Blackberry Thicket??

possumpatrol

Button Buck
I have about 3/4 acre of old field that is overgrown on a small piece of property. one side is timber with big trees and a fair amount of smaller trees and some cover, the opposite side is a horse pasture and a house and then the one end is a similar sized field with some tall grass and the other end is a house with a big yard. Just went and walked some of it this afternoon. It is THICK with blackberry and other stuff some of it over head high. I see some trails through it, so I know something is spending some time in there.

In your experience, do deer typically bed in a place like this or are they just coming through there to get some food?



Depending on whether they are bedding in there or not will help me to figure out the best way to hunt it.

Thanks for the input!
 

oldest school

Old Mossy Horns
I have about 3/4 acre of old field that is overgrown on a small piece of property. one side is timber with big trees and a fair amount of smaller trees and some cover, the opposite side is a horse pasture and a house and then the one end is a similar sized field with some tall grass and the other end is a house with a big yard. Just went and walked some of it this afternoon. It is THICK with blackberry and other stuff some of it over head high. I see some trails through it, so I know something is spending some time in there.

In your experience, do deer typically bed in a place like this or are they just coming through there to get some food?



Depending on whether they are bedding in there or not will help me to figure out the best way to hunt it.

Thanks for the input!

you can easily tell if they bed in there, IF you will go in there. the beds will be evident.

like all things deer, it just depends.

i have let a great isolated field grow up now for three years perfect bedding cover now. Never have seen a bed or jumped one in it. They love to walk thru it but for some reason dont stop in it.
 

possumpatrol

Button Buck
Thanks for the input! I forgot my wick coon hunting chaps at the house. Need to go back and check it out with some protection!!
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Even if the deer aren't bedding there it has value like it is for rabbits and quail. Too many places like that get cleaned leaving nothing for the small game. Deer will use it as well as cover before venturing out into the open, even if they don't sleep there.
 

aya28ga

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Hard to to tell without knowing more about the surrounding land.

Sometimes it just takes time to figure out what the deer are using a particular area for. Took me a season or two to realize that for whatever reason, deer in my area don't bed down on the land I hunt, but do bed down along a creek about a quarter mile away. Most of the land I hunt is just "passing through" territory, getting from bedding to feeding areas.
 

beard&bow

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
From spending the majority of my free time surrounded by blackberries for the past few weeks, I'll tell you, they are definitely using the area. And I'll say, from what little time I've had, if there is a grassy spot within the thicket, they'll, at minimum, rest there.
 

possumpatrol

Button Buck
Thanks for all the input.

I tried to sketch it out. I know it looks like my 2 year old drew it. I can hunt the area inside the squigly lines. The property I can hunt has two little fields about 3/4acre each, one that is THICK with blackberry and other head high stuff. the other is knee high grass, separated by a hedge row that connects the two with a path cleared between the two. the rest is big woods with oaks and pines mixed together. there is a corn field through the woods and houses and horse pasture on the other side of the two fields. There is a soybean field across the street. I know the thick field is is basically right beside houses, but it wouldn't be the first time a deer was bedding near people. There is also a bunch of places deer could be bedding throughout the big woods area.

there is a old 4-wheeler path from the road to the small field. If the deer are bedding in the thick field I can probably sneak up to the edge of the grass field and hunt right inside the woods and cover both exit paths for the deer out of the thick stuff. If they are just going there to eat, I can set up right on the edge of the thick stuff and catch them as they try and go in there to eat....

Probably over thinking this...


The little boxes with H's in them are houses..

hunting_sketch.jpg
 

beard&bow

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
Looks like you missed your calling. Should've been a surveyor. Lol. Where's the closest creek?
 

crittergitter

Ten Pointer
Here is where a small drone with a camera on it would come in handy. You probably could get some good intel with a flight over the patch. That would also keep your scent out of there.
 

stiab

Twelve Pointer
Contributor
In your experience, do deer typically bed in a place like this or are they just coming through there to get some food?
Yes, they are bedding in there. I have 1/2 acre of over head high black berry thickets, and they definitely bed in mine.
 

possumpatrol

Button Buck
Thanks for the responses! I need a friend with a drone! that would help a bunch. I put a trail camera in the grassy field to see if/when the deer are moving through there. there is a ditch that runs from the pasture, through the hedgerow between the two fields then between the thick stuff and the woods and I believe along the woods and that house. It is moving water off the pastures I believe, sometimes it has water and sometimes not. Probably hold more water once the trees stop sucking it all up.

I will let you know what I find out!
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
The first of the year cut it all back, unless you rabbit hunt, then wait till first of March. You need to keep all the trees out so they don't keep getting bigger and kill your thicket. I have areas like that around the fields and have worked for 4 years to get the. Now I cut it all back before green-up so the trees don't dominate and the desirable thick stuff comes back.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Anything bordering houses or that people can see from their yard, I would want to be as thick and nasty as possible.

Anytime you've got that number of houses around, you want to create as much cover as possible. Especially with the rest being big (open) woods.
 

possumpatrol

Button Buck
I was able to get some pictures. At least three deer came out of the black berries and filtered through the tall grass field. But only one day, out of the three days I had pictures of. They could be leaving the thicket another direction though. Probably going to try and plant something along the edge of the grass field and woods so I can get them to filter out that way instead of right into the woods. think I can hunt them better there than in the woods...


IMG_0025.jpgIMG_0029.jpg
 

25contender

Twelve Pointer
I love hunting blackberry thickets. Bushog a trail through a large thicket and the deer will use it like a highway!!
 

Eric Revo

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I love hunting blackberry thickets. Bushog a trail through a large thicket and the deer will use it like a highway!!

We used to do something similar in Georgia where we hunted in the middle of a grown up peanut field. Cut lanes jutting out from a hub like spokes, about 50 yards apart or so. At the hub should be your stand location . A double bushhog width is plenty and still lets the deer feel comfortable with cover all around them. They will wear the centers out on these spokes...great way to hunt cutovers and fallow fields.
The spokes will soon sprout with new growth, so deer will browse the whole way to your stand.
 

25contender

Twelve Pointer
I tend to bushog by a tree that is just right!! :cool::cool:
We used to do something similar in Georgia where we hunted in the middle of a grown up peanut field. Cut lanes jutting out from a hub like spokes, about 50 yards apart or so. At the hub should be your stand location . A double bushhog width is plenty and still lets the deer feel comfortable with cover all around them. They will wear the centers out on these spokes...great way to hunt cutovers and fallow fields.
The spokes will soon sprout with new growth, so deer will browse the whole way to your stand.
 
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