What is it about certain spots that seems magic - and what is yours?

[Jim Boyd]

We probably all have one.

Maybe you have some.

That “one” spot that seems to always be capable of producing deer and in many cases - the bucks we chase.

For some - and maybe even for many - there seems to be little reason why the spot is so productive.

In many cases, even after waaaay too much analysis, the reasons still elude us. It may be that we have not looked closely enough, it may be that we don’t understand the “why” of it and it may be that it is beyond us to know why.

Be that as it may, we recognize these areas and we treasure them.

I have mine - and one in particular - and will share in time (and have some knowledge about why and I have a hunch about something else)....but tell us about yours....

What say you?

Interesting would be the set up and the “why”...

 

[BlackEagle2]

I personally don’t think it is as much about the spot as it is the “day” at the spot. Timing is everything when it comes to big deer. Having that perfect spot is just the tip of the iceberg. I hunt way differently than most.

 

[Danuwoa]

There’s a creek bottom on our place that is money in the bank. Lots of different reasons for it. Besides just being a creek bottom there is a spot of about two acres in there that is THICK. Lots of cover there. There are a lot of hardwoods there so there is plenty to eat and up the bottom the creek flows into a grown up beaver swamp where there is a lot of cover and a natural travel corridor. Saw a lot of pretty good bucks there again this year but never saw the one that made my eyes get wide.

 

[Horns]

I had a city spot for many years that always produced in a spot. There was a funnel with a creek and a bunch of young hedge bush that the deer fed on. I shot my biggest to date there in 2001. It was a 140” ten pointer

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

I’ve seen the same spot produce big bucks my whole life but I was only hunting it for about 5 years with permission. Did good in there many a time until the hundred year flood changed all that several years ago. One guy decided it was time to bring what I counted as 18 dumptruck loads of gravel ( the neighbors say many more) in to stop the next 100 year flood.
The deer sightings went from everytime to once a week to ten days to never.
He diverted the deer and it hasn’t flooded since. Not even now.
My permission is gone and so I moved to other spots.
This wasn’t a funnel it was a super highway for bucks.
Rarely were does around that a buck or two or three wasn’t chasing.
I was spoiled then.
I look for undisturbed land and when I find it the deer live there.
You can tell an undistured deer by it looking at you for ten minutes at 20 yards.
If a deer blows Im liable to drive miles to find deer that dont know how to blow.
I do not want deer knowing Im there. I go to great lengths to be quiet in and out.

 

[oldguy]

I plopped down under a small live oak in the middle of some planted pines early one rainy morning. Heard a crack and turned my head to be eye ball to eye ball with a buck! Shot him! I'm a meat hunter so size isn't a priority. That was the first of around 30 deer I killed from that spot. Spent so many Sunday mornings in there watching the sun come up (worshiping!) I named it "The Live Oak Chapel"! That place was like the hub in a wheel with deer coming from every direction!

 

[elfiii]

In many cases, even after waaaay too much analysis, the reasons still elude us.

You're talking about my magic spot. It's a nondescript hilltop. I don't know why it's magic. It just is. It's a slow, steep, sweat breaking climb to get there and once you get there you swear you'll stay for days and when you come down you'll never do it again but it produces.

 

[oops1]

I have a stand like that on a powerline. I kind of get tired of looking at the same scenery but when I move to a different spot and sightings go from 15-17 deer to 2..I always end up back in the honey hole. No idea why deer like that area so much but they do.

 

[oldguy]

Lost the "Live Oak Chapel".
Got a new spot on our own property now. Call it the"Double Hickory". Mainly a trad bow hunter now (Big Jim's Thunder Child "Orion"). Killed my first, a doe, there 3 yrs. ago. Killed my first buck there this year. Missed several on this learning curve/journey!!
Friend told me years ago, "Life's about making memories."
Here's to making memories!

 

[Big7]

Not counting my Grandparents estate, where I learned to hunt from 8- 9 years old. Those 126 acres, I knew like the back of my hand. When I started, the trac was like 220 acres. We will come back to that one..

OK. I was in a "hunting club" for about 8 years. It was behind the now defunct Ogeechee WMA..

I paid my dues the first year only to find after the fact, all the other member's had "their spot", so they stuck me in "the gar hole"- so they thought.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story. ?

