Autum Ninja ???

[dan]

Most of my Hill country hunting has been in the MidWest and has been on two types of terrain. One is really flat land near river systems that are created by draws and run off or erosion. The other hills are mostly created by glaciers during the ice age... Both of these types of hilly terrain have a pretty steady top height where it levels off at the top and ridges have somewhat similar heights. Tops are usually crops... and so are bottoms. Woods are often funneled along the steep ridges that could not be tilled into fields... Once in a while I find a good buck bed on a bench, but most often they are on the points or ridges at a certain elevation...
I know we have some similarity, but I would like to hear what you see as different about the bedding and movement from here in the midwest???

[Spysar]

Where is the Ninja from?, and lets hear how the Autumn Ninja operates.

[cwoods]

I "THINK" he is from Kentucky. The Aps can be tuff to hunt.

[Spysar]

What are the aps?

[Beason]

What are the aps?

Appalachian MTNS

[Spysar]

What are the aps?

Appalachian MTNS

I thought it was something in Kentucky...The "aps" covers 13 or more states and canada....Heck, I guess I live in the Appalachians.

[muddy]

What are the aps?

Something you can download to your phone.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Autumn Ninja]

Thanks Dan!!!

Ive never hunted in the midwest...YET!!! Form what I've read and heard there are a lot of similarity's, but there are a few differences also.

There are no farms where I hunt so the deer feed on brows, native plants, grasses and acorns. The only time the food source is well defined would be a white oak flat in the fall or a honeysuckle thicket in the winter. Deer density is low....they say its at 8 to 10 DPSM but I believe its closer to 10 to 12.

I was born a raised in the mouth of a holler, LOL. My dad turned me on to hunt with topos when I started hunting at the age of 12.



I got a set of topos that covered my whole county for my 13th birthday...Yes!!! I was the happiest kid in the world.



After I got that first set of topos, I set out to learn all I could about how deer use terrain. Nothing I had read in all the books and mag's had anything to do with "MY" deer. I'm not going to set and pretend I figured all this out on my own...my dad showed me all the basics, then I've been fine tuning it for the last 25 years.

You probably didn't want to know my history...lol, but it has everything to do with who I am and how I hunt. Let me get some pics ready and I will add more later!!! I'm not much of a writer, so bare with me, LOL!!!

[Beason]

What are the aps?

Appalachian MTNS

I thought it was something in Kentucky...The "aps" covers 13 or more states and canada....Heck, I guess I live in the Appalachians.

haha!

[Autumn Ninja]

One of the differences are "thermal hubs"....Deerslayer came up with the name. I like it!!

I was explaining how the bucks where I hunt will sometimes bed on the lower points when the wind is right and roll around the hillside into a high crows foot when the thermals start to drop. From that one spot they can scent check a lot of ground, catching the falling thermals from all the surrounding ridges and hollows that dump into the hub.

I've found the beds, rub lines and staging that proves this where I hunt many times. I've witnessed bucks doing this a few times and killed two of them. This is not something that works all the time (there are no absolutes) but when the conditions are right...I know where to go.

I find this useful when looking for beds in a big woods, low deer density setting.....These high crows feet (thermal hubs) almost always have a buck bed connected to them in my neck of the woods.

This is a nice 2 1/2 year old I killed a few years ago with this situp...It shows where the buck was bedding, how I entered, how the buck moved. The key, was the guy who had been hunting this bucks rub line and a big scrape for three weekends straight....The buck would stage at the bottom of the hill and check the whole area out first. Then if the cost was clear, he would ease up the hill to eat some acorns, check his scrape and harass the lady's.

[Southern Man]

Most of my Hill country hunting has been in the MidWest and has been on two types of terrain. One is really flat land near river systems that are created by draws and run off or erosion. The other hills are mostly created by glaciers during the ice age... Both of these types of hilly terrain have a pretty steady top height where it levels off at the top and ridges have somewhat similar heights. Tops are usually crops... and so are bottoms. Woods are often funneled along the steep ridges that could not be tilled into fields... Once in a while I find a good buck bed on a bench, but most often they are on the points or ridges at a certain elevation...
I know we have some similarity, but I would like to hear what you see as different about the bedding and movement from here in the midwest???

Yea I'd like to hear some of that also. I think Ninja's terrain more closely matches LBL than what was shown in the Hill Country video.

Ninja, for those of us a little more dense, can you explain in a little more detail, this wind, crow foot thing?

[Arrowbender]

AN, I set up similarily to what you describe; I think. Only not so much of a hub or crows foot. I like a more definned single drainage that is deep enough to keep the deer out of the ravine or cut. I then set up so when the thermal drops down in the evening it sucks my scent down the deepst part of the draw and the buck hopefully comes around the contour up hill of my stink. I've had it work several times, but I need to get on land that beds bigger deer. (or the more mature bucks are using the hillsides that have crows feet !!!)
I love to hear of other guys systems that obviously have worked. Might not be for every one but we should all be able to get something from it.
Good thread.

[kenn1320]

Wow that's a big 2.5yr old, cant wait to hear more about your technique AN. I like your topo collection, bet most kids now days would not be so happy to get them as a gift. Heck I gave my 8yr old a pair of camo pants and he was more then upset. He said you don't give somebody hunting stuff for their birthday. Then when his sister noticed a video game in the pant leg, he changed his attitude. In all fairness he was really hoping to get that game and I kinda threw him a curve.........

[headgear]

Very interesting Ninja, nice setup.

I had a similar post about thermal mixing zones in swamps that didn't get much play, kind of similar to what you are talking about I think. Maybe you could take a look and let me know what you think. The bucks seem to bed and or stage in these thermal hubs or mixing zones. This also happens to be bigwoods hunting but in the swamps.

http://thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7250

[Autumn Ninja]

Ninja, for those of us a little more dense, can you explain in a little more detail, this wind, crow foot thing?

The buck was bedded at the "A" with a south west wind and catching the thermals rising to him....After the wind dies down and it starts to cool off, the thermals revers and start going back down hill. The blue dot is the center of the hub, the blue arrows show the falling thermals.

Look at "A" and "B"....Both are buck bedding areas that are pretty close to each other, but theres about 50 feet in elevation between them. Both beds would be used on a southwest wind. Only "B" would be used on a northwest wind...though "A" offers a good drop in terrain on the southeast side, the hill to the NW blocks the leeward wind.

The bucks in my area bed based on what the terrain and wind are doing. Elevation doesn't play much of a roll...as long as they can get a leeward wind and a rising thermal.