Funnels and pinch points are often talked about by hunters. Sitting around a campfire and talking with your buddies about where your best hunting locations are, more likely than not, most will be centered around something like a funnel. The question is, do they actually know what a funnel for deer movement is, and why are they traditionally so good to hunt over?
First, a funnel is anywhere the deer movement will be bottlenecked down to a manageable archery shot. This can be caused by a small finger of foods the juts out into a field, or even a piece of the field that cuts back into the timber. Or it can be a line of cover with timber and or crop fields on one side and some sort of water on the other. Think of an hour glass, and if you find that sort of shape on an aerial map, you’ve likely put your finger on a funnel.
The best funnels are typically located near a food source, whether agricultural or natural, and are in between two known areas of thick cover. Usually, these pieces of cover will be prime doe bedding locations, and so cruising bucks during the pre-rut and rut will almost be forced to utilize that funnel to move between these bedding areas to check for estrous does. If you have food in there somewhere, like a line of acorn trees for the buck to browse on while he travels, then you’ve got the perfect recipe for a surprise attack from above, especially with a crossbow.
We all know that it is important to remain concealed, and as motionless as possible, for fear of alerting any deer to our presence. That is why a crossbow is ideal. No longer will you have to wait for the right moment to shift your feet into the proper position, wait to draw your bow while the deer is unawares, and then execute your shot. With a crossbow, the draw is already done when you cocked it. You’ve just eliminated what is often the most precarious motion that a hunter faces in the whitetail woods. Sound like a formula for success to me!
This is to say nothing at all about the extreme advantage that you’ll have with the ability to fire as shot off from that hunting crossbow while remaining seated. Yet another bit of motion has all but been eliminated from those moments leading up to the actual shot.
In addition to this, many crossbows come with illuminated scope reticles, making them the perfect tool to harvest that bruiser buck that walks by your stand just as legal shooting time arrives.
Study those aerial maps of the properties you hunt. Find those pinch points. Hunt those funnels. And we can almost guarantee you’ll enjoy some of the best rut hunting action of your life!
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