The "Super Funnel"
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The "Super Funnel"
There are many terrain features that funnel deer activity. Occasionally one stumbles upon the 'super funnel' and this spot can produce year after year. There are a multitude of different factors that can contribute to this success. I would love to see some examples of super funnels that you guys have found and why they are so productive.
- may21581
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
You are absolutely correct. Funnels come in all shapes, sizes, and forms. Some are great for the rut, others may be good for gun hunting, and there are those that are good every day of the week.
Your classic funnels can be found on topo maps or aerials and some boots on the ground scouting will tell you the when and where to hunt them.
In hill country most of the funnels are pretty obvious. With steep sharp bluffs and limited access to other ridges then the passable and climb able spots are a focus point.
Creek crossings on turns and bends are another. Found a spot this year where a beaver family had a creek all backed up. The water was deep in this area. The water area that was backed up was 100-200 yards long was deep enough to deter the deer movement around it. Some boots on the ground confirmed this.
On the farms I seen a simple gate left open that would funnel the deer coming in and out. Old hedgerows and overgrown fence lines are also classics. A small passable spot in one is all it takes.
Your classic funnels can be found on topo maps or aerials and some boots on the ground scouting will tell you the when and where to hunt them.
In hill country most of the funnels are pretty obvious. With steep sharp bluffs and limited access to other ridges then the passable and climb able spots are a focus point.
Creek crossings on turns and bends are another. Found a spot this year where a beaver family had a creek all backed up. The water was deep in this area. The water area that was backed up was 100-200 yards long was deep enough to deter the deer movement around it. Some boots on the ground confirmed this.
On the farms I seen a simple gate left open that would funnel the deer coming in and out. Old hedgerows and overgrown fence lines are also classics. A small passable spot in one is all it takes.
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- Boogieman1
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
In my experience funnels that produce year after year all have a few things in common. Just sitting a funnel for the heck of it without knowing “Why” and “When” more often than not leave a guy a bad taste in his mouth. Funnels come in many shapes and forms per each hunters definition. To get some wheels turning I will tell one that’s prob not discussed in any book. A very well traveled softwood edge I hunt that leads from bed to food. For the majority of the edge deer travel takes place from anywhere from 50 yards inside the edge to 20 yards outside. Seems each buck has his own individual route. Several years ago a couple giant trees fell overlapping each other forming what looks like a big brush pile right on that edge. A coyote den took up residence in it and the deer don’t trust it. They all adjust there path to angle right on the dropping thermal side. Not only does this narrow down traffic but it gives you much more room to cut your wind off of.
The keys for a funnel to produce year after year imo.
1.) a major reason for bucks to use it
2.) nobody hunting b4 or after it
3.)good security cover and a escape out of it
4.)a healthy population of bucks you care to shoot
5.) located in a place a buck feels comfortable moving in daylight
Even with all that there are no guarantees. I hunted a killer funnel this morning that always produces a action packed morning in the right conditions. I didn’t see squat. Sure glad that wasn’t my only option
The keys for a funnel to produce year after year imo.
1.) a major reason for bucks to use it
2.) nobody hunting b4 or after it
3.)good security cover and a escape out of it
4.)a healthy population of bucks you care to shoot
5.) located in a place a buck feels comfortable moving in daylight
Even with all that there are no guarantees. I hunted a killer funnel this morning that always produces a action packed morning in the right conditions. I didn’t see squat. Sure glad that wasn’t my only option
Life is hard; It’s even harder if you are stupid.
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- PK_
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
Double funnels and overlapping funnels have been good to me.
Basically if they squeeze movement for all directions, that’s a double funnel. For the sake of simplicity, Imagine a wall running North-South with a gap in it. That’s a funnel. Now add a wall running East-West with a gap in the same spot, now you have a double funnel.
Overlapping funnel is when several factors funnel to the same area. Usually these funnels are visible on both topo and aerial photos. Like say a line of brush that runs thru a saddle...
Now add a couple deep ditches on each side of the saddle and you now have an overlapping double funnel.
No matter how great the spot is for funneling movement it has to be located in the right area for it to matter...
Location location location.
I have a spot just like Boogie explained except the trees fell and only left a gap by a river.
Basically if they squeeze movement for all directions, that’s a double funnel. For the sake of simplicity, Imagine a wall running North-South with a gap in it. That’s a funnel. Now add a wall running East-West with a gap in the same spot, now you have a double funnel.
Overlapping funnel is when several factors funnel to the same area. Usually these funnels are visible on both topo and aerial photos. Like say a line of brush that runs thru a saddle...
Now add a couple deep ditches on each side of the saddle and you now have an overlapping double funnel.
No matter how great the spot is for funneling movement it has to be located in the right area for it to matter...
Location location location.
I have a spot just like Boogie explained except the trees fell and only left a gap by a river.
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
Boogieman1 wrote:Just sitting a funnel for the heck of it without knowing “Why” and “When” more often than not leave a guy a bad taste in his mouth.
