Understanding Vegetation Features to Hunt Mountain Bucks

Here are the key vegetation features that catch my attention:

• Conifer stands – Typically variations of hemlock, pine and spruce grow throughout northern Pennsylvania and can offer great bedding cover for the deer. In addition, they provide great thermal cover and insulation during cold, windy days, as well as shade and cooling during the hottest days of the year. The edges of the conifer trees tend to be ideal for bucks to leave behind signs such as rubs and scrapes. You can almost put money on this: if you find lone conifer trees in a timber cut, you will find a deer bed underneath it.
• Timber Cuts – I pay attention to timber cuts more than any other vegetation feature because, depending on the age of the cut, they can provide food, bedding or both. Newer timber cuts are prime feeding areas (especially in the winter months) with deer feeding on the tree tops that were cut down. Timber cuts in the 3-8 year old range start to have some thick undergrowth that creates food opportunities in the form of browse, as well as security cover for bedding. The older timber cuts over 8 years of age continue to be great for bedding even though the underbrush may not be as thick, as the trees begin to grow tall enough to choke out some of the sunlight reaching the forest floor.  These can be tough to hunt, but the skid trails that go through them and on the edge can be great to hunt. You might think that having logging operations come in will be a bad thing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! It will change things at first, but it will create great habitat for years to come.
• Mast trees – Oak, Cherry, Beech and other trees that produce acorns, black cherries, beech nuts, etc. are preferred food sources in the big woods when they are available. Not all of the trees produce every year, but a good mast crop on a ridge can bring deer in from far away. These areas tend to be more open woods, so focusing near the edges of thick cover and/or on a terrain feature are what I focus on the most.
• Hard edges – You might have noticed it by now, but I mention it a lot. EDGES. Deer love to walk the edges of vegetation and terrain features. For example, if there’s a side hill covered in hemlock trees that meet a ridge top covered in oak trees with a good acorn crop, I would try to find a place to set up on that transition.