Hunting Bowls

[HunterBob]

Since I haven't been on this site for a super long time, I would love to see if there is any specific information about hunting bowls. Please feel free to refer me to previous threads if you know them. Here are my specific questions:

1. What do you define as a bowl?
2. How might does use this for bedding?
3. How might bucks use this for bedding?
4. What does wind do as it runs through the bowl?

Thanks in advance!

[mauser06]

What kind of terrain is this "bowl" in??

A marsh? Or a bowl in hill country?

[HunterBob]

What kind of terrain is this "bowl" in??

A marsh? Or a bowl in hill country?

Hill country, specifically close to a larger river where the bluff on 3 sides make a bowl (river bottom on the 4th side)

[mauser06]

Can you post a topo without blowing your area? Might be helpful to get some good guidance.

[CHALK_1]

In hill country I’ve seen bucks bed on the outer edges/upper corners of the bowl where it can become a point, with the typical wind blowing down the point. Or if there’s a bench above the bowl, just inside the edge with thick to the back. I’ve seen this in the Catskill mountains of NY on more than one occasion, you’d have to step on them to move them. The bowls were void of any cover though, just open hardwoods. The cover was above the bowl either on benches or points.

[Barker]

I agree bucks like to bed on the outer edges of the bowl with wind blowing down the points. I am trying to figure out how to hunt this exact terrain feature I stumbled across this spring.

For example, in a "U" shaped bowl with the wind blowing over the top of the Apex of the "U", bucks are bedding on the outer points consistently, confirmed by trail cams. the concentration of sign is on the 1/3 elevation (a bench in my case) at the apex of the U where the trails from the points overlap.

The problem is the wind coming over the top and the rising thermals swirl so bad making it almost impossible to get in to hunt. It might be possible to slip in during the last half hour when the thermals drop giving you a consistent wind. Dropping milkweed in this area I found it gets sucked up into the closest drainage areas in this bowl. Think of water leaking out of a crack in an actual bowl, it all gets pulled towards one spot.

I plan on giving mine a sit in the next few weeks when I get a just off wind for the points and setting up just before the curve in the "U" to play the thermals and the off wind.

Curious to see others opinions on this topic. Good post!

[HunterBob]

Thanks guys, I will try to see if I can attach a picture of the bowl I am talking about.

[HunterBob]

I know this may be a stupid question, but how do you attach a picture? I don't use social media, so I don't have a place to upload and link to here.