Hunting Inside Corners
Mapping Whitetails #02 will cover where, how, and why you should be hunting inside corners. First off, let’s define the difference between an inside corner and an outside corner with a few examples:
Inside Corner – In deer hunting, an inside corner exists when two habitat types converge and one cuts into the other. When the field jots/cuts into the woods it forms an inside corner.
Vice versa, when the woods jots out into a field it creates an outside corner. These references occur most often in ag or pasture country where fields are typically rectangular in shape. See the illustration below.
The two inside corners marked with an asterisk are technically inside corners, but they probably aren’t the hottest inside corners because deer are likely not travelling around them to get to the woods that jots out. This is explained in greater detail below.
What’s so special?
Inside corners are special features when it comes to hunting hot zones because this is where multiple trails often converge. The reason for this is because deer, especially matures bucks, prefer to travel in cover during the daylight hours. Thus, rather than cutting the corner across an open area to get to the other side of the woodlot, they round the corner. Due to their location, inside corners also take advantage of the trails paralleling the field edges. Essentially, an inside corner creates one half of a funnel.
Here’s an instance of how deer might travel through a woodlot and around the open field.
Like any hunt, it’s important to use the wind to your advantage. In this instance we’ll say the crop field has already been harvested, therefore blowing your scent out over the field would be ideal. The beauty of inside corners is that they are effective throughout the entire season, not just during the rut.
Now it’s your turn!
Here’s an aerial image from western Pennsylvania showing multiple inside and outside corners. Using the grid, describe what corner you’d like to be hunting and what wind you’d hunt it on. Example: 5B on a NW wind (hint – not an inside corner).
Click image to enlarge.
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First off, this is a pretty nice section of woods to be hunting if I do say so myself. That said, two spots stand out immediately!
- I’d hunt the inside corner in grid block 4C on a southwest wind. This is the hot corner to round as deer travel from the long east-west running block of timber to the western north-south running block of timber. As a bonus, it appears as if there is a thick bedding area kitty corner from the ag field. This scenario presents a full blown pinch point on top of being just an inside corner, as the deer will likely travel the easy to navigate hardwoods between the two. This is a definite kill zone.
- I’d also hunt the inside corner in grid block 4H on a southeast wind or a northwest wind. Similar to the inside corner in 4C, this is the corner that deer will be frequently rounding as they travel through the large woodlot around the open ag fields. Hunting it on a southeast wind would require your stand setup to be tighter to the field edge with the main deer trail located southeast of the stand. Vice versa, you could hunt the same trail on a northwest wind if you setup on the opposite side of the trail (downwind side).
