Why, Where and How to Find Bucks in Funnels with Dr. Larry Marchinton
Hunt a Funnel
 Editor’s Note: Dr. Larry Marchinton, a retired professor of wildlife sciences fro m the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, has studied and hunted white-tailed deer throughout his life. Marchinton knows where to find white-tailed deer. Dr. Marchinton has contributed volumes of information from his studies and observations about deer habits, deer communication, deer-movement patterns and deer socialization. Much of what we know about the language of the white-tailed deer, scrape hunting, rub hunting and when and how the deer use the licking branch have come from Marchinton's research. This week, he’ll tell us how to locate funnels (bottlenecks) and hunt them to our best advantage.
I asked Marchinton, "If you only could pick one area where you think your odds were best for taking a buck, what does that area look like, and why would you pick that o ne site?" Marchinton didn't hesitate when he answered, "To take a buck at any time of the year, your odds are best when you're hunting a funnel." Deer huntersneed to recognize the importance of bottlenecks because gen erally the deer living on both ends of a bottleneck will travel through that bottleneck to move from one place to the other.
Funnels:
* concentrate deer movement,
* enable you to get the most deer within bow range and
* provide places where you most likely will see deer at this time of the year.
The more funnels you pinpoint on the property you hunt, and the more you learn about when, how and where to hunt those funnels, the more success you'll have hunting deer, not only during bow season, but throughout the entire deer season. Improve your odds by identifying funnels, including those you may be hunting over without realizing it, and altering funnels to provide even-better hunting.
Tomorrow: Identifying a Funnel |