I definitely agree with that, been there done that. Seems like many hunters look at a map and see a obvious funnel in some type of hardwoods, which are super easy to see on an ariel, and think thats a good spot. But my guess is that if its not in relation to bedding its useless. Sure maybe during the rut if bucks are on their feet cruising a lot you might get lucky but good luck with that on pressured land.
- DaveT1963
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
PK_ wrote:Double funnels and overlapping funnels have been good to me.
Basically if they squeeze movement for all directions, that’s a double funnel. For the sake of simplicity, Imagine a wall running North-South with a gap in it. That’s a funnel. Now add a wall running East-West with a gap in the same spot, now you have a double funnel.
Overlapping funnel is when several factors funnel to the same area. Usually these funnels are visible on both topo and aerial photos. Like say a line of brush that runs thru a saddle...
Now add a couple deep ditches on each side of the saddle and you now have an overlapping double funnel.
No matter how great the spot is for funneling movement it has to be located in the right area for it to matter...
Location location location.
I have a spot just like Boogie explained except the trees fell and only left a gap by a river.
X2. An inside corner and a ridge or river can make for some great double funnel action. Oxbows and a fence line can do same thing.
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- headgear
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
I've been looking for a bigwoods version of this but I have yet to find one that lasts forever, more times that not I find great funnels that heat up for several seasons and then slowly cool off. A lot of it has to do with logging and what the does area doing. As already mentioned the more good stuff you can find on either side of that funnel the better it will be. Sometimes those areas can be food, bedding and a funnel all in one. Sometimes you have multiple bedding areas on each side of the funnel and you just know eventually a buck will come through. I do have funnels that work every year but they are hard to impossible to time, I seem to have better luck with funnels that run hot and cool and you pound them while they are hot and then look for the next one.
- funderburk
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
Excited to see how this thread develops. Definitely following!
This year I killed a nice mature buck in a super funnel during the last week of September. Don’t want to describe it in too much detail as it’s on public, but I will say that finding a funnel that has multiple layers, or reasons to actually funnel deer, will not only up your odds but up your confidence, as well.
This funnel was a super funnel because it literally shrunk down a 400 acre parcel into incredibly close quarters. Because of this, I was able to shoot my buck while I was bent over at the waist, right through the middle of his shoulder blades. He was funneled into a 40 yard long strip of passable timber that was only 20 yards wide.
This super funnel had a “hard” impassable barrier to the west and a “soft” impassable barrier to the east. That’s a two layer funnel. Open timber was to the north and to the south with two edges from each pouring directly into the funnel. That’s four more layers. Now we have a six layer funnel. With an east wind, he was bedded on a certain edge of the north parcel (another layer) and was shot on his way to a destination source located in the southern parcel (a final layer). Any other wind would’ve made this funnel pointless, at least during daylight hours.
IMO, that’s a super funnel, because it is a multi-layered funnel comprised of eight layers. In other words, that buck had eight reasons to be using that funnel. I didn’t just have two or three things going for me - I had eight. My final point is this. What makes or break this funnel, with an exception to the rut, is the wind-based bedding that forced him to use that funnel. When I got an east wind (which is rare here), I moved in for the kill.
Multi-layered funnels. Absolute dynamite.
This year I killed a nice mature buck in a super funnel during the last week of September. Don’t want to describe it in too much detail as it’s on public, but I will say that finding a funnel that has multiple layers, or reasons to actually funnel deer, will not only up your odds but up your confidence, as well.
This funnel was a super funnel because it literally shrunk down a 400 acre parcel into incredibly close quarters. Because of this, I was able to shoot my buck while I was bent over at the waist, right through the middle of his shoulder blades. He was funneled into a 40 yard long strip of passable timber that was only 20 yards wide.
This super funnel had a “hard” impassable barrier to the west and a “soft” impassable barrier to the east. That’s a two layer funnel. Open timber was to the north and to the south with two edges from each pouring directly into the funnel. That’s four more layers. Now we have a six layer funnel. With an east wind, he was bedded on a certain edge of the north parcel (another layer) and was shot on his way to a destination source located in the southern parcel (a final layer). Any other wind would’ve made this funnel pointless, at least during daylight hours.
IMO, that’s a super funnel, because it is a multi-layered funnel comprised of eight layers. In other words, that buck had eight reasons to be using that funnel. I didn’t just have two or three things going for me - I had eight. My final point is this. What makes or break this funnel, with an exception to the rut, is the wind-based bedding that forced him to use that funnel. When I got an east wind (which is rare here), I moved in for the kill.
Multi-layered funnels. Absolute dynamite.
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- Drenalin
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
One of the earliest pieces of hunting advice I got was from an uncle who told me to find a good saddle, sit down behind a bush with the wind in my face, and shoot whatever walks through. It isn't as simple as he made it sound, but he consistently killed bucks using this general method. One place in particular we used to travel to and hunt around Thanksgiving, I remember him killing good bucks out the same spot two mornings in a row. I went to check out his honey hole, and it was a deep cut through a very long, steep, and relatively straight ridge. He was catching these bucks traveling from a neighboring farm (corn) on one side of the ridge to what I can only assume was bedding and security cover on the other side of the ridge. There was a pile of cigarette butts where he had sat those two mornings. I've never found another funnel quite like it, and he certainly used the heck out of it for multiple seasons till we stopped doing that hunt.
