....guys have your stands at for the first part of the season?? i mean from(for me Sep. 15) opening day to about Oct, right before you move them for the rut?? i am having some scouting trouble, trying to find sign in a timber with cattle on it is impossible. i think i will just hang one where i think they are in the timber and move it accordingly if i have to
I don't move my stands for the rut. I will hunt the same funnels and travel corridors I always hunt. I may only hunt a particular stand once or twice to keep it fresher for the rut but I don't change my philosophy all that much. I also tend to do more morning hunts during the later part of the season than I do the earlier part.
Follow your food sources early along with thick bedding areas. Your mature bucks are not going to be moving as much in the early season, but you might have a chance to catch him near his bedding area. Closer to rut, do what the bucks do and follow the Does.
Do your homework if you can and get out there and scout by glassing soybean fields if all possible or other plots to see what shooters may approach the field. From this, it will give you a better idea where and what trails enter into these fields giving you an opportunity to further beat him at his own game.
My go-to spots are two inside corners of a field that has some clover in it. It's deadly for an afternoon early season hunt.
H2O for me... of course that's 40% of the surface area here... :D Food, water & funnels in between. I'd start there.
fields back from field edges about 50 yds from where they are coming out to feed... also on the acorn flats a little later...
Mature bucks don't tend to move far from bedding in daylight. I hunt mobile and rarely hunt the same spot more than once or twice a season. I concentrate on bedding areas most of the season. I have my best success on mature bucks in early season the 1st couple weeks of the season. I see more deer during the rut, but they are mostly 2 to 3 year olds the oldest smartest bucks are most vulnerable the 1st couple weeks in Wisconsin where the season opens mid-september.
About 27 yards off a very nice gentlemans backyard. You always see those white oaks at your house with 10,000,000 acorns below them and wish the trees in the woods would produce that way...Well he has 2 of them and I finally nabbed permission last year but a little late. Plan on hitting it hard the first 2 weeks or so.
I hunt where the bucks move during the daylight in early season, based on my scouting/ trail cam feedback. That usually equates to a heavily timbered and brushy combo bedding area.
