Lets talk funnels and pinch points and how they can put a whitetail in your lap.

[Keb]

While there are guys that have way more knowledge about whitetails then I do. I do know this, it's about the spot, if you got low pressure private ground in certain places, I feel u can use the normal methods.

If you don't the best you can hope for is a miracle or average sucess using average tactics. Big deer on public and pressured ground are a different animals.

I killed a toad of a buck this last year off the same chunk of public ground, same type of set up just an even dumber spot. Buck had a nice creek line he could have followed to get to the thicket to scent check it, he'll he could have done it 1/2 mile away. What does he do walk across a wide open pasture quatering in the wind, does a j hook just to get a wif, to late arrow on the way. End of buck.

I may have gotten of topic, but I guess my point is, all this deer do this deer do that gets jammed down our throats, when in fact the deer do what they feel is in there best interest, based on the whole picture, not because you or I read in a book a funnels is a sure thing.

[Kingsnake]

Any thoughts on manipulating your area to create pinch points or "preferred" travel routes (e.g., relocating deadfall to create pinches, using some line to slightly pull down one strand of a wire fence, etc...)?

I know that it can be effective, but do more of you prefer to read existing terrain to determine where deer will be or do you manage the terrain to put the deer where you want them?

   :confused:  

Kingsnake

[xtrema312]

Originally posted by awbowman:
PokerDaddy,  cut a trail on the perimeter of the land and stay out of the bedding area.  Use the brush to pile up on bedding side of trail.

X2, I have a property I hunt that is the same in a lot of ways.  Little different layout for woods and open, but a basic 80 with a little roll.  I have to come in from the  west so can also get winded easy most days.  I keep a good trail down both sides and part of the back side of the property for access.  I hike a long ways most times to get around and in.  I pick the route with the least sign each year.  I do this particularly in the dark when it is real hard to figure where deer could be.  

Walking in through a bedding areas is not always a bad thing in the morning if you don’t leave a bunch of scent right where they bed.  You just need them to be   feeding off someplace else.  That way you get past the bedding area and set up for when they come in.  Leave the other way to get out and circle around them.

A lot of the travel routes are not easily identified on this type of land.  You see trails going all over.  Many are used at night as deer run all around.  That is different than day time traveling.  A lot of times it is a little elevation change, a line of bushes, a gap in trees and so on.  Often it is not the travel line, but the convergence of many of them that is the spot to be.  Maybe a high ground area or patch of cover that is a hub vs a funnel.  

Get an aerial and stare at it.  You would be surprised what you may see from a different perspective.  There is always something that will direct deer.  Look outside the properly.  There could well be something on the adjacent property that impacts travel like fence gaps and cover fingers leading in.   Even other hunters near the line can move deer around or between them.  Way more of the travel on the ground I hunt is dictated by the property and hunters on our perimeter than by the property I am on.  The deer often are going from point A to B through. They move the travel line around a little year to year, but they are keying on an entry and exit.  Often the best hunting is on the sides of the property rather than in the middle due to what is around you when you are on a property that has few features.   Find a key spot and the fringe and get back off it a little.

Do some logging.  That will create all kinds of stuff like open areas for Low growth to spring up for bedding or clear for food plots, narrow cover areas for travel, plus obstructions.  60 acres of woods just setting there is not a lot of good for hunting most times if it has few features.  You would be better getting a few bucks to cut some trees and put that back in property development. Creating better bedding places and feed areas separated from each other will create travel.

There was some logging a couple years ago and a pile of tops got left in the corner of the woods on the other side of a little hill behind the barn.  The tops run down to a pond on the neighbors.  The deer used to come in that area of the property over an area about 75 yards wide and would go in a couple directions.  Now they all go around the tops keying more on one depression. The travel area is about 35 yd wide now plus hard for them to get down wind of the funnel.  If you set in the middle, you can cover the whole area.  It is much improved and took almost nothing to do it.  I should have dropped a couple trees there years ago.