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
Drenalin wrote:One of the earliest pieces of hunting advice I got was from an uncle who told me to find a good saddle, sit down behind a bush with the wind in my face, and shoot whatever walks through. It isn't as simple as he made it sound, but he consistently killed bucks using this general method. One place in particular we used to travel to and hunt around Thanksgiving, I remember him killing good bucks out the same spot two mornings in a row. I went to check out his honey hole, and it was a deep cut through a very long, steep, and relatively straight ridge. He was catching these bucks traveling from a neighboring farm (corn) on one side of the ridge to what I can only assume was bedding and security cover on the other side of the ridge. There was a pile of cigarette butts where he had sat those two mornings. I've never found another funnel quite like it, and he certainly used the heck out of it for multiple seasons till we stopped doing that hunt.
Those cigarette butts made me laugh! I’ve got a couple trees I’ve pounded during the rut for several years that are probably shin deep around the trunk in pistachio shells I always imagine a small game hunter walking by and saying good lord what the heck happened here...
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
I have one that is a deep wooded ditch that runs out into an ag field. This creates two inside corners. This ditch meets with a creek forming a T. There is really thick brush along the creek about 100 yards wide. There is a steep embankment to the road behind me. The road also has a culvert that has created a ditch that is only crossable near the creek. I kind of screwed this spot up scouting it before I figured out how to set up on it. Ended up the perfect tree is a willow 35 yards from road only like 8 in diameter and 3 sticks high lol. Next year should produce. Found buck bedding to my left of ditch and doe bedding to the right.
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
I think every "super funnel" that I have ever picked out of a topo map usually has a permanent illegal stand hanging by it. I think real super funnels on public in Wisconsin cant be found on a topo, but can only be found by boots on the ground,
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
I’ve always been In flat land and almost always had water based funnel hunts. Best I had was an oak island maybe 200 acre total. It narrowed in one area significantly. A canal was dug into this area too so it tightened things down to maybe 100 yds. It was overlooked because nobody wanted to hunt right next to where people were docking boats.
One side of it had zero pressure. Going the other way the stands and bait piles started probably 300 yds away. Those guys never got any mature buck action till after dark on cams. I think in 5 yrs I shot 3 bucks, missed one and passed one that size wise I typically would shoot. I’d imagine it’s still a hotspot although the levels of the Great Lakes may have overtaken a lot of the quality bedding that those deer were coming out of.
I’ll bet the rising levels of the Great Lakes have made some new funnels for a lot of hunters. It’s crazy how high the lakes and connecting waterways are compared to 5 yrs ago.
One side of it had zero pressure. Going the other way the stands and bait piles started probably 300 yds away. Those guys never got any mature buck action till after dark on cams. I think in 5 yrs I shot 3 bucks, missed one and passed one that size wise I typically would shoot. I’d imagine it’s still a hotspot although the levels of the Great Lakes may have overtaken a lot of the quality bedding that those deer were coming out of.
I’ll bet the rising levels of the Great Lakes have made some new funnels for a lot of hunters. It’s crazy how high the lakes and connecting waterways are compared to 5 yrs ago.
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
headgear wrote:I've been looking for a bigwoods version of this but I have yet to find one that lasts forever, more times that not I find great funnels that heat up for several seasons and then slowly cool off. A lot of it has to do with logging and what the does area doing. As already mentioned the more good stuff you can find on either side of that funnel the better it will be. Sometimes those areas can be food, bedding and a funnel all in one. Sometimes you have multiple bedding areas on each side of the funnel and you just know eventually a buck will come through. I do have funnels that work every year but they are hard to impossible to time, I seem to have better luck with funnels that run hot and cool and you pound them while they are hot and then look for the next one.
I have also found spots like these and questioned why they would have cooled off. I can't help but feel like it was my own pressure that contributed to this...
“The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.”
Proverbs 12:27 NIV
Proverbs 12:27 NIV
- NorthStar
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Re: The "Super Funnel"
I actually have a spot that I am getting the right wind for this weekend, as long as the forecast holds up! Not sure if its a super funnel or not but I plan to confirm this. The pond to the north is frozen so I plan to walk across it to get to that narrow land strip, as the parking lot is directly north of that pond and everything west of the pond is private. I am not sure if deer are hitting that ag field to the west or not but this is one of the few public spots I have actually pre season scouted and found beds on. My thought is that this is maybe more of a rut spot but I can never get to it with open water. I guess I "need" to buy a kayak?!?
Has anyone else had experience in a spot like this??
Has anyone else had experience in a spot like this??
“The lazy do not roast any game, but the diligent feed on the riches of the hunt.”
Proverbs 12:27 NIV
Proverbs 12:27 NIV
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