We are slowly approaching the hunting season and I just picked up a new property to hunt this year. Fortunately enough one of my buddies bought some property about a year ago or so. Finally after a year of begging he has agreed to bow hunting only for just me this year, which I can’t be more pleased about. Location Southern Ohio Two questions for the post! 1.) I’ve never hunted a Soybean Field before - What do I need to know? Best time to hunt? (Haven’t placed camera yet) 2.) The only way to access both stands and the blind I’m going to place is by walking the edge or through the field. Which way to go? Unfortunately due to property limits its my only option. Thanks for info..
You are going to want to know where they are bedding so you can have a good idea of where they are going to enter the field. Once they are in the field itself there is no telling where they will go since there is food in every direction. In my experience once the soy beans start to yellow they start to go off of them until late season so you might want to try early season.
I've got few setups like that where i hunt. Stand is right off the field edge and like you I gotta walk across field or around edge. Everywhere is different but i usually start seeing deer come out into beans hour or hour and half before sunset or after sunrise. It's kind or a luck of draw in morning if they're already out in field or not. I can walk to my stand basically in the dark because its along fence so if you can get familiar enough to do that it would help. Other than that i just try to get out earlier than usually in case do chase something out of field. Even when do they usually come back for me anyway. Best thing i did was take few days and go out and sit somewhere you can see most of field and just see what the deer do and put stand up where needed. If its very big they're may be several different spots but for whatever reason in field I they seem to come into field at certain area and hang out in bout same place. Hopefully that helps little bit. Ha Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
When do the farmers generally harvest the soybeans? I have a good idea of where they are bedding and primarily enter the field (one stand placement is 30 yards off their entrance). Another stand location is right about a little valley right off the field. The blind will be placed late at the far corner of the property to have a 3rd option depending wind direction.
I live in WI, generally they harvest them Mid Oct - End of Nov. We had such a wet spring this year that many farmers planted late so it may be a late harvest this year.
There are more guys from your area that give a more specific timing but typically bean harvest starts about the 2nd week of September in MN. If you can get there soon enough, I would walk through the field if possible. More than likely they will travel the edges before heading out into the field but that all depends on the terrain and what is on all 4 sides of the field. Like mentioned, try to find a vantage point overlooking the field for a couple of weeks before opener and that will tell you alot.
The property I hunt is a soy field with little to no woods so I'm forced to hunt the bean field. It's not too bad but it can be annoying since they are only coming to feed, typically I see them early am and late pm when it's almost too dark to shoot cleanly. On the other hand: I have their entry/exit pinpointed almost perfectly and they typically use the same routes. They will use the beans as cover to cross the field as well, if you can walk the edges of the field without stinking up the place, you can find general crossing trails and even stumble across a bed (?) in the middle of the field. As far as your entry/exit, good luck, I too have to travel the edges but I have been successful, and probably ruined a few hunts I never even knew I 've ruined. You'll just have to try find the least intrusive route to get to your stand. As mentioned, go find a tree with the most complete view of the field and burn a day or two observing, seeing with your eyes will give you the best information.
Glass the field and see which area the deer most frequent and enter, then setup near that trail or where they like to go to while browsing. Pick a spot near these that gives you the best odds for your prevailing wind and a secure entry/exit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Generally for early season bean field hunting I’m going to look for where the first afternoon shade falls on the field. That’s where the deer are usually going to concentrate. They don’t want to stand in the sun to eat. Go scout the field in the afternoon and you will probably see the deer entering the field first pretty close to where the early shade falls. If they are doing that it won’t change much in late Summer.