[Knawbone]

Kingsnake, I'm of the first school, that is reading the terrain and deciphering whats going on with the Deer.My own land is only 75 acres and it is relatively close to habitation. I can find Does on it any time of year during day lite hours, but the Bucks are a different story. Rare in deed to see a buck older than a year and a half during the day, and thats a year round thing. Now things change when those Does start to pop, and I have killed or have seen the occasional two and a half year old but thats even rare. My land has a couple of good funnels, and I have found no need to manipulate how the Deer move. Also the 500 acres of state forest behind my property can only be manipulated in non distructive  ways, so even if I had the spare time, there is only so much I can do.

 With that said, I enjoy the time I get to hunt and relish being able to use my earned woodscrafts to get one step ahead  of a mature Buck. No sighn of any monsters or even any Big Bucks in the 12 or so years Iv' hunted here, but thats far from top priority to me. Bucks don't have to be huge to be smart, they only need to stay alive in NY for a couple three seasons. So to answer your question, I guess I most enjoy just hunting them the way the land is for the most part. Just go out and hunt and see what you can do!  If I had more free time and resourses, and had time to find and gain access to prime big buck spots, then I could go nuts. The reality is I don't, but I'm damn proud of the successes Iv' had. More importantly it's been a lot of fun and I always feel closer to God in the woods.

[tarponnut]

I do a lot more hog hunting than deer hunting these days but the theory on funnels applies to both. This is a funnel we have one of our double stands on. It's good for all but a south wind(and would even work for that if they come from the SE or East)You can see that the game moves through this pinch point from all but the SW.It's a new spot but I think it will be a winner this fall/winter.(weird looking bucks,huh?)
   
 
 

[wapiti792]

Kingsnake, I do both. I find what I think is a nice pinch or inside corner via map or google earth, then walk it during the offseason. I try to pick two spots for two different winds...here is either north or south with some westerly tilt sometimes. That is key and first.

Then if within my pinch, inside corner or hourglass if I can move the deer a little closer then I do. Dropping a tree or taking limbs from shooting lanes and building an obstacle on a farther trail to get them closer is really what I am talking about. Sometimes it works and sometimes they jump the stinkin thing.

I also do the opposite. If I have a trail running right under the perfect tree that just gives me an awful angle I will do the same thing with those brances or hinging a sapling. Create an obstacle so that they will swing away from me offering a better shot. I did that with a set this weekend. Two trails one right under me that is just not gonna work. The farther one is better. I cut shooting lanes with my rubber gloves and created a place where by taking the further trail they give me 15 yards instead of one straight under me...by the way, I learned that in a book, and since then I have had to see a taxidermist more than once  

[Slasher]

Ok My A#1 early season local hunting spot is a prime example how maps and Google earth help, but scouting is paramount in putting meat on the table...

Joe Kurz WMA in GA is near ATL, and has 2 wks early bow season and 2 3day lottery style quota hunts a year... lately has also had 5-7 days after the gun hunts open for Archery sign in... It has a 15in spread and 4pts on one side minimum... Usually a few nice deer are taken there every year... Due to its proximity to the population center around ATL.. the deer have PHD's in hunter avoidance....

 

This is a picture perfect funnel... I over looked it as it is only 65-75 yds from a road open to vehicle traffic... I found it by always spooking deer out of there on my way to more remote greener pastures... Only one problem, this is the early season hot spot...

A lil scouting provided me with the WHY??? The woods are a hardwoods (read oaks that don't start dropping till October) bottom that runs down the center of the woodline... The south edge of the woods has a good amount of persimmons that tend to produce well in the early season... In the bottom there are a fair amount of muscadines that love the moist ground in the wettest area of the bottom... and where I showed on the South side of the bottom are a couple crabapple trees that ALWAYS produce!!!

A fair amount of deer cheat the funnel by 35-45 yds from the North or South east sides and head straight for the goodies... some sneak in from the southwest side field edge after working the persimmons...    

So while looking at the picture It would seem the tight bottle neck is the spot, Barry's advice is spot on here... it is the scouting and experience from time on stand that gives me the confidence year after year to know where to set up and adjust for the wind and have a pretty good chance to make meat in the early season...

