Strategy Specific to Field Top Hill Country

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pewpewpew
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Strategy Specific to Field Top Hill Country

Unread postby pewpewpew » Mon Mar 06, 2017 2:02 pm

To you guys hunting field top hill country, do your strategies differ from big woods hill country?

I'm finding that field top hill country is unique in a few ways, and I haven't seen it discussed much on the beast. By nature of field top terrain, the flattest terrain is (or was) farmed, whether it's for crops or livestock. I guess the easiest way to describe it is the fields extend pretty darn close to the military crest. In my case, the distance between the field edge and the military crest is sometimes only 20-60 yards. There is no hunting ridge lines, hubs and saddles (some hunters favorite terrain features) because they are obviously included in the field of field top hill country. The best I can tell, this leaves you hunting wooded draws, field edges, wooded points between the field edge and the steep drop off, or the very steep woods between the military crest and the bottom.

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dan
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Re: Strategy Specific to Field Top Hill Country

Unread postby dan » Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:30 pm

Pretty tough to hunt that terrain as you described. Most of the hill country Ive hunted the fields don't extend that close to the bedding. In the cases where it does I am often hunting the far side of the hill as an observation and hoping he gets that far. If he don't at least getting a pattern or a flaw in his routine to move in on. Another tactic would be to slide in, in-between the bedding and get them paralleling the field edges. One tactic that immeadiatly comes to mind is that big bucks generally enter an open field from its lowest point most likely due to dropping thermals funneling all the scent from all around the field to the lowest point. Beds are not generally at the low points (usually draws) but rather off the higher points, so you get travel and staging to the lower point of the field you can cut off.
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Re: Strategy Specific to Field Top Hill Country

Unread postby pewpewpew » Tue Mar 07, 2017 4:44 am

dan wrote:Pretty tough to hunt that terrain as you described. Most of the hill country Ive hunted the fields don't extend that close to the bedding. In the cases where it does I am often hunting the far side of the hill as an observation and hoping he gets that far. If he don't at least getting a pattern or a flaw in his routine to move in on. Another tactic would be to slide in, in-between the bedding and get them paralleling the field edges. One tactic that immeadiatly comes to mind is that big bucks generally enter an open field from its lowest point most likely due to dropping thermals funneling all the scent from all around the field to the lowest point. Beds are not generally at the low points (usually draws) but rather off the higher points, so you get travel and staging to the lower point of the field you can cut off.


What do you mean by "hunting the far side of the hill as an observation"? Do you mean hunting the next point over? There are certainly trails that parallel the fields, usually about 15 yards off the edge of the field. I had not thought about hunting the lowest point in a field. Makes sense.
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Re: Strategy Specific to Field Top Hill Country

Unread postby dan » Tue Mar 07, 2017 5:35 am

pewpewpew wrote:
dan wrote:Pretty tough to hunt that terrain as you described. Most of the hill country Ive hunted the fields don't extend that close to the bedding. In the cases where it does I am often hunting the far side of the hill as an observation and hoping he gets that far. If he don't at least getting a pattern or a flaw in his routine to move in on. Another tactic would be to slide in, in-between the bedding and get them paralleling the field edges. One tactic that immeadiatly comes to mind is that big bucks generally enter an open field from its lowest point most likely due to dropping thermals funneling all the scent from all around the field to the lowest point. Beds are not generally at the low points (usually draws) but rather off the higher points, so you get travel and staging to the lower point of the field you can cut off.


What do you mean by "hunting the far side of the hill as an observation"? Do you mean hunting the next point over? There are certainly trails that parallel the fields, usually about 15 yards off the edge of the field. I had not thought about hunting the lowest point in a field. Makes sense.

Replace the word "hill" with field... I meant far side of the field.


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