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Ridges, Ravines and Creek Bottoms

ajupsman

*Supporting Member*
811
70
New Hampshire
I'm looking for advice on how to hunt areas with ridges, ravines and creek bottoms. Where I live in NH it's all mountains and big woods hunting. There some farms in the valleys but those keep getting fewer by the year. For the most part deer are very hard to pattern here and we certainly don't have the number of deer you guys have in Ohio. Anyways, last year I ended up hunting an area of public land that was predominantly hardwoods with some decent ridges and some nice bottom land. I hunted it for almost 2 weeks and saw deer (actually it was the most sightings I've had in 3 years hunting Ohio) but did not connect on a buck. I know I made some mistakes hunting this area because of lack of experience with this type of terrain. It seemed as though when I was on the ridge tops I saw more deer but never in range and when I was in the ravines and creek bottoms I got busted by deer because of the swirling winds more times than not. I've read that hunting the ridges in the morning and creek bottoms in the afternoon is generally a good strategy. I've also read that if the bucks are cruising setting up in a creek bottom or ravine with good visibility is a good strategy too. What advice can you guys give to stand placement, calling, etc in an area like this that may help me this year? We'll be out there for 2 weeks in early - mid November so hopefully its during the rut. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Mark Drury preaches "hunt high in the morning, low in the evening". His reasoning is tied to the thermals more than anything else. Outside of the thermals, I cannot think of a reason why there would be advantage either way.

When it comes to ridge tops, I like to hunt in saddles or near the points. Saddles make for easy travel and we all know deer like to take the path of least resistance. One of my best stands is in a double saddle with an E/W ridge and N/S come together with points on either side in every directions. It is just one of those areas that collects deer. Conversely, I have a spot that sits in the bottom where four hollers come together and I see deer 99 times out of a 100 down there. One defining feature to look for in association with these features are hogsbacks. We have two hogsbacks on our farm that connect the bottom with the ridge and deer love to travel along this narrow travel corridor. The reason I like hunting near the point of a ridge is often times it will form a hogsback as it drops down to lower terrain. The other reason is a lot times ridge points provide great vantage points for bucks and they love to lay there. I've jumped more big bucks from ridge points over the years than any other terrain feature. One of my favorite stands on our place is located 100 yards from the point near a saddle. Off the point there is a small hogsback that funnels deer in to a thick bowl. Deer like to bed on the point or on the hogsback and will use an old logging road to travel to/from the bowl and on around to my stand on the narrow part of the ridge.

I'm a huge fan of hunting creek bottoms as most of the places I've hunted over the years feature bottoms more than any other terrain feature. My evening hunts on our farm almost always take place in the one of our two big bottoms. Early in the season when temps are still high, the bottoms cool off quickly and offer not only a cool retreat, but often times water. Creeks provide edge and funnels, making them great places to ambush cruising bucks.

I just picked up a new piece of ground this year that is a close to hunting mountains as you can get here in my part of SE Ohio. The best feature of the entire property is the narrow ridge running the length of the property. There is a high point on either end of the ridge with shelves coming in from either side of the points like Y's. For a section about 200 yards long, the easiest place to travel is directly on top of the ridge which is no wider than 30-40 yards in most places. It creates as good a funnel as I have ever located. We will be putting in a couple all day sits there in the rut.

Hope this helps a little. Not sure I have any well defined tactics that you probably haven't already heard.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Can I ask what a hogsback is?
I would describe them as "secondary ridges" or smaller ridges that connect to what we would consider a traditional ridge. They are shorter (length wise) versions of a standard ridge top that often serve as transition areas from one elevation to the next. Most often they intersect a main ridge perpendicularly. They are usually defined on either side by a drainage or ravine.