Topographic Features

[macobb]

If you’re scouting for out of state trips and you don’t have the opportunity to put boots on the ground what are your favorite features to target? I am from Central AL and am looking for ideas. No state specifically but may be traveling to Kentucky this season.

 

[BBob]

Speaking out west, hands down number one I'm looking for glassing spots.

 

[Panhandler80]

If you’re scouting for out of state trips and you don’t have the opportunity to put boots on the ground what are your favorite features to target? I am from Central AL and am looking for ideas. No state specifically but may be traveling to Kentucky this season.

Kind of depends on the amount of hunter pressure. If it's really high, I value distance from easy access as highly as I do typical features. If it's a little bit lower, then move on to your typical stuff. If it's land that's managed for timber, it's always a good idea to focus on seams where different age trees come together. If it's not managed, then there will still be natural breaks that are good. If you're in hills of KY you can also try to find level ground that on your contour lines. Deer are just like us... they'd rather walk around a hill on a flat spot. Pinch points and funnels of course are easy to pick out on topo maps. Creek bottoms and ridges can be good.... primarily because they offer that same flat terrain for traveling. Once on the ground, I always focus on hunting where I find any kind of deer sign. I don't get hung up on big buck sign in a place that's new to me. Hunt where there are deer at a new place... then hope you catch a glimpse of a shooter. Bucks may be apart from does, but not super far even in early season. They all want cover, food and easy travel. I spend a LOT of time looking at maps and it pays off. For example... the past 4 years I've killed 3 decent bucks on a public quot hunt in NW Florida. Year 1 killed on second sit. Year 2 struck out. Year 3 killed on first sit. Year 4 killed on first sit. All from looking at satellite. No real elevation change. If you can get up with biologist / manager for the property you have in mind, they might be able to provide you with a natural communities map. Pretty helpful. Take that map and research what each community is online. This will give you an idea of what a particular portion of the woods actually look like. For example... google "Mesic Hammock." This might not prove very helpful for some places that haven't been altered much my man. If you are hunting a mature forest that's been left to itself, the deer density will be way lower than managed land due to lack of understory. No understory and uniform mature timber will mean contours will have everything to do with movement.

Out of curiosity, where are you going in KY? I'm sitting on 3 preference points for LBL. Thought I'd try to hunt it this year, but don't really feel like traveling with the Rona running around. Will try next year.

PS - I've done a fair amount of hunting pretty close to you. Russel and Barbour CO primarily. A little bit in Butler CO. Russel my favorite.

 

[George Hamrick]

Depends on a few things for when I start looking at satellite maps of an area. What time of year are you hunting?

 

[WannabeHunter]

Agree with @Panhandler80

Common features I look for everywhere: Food, Water, Bedding, Windbreaks, Pinch Points

Things I focus on depending on terrain:
Hill(ish) Country - Saddles/Benches, secondary ridges
Agriculture - good cover near pinch points, especially pinch points created by a larger body of water or marsh
Timber Country - drainage that leads to/from cover and food

One thing I've found extremely revealing is historical management data. Download Google Earth Pro. Use the time function (can't remember the exact name). It will normally have several years worth of satellite images. I've found that deer will tend to stick to travel corridors over years. So if a big section of an area was clear cut several years ago, those travel corridors that were used during then, will tend to still be used now. Hope that makes sense.

 

[bwlacy]

If you are in the hills then saddles, benches, military crests, topo lines that create a funnel. In southern Ohio I avoid hunting the bottom, the wind is too swirly. First bench down on the leeward side is a good spot when bucks are cruising.

 

[macobb]

So if I make the trip I will be going to the LBL early season archery. It’s pretty hilly terrain... well from what I’m used to. I can usually pick out saddles and benches. I have trouble picking out pinch points and military crests. I should have mentioned I’m rather new to e-scouting. Up until now I’ve been pretty much hunting central AL and only traveled for turkeys. Really until the past couple seasons I only deer hunted for meat and never really focused on anything than hunting sign I found during turkey season. It’s jones impressive to me how some people can pick these features out so easily from maps and more so when I’ve seen people almost drop pins on deer beds from maps before even seeing the property. I guess I’m just here looking to learn more on interpreting what is on the map and how to use it to my advantage.

