Strategic entry/exit

GMMAT · 08-19-2008, 07:46 AM

I watched a small bachelor group of bucks, last night, feeding in the corner of a bean field. WHY I didn't think to place a stand there, for evening sits, I don't know (call it novice stupidity).

I suppose I never thought of how to get in there or get out....but it seems pretty logical to use the route depicted (See purple line). Also....how far back in the woods would you try to be.....away from the bean field. This is all new, to me. The white dot is a stand site I'd picked out (thanks grizz

) to hunt when I was trying to catch them going to the mast crops......but it's also a bean field corner that we saw them feeding in, last night.

I need a Sept. 13th West wind and some luck

NCRemington700 · 08-19-2008, 08:08 AM

Are you saying one purple line is entry and one is exit? I would use the top purple line for entry and exit. You'll be much less likely to bump deer that may be bedding on the edge of the field in the morning or evening.

As far as stand location...I personally will be hunting at the edge of the bean field at my farm until I see rutting activity...then I will move farther back near the ridges/funnel where the rutting activitywill be.

GMMAT · 08-19-2008, 08:10 AM

I was just thinking of using the southernmost purple line as an exit route if the deer fed up and away in the evenings. I wouldn't hunt this spot in the mornings.

kwilson16 · 08-19-2008, 08:16 AM

Concur with Dave's recommendation. I would use the more direct northerly route.

Jeff - The bean fields around here are criss-crossed with 4-5' drainage ditches that allow me to walk across the bean fields without being visibile above the beans. Just have to keep an eye open for snakes.

GMMAT · 08-19-2008, 08:19 AM

Hey I'm all ears......but tell me why you wouldn't want to get out of there out of sight of the deer? The souternmost route would possibly allow me to do that. Gotta remember.....deer are coming fro the RH side of the road, too. So that field will potentially have deer in it on both sides. What they will do, though, is feed North.....into that woodlot....and go back to the west to the more secluded fields.

They're used to seeing the landowner....."some". There are cattle in the pasture....and he feeds them, daily, in the winter. He's also amongst them in the evenings from time to time.

NCRemington700 · 08-19-2008, 08:27 AM

If you're leaving in the evening and you know the deer have fed up towards the north...maybe split the difference between the 2 purple lines. Walking the edge of a field is great cover but it is also a prime spot to jump them. You would hate to jump "the big boy" that was hanging back in the woods until well after dark to come out and feed with his girls.

GMMAT · 08-19-2008, 08:31 AM

Quote:

You would hate to jump "the big boy" that was hanging back in the woods until well after dark to come out and feed with his girls.

I wish I had a photo to show you the field as it is right now. The beans are about knee-high.....BUT....I could see a deer bedding in them in the near future.

As far as your quoted line, above.....how am I ever ot hunt this spot if I'm afraid of that happening? He could hang out in that woods line until dark and I'd never know he was there. I'm learning that hunting ag fields is a crap shoot.[&:]

NCRemington700 · 08-19-2008, 08:41 AM

When I'm talking about them bedding at the edge of the field...I mean just inside the woods. Once the beans get a bit higher (or IF) they may bed in the actual beans. At my farm, they've (the deer) have mowed down the beans all around the edges so if they did bed, they'd be in the middle of the field...I don't see that happening until the weather cools.

[/quote]
As far as your quoted line, above.....how am I ever ot hunt this spot if I'm afraid of that happening? He could hang out in that woods line until dark and I'd never know he was there. I'm learning that hunting ag fields is a crap shoot.[&:]
[/quote]

Ahhhhh, the never ending bean field question! That's why I would not walk the edge.

GMMAT · 08-19-2008, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Ahhhhh, the never ending bean field question! That's why I would not walk the edge.

If you drew a straight line from that little finger of woods to the west and the trees just below the red line to the east......THAT IS the edge of the bean field. Everything below that is pasture land. That's what I was trying to stay away from with the northern route as an exit route.

NCRemington700 · 08-19-2008, 08:51 AM

So basically, everything between your proposed entry/exit routes in pasture and not beans?