Favorite Terrain Features

[Jermh]

Season is getting close and as I was sitting here at lunch staring at OnX I figured this could be a fun thread. Do any of you guys have a particular type of terrain feature that seems to be more productive for you or that you prefer to sit? What part of the country you are in could be helpful.

East central Missouri here. It seems like the past couple of years I’ve found myself gravitating more towards heads of drainages and inside corners. For where I hunt it has just seemed the most consistent. Curious what your thoughts are.

 

[Wheels]

Ridge top fence crossings and pinch points.

 

[Eship]

I hunt around quite a few lakes which are mostly open hardwoods. My favorite areas are always the thick brush and swamp that surrounds rivers as they enter the lake.

 

[Pilarczyk85]

I've been finding more and more that river bottoms are producing not only bigger bucks but just deer in general. Have started concentrating more on hunting those spots.

 

[Dave Thomas]

I'm in Louisiana and I like to hunt where an old clear-cut is over grown or has pines that are a few years old meets a hardwood bottom.

 

[Dobeman887]

Like many have said- ridges/benches.

 

[Adack]

Triangle pinch points

 

[Dougfir]

In the Adirondacks, I’m a big fan of softwood stands along boggy streams and associated open areas (called vlys locally). If there’s interesting topography around them, even better.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

Saddles on ridges running perpendicular to the mountain. Old logging roads running parallel to the mountain. The two features combined are lovely.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[NRA4LIFE]

My place in MO has a major pinch point between 2 fields that also has a brushy creek bottom. Dynamite. Brushy field edges and fence lines too.

 

[knighttime22]

This is an interesting topic, neat to see the different terrains people focus on based on different parts of the world!

 

[Boarmaster]

Saddles connecting two different pieces of heavy cover. Valleys or Drains up against clear cut , mature timber and some thick stuff. Any place with an edge or a corner.

 

[Eship]

What’s interesting about this is that some of these are features that you truly don’t understand how to search for them or what makes them so good until you see it in person. Once you see it, it all makes sense. For me, that just proves why on the ground scouting is best tool to ensure success.

 

[mitchellmountain]

Big swamp, pine patches and snow. Really just feel at home there

 

[LostArra]

My dad always said deer are like bass. They like edges, shade and terrain changes especially pinch points. Being kids we liked to argue that bass are predators, deer are prey.

 

[Pilsner]

Here on our mtn in the Ozarks it seems like flat benches about 2/3 up the mountain are prime spots. Also, contour lines connecting two benches.

 

[TreeDux]

I'm in Louisiana and I like to hunt where an old clear-cut is over grown or has pines that are a few years old meets a hardwood bottom.

I like these a lot but I don’t even want the clear cut to be that old. In eastern North Carolina about a 3-5 year old cutover abutting a creek bottom or semi-open hardwood is a setup I like.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

For northern whitetails in Idaho, Wyoming, and Minnesota the most productive places for me are the edges of the woods coming out of a water source. Usually streams, creeks, swamp bottoms, something with relatively steep terrain for the immediate area where they can travel up and down along water, with cover from woods before presenting themselves in open fields, plateaus, crossings, etc. Here’s a doe checking on a buck I had just killed. Behind them is a stream/swamp with hardwood cover and a 60 foot gradual drop off from the open field.



For coues whitetail in Arizona it all depends on pressure and which “way” they go for cover. The coues deer generally stick to the “mid” terrain for the area and then either push high to ridgelines to get way from pressure or they go down low in the thick cover of the desert flats and run the wash bottoms and fingers there along with the desert mule deer and javelina . If hunting the deer up higher it’s usually more effective in general to glass “up” at the deer and the make the approach or shot from below them. If you are hunting down low or the mid terrain, getting up high on what we call “sky islands” here in AZ and glassing down is very effective. But don’t be surprised at all if a group of Coues bucks strolls along above you like some kind of psychotic sheep or goat haha.

Glassing from the mid terrain up at the deer along the ridges.



Glassing from up on a knob and down into the desert flats terrain.

 

[mitchellmountain]

For northern whitetails in Idaho, Wyoming, and Minnesota the most productive places for me are the edges of the woods coming out of a water source. Usually streams, creeks, swamp bottoms, something with relatively steep terrain for the immediate area where they can travel up and down along water, with cover from woods before presenting themselves in open fields, plateaus, crossings, etc. Here’s a doe checking on a buck I had just killed. Behind them is a stream/swamp with hardwood cover and a 60 foot gradual drop off from the open field.

View attachment 930590

For coues whitetail in Arizona it all depends on pressure and which “way” they go for cover. The coues deer generally stick to the “mid” terrain for the area and then either push high to ridgelines to get way from pressure or they go down low in the thick cover of the desert flats and run the wash bottoms and fingers there along with the desert mule deer and javelina . If hunting the deer up higher it’s usually more effective in general to glass “up” at the deer and the make the approach or shot from below them. If you are hunting down low or the mid terrain, getting up high on what we call “sky islands” here in AZ and glassing down is very effective. But don’t be surprised at all if a group of Coues bucks strolls along above you like some kind of psychotic sheep or goat haha.

Glassing from the mid terrain up at the deer along the ridges.

View attachment 930596

Glassing from up on a knob and down into the desert flats terrain.

View attachment 930599

I have a chair just like that , rides in my pack now when I’m just hiking or hunting . Two pounds and a great place to sit. Might even bring some “ dew” with me too from time to time.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I have a chair just like that , rides in my pack now when I’m just hiking or hunting . Two pounds and a great place to sit. Might even bring some “ dew” with me too from time to time.

It doesn’t come on all my hunts, but for coues where the name of the game is 12 hour days behind the binos, it’s sure is worth the weight to carry!