gmark802 wrote:15 out of 17
It seems as if the deer patterns are very subtle in hill country.
It's so tough. I find sign. Sometimes alot. I need help finding doe bedding . Is it up on top? Or 1/3 down with Daddy. If I look in the snow the day after it's all over am i getting good intel as relates to Oct to rut. Am I looking for dogwood down low and what if there isnt any. Whatever I see clipped off is, everything. So they eat everything, all the time? I find well beaten trails sometimes and sometimes in very nasty thick stuff. I see the tracks but where are the does? The big hill country public is an enigma. I get skunked every year and bust my . I will get this figured out but could use some advise. I get the 1/3 deal and do find sign. But hunting where there are hikers hunters and fat tired bikes is annoying. So to go deep, and I do, it takes a long time, and I snap branches and twigs going in.( Stinking annoying) I use a saddle but can't get up to 25 feet like JE. Thinking about going back to my Lone Wolf and sticks.... I'm so in a rut of not achieving.. could use a hand. Thx
gmark802, The Illinois public that i hunt has a lot of hill country, despite the rest of the state being totally flat. My favorite area is a 1/2 mile square of super thick stuff and hills like yours, acorns everywhere but most have dropped by Oct 1st when bow season starts. Most of my intel came from arriving late in the mornings and seeing them from my car returning to their bedding, and seeing them head off to private at night while sitting a good deal away on an observation sit. You need a place where you can get really high and observe the whole area from daybreak till end of day for observation. My area is screwed up by too many bow hunters, shotgun squirrel hunters, etc... best time to get a doe in that kind of spot for me is start of bow season. I got my doe there early and now have moved on.... they are still in there but only a few, and you won't get to them without making noise. They normally are coming out now 15 minutes after legal shooting time is over due to me and everybody else stinking up the area... found a guy setup there today with a giant ground blind 10 yards in front of a bunch or rubs and the buck is (or was) bedding sometimes 30 yards behind his blind in 4 foot tall brush and i don't think he even has a clue. He is also set up on a field of "nothing" that didn't even have a crop this year ???? I ordered BBO Hill Country last night to try and get more knowledge about this myself ! Good luck, you'll get it figured out. And no, my area does are not up top of big daddy on the military crest. He looks down and watches them whenever he is there. They are sometimes in 3-4 feet tall grassy area and other times bedded in a hidden hill system close to the road with lots of green and thick stuff everywhere. I've seen them in there while walking the road at 10 a.m. before but it is too thick to shoot into, too noisy to enter from any direction unless it is a super windy day and even then i still jumped a doe when i got within 6-7 yards and it was up and gone, no chance for a shot.
I've changed my ways, I'm now looking for big bucks on public land.