Favorite Hill Country Tactics
Whitetail Deer
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos from people hunting predicted travel routes into assumed Buck beds in the morning or out of those beds in the evenings using thermals to their advantage.
Just wondering if anyone here does anything like that?
Would also love to hear everyone’s favorite tactic and setup, specifically in hill country.
How much emphasis do you place on scrapes? Setup to shoot them or just use them as general knowledge? Probably depends on the location of the scrape I would assume? Do you use mock scrapes at all?
Seasons will be opening up soon! Good luck everyone!
I place a lot of emphasis on finding sign and then sitting on my butt! Eaten lots of venison using this method!
What sign are you looking for in particular? Rubs, scrapes, fresh tracks?
What elevations do you key in on?
Nobody wants to discuss strategy?
The deer I hunt are not as easy to pattern as some,, as the deer will bed anywhere they feel like and this is Appalachian hill country, I find where terrain features change and 2 or more trails converge and try to sit on the right side of the wind, problem being the wind is never predictable in hill country. It does alot of things . Still kill deer and I really don't get busted as much as I probably should. I hunt low in the tree anymore, like 10 or 12 ft.
I agree with deer here in the Appalachian’s not being as easy to pattern. I find the same thing in that they tend to bed so randomly and with mast being the main food source, there isn’t as a defined feed to bed type movement you hear so much about.
I’ve had a fair amount of luck over the years but it has mainly been by sitting in known terrain funnels during the rut. Usually picking a stand and sticking it out. As you said, I try to keep the wind right but it’s hard to do in the hills.
"I agree with deer here in the Appalachian’s not being as easy to pattern.",,,depends on where you are. When I worked for the state of Ohio I owned a place in Pike County outside of Beaver. You could nearly set your alarm by the deer movement patterns as long as they weren't pressured like crazy.
Just as a general rule I played the wind as moving up the hollows and hills as the temperature warmed up in the morning, and down as it cooled off in the evening.
Old logging and skid roads on or close to the top of the ridges were always good places to poke around. Locating the trails up and down the ridge was even better.
And never over look the creek bottoms.
I find it best to disregard sign found in the bottoms, especially narrow steep bottoms. You will fin plenty of sigh however the wind will make most of it in hunt able.
Concentrate your efforts on benches in the upper 2/3 of hills and look for topography as much as sign. Points at the end of ridges will hold bedding does, look for adjacent bench’s that bucks will travel on to scent check bedding areas late morning and early afternoon before they drop back down into the hollows. Wide valleys can be productive if you can set up early evening with wind and thermals to your favor. Bucks will come down off points and cruise, scrap and rub along the lowest benches late afternoon while the wait for dark to move into the lower more open areas.
Ha, I thought from the title you were ansking about “The Hill Country” as in TX! I’m obviously not gonna be much help…
—Jim
Here in Kansas in the Flint Hills, good grass can be hard to find with all the overgrazing. Over the years, I have found that a tall stand of ungrazed bluestem grass on a hill will usually have a buck bedded in it every few days.
