Difficult Terrain

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
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thepennsylvanian
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Difficult Terrain

Unread postby thepennsylvanian » Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:14 am

After watching hill country bucks about 100 times, and putting days and miles on the old ticker, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not necessarily in "hill" country. Don't get me wrong, south western Pa is not flat, nor do we "mountains". Our topography is proving more difficult to figure out than one would think. Our bottoms are around 650-700 asl and our hilltops are 1200-1400 asl. We have almost no substantial flat ground, and our hills are formed mostly by drainage to the major rivers. This type of terrain creates a real sporadic wind pattern, while yes there is always a "leeward" side, its never very consistent, at least for very long. This past season, on three different occasions (I actually remembered to document it), we had a "south/southwest" wind. I had planned to hunt a particular spot, and make entry to the 1/3 of of hillside. On the way the wind checked close to the predicted southwest heading, yet as i approached the hill side the wind was coming coming out of the north steadily. Since water acts similar to water. it was flowing around the hill, thus eliminating a "leeward" side.
Keeping that in mind, I am struggling to find wind based bedding, all of the bedding i find feels very sporadic. So i focused on other aspects of bedding, looking for cover, edges, and low pressure impact areas. This is where I am have found doe bedding (at least i am assuming they are doe beds). I want to locate buck bedding, but with the wind aspect, i am struggling to pinpoint locations that hold the potential...
What are the conditions that you guys are seeking in "hill" country specifically? Most of the points that i have checked, i couldn't find any bedding evidence.


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backstraps
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Re: Difficult Terrain

Unread postby backstraps » Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:26 am

It sounds like you’re in hill country. However all hill country isnt created equal

Hill country that has steeper edges are easier for me to locate consistent buck bedding points

Slow gradual hillsides are tougher for me. I think bedding changes so often on gradual slopes making pinpointing really hard.

Now for the wind flowing like water and you wind changing ... yes absolutely true and that happens a lot in hill country. These are areas where good note keeping on how the wind reacts during certain prevailing winds is a must!! Leaves in the tree vs bare naked trees will also effect wind patterns too.

If its an area you hunt often or plan to hunt often, then research scouting is crucial
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thepennsylvanian
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Re: Difficult Terrain

Unread postby thepennsylvanian » Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:39 am

backstraps wrote:It sounds like you’re in hill country. However all hill country isnt created equal

Hill country that has steeper edges are easier for me to locate consistent buck bedding points

Slow gradual hillsides are tougher for me. I think bedding changes so often on gradual slopes making pinpointing really hard.

Now for the wind flowing like water and you wind changing ... yes absolutely true and that happens a lot in hill country. These are areas where good note keeping on how the wind reacts during certain prevailing winds is a must!! Leaves in the tree vs bare naked trees will also effect wind patterns too.

If its an area you hunt often or plan to hunt often, then research scouting is crucial

the overwhelming majority of the hills are gradual, though there are a few places that i hunt in WV that do have somewhat steeper hillsides. However, they are usually longwall mined, so that changes the game big time.
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Re: Difficult Terrain

Unread postby SEMObowhunter » Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:44 am

The area I live in is the same. I have not found many defined beds, more bedding areas. The point has to be thick before I consider it but I have also noticed them bedding in the heads of draws where the wind swirls from all directions. I think they bed sporadic and the only times I have found them consistently in one location is real early season or late in extreme temps with a known food source. Past that it’s just here and there.
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brancher147
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Re: Difficult Terrain

Unread postby brancher147 » Sat Jul 20, 2019 3:55 am

I see a lot of wind based bedding, but very little of it is textbook example of hill country leeward bedding. Some of it is windward bedding. Deer bed sporadically in the mountains also, but you should be finding some worn down good buck beds no matter what, or you are not looking in the right places, or you are overlooking them. If it is very rocky or hard ground you may not find a picture perfect worn down bed, it may be harder to see. I find it odd that you are not finding bedding on points, maybe you need to look for the less subtle more overlooked points. My advice is forget about leeward for a while and concentrate on upper 1/3 points and the military crest with cover to back looking into more open woods. As SEMO said, also check the head of draws where wind swirls. Then once you find the beds monitor the wind in those spots through trial and error and you should realize they are wind based bedding, it's just not as simple as leeward hill bedding.
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Re: Difficult Terrain

Unread postby Josh_S » Wed Jul 24, 2019 4:25 am

Two main ingredients I look for in PA hill country:

1. Military Crest where there is a sudden change to a steeper elevation. This does not necessarily have to be on the top 1/3. Try relying more on topo lines rather than the actual depth of the hill. On your topo map get just uphill of where the topo lines are very close together. If you are in the right area you can feel a strong thermal pull up the hill on a sunny day. This can be tricky on our state game lands layered with benches from reclaimed strip mines, it can seem like an entire hillside is one big military crest.

2. Some sort of edge that is thick above for cover, open below for vision. I like to find where the edge of a clear cut or grapevine thicket at a higher elevation meets open hardwoods at lower elevation. A lot of times you can see the more obvious edges like clear cuts with a good aerial image. The "edge" can even be something as small as a fallen tree or a small cluster of grapevines creating cover in an area that is more open.


Look for a combination of these 2 ingredients.


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