 

[Milkman]

One such spot I had was at the farm I lost access to in 2017. https://forum.gon.com/threads/another-lost-property-thread.913020/

The spot was at the junction of mature hardwoods, a large privet thicket, a 15 acre hayfield, and a 1/2 acre food plot. I had an elevated covered box stand with a padded office chair where I could see and shoot up to 250 yards in one direction. I had hundreds of deer sightings in the 10 years I hunted there.
But the only constant in life is change.

 

[Ben1100Mag]

I have a Red Oak tree along a trail on a hill side in Kansas that I look forward to sitting every year.

 

[j_seph]

One area that seems magic is on a cold morning, around 9 a.m. the sun gets just high enough you can start to feel its heat on shoulder. Then directly there will be some deer that are probably looking for that same sunshine start filtering in.

 

[Buckman18]

In the mountains, the X factor is always acorns. Any 'honey hole' is very often topo based, and is often what is called a gap or saddle. If game crosses a big ridge vertically, a gap may prevent several hundred feet of additional climbing. Game travelling the tops will be bottlenecked into the gap. In a way, its similar to a junction of thick creeks bottoms in the Piedmont.

That said, I've noticed game in the piedmont will use ridges much the same as mountain deer. I think it goes largely unnoticed because terrain features aren't as obvious. If you're in a large acreage Piedmont club with a couple of stands the 'always produce a big one,' pull out the topo map and see if there are similarities. You may learn something no one else considers.

 

[baddave]

I do have several good spots , but I, like blk eagle, don,t hunt like most. I f I sit 5 times it,all be in 3 to 4 different spots. It all boils down to funnels

And I think where r they goi ng and where they coming from

 

[Ace1313]

On my current property I have a junction of eco types. Upland pine, thick 5-7 year old pines, field edge with a fence line and 2 year old pines that lead to a low ditch. This spot has produced the last several year.

 

[elfiii]

In the mountains, the X factor is always acorns. Any 'honey hole' is very often topo based, and is often what is called a gap or saddle. If game crosses a big ridge vertically, a gap may prevent several hundred feet of additional climbing. Game travelling the tops will be bottlenecked into the gap. In a way, its similar to a junction of thick creeks bottoms in the Piedmont.

That said, I've noticed game in the piedmont will use ridges much the same as mountain deer. I think it goes largely unnoticed because terrain features aren't as obvious. If you're in a large acreage Piedmont club with a couple of stands the 'always produce a big one,' pull out the topo map and see if there are similarities. You may learn something no one else considers.

Yep. I'm in the piedmont and it seems deer like ridge lines as well as low spots like creek bottoms. If you catch them on a hillside they are usually transitioning from one to the other.

 

[dtala]

I had a lease in Wilcox Co Al that was low lying with a big creek thru it. One day I found a small high spot, maybe 80 feet across and three feet higher than anything around it. Looked real big buckish...so I put a stand on the only big tree on it. First weekend of season I snuck in there right at shooting light and as I approached the tree I saw a buck under my stand and killed him. Five year old 135" eight point. I knew that spot smelled good....named it Diablo Hill.

 

[ryanh487]

I used to have one, until the property got logged.

Had a ladder up on a saddle between 2 hardwood ridges. The deer would come up through the bottom between the ridges and fan out feeding under the oaks. I saw and killed more deer in the 15 years I hunted that stand than anyone else on the club. I miss those cold winter mornings, sitting in the dark, watching the sun rise and hearing the woods come to life. The smell of damp earth as the sun hit the frozen ground and about 2 feet of thin fog covered the forest floor, dancing in the golden beams as the frost evaporated off the leaf litter. The sound of squirrels waking up and scurrying down the trees, nails scratching the bark. Birds chirping and flitting limb to limb, woodpecker hammering away at the big dead oak in the middle of the draw. It was always full of life and beauty, and shaped my definition of "the ideal stand". I still love to hunt, but sitting in a box looking over a big empty field is no comparison to the magic of that hardwood ridge.

 

[Ihunt]

I found one in Iowa a couple of years ago. Thick bedding that has a hay field on the south. All of the crops are on the north end. The bedding area is proabably 5-10 acres and there’s a trail around the entire southern edge of it. I had a stand in the only tree possible. It was only 3 yards into the woods. You walk across the hay field, step over a fence, and climb into the tree. The deer circle the heavy cover scent checking the cedars and walk right into your lap. There’s really no way to be winded on any kind of north wind. Guess I’ll hunt it again in 2023.

If my plans hold true, that will be the last nonresident Iowa tag I purchase.