Hill Country

Discuss the science of figuring out our prey through good detective work.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


BHC
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:22 am
Status: Offline

Hill Country

Unread postby BHC » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:57 am

Hello, I'm new to the site. I have learned a lot from this site, and just finished dans hill country DVD. I have a area that in have multiple big bucks on camera in year around. I have not been able to get close to any of them. I utilize trail cameras heavily in my scouting. Hoping finding some beds will get me an opportunity. I scouted one point and found 3 beds perfectly placed on the military crest.
Here is a photo marked is where I have gotten pics of these bucks:
Image

Here is a topo of the NW hollow they run. The red like is sorta the "boundary" they don't cross. Dots are beds I found sourounded by rubs and a couple scrapes. Green are yr round food plots. Bottoms are hardwoods and on tops are planted pines, so there's a break line at the top of the hills.
Image
Image

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image


BHC
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:22 am
Status: Offline

Re: Hill Country

Unread postby BHC » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:00 am

The one bed was more on top. My cousin killed a big buck in the bottom field just below the beds I found that came off the opposite point(circled), a few yrs ago.

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image
BHC
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:22 am
Status: Offline

Re: Hill Country

Unread postby BHC » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:15 am

Sorry I forgot to ask my question ha. Where/ how would you hunt this? Where would you try to be sure and scout?

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Hill Country

Unread postby dan » Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:05 am

I would scout the entire thermal tunnel area (military crest) around each ridge and mark all the beds... I think the two food plots you have down low will cause you a lot of grief. Bucks will bed on the points and drop to feed in the plots. and that will cause several issues. The bucks bed on the points above the plots cause with the thermals rising they can smell hunters in the plot or woods around the plot as the thermals and the wind vacuum brings your scent up the hillsides. Also, your going to get severe wind swirling down there, and good luck getting between bucks bedded on a point right above the plot...

I would suggest putting plots up on top of ridges where bucks have to travel from the point to the plot and go thru areas where they can be killed.

I did not look real close at the aerial so it might be to timbered to put plots in the spots I marked, but I wanted to give you an idea of the kind of spots I pick... I liked the plot you marked that I put the purple dot in... I marked good plot spots in pink. Notice they are right on top near the main trail so you can put cameras on them and have easy access, but, you can also get between the plots and the bedding where the bigger more mature bucks move more in daylight with a more predictable wind. I marked the bedding areas in red dots.

Image
BHC
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:22 am
Status: Offline

Re: Hill Country

Unread postby BHC » Sat Mar 21, 2015 6:12 pm

Yes dan, unfortunately I have no say in where the plots go. I am part of a timber company lease. It is managed for 3.5+ yr old deer. However it is managed to hold more deer and grow them old. Not necessarily managed to easily kill them. For instance those two plots are very close together. Yea provides more food, but I never could stand to sit on them because i just wonder what is on the other one. Anyhow this is just a portion of the the lease 3300 acres. So I have plenty of other areas I can hunt. This area just does not produce as much and is far from our camp, which means no one hardly hunts it. That topo may encompass -500 acres, and it probably sees a total of less than 10 sits .
That bottom is impossible to access with out getting busted. I would bet anyone they cannot access it before daylight without getting blown at. Now midday you can, but I'm starting to believe your still bumping them they just aren't blowin cuz they can tell what you are from farther away in the light. Most of our plots are on the tops of ridges.
Also for whatever reason that whole area with the plots in the bottom, it has zero mature bucks using it prior to October. September they are all on the southerly plot areas. We have a plot on the one you marked pink very bottom left corner. It is a good kill plot. I've put my granddad on his two best bucks there. However early season they don't get to it during daylight.
My goal is to walk the thermal tunnels of all these ridges before the end of turkey season. I'm beginning to see a trend, most of our stands are in the bottoms and if they are on a ridge, they are on a point. Were blowing deer before we ever even get there. A couple places I have repeatedly been successful and I'm starting to see why. Whereas some other places, I've hunted some huge bucks for multiple yrs and never got a glimpse.

Thanks for your help dan! I've become pretty successful in the last few yrs and just when I thought I had it all figured out you enlightened me to a whole new thought process. Made some of my problems and successes make more sense and seem less happen stance.

As for the points above the plot. Do you think there is any chance of beating him there before daylight?

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Hill Country

Unread postby dan » Sat Mar 21, 2015 8:50 pm

As for the points above the plot. Do you think there is any chance of beating him there before daylight?

Yes... But its not as easy as it appears. They generally scent check hill point beds going in by coming in along the bottom of the ridge and then J-hooking up. If your over the top of the bed most of the time they wind you. The secret is knowing which direction the hook in from and setting up where they start to hook up.

I would try a morning after a storm kept them bedded late the evening before, or a moon phase, or rut.

Another way to kill that deer would be to go in there now and pre-set a stand in a spot right below him and then when its time to hunt the stand sit back until the sun is close to setting and a shadow casts on the hillside. That will cause the evening thermal reverse (drop) and you only get about a 1/2 hour to an hour of legal hunting, but it catches the buck who was up there smelling the valley by complete surprise if you can do it quietly and stay out of sight.
User avatar
PUBLICbowhunter
Posts: 194
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:24 am
Location: La Crosse WI
Status: Offline

Re: Hill Country

Unread postby PUBLICbowhunter » Mon Mar 23, 2015 7:50 am

great info here


  • Advertisement

Return to “Scouting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 40 guests