However, once the muscadines and crabapple ares gone, the movement shifts... Mostly it is antlerless deer in the early season, yet on one overcast day years ago, I ran an arrow through a P&Y buck from a stand right where I was looking, in the early season... too bad it was his rack as I was counting points as he cleared the muscadines and moved to the crabapples...   Yet I have tagged a few antlerless deer from this spot over the years and have shot opportunities about 70% of the time I hunt an evening stand there in the early season...

Hope it helps!!

[TxAg]

Very much enjoying this thread.  Thanks guys.

[Longspur77]

I am enjoying it as well. I am particularly interested in how you guys read the elevations on a very flat piece of ground. What i mean is no more than a 2 to 3 foot ridges running thru some swamp land. We dont have huge ridges here in MS so reading them is hard sometimes. Also what exactly is an inside corner?

[JMG]

One of my favorite stands is along a creek at a deer crossing. What's unique about this stand site, the creek is at its shallowest section which is about 6 inches at its deepest. It's no less 3 feet deep for 200 yards up stream and 200 yards down stream. The deer can cross any where if they need to but I have found out they prefer to cross a creek at the shallow areas. I guess you can call this a pinch point.

[DayTripper]

Here is my stomping ground. The stars are where I usually found games there. This is a 150 acres private land that I have access to.

The property is relatively flat, it's Texas.

You can see there are quite a few natural trails created by water run-off. Some of these trails are large enough for games to use as thoroughfare.

There is a deep pond on the middle of NE quadrant. I usually find hogs there and lots of time ducks.

   

David,
The red arrow is pointing to an inside corner.

[ronp]

Good stuff.  Thanks everyone for the info.

[RC]

I have a couple of funnels I won`t hunt till late October in the swamp. They are all creek crossings between big cane thickets. I have one tree at the one in thickest cover I have killed 10 deer from. I save them till then because the activity triples then and I don`t stink`m up early. I would rather hunt feed trees till the rut for a truck load of does...maybe.RC

[Longspur77]

Got it. I am a visual learner so that helped a ton. Great thread

[StickBowManMI]

Wow this is really a great thread! I hunt public land and it takes time to investigate the areas. I think that I will try the google map pictures as suggested(I read it on someone's comments). Thanks
Tom

[ChiefStingingArrow]

For those of you Who Hunt in Pa if you go on to the game commission web site they have a web page that you can go to that has topo maps. You can make notes, mark spots etc. very helpful for finding those funnels.

[Zbone]

What you guys mean by "hinge cut" trees?

The whole tree cut down similar to a blown down  except roots intact and trunk attached or cut hanging limbs? Am trying in get a better picture in my head...

[Zbone]

Oops, forgot to add my two cents about these travel corridors...8^)

Some of these are directional.... Deer may pass through a funnel area one direction at one location, yet another location coming from the other direction due to terrain, structure, wind, etc... I try to split the difference...8^)

[Barry Wensel]

I just wrote a fairly lengthy reply and while I was dragging my cursor across to edit it I hit "full reply form" below. Not sure what that is so I'm starting over. If this comes out a double post I apologize. Anyway, I know some people who "girdle" trees. That's when you run a saw around the bark of a tree cutting deep enough to eventually kill the tree but leaving it standing. The problem with that is the tree eventually dies but falls whatever the direction the wind happens to be blowing that day. If you're a decent sawyer you can drop a tree in the direction you want it to lay. This will be beneficial to nudging game movement closer to your ambush site or whatever. An even better option is to "hinge cut" the tree. You cut the tree trunk just enough to topple the top the direction you want it to go. But you don't cut it all the way through, thus like a door hinge. This way the tree often will not die and will retain it's leaves and even grow volunteer shoots in the future by drawing water/nutrients from the roots. This offers two benefits. First the continued foliage will remain a food source and at the same time will establish more ground cover/density. It will also open up the overhead canopy to allow sunlight in to generate even thicker understory with more food options as well as cover. It's a win/win situation. BW

[Yellow Dog]

My all time favorite. The site of many a successful hunt, everything running the river gets squeezed down to an area about 40 yards wide. In the right tree it's a chip shot.