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Hello everyone!
I have a property that this is my second year hunting and I am second guessing my stand placement. I was hoping that someone with more experience could point me in a better direction. I have other areas that I see more signs but they are heavy brush area and would require a lot of pruning and cutting, that is probably best to leave till this winter or spring....I think?
Thank you
Are you only looking to have 1 stand on the property? Or multiple stand locations? Do you have a climber to be mobile?
Right now I only have one ladder stand but would pick up a blind or a hanger in the near future if the ladder wouldn't work.
To be clear, I would like three or four locations.
Dont worry too much about second guessing your choices, its the nature of hunting.
You have a very good spot.
Yes, you are correct in setting up mulitple stand locations. I would set up some trees to intercept the deer between bedding and feeding areas to be able to take advantage of different prevailing wind conditions, once the trees are set up you can move your stand or get additional stands to react to changing deer movements.
If you can find out when that corn is coming down be on stand ready when the last few rows are being cut.
Not related to your question, but here is a link to a vid on shot placement, it helped me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nljTrm-vGGU
The only suggestion I can offer you is to make sure you get neighbouring land owners permission, prior to actually hunting, to retrieve a wounded deer, should one cross to an adjacent property. That's a small chunk of land.
You need to do more scouting.
Find out where the deer are moving through your woodlot, and where they're moving to. Scrapes and rubs are great but coming into post rut, deer movement is going to be different. Get some trail cameras up as well.
Also with a smaller woodlot, I'd highly recommend getting permission from the property owners beside you to access their property to either hunt, or in the very least to retrieve downed game.
Unless you want to start baiting, I'd focus on where the deer enter and exit your woodlot and work the field edges to the south. Depending on the forest structure they may or may not be using it as a bedding area, and if there is no food source they want to access by walking through your woodlot you're making it tough.
The ridge is a good place to start in funneling deer movement in your woodlot. See if you can find any areas with heavily used trails. I would think the south end of the ridge would have a bit more than the north because of the joining woodlots to the south.
Either way good luck with your plan!
hi, in my experience, 3 places are prime locations.
1 look for intersecting deer trails, dont set up on the trails but off to the side where you can clearly see all trails intersecting,
2 anything near a midday food source, apple tree, white oak etc, deer will tend to feed close to bedding areas and venture out farther to crops, orchards etc later in the day
3 anything close to a stream, swamp, lowland, wetland. this is important especially for bucks that will go to low wet lands when shooting and any pressure starts. even if the property doesnt have this option, surely theres a trails going to one nearby.
oh bonus option 4, anywhere where your property, like a corner or a point juts out into another property, this will be a funnel, a great ambush spot
oh btw, not always, but most times, understand movement and location, heavy wood trails are generally daytime , trails through open space or fields are usually night
To be quit frank....on a property like that, dropping a few bags of corn/apples down and setting up a trail cam will tell you if you have deer frequenting that trail in front of your tree stand.
Then try a few more spots around where you have good visibility for potential other stands etc.
Bait will bring them in....you don't have to hunt over it, but it will draw deer across the property so you can find their trails....especially now that there is some snow down.