Advice in hill country

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RidgeGhost
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Advice in hill country

Unread postby RidgeGhost » Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:16 am

I'm needing some advice here. Scouted a new public piece this morning. Trying to expand my opportunities here in state. This place is steep hill country, all wooded. Even mixture of oaks (white, red, chesnut), pines, beech, poplar, and laurel.

I went in today and hit the best looking bedding points along one long ridge. Probably 6 or 8 points I hit. These are high odds, hard to get to points. Normally in the mountains, I can pick a spot on the map, walk to it and find the bed or a cluster of beds. Here, I found nothing. I found one bed all morning big enough to be a buck and only a handful of doe beds. The bed I did find was not well used. Jumped one deer off a good point, don't know what it was, and no bed.

The sign is there, huge rubs, scrapes, even found a few big tracks in the remaining snow. But I don't know why I couldn't find beds. One consideration is that most of the tips of the points were pine, leaving pine needles underneath. Maybe I just can't spot them in pine needles? I checked some spots that looked like potential beds, but no hair to be found. A second thought is, there are an abundance of good bedding points here. Maybe the bedding is sporadic and they have so many options they don't wear down one bed.

And of course, after a 4 mile walk, I found a big shed 10ft from the road where I parked :lol: Must have dropped in the last day, blood on it is still bright red, hasn't oxidized yet.

Any thoughts?


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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby checkerfred » Sun Jan 21, 2018 9:21 am

How steep are you talking? Bluff steep or just really high, steep, but walkable elevation? Bluffs really force bedding either high or low. Steep and walkable but tough going I find them on benches or small flat areas on the slope. These could be flat areas from trees or rocks. I’ve seen them bed on the uphill side of a tree in terrain like this. Rolling hills they shift a lot. Pines are definitely harder to see beds. Ive jumped deer and went straight to the bed only to not be able to find it
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sun Jan 21, 2018 1:46 pm

sounds like they are using it a lot and bedding all over with the cover if you find a cluster of rubs look in a fifty yard circle real close Image this is a classic looking bed in pine laurel type of woods my longbow is sitting in bed note backstop and overhead cover they like the lower branches just above their head
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby RidgeGhost » Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:27 pm

checkerfred wrote:How steep are you talking? Bluff steep or just really high, steep, but walkable elevation? Bluffs really force bedding either high or low. Steep and walkable but tough going I find them on benches or small flat areas on the slope. These could be flat areas from trees or rocks. I’ve seen them bed on the uphill side of a tree in terrain like this. Rolling hills they shift a lot. Pines are definitely harder to see beds. Ive jumped deer and went straight to the bed only to not be able to find it


It's a mixture of rolling hills and in places it's so steep I can't stand on the hill. Elevation change from the draw to the ridge tops is usually between 100 to 200 feet with a few places up to 400 feet of gain. I've seen the beds above trees and rocks like you mention, but couldn't find any of them here. Sly devils stumped me today
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby checkerfred » Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:40 pm

RidgeGhost wrote:
checkerfred wrote:How steep are you talking? Bluff steep or just really high, steep, but walkable elevation? Bluffs really force bedding either high or low. Steep and walkable but tough going I find them on benches or small flat areas on the slope. These could be flat areas from trees or rocks. I’ve seen them bed on the uphill side of a tree in terrain like this. Rolling hills they shift a lot. Pines are definitely harder to see beds. Ive jumped deer and went straight to the bed only to not be able to find it


It's a mixture of rolling hills and in places it's so steep I can't stand on the hill. Elevation change from the draw to the ridge tops is usually between 100 to 200 feet with a few places up to 400 feet of gain. I've seen the beds above trees and rocks like you mention, but couldn't find any of them here. Sly devils stumped me today


Might have just overlooked them then. I find it really easy when it’s steep.
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby dan » Sun Jan 21, 2018 11:28 pm

tHEY MAY BE SOMEWHAT SPREAD OUT AND HARD TO SEE, OR YOU MAY NOT BE LOOKING IN THE RIGHT AREAS. If there is thick ridges, and open ones, there going to be in the thick cover. Is there swamp nearby? or is it all hills / woods?
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby RidgeGhost » Mon Jan 22, 2018 2:12 am

dan wrote:tHEY MAY BE SOMEWHAT SPREAD OUT AND HARD TO SEE, OR YOU MAY NOT BE LOOKING IN THE RIGHT AREAS. If there is thick ridges, and open ones, there going to be in the thick cover. Is there swamp nearby? or is it all hills / woods?


All hills and woods, no swamp. Some of the ridges are definitely thicker than others. I tried to focus on those that were thickest. Even then, there are a lot of nice thick points for bedding. Lots of fallen pine trees too.

I'm going to have to get in there and spend some time on it
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby Rob loper » Mon Jan 22, 2018 3:52 am

I wish i knew any advice on hill country bro its flat as a piece of plywood here on east coast. Beaches marshes swamps and lors of tourists all summer lol
I really wanna do a diy hunt in the mountans maybe new york west virginia or pennsy in the next few years
But we shall see i will be buting the hill country cd soon
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby RidgeGhost » Mon Jan 22, 2018 6:39 am

checkerfred wrote:
RidgeGhost wrote:
checkerfred wrote:How steep are you talking? Bluff steep or just really high, steep, but walkable elevation? Bluffs really force bedding either high or low. Steep and walkable but tough going I find them on benches or small flat areas on the slope. These could be flat areas from trees or rocks. I’ve seen them bed on the uphill side of a tree in terrain like this. Rolling hills they shift a lot. Pines are definitely harder to see beds. Ive jumped deer and went straight to the bed only to not be able to find it


It's a mixture of rolling hills and in places it's so steep I can't stand on the hill. Elevation change from the draw to the ridge tops is usually between 100 to 200 feet with a few places up to 400 feet of gain. I've seen the beds above trees and rocks like you mention, but couldn't find any of them here. Sly devils stumped me today


Might have just overlooked them then. I find it really easy when it’s steep.


