Hey guys and gals. I'm new to the forum and a rookie archery hunter. I was able to take my first archery buck two weeks ago. Not a very old buck (2 years) but my first one none the less. I'm looking for some help/advice on figuring out how to hunt some land I got access to this year. The land I have permission on is roughly a 1/2 mile square with only access from the dead end road to the north. The owner runs cattle til the third week of October and then puts the cattle on the large cornfield after harvest. I know things are hard to see without boots on the ground but most of the cover is thick cedar areas with not many tall hardwood trees to set stands in so placement is kinda an issue. There is main draw that is approx. 80' lower than the parking area. Muliple draws that feed into the main draw. My questions are as follows: 1. In cow pastures, do deer typically bed in the thickest cover available? I've labeled where I believe the bedding areas are but not certain. 2. Accessing the stands. I show the path on how I'm accessing the stands. In the morning I go down the road, then through the main draw. Evening is accessed around the cornfield fence line. Not sure if I should be doing this way. 3. Stand locations. Where would you put them or how would you hunt the place? 4. I have set trail cameras out and have not gotten any mature bucks. All small bucks. Are they hanging out in the thick stuff or are they scenting me? I would believe there should be a couple. Sorry with the long post and all the questions. I'm just a newbie looking for some help. Thanks in advance.
I'm not an expert but here's a few things I would do just based on the pic you posted. I took the liberty of marking it up a bit more. Choosing the stand to hunt and entry to stand should be made based on wind direction. I would avoid walking the bottom of this property at just about any cost. Darn near any wind direction and you stand a good chance of putting your scent over a large portion of the property. 1. The stand I circled in black on the N end I would follow the black line in and stay on the ridge top. Hunt this stand on a N/NE/NW wind only. 2. The stands in red look good but you have to think about how you wanna hunt the stand. If you are hunting with the expectation the deer are coming from corn to bed, you need a N/NE wind. If you sit there expecting deer to go from bed to corn, hunt on W/SW wind. 3. The stand circled in yellow is tricky and your entry should be based on the wind direction and where you think the deer will be. Use either of the yellow lines for entry base on wind direction. Geographically the location looks great but you run a good risk bumping a lot of deer should the wind be unpredictable and you sitting there. Ultimately this stand looks promising but you really need to be on guard and scent control will be crucial. I would consider 2 other stand locations just based on the picture where I circled in light blue. The S blue circle has some nice little timber fingers I think the deer would use going from corn to bed and vice versa. The blue circle on the west edge would be good for deer to use that finger timber to get to the corn in the NE corner. After the season is over, put out as many cameras as you can and scout this spring for trails and sign. Put cameras right at the base of your tree stand to see what the primary direction is the deer are coming from and then you'll have a better idea of when you can hunt the stand. Anyway there's my 2 cents. I'm sure some other guys might have some other strategies that will work but there ya go for what's it's worth. I would also consider an Ozonics unit. They aren't cheap but IMO they're worth the money and lets face it, this isn't a cheap hobby. Best of luck to ya!
Hillbilly Jedi. Thanks for the insight. My thought process was to hunt the stands in red in the evenings with the expectations the deer would come out from bedding to the corn. I shot my deer on the south red stand with that exact scenario. The black and yellow stands were to be morning or evening hunts with expectations of deer being in the fields or in between. I did bump deer one morning going into the yellow stand, within 50 yards of the stand. I tried hunting the north red stand and bumped deer in the field as I came in from the main bottom draw. I do like the blue stands, especially the one to the northeast. I would expect that to be an evening stand but who knows. I will try to check for trails this winter and spring before cattle are put back on.
