hunting timber

[brian]

I am used to hunting by focusing on clearcuts and the areas around them. But what I want to do is scout out/hunt a stretch of timber. I am a little lost without having the destination of an opening like a meadow or clearcut. I was figuring I would head up and look for trails/sign and take it from there. Anymore tips timber hunters can give? When looking at maps/sat images is there anything you look for in particular?

[hillman]

Look for a STEEP south facing slope with rock outcrops. Hike up where few hunters go.

[Davey Crockett]

Most wildlife, including deer, are more likely to use the area between two habitat types. It's called the edge effect. You will find that deer like to bed near thick brush (a young burn for example). I would suggest learning what good habitat looks like for any given deer need and try to determine what type of habitat they will be using given the circumstances.

[green machine]

yes definatly find the bluffs and rock out croppings. i see more sign of deer around these areas than any other when timber hunting. remeber though to ntake your time because if there are deer there they will see you long before you see them.

[brian]

I wanted to resurrect this old thread because I have a few more questions. So I finally get out into the timber and find tracks everywhere, but I have no clue how the deer are using the area. It just seems like a mess of tracks going every direction with a few more well used trails. I managed to follow some fresh tracks into the ass end of a doe. So mostly I was looking for fresh tracks and following them. But I don't know if this is the best strategy under these circumstances? Should I keep exploring until I find more prolific buck sign (I saw very few rubs)? Should I just continue to head up and follow fresh tracks? Or go to the small openings in the timber and wait? Any more advice?

[Vanman1985]

Some good questions. I've been hiking the trails/timber and I've spotted two different good bucks but they both knew I was there way before I had any idea they where around.... I'm going to try a grunt tube and doe bleat to try and hold them up if I see them again.

[KevinB]

Are you hunting blacktails? Try zeroing in on the more open fir ridges, the areas that have big fir vets with a more open understorey surrounded by thicker, brushier timber. They seem to like those areas, and you can actually hunt that stuff with some hope of being sneaky.

[LYKTOHUNT]

Keep the wind in your favour as much as possible, go very slow and stop, look and listen often. I usually do not have a real destination planned, I just take it as it comes keeping in mind the wind as much as possible , where the most sign is and just work those areas real slow. Yes most of the time deer see, hear or smell you but,that is why you go slow, stop and listen often, sooner or later, you will see them, when they are deciding whether to run or are trying to figure out what you are or if things work out right and they dont smell see or hear you it will be your turn to figure out whether to shoot or not.
I just took a 4 point by working an area I had seen deer and fresh sign got the wind in my face and went real slow and kept myself where I could see as open as possible, that buck never knew I was there, the shot was 23 yards. I had been creeping around that general area for about 4 hours and ended up shooting him within 200 yards of my truck.

[wildcatter]

Just like lyktohunt says, take a few slow-careful steps and stop, look and listen, you not gonna be covering a lot of distance but patience is the key to the game.
Use your binos even in the woods, any little noise you hear could be a potential buck lurking in the shadows. Sometime you can't see but you can smell an animal if it's close by.

[brian]

Yeah I am hunting blacktails. So what your all saying is head up and still hunt wherever the deer give you fresh sign?

[hunter1947]

Keep in mind that every steep you take in the timber all the surroundings change I take 10 steps stop class and look you have to crawl slow down look listen when you hunt the big timber ,this WT buck that I got a few weeks ago I was doing the stop look crawl thing in the timber took him at 12.15 pm..

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/0431.JPG (http://javascript<b></b>:;)

[5 spike]

Keep in mind that every steep you take in the timber all the surroundings change I take 10 steps stop class and look you have to crawl slow down look listen when you hunt the big timber.

this is so true. slow painfully slow, glass and glass you will be suprised were you will see a head peaking out at you or a flicker of a tail or ear.

[LYKTOHUNT]

Black tails are the same program stop look and listen lots, especially as they are usually in heavier cover. I miss hunting blacktails,it was alot of fun sneaking around the big timber and salal brush on a rainy day.

[ghost]

When you are glassing sometimes it is good to drop to a knee and glass.Quite often when using binos in timber there are lots of branches at eye level.

[chris]

as someone else mentioned pay attention to your nose. I got my biggest buck to date because I smelled him stopped in my tracks and started really looking hard. He was about 50yd away staring right at me barely visible, a couple more steps and who knows he may have bolted. I took a nice blacktail out of chilliwack a couple years ago in the thick stuff because I saw his girlfriend a ways up the hillside. Again stopped and really started looking hard and sure enough no more than 30 yds away from me there was a good size buck staring right at me. They can blend in so well when in the forest that if you dont go dead slow and really start looking you wont see most of them. I love hunting the timber but the key is SLOW, I've spooked more deer then I've seen because I tend to walk to fast and not pay attention to small sounds. Where I hunt the blacktails dont tend to leave the thick stuff to often. Look for ears and butts, it sounds dumb but I never see the full body right off the bat.

