Edge/Transition Hunting

[Drenalin]

I've got an opportunity to hunt an area again this year that I have only been to once before, for a three day hunt last season. When I was there last year, it was just before bucks started really seeking or chasing does. But the morning before we left, I found several scrapes and rubs open up that had not been used for the previous two days. I will not have an opportunity to scout this before my hunt, other than topo/aerial scouting and the one afternoon prior to the hunt. This will be a three day hunt again this year.

The area I'm going to has a lot of edge...open hardwoods, pine groves (old enough to be pretty open below the canopy), and then older clearcuts which are now thickets. I saw last year that does are using the pine groves and of course the thickets. I've located a handful of spots where these three types of edge converge, and at one of these locations the three types of cover come together on a point that sets up well for bedding based on the prevailing wind. This is flat land hunting - only about 100 feet of elevation change across 1.5 miles - which is pretty foreign to me.

Do any of you hunt and have success on bucks in this type of setup, where three types of edge converge? My thinking is that if deer use edges for travel, feeding, etc., then my odds for encounters should go up where I have three coming together and that this should apply whether I'm there pre-rut again or during visible rut activity.

[Razorhead]

I absolutely love to hunt edge or transition areas where different types of habitat meet. The more habitat types the better. For several decades I hunted an area where a thick spruce stand, a crabapple thicket and a weedy field met. There was also old grown up road that came out of the field and into the crabapple thicket. This was a natural travel area for bucks and over the years and probably about 90% of the deer I sighted out of that stand were bucks. I killed many deer out of that stand but only ever remember taking one doe out of it. My stand was only 12’ high. If I tried to go any higher I couldn’t shoot at all due to brush. Maximum shot distance was 15 yards in one narrow lane. Almost all of the deer I killed were taken at well less than 10 yards. One year I actually smelled a buck, zoned in on the wind direction, spotted a part of his rack through the thicket and and killed him a few minutes later at 8 yards. The deer just kind of showed up like ghosts at this location. They usually seemed very relaxed which I attribute to the security that the very thick cover offered. I haven’t had a chance to hunt that spot for the past few years but I am always looking for places comparable to it. Super thick, very close in, tight hunting - really cool spot!

[Brandonkinchen]

This is a recent thing I've learned the past couple years. I don't have a lot of data yet. But it's looking good so far. I've found them bedding and traveling through that transition.

[backstraps]

It has been several years since I have hunted the area you got selected for (IF I am guessing correctly) The older mature pines are really thick and nasty with green briar

The transition lines are key there! When I was a kid I lived in a town connecting to the area. I had some really good luck as close as I could get to the golf course and the reservoir. The power lines throughout the area are good to scout along midday if you are gun hunting too. As hard as it sounds, I would try and avoid the easy to get to places as you will have more company than you want.

DONT forget permethrin down there too

Best of luck

[Drenalin]

It has been several years since I have hunted the area you got selected for (IF I am guessing correctly) The older mature pines are really thick and nasty with green briar

The transition lines are key there! When I was a kid I lived in a town connecting to the area. I had some really good luck as close as I could get to the golf course and the reservoir. The power lines throughout the area are good to scout along midday if you are gun hunting too. As hard as it sounds, I would try and avoid the easy to get to places as you will have more company than you want.

DONT forget permethrin down there too

Best of luck

Sounds like you guessed correctly . The pines were pretty thick and hard to work through when I was there last year, but I was surprised at the amount of deer I was seeing in there versus out in the hardwoods. Since I don't have an opportunity to scout other than Thanksgiving afternoon, I think the plan will be to check on some very good scrapes and rubs I located last year on my last day and then focus on transitions if that sign is cold. Avoiding the easy to get to places is easy for me down there - maybe more walking, but it's a lot easier walking than the mountains here on the right side of the state! I purposely avoided the areas near the reservoir and the golf course last year because I thought they were too easy to access and I didn't want company, but it sounds like I may need to check those out this year. Last year I was fortunate to only see two other hunters in the area I was working, but I also only saw a handful of deer, none of which was a good buck. I was surprised that the deer density down there seemed to be low compared to what I expected. Thanks for the tips!