That's a good possibility. I went in wanting to cover some ground but I may need to slow it down and spend more time on the best points to figure them out.
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby BackCoverBowHunter » Mon Jan 22, 2018 9:25 am

During the winter I have been finding most of my beds on the lower third. Actually how I killed my buck this January. They were walking through the thick cover and bedding in there or at the pine trees. I have found tons of heavily used trails going into the brush. I setup right on that edge and covered four trails.

They are keeping close to food.

I went out this morning to another spot and ran into 3 different groups of deer. And kicked a buck out of his bed. Just keep getting out there when you can. Every time in is a learning experience.
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby Osborn Outdoors » Mon Jan 22, 2018 2:14 pm

I’ve found beds with small amounts of hair, but today I found three that had a ton of hair. Anyone else seen similar beds in their area?
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby RidgeGhost » Tue Jan 23, 2018 4:18 pm

Just watched disc 1 of the second hill country dvd. Dans description of bedding in rolling hills really hits home on this one. Most of the hills are rolling, gently sloping off into the draws. Some do have a military crest though, and I will focus on those when I'm back in there. The military crest in this case drops way off, up to a couple hundred feet dropping almost straight down.

I will try to remember to post what I find on this thread next time I'm there.
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby tbunao » Wed Jan 24, 2018 2:13 am

RidgeGhost wrote:Just watched disc 1 of the second hill country dvd. Dans description of bedding in rolling hills really hits home on this one. Most of the hills are rolling, gently sloping off into the draws. Some do have a military crest though, and I will focus on those when I'm back in there. The military crest in this case drops way off, up to a couple hundred feet dropping almost straight down.

I will try to remember to post what I find on this thread next time I'm there.


More rolling hills I’ll find them a little more sporadic than on a solid military crest. Depending on how the pitch is on the rolling hill, the backcover, or the terrain around will allow the wind the push farther up or down the hill before it meets the thermals if that makes sense to you. Steeper usually results in higher on the hill. No cover then it’s just a good looking point on the map imo. You can probably help narrow down those thicker spots by using the history bar on GE. Not all the time you’ll be able to find a good winter photo and those dark thick spots stand out.

Other thing is it sounds like you are finding a lot of rubs and scrapes, maybe they are only using it during that time frame and have shifted a little to be closer to preferred browse?

When was the last time you had that wind to put them in those locations would be another thing I ask myself when I’m not finding anything that stands out. The scout goes to a snails pace then.
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:32 am

RidgeGhost wrote:I'm needing some advice here. Scouted a new public piece this morning. Trying to expand my opportunities here in state. This place is steep hill country, all wooded. Even mixture of oaks (white, red, chesnut), pines, beech, poplar, and laurel.

I went in today and hit the best looking bedding points along one long ridge. Probably 6 or 8 points I hit. These are high odds, hard to get to points. Normally in the mountains, I can pick a spot on the map, walk to it and find the bed or a cluster of beds. Here, I found nothing. I found one bed all morning big enough to be a buck and only a handful of doe beds. The bed I did find was not well used. Jumped one deer off a good point, don't know what it was, and no bed.

The sign is there, huge rubs, scrapes, even found a few big tracks in the remaining snow. But I don't know why I couldn't find beds. One consideration is that most of the tips of the points were pine, leaving pine needles underneath. Maybe I just can't spot them in pine needles? I checked some spots that looked like potential beds, but no hair to be found. A second thought is, there are an abundance of good bedding points here. Maybe the bedding is sporadic and they have so many options they don't wear down one bed.

And of course, after a 4 mile walk, I found a big shed 10ft from the road where I parked :lol: Must have dropped in the last day, blood on it is still bright red, hasn't oxidized yet.

Any thoughts?



Whats your predominant winds??
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Re: Advice in hill country

Unread postby RidgeGhost » Wed Jan 24, 2018 6:52 am

UofLbowhunter wrote:
RidgeGhost wrote:I'm needing some advice here. Scouted a new public piece this morning. Trying to expand my opportunities here in state. This place is steep hill country, all wooded. Even mixture of oaks (white, red, chesnut), pines, beech, poplar, and laurel.

I went in today and hit the best looking bedding points along one long ridge. Probably 6 or 8 points I hit. These are high odds, hard to get to points. Normally in the mountains, I can pick a spot on the map, walk to it and find the bed or a cluster of beds. Here, I found nothing. I found one bed all morning big enough to be a buck and only a handful of doe beds. The bed I did find was not well used. Jumped one deer off a good point, don't know what it was, and no bed.

The sign is there, huge rubs, scrapes, even found a few big tracks in the remaining snow. But I don't know why I couldn't find beds. One consideration is that most of the tips of the points were pine, leaving pine needles underneath. Maybe I just can't spot them in pine needles? I checked some spots that looked like potential beds, but no hair to be found. A second thought is, there are an abundance of good bedding points here. Maybe the bedding is sporadic and they have so many options they don't wear down one bed.

And of course, after a 4 mile walk, I found a big shed 10ft from the road where I parked :lol: Must have dropped in the last day, blood on it is still bright red, hasn't oxidized yet.

Any thoughts?



Whats your predominant winds??


It varies considerably. Typically it's some variation of a W or NW but anything other than straight east is common.


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