Hey guys lookin for advice...I acquired about an 8acre woods that sits in the very middle of a 50acre corn field...would I want to try hunting it early season with the corn still standing or wait til later in the season? Thanks!
Congrats on getting the new spot, sounds like a dandy! No idea how to approach it, I've never had a circumstance like that.
Once the corn is cut there will be no way of getting in there without being seen. I would hunt it while the corn is standing, to give you cover getting in there.
It is definitely not my favorite woods to trek to lol...that corn cuts and makes you all itchy but I hope the payoff is worth it!
I used to hunt a similar sounding plot just south of Ft. Wayne. My plot was only about 60yds wide at it fattest point, it was cigar shaped that was always corn on one side, then beans on the other, with a drainage ditch in the middle. I only ever saw one buck in that plot, but he was a wonky 8 pointed big bodied beast. (This is before QDM policies now in place in Indiana.) Guy on the neighboring property got him with a scoped .44 opening day of gun. He went 190lbs dressed. Anyway, if I were you I would hunt it when the corn was up - once it's gone, unless there's another food source in the woods (apples, acorns, or water) then why would they restrict themselves to a barren island in the middle of a desert? it might also be a good refuge to keep an eye on once gun season hits - they may hole up there in the daylight hours once they go nocturnal.
I hunt about 30min south of Fort Wayne. Yes there are oak and hickory trees throughout the woods. The farmer last year was mowing drainage ditches and jumped a 12pt and big 8pt out of the woods...he said hes seen one around.
never heard of a wood plot that big in the middle of corn but I would definitely hunt it early since deer will still be on their feeding pattern.
Lol I have no idea why it is still there...if it was my land, that's an extra 8 acres of corn to plant but it is nice to hav the woods there
I would hunt it all day sits while corn is standing....once corn is out like stated it'll get very tough to hunt.
Id start hunting it now. but set up some cams to find where they are leaving the woods and entering the corn. Personally i think the hunting would be better once the corn is cut, seems like deer hit the fields harder right when they are cut. plus if you use proper scent protection and just hunt on the field edge i cant see you doing too much damage assuming the bucks are bedding within the woods. bottom line is you cant kill them on the couch!
If the corn is up the deer for the most part will bed their days away in the corn, once cut if the woods are thick they'll bed in them, if not....you could be seeing nothing.
Well while the corn is up theres a possibility of them bedding in the corn, so you might not even see much activity in the woods. Another thing is they might be running right through the middle of the woods to get to the other side, go look for some sign or look for some sign the morning of and set up all day. Id go in after the corn was cut. You will see a lot more activity in the woods after its cut. Itll be tougher getting in and out but just get down on your belly and crawl. Its not going be easy and will take awhile but you never know, might payoff in the end. Good luck.
where you at? I used to live/hunt around Huntington. Now that I know there's alternate food sources, I might change my advice...maybe try it a few sits early season, see what's going on, then if it seems quiet then wait till the corn's down. Guess it also depends on your alternate sites. It's hard to say because once the corn is down, they will likely bed in there, and the plot sounds small enough to be tough to get in w/o bumping them. That was always an issue in my similar plot- constantly bumping bedded deer. They were always bedded on the east/downwind side, so if you went around, they winded you, and if you tried to sneak in on the east side, more than half the time you'd bump a doe and the jig was up. That spot ended up being a morning-only spot for me, tried to get in before they did.
I would hunt it till the corn is harvested. After that only time I would think deer would use it would be a buck herding does in there during rut to lock down with them. Or during gun seasons spots like that out in the middle of no where can be dynamite for big bucks hiding out.
Deer stay in the corn and it would be next to imposable to walk into without busting every deer around. Even when its cut its hard to get into a small wood lot without getting busted. You will have some challenges but you may get lucky. I think it will be a hot spot for the rut when the bucks will be jumping from one spot of woods to the next. These small tract can hold some of the biggest bucks around.
If this 8 Acres has acorns you better get in there while the corn is still standing. The corn will be the deer's bedding area and the trees will be their feeding area as they can not resists the temptations of acorns. This is how a lot of bruiser bucks get killed when there is still standing corn in the fields. So to answer your question wait until acorns start dropping! You will also want to try to sneak in there on a really windy day!
