RidgeGhost wrote:tbunao wrote:RidgeGhost wrote:Good work man. I think those hubs are really a powerful tool if you can figure out how to get into them. And it looks like you have that one nailed down.
I’ve been working on one for the past 2 seasons and still can’t figure out how to hunt it properly. This one everything just works.
Any tips?
I'm just learning all this stuff too man, so I'm hesitant to say that I know anything about them. But, I feel pretty good about one that I spent some time in this winter. Basically what I found was:
- There are about 7 or 8 points that drop into the hub, some prominent, some less noticeable
- The only places I found beds were on points that had a military crest. Gently sloping points had nothing.
- Of the points with military crests, the best beds were on the thickest of those. A point with a military crest probably will have a bed, but the best were only on the thick points.
- Most of the beds are unhuntable for access reasons. Which is why they are there. Of the beds I found, I can only hunt one in the evening. I may be able to pull off a morning sit lower into the hub, but it will be a huge risk. The morning hunt will be a last resort type hunt.
- As usual, I'm going against the grain as far as setting up on the evening hunt. I expect him to move from the point back up the ridge, not down into the hub. I think he loops into the hub in the morning before climbing the ridge up to his bed from downwind. In other words, this hub is not a destination, but rather a central area where he feels safe and can gather intel on other deer in the area on his way back to bed in the am.
I have no idea if any of that applies to all hubs. But I do intend to look for the same concepts on some of the other hubs on my list(won't get to them until next off season now). Something else I'll mention - What I thought were going to be the best points while map scouting turned out not to be. The military crest and thick cover trumped all other factors. That may seem obvious, but looking on the map, most would probably not pick out the spots where I found beds. It surprised me, but it also makes sense.
Bedding between the hill country(where I'm talking about finding this hub) and the mountain terrain that I'm used to hunting are quite different from what I've found so far. Hill country provides many more options and less defined bedding.
I have a feeling that wall of brush in your video is going to be killer
You nailed it on your observations!
1. The more points dropping into a hub, the better. 7-8 points sounds like a killer hub.
2. Military crests are so important. I won’t even scout a point if I see gentle sloping topo lines.
3. Cover is key. You can have identical points in topography, but you’re wasting time if one doesn’t have cover.
Some of these thermal hubs setup differently from my observations too. Some are evening spots because deer want to head to preferred food acrosss the draw. All of these points in one area allow more deer to have better bedding positions as a herd. I think this is one reason why you see a higher concentration of rubs.
Some of them do setup better for morning hunts. Either way, I always hunt just below the bottom two ridges that create the bottom of the hub. It seems to be a perfect crossing point from one ridge to the other. Your thermals should still pull your scent into the creek/creek bed and further down the valley/draw as long as you’re at a lower elevation than the crossing.
I’ve just started branching out from hill country to more rugged terrain. The bedding and trails appear more defined. There seems to be a trade off though. Deer density appears lower in rugged terrain, but patterns are easier. Deer density is higher in hill country, but patterns are less defined.