Have bowhunted many late season evenings in old barns/ sheds. Looks like a good spot for a late season food plot?
My Grandpa always told me you will kill the biggest buck less than 50 yards from the barn. My dad used to hunt out of an old log barn that had half fallen down, he still insists it was the best stand he ever sat in and killed plenty, including my first deer, out of it.
Yes, and they also have considerably more body weight to help them through their nasty winters. I killed this young 8pt in Alberta, but he weighed 300lbs!
Well I thought I would do something a little more in depth this year as far as the what/why/how I set up each farm, and changes I put in place this year. I'm letting a few farms go this year, and picking up some new ones. Should be fun.
This farm is my new 80 acres that I just purchased. This property will be my #1 focus, simply because it is "mine." It is 1/2 mile of creek bottom with tillable ground on either side. There is a nice little pond in the woods on the western side. The woods are in bad need of some TSI, so that will be a big project this year. I would also like to put some of the tillable into crp, in the form of a 30 yd buffer strip between the woods and crops all the way around. I will also be finding a couple spots for bow plots; ideally one on north side of woods and one on south side. And I have a deal with the farmer renting the tillable to leave some crops for a late season food source. This is a blank slate farm. Previous owners didn't hunt so I don't know of any specific deer history, but I will say it is in a phenomenally managed neighborhood. My standards will be high here.
This is the Home Farm. I live here and farm this ground. It is split into two parcels, the west 60, and the East 200. Interestingly, most of the deer don't seem to overlap much, other than once in a while. Typically the deer I get on camera on the East side stay there, and the deer I get on the west side stay there. This one I have put 3 years of work into so far. Almost all of the timber has had TSI work done, and I basically stay out of it and hunt the fringes. There are some things I'm going to tweak this year. More food, more TSI, moving/adding a couple stands.
This is a spot a few miles from my house. I really haven't put in a ton of effort here because so much of my focus last year was directed at one deer, but I did actually get some pictures of a 170 class deer here during late October, so I may end up putting in a kill plot here...we will see. It's basically a 20 acre hedge apple and cedar thicket surrounded by a couple miles of crops in every direction.
This is a new farm pretty close to my house as well. I'm calling it the barnyard farm. Lots of structure here. the pasture is only used in the summer, so from mid-October through May, it's full of deer. In the couple times I hunted it this past year, I found a ton of big rubs and scrapes. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can put together here with a whole year to plan.
This farm doesn't look like much from the air, but it's pretty deceiving. There isn't much in the way of trees, but the terrain is pretty rugged with lots of hills and valleys. I have this farm figured out fairly well. The deer movement is actually pretty predictable considering how open it is. I will still tweak a couple spots and likely move where my late season food plots from where they were last year.
This is the big timber farm I picked up last year. This place is going to be a KILLER rut farm, which is great because most of my previous spots were great early and late season spots but not so much during the rut. It's 80 acres but hunts like 200. Tremendous amount of structure, big hardwood ridges and steep valleys. Its also a slice out of a huge block of timber that hugs the river and runs east and west. Basically one gigantic funnel. I picked this up at the end of October and basically went in and did hang and hunts and left my stands. I will be doing major work here this year...lots more stands, cameras, etc to really figure this one out.
I carried more alfalfa and corn out to the big timber farm last night. Checked a couple cameras while I was there. The deer numbers on this farm are astounding. Beat down trails everywhere in the snow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This is a lease I have had for a few years. It's in a great genetic area. This may sound crazy, but I haven't hunted here a single time since I have had the lease. I have put a buddy on a couple deer here though. I love the structure on this farm, with the creek bottom surrounded by CRP. I just haven't ever gotten a "great" deer here on camera that I wanted to hunt. I think it has more to do with pressure. There are lots of primo genetic young deer every year...they just get killed. Not a lot of super old deer. I am strongly contemplating letting this lease expire and focus my efforts elsewhere.
This farm is another one that doesn't look like much from the air. It actually sits right against a major highway, and it's right across a river from a small town. But there is a huge block of timber to the south. Deer density here is insane. Last night I drove past this farm and there were 50-60 deer in the cut corn. The deer typically come from the south and congregate around the strip of timber on the NW corner. I just picked this farm up in December, and only hunted it once. I plan on running some cameras here this summer and will be putting up a couple late season stands.
This is a new lease for this year. 760 acres in total, on 3 tracts. Most of the timber is on one 160 acre piece, but the other two pieces have a lot of CRP and butt up to bigger blocks of timber. The landowners wife shot a 190" deer from the truck cab while they were checking cows a few years ago. It has never been leased for hunting before. From what i have seen so far, the genetics here are primo. There is a huge tract of public land pretty close by, so hopefully with food plots I will be able to pull some deer from there as well. I'm really looking forward to running cameras this summer and seeing what's here.
And lastly...I literally just signed the lease on this one a couple days ago. 644 acres of TREMENDOUS structure. very hilly terrain. 180 acres of row crop, 70 acres of cover/alfalfa hay fields, 200 acres CRP, 40 acres in Forest reserve, and the rest in pasture. But the pasture is actually the thickest part. Lots of steep cedar draws that the cows can't get into. There are some TV show folks that own a big farm just to the NE across the road, so the area is highly managed. This particular farm has never been leased before. the owner used to hunt with his family during shotgun season, but he said he just doesn't have time anymore. This is truly a blank canvas. Super excited to see what happens here in years to come.
You have 10 sections of land totaling roughly 2,000 acres in Iowa. That has got to cost a fortune (unless some of the farms are permission only, not paid for). Do you do this for a living? Did you inherit a fortune allowing you to acquire this many properties? How do you decide which one to hunt with that much land? How do you find time to manage so much acreage on 10 different properties?
He left out one question. How do you convince/compel your wife to let you spend every free minute doing something deer related? Mine thinks all I do or think about is hunting and i probably go 15 to 20 times a year for a few hours at a time and she "never" sees me
