Mountain hunting tactics

[bbell]

Same conditions hunting the Pacific Northwest. Thick and steep and the wind changes all the time. If we hear elk or get a response we try our best for the wind, but lots of times the wind is totally different where the elk are. I relate to the low deer densities. There are a decent population of Blacktails in my area but they are hard to pattern in the hills.

Brandon

[LC]

Great topic. The "just hunt the wind" posts make me laugh also. If I did that here in the mtns of WV I'd give up hunting.

I also hunt a lot in Ohio and it's like hunting two entirely different species!

Around here fawns are taught to walk around with the head held up scanning trees. The wind direction changes every few minutes. There aren't any farms and obvious funnels that a newbie would recognize. Also around here 99.9% of the hunters hunt over bait piles day in day out. I don't bait.

What I do is scout year around. Now for trails in snow, rubs etc but in late summer early fall for final update of acorn trees that have produced. Did the mast only hit on top, middle or in the bottoms. Is it a heavy mast or one that will peter out quick. I'm always constantly trying to see where everyone else is hunting, easy enough to follow 4 wheeler tracks to a bait site!  I have about a dozen trees stands up or ready to put up. I hardly ever hunt a stand more than three times in a year, some I ONLY hunt during the rut periods. I put out trail cameras on scent ropes year around to see what made it and what ones turn up in the same general areas. BUT I only check periodically as to not over scent up my camera site.

Now back to the wind. I feel I can "fool" a deer's nose while on stand from wind blown scent. Been doing it for several years. First and foremost is wind proof clothing. If wind blows through your clothes so does your scent. I wear a Cabelas ryno skin head mask over my head fall and winter. All my clothes are sprayed down with a homemade scent "killer" reducer every single time I head out. I go through gallons of it a years time. And no it has no baking soda in it. After doing this for years you can tell the deer that do smell me show subtle signs and sniff even harder to verify. You can tell they smell me but think I'm way out of their danger zone and go back to what ever they were doing before. Even with this I never hunt in the creek bottom areas with steep mtns surrounding. Even if the sign in such areas is usually unbelievable don't be tempted. Your scent just stays in these low lying areas and you will get busted.

Now as far as scent that drops to the ground as you walk in and out I don't think you can fool them. All deer are different, some are like poodles while others are like blood hounds. Some show little sign while others that cross your trail go on alert. That's why I don't like to over hunt a stand and or over check trail cameras.

With all that said I believe 80% of the deer use 20% of the land. Some of that is drove or walked by to get deeper in!

[Jerry Jeffer]

I used smoke for a cover this year. I felt it worked better than anything I have used before.

[Nathan Killen]

I also hunt the mountains in the east...specifically in southern Wv and S/W Virginia. I agree with all that has been said. My most productive big buck spots are usually benches along the side of steep ridges, off the end of points and just under the crest of a ridge on one side or the other. Bucks in the areas I hunt like bedding on very steep and thick areas adjasent to large areas of gentler sloping topography.

[Nathan Killen]

Originally posted by Jack Whitmire Jr:


Don't hunt if the wind is wrong was wrote by some midwest hutner . I can take a good eastern mountain whitetail hunter to the midwest and hurt the population there    [/QB]

Agree 100% !! I also hunt Ohio and those bucks are EASY compared to our mountain bucks ! I've yet to hunt Ohio for more than 3 days and not kill a respectable buck bigger than most kill around here ! Hope I don't offend any Midwesterners with that statement...but that's been my experience !

[Jack Whitmire Jr]

Yes not my intention at all to offend anyone , but from what I've seen the wind is much more constant in the Midwest .

They are still whitetails and hard to hunt!

[bamboo]

I feel blessed when I get 45 minutes of "true" steady thermal flow--be it up in the am or down in the pm!!---to hunt a set up where there was 2-3 hours of steady-one direction- air flow would be unbelievable!!
 I've been investigating some nearby public bottom land that's adjacent to private crop land--yup looking for some steadier winds!!I'm not giving up on the mts!--I can't do that!

[D.J. Carr]

I hunt the Pa. late season merely to use the snow (hopefully) for a scouting tool for the following fall.  Having snow shouldn't be an issue this year.

[Matt Fowler]

Good thread. I hunt up in Tioga and try to get back in as far as I can. I don't set up near scrapes. I try and bactrack away from a scrape line. I think scrapes are hit after dark, eventhough deer aren't really pressured. Also like to hunt maybe 1/4 to 1/2 way down draws depending on the terain and sign. Sometimes you can get a steady wind in the draws.

[Bobaru]

Tedd, I live in Canandaigua, which is in Ontario County, NY.  From here down to the PA line is some really fine deer hunting.  The stats show that Yates county produces more deer per square mile than any other in the state.  Steuben County produces more deer than any other in the state.  The numbers are impressive, but for big racks, ya gotta work mighty hard.

I didn't elaborate on hunting where the wind swirls in my prior post.  I had this one public ground with lots of deer, nestled in the bottom of the valley.  That was the worst.  Never did get a deer.  Wind swirled awful.  Every 5 minutes, it was different.

But, as others have said, hunting benches works great.

One good spot I hunt is where they side-hill.  It seems they ascend from eating corn in the morning, then side-hill before dropping into their beds.  This area has exposure to the prevailing SW winds, so I don't have much trouble there with swirls.  Plus, on no wind mornings, you'd be surprised that your scent rises up the hill as the warmth of day begins.  ...  Some book I read said bucks, in pre-rut or rut, often walk with the wind at their back.  I've documented that to be true for me.  So, when the thermals are rising up the hill so are the bucks.  

I think that deer hunting is simply playing probabilities.  Choose the highest probability area you have, and increase your probabilities by increasing the hours on stand.

[Tedd]

Matt,
You must be right about the scrapes. I have waisted a lot of time sitting over scrapes. But I just kept that to myself, you know, cuz the magazines and tv shows all say that where you gotta be!I was dumb enough to do it again this year. I like to find scrapes of course. Just don't know if I'd hunt at em. Feed and travel patterns are what I like to discover. That is why snow helps.
What part of Tioga Co do you hunt? I almost never see another hunter. I have never seen another trad hunter.
I have hunted in a lot of other states and have had some really nice hunts in Wyoming. Honestly for me, nothing is a satisfying as killing a PA mountain buck. The drag out can be pretty tough. It's something you have to consider. When I was young and dumb it really didn't matter. Today the deer's bodies are bigger than 20 years ago on average. And with antler restrictions they are generally an older deer. They are hard to get out!! I have never killed one of those giants that live there. My favorite deer kill of all time is a fat little forkhorn (pre antler restrictions)killed on the last day during a break in snow squaws. It was so quiet I could hear the cedar arrow gently rattling off the branches of a blowdown after it passed through the deer.
TD

[D.J. Carr]

Tedd,
I hunted Tioga County years ago, when I was in college.  There is ample hunting oppurtunities and beautiful land, but patterning the deer isn't an easy job.

As far as scrapes go, they are a good starting point, but I just use them as a sign that I'm in the right area... I try to figure out where the deer are coming from or going to before and after they hit the scrape.