The Hunting Beast

Hello all. I hunt the big woods of Eastern Ontario and (when the border is open) the Adirondacks on New York.

The terrain of the Adirondacks is obviously very significant and mountain deer behaviour is definitely seen.

My question is more for my home terrain of Eastern Ontario.

The terrain is reasonably rugged - Canadian shield ridges, lowland swamps. Total elevation change from lowland to hilltop/mountain top is typically 200 to 500 feet.

Should I be expecting to see typical "hill country"/mountain whitetail behaviour - top 1/3 bedding, bedding on points, etc. - with elevation changes of this magnitude?

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

Ive never hunted either of your areas but Im looking at them on Google. This is a very interesting question. I am from the mountains of central Pennsylvania. My experience here seems to be a middle ground of your two areas.

Yes the top 3rd rule always applies. However, looking at the hilly terrain of Ontario I would suggest bedding will be more spread out since the hills seam to be more rolling. Now I do see some ridges with sharp crests and steep drop offs. Those I would expect bedding right on those edges. Those are always more predictable. A good "edge" to a hillside makes bedding much more predictable.

Hope this helps

I consider hill bedding and mountain bedding to be two very different things. But to answer your question, elevation changes of 200-500 feet is definitely hill bedding. You'll see hill bedding patterns in elevation changes of even 50 feet.