Scouting round hills

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tgreeno
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Scouting round hills

Unread postby tgreeno » Mon Jun 11, 2018 11:21 am

A have a few hills that I'm interested in scouting, and they are basically round. 100-150 feet high. With no points or irregularities at all. Just pretty much a round symmetrical hill. I'm just going to scout the 1/3 elevation around them and see what I see.

I didn't know if anyone had any experience with these type of hills.


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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby <DK> » Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:43 am

I do not have much exp w round hills. If I had to though... I would concentrate most on letting the sign lead the way and back cover. There should also be spots w a slight elevation change or a hump or a bench. It may also require more than just scouting the 1/3. Id also seek out the thickest areas so if its possible to view the area with a winter arial, it would sure help the situation. If its a very large area, high priorty area and holds excellent deer then another option is finding someone that can give you 1ft contour lines to find those subtle elevation changes.
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby <DK> » Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:45 am

Another option could be starting from the outside and working in. So starting in the bottoms around the hills, finding tracks or sign and trying to follow it upward.
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby tgreeno » Sat Jun 16, 2018 4:13 am

There's a very nice bedding area right at the base of it, on one side. It definitely looks like there is a mature buck bedding in. But I have always looked at the hill and said, "I need to take a walk up there". I wanted to hit it before green-up, because it looks pretty open, but ran out of time.
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby rfickes87 » Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:53 am

Look at satellite views also. If you don't have that good crest for bedding like with steep hills then be sure to look at satellite views for clear cuts or some sort of thick. That could decide your bedding in those rolling hills.
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby thepennsylvanian » Wed Jun 20, 2018 1:48 am

This is a perfect example of a situation that would make my head hurt. So, it's a round hill, it will still have a leeward/windward scope and the deer that are on that hill are there for a reason, i.e. Food or cover, but they're there for security as well so when youre scouting are you only going to scout areas that you feel you can setup on? I think I may ask this to the group, but setup has to influence scouting I would assume?
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby dan » Wed Jun 20, 2018 4:46 am

Expect beds on rounder hills to be lower in elevation, and to be more scattered and harder to see do to moving bed locations a lot around the slope to chase the thermal tunnel.
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tgreeno
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby tgreeno » Thu Jun 21, 2018 10:12 am

dan wrote:Expect beds on rounder hills to be lower in elevation, and to be more scattered and harder to see do to moving bed locations a lot around the slope to chase the thermal tunnel.


This is what I was afraid of. Not really as consistent as the swampier stuff at the base of it.
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Re: Scouting round hills

Unread postby ODH » Thu Jun 21, 2018 12:50 pm

I hunt some round hills. I see the same - beds are scattered and hard to predict - but I find direction of travel once they stand to be much more predictable. So I don't have to pinpoint the exact bed on a given day as long as I have the direction of travel right I find I'm in the game more often than not. There is usually a convergence of trails I can find off the hill and also out from the thicker stuff at the base which is productive. Still has to be really close though, if that point is too far away then I know I have to just pick a spot closer, then try another then another til I get it right or blow it up.


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