Rob i HAD a very similar place as yours but mine was in the woods. it has since been mined out [:@]I called it the wagon wheel. I/my standwas the hub and the deer/bucks came in on the spokes so to speak. It was one of those places that you just never knew where they would come from. Believe it or not that sight was where my user name came from (bloodcreek/crick) is what i called the place.
ORIGINAL: magicman54494
ORIGINAL: Rob/PA Bowyer
ORIGINAL: GregH
ORIGINAL: Rob/PA Bowyer
Great advice but what if you hunt a stand that allows the deer to come from any direction.
My favorite stand, one that has produced very well for me is in the center of a funnel.
I rarely hunt a stand where deer can come from any direction. I try to find places where the can come from 2 - 3 directions. Otherwise it is too easy to get busted.
I never sit in the center of a funnel. It is usually too easy to get busted and ruin the whole funnel. I sit in the mouths of the funnels at either end, depending on the wind.
I understand what you saying but you'd never be able to hunt this particular parcel at all then.
Rob, How wide is your funnel? Could you maybe block part of it off with limbs or brush to guide the deer to where you could hunt from an edge?
No you couldn't block it. To my east, upwind is my food plot in amoungst a crp field that is roughly 80 yards wide. Beyond that, corn or beans depending on the year. Behind me is the main woodlot(downwind) but I'm in the corner. Years (25) of watching and patterning these deer have me in the tree I'm in and placed my plot where it's placed. The hedge row that joins the two woodlots (the other being small and the beddding area which I also have a stand up against which would be the far end of the funnel and I hunt it when the winds right BUT, the deer come from 360 degrees around you). The entire funnel (small woodlots, corn/beans, hedgerow emcompasses 100's of yards in reality. The deer focus/funnel down the CRP that my stand overlooks BUT, again the deer can and do come/go from any directions at any given time. The predominant wind direction comes from west/ southwest and blows my scent through the corner of the woodlot and out over a back corn/bean field from which the deer could come from. Mostly they come from/to the bedding area to my right/ N/W.
I think this stand comes down to what Greg said.
I also believe in "doing what you gotta do".
The 3.5 year old I put in the 04 contest came from that back cornfield. I heard him walking in the woodlot behind me, directly down wind. I called him into the crp field and shot him. I've had them come from the, from my left, from my right, from downwind and upwind. They wonder through that exact area thusly why the stand hangs where it does. Scent control is a must for this stand IMO.
I'll try to get an aerial up to show the example.
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