Saturday, August 12, 2006
Sizing Up Deer Land With A Glance
Deer land has a very special look to it. Most hunters can spot it at a glance, size up its potential, and not be very far off the mark.
A buddy of mine and his wife used to travel all over North America by car, and would be zipping down the highway on whining tires, and look at the land out the window. They could spot the funnels, saddles, field corners, transition woods, and other spots where whitetails travel.
A hunter must be able to take a look at an area, and quickly size up where deer should travel. There is a knack to it, and it requires some years of intense study to do it accurately.
Hunters who are heading into large tracts of unfamiliar territory would be well served with a variety of different tools. Aerial photographs are wonderful because they show different terrain features that often are not visible from ground level.
Topological maps that show elevation changes, fields, swamps and wooded areas are wonderful. Combine these two tools with plenty of boot leather, and it’s not that difficult to find a hunting hotspot providing you have a compass and know how to use it.
There is a genuine need for hunters to learn where other land features are located because deer often relate to them in a number of different ways.
Here is a short course on some landmarks, what they mean, and how deer utilize them.
*Creek bottoms - Creek and river bottoms are often thick with brush, and deer often follow them. If the creek or river is bordered by tall marsh grass, it’s easy to find where move through the grass to cross the water. Locate a stand site nearby and downwind.
*Crop lands - Deer often have several routes into or out of a feeding field. Watch from a long distance, and pinpoint the morning and evening trails they use. Set up at the field edge if you value great visibility, but set up back in the woods if you want an earlier shot at a good buck.
*Drainage ditches - Draining ditches are common in flatland farm country. Look for places where deer move from a swamp or tag alder thicket, into a nearby ditch, and travel down the ditch rather than across an open field. When it comes time to hunt, set up around a bend in the ditch, and downwind of the deer and don’t move. Often the deer can be heard coming, and a draw can be made.
*Field corners - There is something about field corners that deer love. If there are four field corners, perhaps only one will see continuous use. Deer move through such areas, back in the heavier cover, and study the fields before moving out. It’s up to you to find the best spot in the best corner.
*Funnels - A funnel is where fairly heavy cover necks down from a bedding area, and it funnels deer through it to another patch of heavy cover. Look for narrow fingers of woods that connect one or more area, and many funnels will parallel a fence line although a fence isn’t required to be a funnel.
*Marshes - Marshes are low-lying areas, and often are surrounded by marsh grass and they may contain water. Size up any marsh, and the odds are great a hunter will find a trail leading into and out of it. Often, they are small and the only place for a stand is some distance away. Marshes often hold good numbers of deer.
*Ridges - Every hunter knows what a wooded ridge looks like, and over the years I’ve learned that many deer travel just below the crest of a ridge. It keeps them from being sky-lighted.
*Saddles - A saddle is a flat spot along a ridge, and such flats often provide good numbers of oaks in some areas. Other times, especially in northern areas, the saddle may hold pine trees. Christmas tree plantations often are placed in such locations. Game trails always pass through the edges of a saddle, and locating these from the air is the best bet.
*Swamps - Most swamps in this state are ringed by cedar trees and/or tag alder thickets. Some of the best cedar swamps to hunt are those with water and the occasional dry marsh hummock. A deer will wade through a swamp, and will stand for hours in the water, if it feels necessary to avoid detection. Find a slightly high spot deep in a swamp or a muskrat house or dry hummock where deer can bed down, determine their approach to it, and get set up. Often these animals will be very close when the shot is taken.
*Tag alder runs - There are other types of terrain features that deer prefer, and we will touch on them in the future. Tag alder runs can be dry, damp or wet, but the twisted trees provide excellent deer cover. A big buck with heavy antlers can navigate a tag alder run with ease while you and I have difficult getting through. Learn where bucks exit these runs, and wait for them there.—The Whitetail Wizard