 

[bwlacy]

https://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Trophy-Bucks-Brad-Herndon/dp/0873495039

Give this book a read sometime. Lots of good stuff in here for using maps, which you can do e-scouting. Your local library might have it?

 

[Pa bowhunter]

Awesome book, this is a must read, pair this with a topo of an area that you have hunted before and go for a walk with a topo of the area and the information you learn from this book and you will understand topo maps a lot more real quick, i cant recommend this enough.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

If your going to LBL, that area is alot like the areas i have grew up hunting in the Appalachians. Here is a topo map of my hunting area, just to give u an idea of places to start looking for. Obviously i have a treestand at the first bench down from top (if there is one). The dark Green represents Mountain Laurel (which is what deer like to bed in around here) they will also traverse the edges of it, feeding and cruising.

The light green is an old clear cut, although u cant see them on the map, it has old logging/skid roads throughout it. I have a couple spots marked in it, one on a somewhat flat within the clear cut and one on another spot open enough to have a few shooting lanes. Deer will travel inside these clear cuts if they are old enough to get in and be able to shoot 40-50 or so yards etc. u have a nice spot

I am sure others can point out spots on here they would hunt also. I have hunted about every saddle to the right of the access road u see and always done good.

 

[JBrew]

PM Sent

 

[DrHogfan]

In hill country I’m looking for fingers off of ridges for buck bedding. That or steep bluffs. Then I try to find where food/water/travel corridors/funnels are from there. Other than marking potential bedding I use it to gauge access and pressure. I avoid easy routes, walking paths and trails and would rather busheack off the side of a road than park in a parking lot. Steep terrain, nasty drainages, and water crossings are my go to.


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[SmokyMtnHunter]

Lots of good advice above. I think the most important part of hunting out of state, or any area where you’re not going to be scouting before hand is to sacrifice a day or two to scout areas that you’ve picked out e-scouting. Killed the buck in my profile Pic two years ago Out of state. After hunting for three days without any mature deer sightings, we dedicated the next two days to scouting. Kill that deer the very next day. One thing I always try to find e-scouting are connector saddles. Look for saddles or ridges that connect two big tracts together. Like the one below...
The leeward side of a saddle like that should see a lot of cruising.

 

[macobb]

Awesome tips. I actually just got that book and am starting to try and read it. Hopefully it will clue me in. I have a hard time finding features on maps and knowing which to focus on once I do. Here in central Alabama we have relatively small topo features and it’s pretty much all pines with small hardwood drainages so just trying to piece it together is where my issue stems from. It’s hard for me to see why deer would want to use one feature and not another 100 yards away. Also pretty much all of our land is eat up with roads. It’s hard to get to far from one before you cross another. Idk if this info is helpful or not

 

[Drenalin]

Awesome tips. I actually just got that book and am starting to try and read it. Hopefully it will clue me in. I have a hard time finding features on maps and knowing which to focus on once I do. Here in central Alabama we have relatively small topo features and it’s pretty much all pines with small hardwood drainages so just trying to piece it together is where my issue stems from. It’s hard for me to see why deer would want to use one feature and not another 100 yards away. Also pretty much all of our land is eat up with roads. It’s hard to get to far from one before you cross another. Idk if this info is helpful or not

Topo features are no big secret, so if you're hunting some that are relatively close to the road or easy to access they are likely to be getting pounded by a lot of other hunters. If there are a lot of the same type of feature in a given area, it can be hard to figure out which one to key in on unless one has an obvious advantage like thick cover in addition to the topo feature. Something else to keep in mind with features, like saddles, that create travel corridors is that there won't necessarily be a lot of sign there even if the deer are using it (at least in my experience). Like @DrHogfan pointed out, look for features that keep other people out...the deer will be where they get the least amount of pressure. Steep, thick, wet, or any combination of those is a good starting point.