Spent 5 hours on my knees today. Well, actually I crawled, hunched on all fours following game trails, fell into a pond, found a bunch of deer beds, explored the heck out of my little hunting area. First season hunting deer. Loving every second of it, have sooooooo much to learn. I see deer on cameras that I have left out but have yet to see a deer when I'm in a stand. So far I have seen 3 different does, 2 smaller fawns and 2 younger bucks 3 points and 5 points. I know the map is full of trees but I'm actually having a hard time finding a tree that I can get to with a heavy double ladder stand and have it facing south. Seriously! 8 sits since Oct. 1st opener. Can you guys look at the attached map and give me some thoughts......I love hearing how other hunters think. Thanks in advance, Matt
Sounds like you had a interesting day! Glad you're enjoying it. My suggestion would be to put cameras on the trails and see what's using them and what direction they are traveling at different times of the day. You have a lot of open ground it looks like so try to find a high point and scout the grass/clover field. Looks like most of the deer you've seen have been on the East end of the standing corn near where you have the ground blind and I'd think some deer would move between the standing corn and clover field. I'd focus on the south east corner of the standing corn or in the trees where your ground blind is. If the trees are small, maybe consider getting a hang on stand as opposed to the ladder stand. Anyway some other guys might have some better ideas but with your intel and map if it were me, that's where I'd start.
I don't know how big of an area you have on the west side of the screen by where it says "hunt area." You say that there is a lot of thick stuff around there. Which sounds to me like a good bedding area. If you can find a tree along that fence row on the north side. You could hunt it with a southwest or west wind. It is very addicting. Good luck the rest of the season!
How many acres is that? 8 sits in 12 days is a lot for a small tract of land. Are you taking precautions walking in and out as to keep scent to a minimum? Are there other hunters nearby? Or other hunters hunting that same land? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I estimate that the area outlined in purple is 1 mile wide and 1.5 long. The East side has a couple hundred acres of forest on a small mountain...across the freeway. I cant hunt that land. There is at least one other hunter in a tree stand on the south side of the property. I'm probably not very good at scent control at this time.
My thoughts too. You're likely overhunting your spot, and by walking every inch of the property today you're educating all the deer of your presence. Learn how the deer travel with as little impact as possible. Then setup/hunt only when the wind is in your favor. The more time you spend there the more you're hurting your chances, they're smarter than you may think. The LAST thing you want to do is go in their bedding area (especially someone called stinkymatt)
I'd suggest on that wooded area a stand facing north or south along that river or creek but deep enough in the woods for good cover when they are moving from bed to food
