Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

This forum section is for the select few who believe in hard work and refuse to “Buy” success.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


Bucks
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:21 pm
Status: Offline

Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

Unread postby Bucks » Wed Jul 07, 2021 2:52 pm

I Hunt Louisiana public land and I would like to know more about how deer cruise during the rut. The specific hill country terrain I’m talking about could be related to that of Georgia and Mississippi. I feel like bucks bed on pine ridges and next to pine plantations and move on ridges and I’ve killed a few bucks coming off and to there beds on ridges. I just would like to hear y’all’s opinions on deer movement in this type of terrain. I also feel like bucks will move through bottoms at night and make scrapes in bottoms because they can easily navigate through them and cover a lot of ground.


HunterBob
500 Club
Posts: 1019
Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:09 pm
Location: Georgia
Status: Offline

Re: Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

Unread postby HunterBob » Thu Jul 08, 2021 9:19 am

In my area of GA, I see more bedding in the pines when the leaves fall off. Bedding is almost always on ridges and they do drop down into the valleys to feed. Obviously during the rut you will see bucks working Ridgelines to scent check.
Bucks
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:21 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

Unread postby Bucks » Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:28 pm

Ok thanks
Tennhunter3
500 Club
Posts: 7864
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2014 12:54 pm
Location: Medon Tn
Status: Offline

Re: Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

Unread postby Tennhunter3 » Thu Jul 08, 2021 3:13 pm

Here in Tn I notice movement lower after bucks get up on the falling thermal. During early season they drop low to get water and smell the acorn feeding area on the hillsides.

Being in Mississippi I would expect alot of pine transition bedding and bedding between field edges and creek bottoms.

Never scouted any of southern miss or Louisiana your very brave to go in those swamps. I worked down in Morgan City for a year and ran into alot of small gators 5-8 foot and snakes. Don't think I would go in those swamps.
Never give up Freedom for imagined safety.
User avatar
Bwhit16
Posts: 63
Joined: Wed Aug 21, 2019 8:20 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitley16
Status: Offline

Re: Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

Unread postby Bwhit16 » Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:29 am

Hill country NC here,

I find that deer move along ridges and generally move through funnels between ridges usually crossing a creek bottom or swamp to change ridges when cruising, feeding, or moving due to wind switch. I see this a lot this time of year due to Hurricanes making the wind switch 180 degrees from prevailing.

Right now I am having luck hunting the funnels between ridges but haven't seen a mature deer using the funnel yet. Maybe I will get up higher in hopes the bigger deer are staying on the ridges.
A5BLASTER
500 Club
Posts: 945
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:12 am
Status: Offline

Re: Southern hill country beds and cruising behavior.

Unread postby A5BLASTER » Thu Sep 23, 2021 2:00 pm

Bucks wrote:I Hunt Louisiana public land and I would like to know more about how deer cruise during the rut. The specific hill country terrain I’m talking about could be related to that of Georgia and Mississippi. I feel like bucks bed on pine ridges and next to pine plantations and move on ridges and I’ve killed a few bucks coming off and to there beds on ridges. I just would like to hear y’all’s opinions on deer movement in this type of terrain. I also feel like bucks will move through bottoms at night and make scrapes in bottoms because they can easily navigate through them and cover a lot of ground.


Being a Louisiana public land hunter myself.

You basically have to break down each wma to figure it out.

2 if the wma's I hunt are mostly pine plantations and the bucks will not bed in the pines at all. Like ever, never. But the terran is a lil less hilly and what hills that are there have a sharp drop off, so not much for them to bed on in the pine edges because the edge hits and drops sharply into the creek.

Then my 3 fav wma's they bed in the pines and cruise the creek and oak flats after dark as you say. But those wma's hav a lot of old growth pines that have only sparse under growth under them, typically it's only the first 20 to 30 yards along the edge that's thick and then after that it's just lil clumps of thick scattered around under the pines. These are my fav's

My advice pick one wma and dedicate a few years to hunting it and learning it.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Public Land Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests