cuts. It took me a while to get the hang of it but you need to treat them like a big expanse of marsh then thing will click.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Eddiegomes83 » Tue Aug 08, 2017 2:14 am

Awesome stuff. Please keep it coming
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby E72 » Tue Aug 08, 2017 4:09 am

I have a spot like this , big area with small pines where everything looks the same . I started hunting it last year . Like others said , check the transitions and look for any elavation changes . I played cat and mouse last year with a buck that liked to bed on the lip of a ridge in the open woods just below these pines. Found some good beds this offseason on a little knob in the pines . Satellite maps show a hidden little frog pond about a half mile in and a brushy field to try as well. Those two spots will be ground hunts unless I can find a pine big enough to handle my LW.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Eddiegomes83 » Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:52 pm

Thanks all. I plan on looking for more beds near transition lines now.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby greenhorndave » Thu Nov 29, 2018 3:52 pm

Bigburner wrote:A little video I put together last year. I shot it on my GPS so please excuse the Blair witch camera work but It may help somebody out.
https://youtu.be/B-lG_Czdf_c


Surprise! Another thread resurrection.

I had been poking around some piney areas up here in WI, so I was curious about what y’all do in this terrain. So a search on HB and later I found this.

You’re right, it’s not exactly for someone with motion sickness, but the examples and info you shared were really good. Appreciate you taking the time to do it. I can definitely understand how to shorten my scouting of the piney areas now.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby Tennhunter3 » Sun Dec 02, 2018 4:57 am

I agree pines are very hard to hunt can only see 30 yards in most places unless pines are mature which is rare they get logged long before maturity.

Bucks make no noise walking in pines which is rough. A rare stick breaking is about it.

On the upside pines hold the most early season sign and best scrape activity during rut.

Its hard to describe to northern hunters they never see the type or amount of logging we have in the south. Some of our clear cuts get so thick with vines blackberries and saplings a human body and assault cant even fit between them.
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Re: Deer hunting southern pines and overgrown cuts with young pines.

Unread postby PK_ » Sun Dec 02, 2018 5:19 am

Wet edges.

If the undergrowth is a jungle like it usually is you can clear some trails connecting flag ponds, natural openings etc and the deer will use them heavy.

I hate planted pines but I know guys who kill some unreal deer in them.
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