An area I hunt consists of your traditional river bottom habitat couple with many draws or ditches in very open country, only a tree or two every couple hundred yards heading to it (sample map attached). I've hunted the river bottoms with good success for the last 10 years, but this year I really want to try a different approach.
What I've noticed is that every so often when I am hiking back to my vehicle ( usually 1-3 miles to get back ), I jump some very nice bucks out of these draws. Yeah, probably not the best to be busting bucks, but please ignore that point for now. In this area, nearly every one of these bucks I jump is larger than the average deer I see cruising the bottom. They seem to stay in these draws most of the day, and seem to only move up at very last light to feed in the ag. I've tried intercepting them en route to the ag, but I usually lose shooting light before they are in range.
I think the only way I am going to kill these deer consistently is to figure out how I can find them while they are bedded. The country has no real high points from which to glass a large amount of the terrain from a distance, and it is too thick to glass from below. These aren't real big - probably 3-15 feet deep depending how close one is to the river bottom.
I have some ideas on how to approach this, but I'd like to hear if anyone else hunts this kind of terrain, and if so, how they're successful.
What I've noticed is that every so often when I am hiking back to my vehicle ( usually 1-3 miles to get back ), I jump some very nice bucks out of these draws. Yeah, probably not the best to be busting bucks, but please ignore that point for now. In this area, nearly every one of these bucks I jump is larger than the average deer I see cruising the bottom. They seem to stay in these draws most of the day, and seem to only move up at very last light to feed in the ag. I've tried intercepting them en route to the ag, but I usually lose shooting light before they are in range.
I think the only way I am going to kill these deer consistently is to figure out how I can find them while they are bedded. The country has no real high points from which to glass a large amount of the terrain from a distance, and it is too thick to glass from below. These aren't real big - probably 3-15 feet deep depending how close one is to the river bottom.
I have some ideas on how to approach this, but I'd like to hear if anyone else hunts this kind of terrain, and if so, how they're successful.