Thickets?

[dirt_a_KISS]

Recently i have been reading articles about deer hunting. A lot of them tend to drift to hunting pressure and bucks, trophy bucks especially. They state that pressured deer(mostly bucks, i assume) move into dense areas such as thickets. And that they will mostly stay in that area either to travel or to bed. My question is what exactly is a thicket from what i read its dense cover. I would like a little more elaboration on what a thicket really is? Also is there other hotspots in the woods for pressured deer such as pine trees, marshes, swamps, creek beds, saddle to travel through and overgrown fields plus standing cornfields. Though standing cornfields would be consider baiting if I'm correct and i despise the fact of baiting, for me it ruins the enjoyment of being in the woods and hunting!!!!!!!

[erussell]

If you cant see 5 ft into it, its a good chance its a thicket. Whether its in a swamp, the woods a creek or someones side yard 30 ft from a house. If people dont go there during hunting season and it thick then a big buck will know about it because that how he got that big. And hunting over standng corn is not baiting, now if you break the ears off and pile them under your stand then yes thats baiting. But ears of corn still on the stock is a food plot. And just a hint, If you find a thicket on a saddle, a pinch point, or a funnel you have probably found a good spot to hunt.

Edited August 27, 2012 by erussell

[dirt_a_KISS]

thanks for the corn facts. What about a typical saddle though? is that still a "hotspot" to consider for hunting?

[erussell]

I would say it depends on what kind of sign you find in it and how easy it is to get to. If anyone can get to it the deer might be smart to it already. I hunted a saddle out in deposit one time. There were two peaks on either side of me that were pretty steep. I heard some shooting in the valley below me and then heard deer crashing up the mountain a few min later. I thought I was golden untill I watched them run straight uphill and over the peak to my left. They never skipped a beat ethier, and it was steep and rocky. But as a rule of thumb I would say yes saddles are the lowest point in a hill and deer being generally lazy creatures will take the least path of resistance 99% of the time.

Edited August 27, 2012 by erussell

[Elmo]

Thicket as defined by Wikipedia:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thicket

[5.9cummins]

Saddles are great places to hunt. The key is to pay attention to what they connect. If you have a bedding area on one side and a agricultural field on the other then you should be in for a good hunt. Bedding areas on both sides are also great for hunting the rut. I hunt a number of saddles and pinch points and usually don't have a problem seeing deer.

As for a thicket it could mean almost anything. I hunt one spot that is a overgrown clear cut which i would consider a thicket. I hunt a couple swamps that you practically have to be on your hands and knees to get into. I hunt a old chunk of woods that used to be predominantly beech but beech bark disease has killed the trees and they are re-sprouting from the stumps. I hunt old overgrown ag fields as well as a blown down from a wind storm. The only thing in common they have is they hold a hell of a lot of deer.

One word of caution about hunting thickets don't move in too fast. They are thick and all deer will use them as bedding cover. If you move in two fast you can bump a lot of the deer out. I will hunt some travel corridors going to food sources before i move in tight and hunt the edge of the area.

You should also consider hunting the inside corners of fields (if you think of a field as a square box and the woods on the outside of the box). Deer will often travel around the field and cut close to the corners vs. exposing themselves by crossing the field. A narrow spot on a ridge or narrow point in timber is a good point to hunt. I also like to hunt field edges on a ridge where a stream or drainage comes up to the field edge which forces deer to the field edge by not wanting to cross the drainage but not wanting to go into the field.

[phade]

That's a huge question.

Swamps/marshes are BIG TIME MATURE BUCK BEDDING AREAS. That point really can't be made big enough. For swamps, you want to walk the transition lines between swampy muck, cattails, redbud, etc. Also, you want to look at islands within swamps - even a lone tree a 100 yards out with a 4'x4' knoll can make a prime buck bedding area. The transitions and small high spots are going to be where you find the beds. Do this post season, find the beds...stand in them, and look around. See what the buck can see from the bed. Then, pick your stand site (assuming you know how you can enter/exit safely and hunt with the right wind).

Thickets are the dryland equivalent of swamps/marshes for mature bucks. You'd be surprised at how well a giant buck can manuver in there. I really like thickets that are several acres in size and have some variety of "pricker bushes"...whether that be multiflora or what have you. That tends to keep hunters out - and if the bucks have been bedding there for years and no hunter intrusion...then you can take advantage. Once I find such a spot, I'll often to try get the basic deer use of that thick down, and then I make a plan to cut a small path or two that can be hunted by a strategically placed stand. My best early season spot is likely going to be such a location since I don't have much swamp/marsh ground here.

Bucks can and will use the trails - some of my game cam pics this year are from such a spot. The trail should be cut in a way that it doesn't destroy the bedding characteristics, but instead makes travel easier within the protected area. You also wouldn't know there is a trail there unless you walked into the thicket itself - I'll make a small cut, make a hard right or left, and then another hard right/left, to screen out the trail from plain view. You can't see five feet into the thicket, and at that point, I made my trail...from a small pond to several apple trees, below an area where bucks are bedding. It it NOT easy work, but snips, a weedeater, and roundup can do wonders. That and a little blood loss.

If you can't cut a trail, hunt the edges of the thickets based on why they are using it and where they are using it in relation to food/water.

Bucks will push does into the thickets come chasing time and especially when you are on the edge of breeding, as they can court them there and have a better ability to fend off other bucks. Think of times when you hunted along an open area and seen a nice buck tending a doe and all of the satelite bucks milling about...that mature buck was constantly running them off. If a buck has a chance to steer a doe into a thicket, he will more times than not because he can spend less energy defending the doe...

Edited August 27, 2012 by phade

[growalot]

I have a thicket that was unintentionally made...a 20x40 yrd fenced garden...it is at the end of the drive.....a few "gifted" invasive were planted..Well I just gave up...with intentions every year to fix it...then the buck moved in...they tore the fencing to shreds and rubbed several ornamental trees to death...lilac... dogwood and 2 magnolia can't walk past that garden to go hunting that I don't kick out a nice buck every year......but here are some pics of other thickets the one deer plot pic...has dogwood brush...bramble...ironwood sapling thickets lining it...bedding areas the other a huge bramble/sapling thicket that I caught this young guy sneak out of as I past

[Elmo]

My question then is, what the heck is a "saddle"?

[ants]

Its a dip in a ridge. The ridge slopes down, then back up and continues on. Makes the ridge look like a "saddle" And I agree saddles are good places to hunt.

[mike rossi]

My question then is, what the heck is a "saddle"?

Never mind, I see it is answered!

Edited August 27, 2012 by mike rossi

[Culvercreek hunt club]

If you can walk it, It isn't thick enough for hunting big pressured bucks. If you have to crawl and push to get through it it is almost thick enough...lol

it didn't get the old term "buck brush" for nothing

Edited August 27, 2012 by Culvercreek hunt club

[growalot]

Now those last two pics were at a thicket..by the way a note on behavior...I was just walking toward ...so outer edge...that deer waited until I passed and got up and went in the direction I came in from...sneaky boy....more than once over the years I've had deer bolt past me...to find they have then circled and followed me at a distance.

Any how so that is at the mouth of a gully...very wide there for over a hundred yards then narrows down and gets deeper...So is the mouth of a gully a saddle or still considered a gully?...I have 4 stands bordering this...and it is where I got my buck last year...he bedding in the thicket then traveled down to my last stand set....Either that or he bedded under the stand and is the one I jumped out when going...circled around and came back in...