Bedding in hill country national forest land

[whi52873]

I was in a stand. It's crazy how much thicker things look at eye level compared to 15-20 ft in a tree.

Yeah I was curious about that. I haven't hunted many thickets (kind of detoured me in the past because of access), but I may have to take some climbing sticks in those thick areas when scouting to have a "birds eye" view before going in for a set up. Probably would work well in a couple of weeks since the public around here gets pounded during rifle season and a lot of the deer get pushed back into those thicker spots.

That's exactly what happens here also. So many hunters hunt the open hardwoods because it's easy to access and setup. The deer are concentrated in the those super thick areas because the average hunter is not willing to spend the time to cut a trail or walk through those briers.

Would that be the thicker stuff down in the bottom or thicker stuff up on top?

Always on top for me. The hill country I hunt is technically a mountain range......so the bottoms consist of small spring fed creeks and rocky drainage's. They aren't your typical creek/river bottoms where it's flat country for a while.....the bottoms are on average 20-30 yards wide and up another ridge you go.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

Would that be the thicker stuff down in the bottom or thicker stuff up on top?

This would be the thicker stuff on top. Typically right off an access trail/logging road going into a secondary point off of the main ridge.

Ok. Thank you. I'll try to find a spot similar to this.

[The Mediocre Hunter]

I was in a stand. It's crazy how much thicker things look at eye level compared to 15-20 ft in a tree.

Yeah I was curious about that. I haven't hunted many thickets (kind of detoured me in the past because of access), but I may have to take some climbing sticks in those thick areas when scouting to have a "birds eye" view before going in for a set up. Probably would work well in a couple of weeks since the public around here gets pounded during rifle season and a lot of the deer get pushed back into those thicker spots.

That's exactly what happens here also. So many hunters hunt the open hardwoods because it's easy to access and setup. The deer are concentrated in the those super thick areas because the average hunter is not willing to spend the time to cut a trail or walk through those briers.

Would that be the thicker stuff down in the bottom or thicker stuff up on top?

Always on top for me. The hill country I hunt is technically a mountain range......so the bottoms consist of small spring fed creeks and rocky drainage's. They aren't your typical creek/river bottoms where it's flat country for a while.....the bottoms are on average 20-30 yards wide and up another ridge you go.

Sounds like you're describing the WMA I hunt. I wouldn't call mine a mountain range but there's an average of 200 ft elevation changes from the dips to the tops of the hills. Rocky as can be in most areas. Do you ever focus on the bottoms? I've only had one encounter with a buck down low near a Creek. The other buck was up top but I'm a very open area of closed canopy forest with very little undergrowth.