[Weatherby Fan]

I hunt a south and west facing area that has a thick bedding area on top then some semi open fir benches and then down to some very steep choppy bluffs, this year I have found most of the deer were not moving very far out of the thick stuff to feed and rut
I have seen more deer when I'm sitting and glassing stationary,when I'm walking I move from tree to tree if possible and stop and glass so I have something to break up my outline.
I have found over the years the slower you move the better,it's not about how much distance you cover it's how you cover that distance,

As one very sharp mule deer fanatic told me keep the wind in your face , let your eyes do the walking and "don't get sloppy"
WF

[knighthunter]

When you are glassing sometimes it is good to drop to a knee and glass.Quite often when using binos in timber there are lots of branches at eye level.

This is great advice even when hunting whitetails. One time when I was hunting whitetails in a replanted logging cut, all the deer tracks were heading into the 10+ feet tall jack pines. Standing up, I couldn't see 20 feet in front of me, but by kneeling down and looking under the branches, I was able to see and shoot a dandy buck.

[Sitkaspruce]

I like to find a good ridge, the steeper the better, and hunt the wind. The steeper slopes have less snow on them, hunt the benches on those slopes, using the wind. Remember that cool thermals move down in the morning and evening, warm thermals move up during the day.

I do not get into following tracks unless I actualy see the buck or jump them. I feel that if you follow tracks, you will end up getting turned around and chasing your own tail. Especially if there is lots of them. Instead I usually hunt the fringes of the area, looking into the timber. Don't forget to look behind you. Deer that are not used to humans can be very curious and will often stand there and watch you.

Look for areas of good sign, as others have said, go slow....super slow, using your glass as much as possible. I like to use "The Can" call by Primos or the one by Quaker Boy. It helps to calm the deer and call in the bucks. Look for does and hunt them, stay on them without spooking them if you can.

Look for a piece of a deer, an antler tip, flick of a ear or tail or a horizontal line in a forest of vertical ones. Yesterday I spotted a couple deer bedded by seeing just their backs in the snow, their backs were abnormal to everything vertical. Walked right up to them using the can.

And do not be afraid to move to the thicker, north facing side if that is where the sign is.

Yesterday, due to me having a bum knee, we hunted a patch of second growth. Lots of deer were moving after the big storm the night before, just nothing I wanted to come home with. It was dead still at first, but then the temp came up and so did the wind, when that happened the deer starting moving. Over the course of three hours (before my knee gave out) we saw 9 deer, a huge bull elk and no bucks worth shooting.

here is the thick stuff we found them in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunting11/PB250046.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunting11/PB250044.jpg

It is a learning phase and I am still learning......

Cheers

SS

[SyntheticHero]

This is all really good info, I'm also nub hunter,and am learning all this important info to try and be a good hunter. Also I'm hunting Coastal Black-tails, And well the subject is up, when your timber hunting what do deer smell like?

[buck nash]

here is the thick stuff we found them in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunting11/PB250046.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunting11/PB250044.jpg

It is a learning phase and I am still learning......

Cheers

SS



If you're calling that thick stuff then you've probably not hunted the coast much. Around here that would be as wide open as it gets without being a fresh clear cut or several hundred year old stand.

[iwing]

Find some deer piss in the snow and give er a sniff. Thats what deer smell like.

[brian]

Yeah that thick stuff actually looks pretty open. Thanks for the great advice everybody, its just making me itch to get up there again. I went through some really thick stuff and didn't notice many tracks through it. The kind of area that can almost hold you upright if you felt like abandoning the use of your legs. Do they usually bed down just on the inside of the thick crap and avoid it for travel? Or do they have their secret little routes through it? Actually as I am thinking about it... they have escape routes for their bedding sites, so I have probably just answered my own question.

[Sitkaspruce]

If you're calling that thick stuff then you've probably not hunted the coast much. Around here that would be as wide open as it gets without being a fresh clear cut or several hundred year old stand.

I was not meaning that is the "thick stuff", just that it was the thick stuff we hunted in that day, as compared to the much more open old growth stuff that was found above this second growth. We found the deer in this stuff and no so much in the more open OG.

I grew up hunting BT on the island and have been at it for 30 years, so I know what the thick stuff is...poke them in the eye with a 30/30 thick stuff.

Cheers

SS

[DeDutch]

I also have had some good success on the south facing slopes, particularily if they are steep somewhat open with a nice undercoating of salal.....I have had the same problem of not seeing them before they see me, but I am a very impatient hunter:) so far this year up the chilliwack 42 does and two bucks but hopefully I will become better at the stillhunting game as i get more experience....or just get older and slower.