Well, I'm hunting a new area this year. I find scouting new territory one of the most critical and difficult tasks. It is critical as it can have a huge impact on how well your season goes. Difficult because there is so much area available for hunting it can be hard to decide where to focus. This is public land I'll be hunting in Iowa. From last years experience I did not have much of any competition for bowhunting. I've moved to a different area in the same land management tract because I did have too much pheasant hunting traffic spooking the deer last year.

I'm curious to hear where different folks would target. I have a few of my own ideas but will not bias you all with those at this point. The other thing I would add is that much of the standing water South of the river is dry. It was never very deep and this summer has been VERY dry in Iowa. Much of it is now very muddy, but not quite the boundary I had hoped it would be.

Thanks,

you have a potential stand marked in the sparce woods below the corn and inbetween the beens and heavy cover. I would focus on that spot and a corridor between the two corn fields on the right hand side of the picture. jmho. good luck

God I love maps! I can get my hunt blood up faster looking at a map like yours than almost anything else.

Starting at the bottom of the map. (I'm calling "up" north.) You've got a stand marked out in the sparse woods that makes a corner with heavy cover to the south and east. Why not tuck that stand as close to the corner in the heavy cover as possible? In other words, move it east from the present location. With that corner, you should have deer coming out headed west for the beans on the one edge, and deer heading north into the corn on the other edge.

Now, northwest of the beanfield, you've got a stand located on the east edge of that little bitty triangle of cover. Not having a real idea of scale, I don't know how wide that "bridge" is, but if it's wide enough, it looks like an absolute monster funnel, and I'd want a stand in the south edge of the sparse woods nearest the north edge of the "bridge".

Finally, I like another water funnel east of that last spot. You've got two stands located in that heavy cover near some beds. How about another stand southwest of those two, in the neck of heavy cover running south around the edge of the body of water. That neckof cover connects two cornfields, and a stand on the west edge of the water seems like it would be easier to get into than the two stands right in the middle of the bedding area.

I like most of the stand locations you've got plotted out, and obviously you know the ground and the deer better than I possibly could, but I hope I've given you something anyway. Good luck.

How did you draw that map?

yeah, no kidding! where can i draw a map like that?

If I had an actual topo, I could evaluate further, but I would suspect you are right on.

rightside middle between the 2 corn fields. catch tme goin threw the cover and bedding. just my 2cents

PS: didnt see thebottm sparce woods, that looks like a good spot as well

i realy like the looks of the natural funnel that comes between the two im guessing ponds in blue. I would set up so i could see them coming out of the heavy cover and thru the woods to the funnell to the corn and beans but the wind would be the deciding factor on that spot.

on the east side you have beds if that is where they are bedding stay out of there and scout the outside perimiter of the bedding area to see the lanes most used for travel to the water and food then set up away from the bedding area where you can see 20 to 60 yrds either side of the heavy traffic lanes that is where the bigger bucks will travel.

is this private land? how many hunters? if it is private and not alot of hunters you should have a few spots marked for different wind days and such.

I think Dirt2 nailed a few really good spots. (I love that little bridge funnel) Also, I might set up a stand at the eastern most point of that dry arm (where you have labelled "very dry") thereby penetrating the edge of thatheavy cover (without making too much disturbance,and yet getting a good view of deer crossing that dry arm. Initially when hunting a new piece of ground, I like to set up "observation stands", that is, a stand that might be a likely spot for a shot, but more importantly, one where you can see as much territory as possible (ex. although Dirt2 pointed out a great place for the 1st stand he was talkin about, initially I might move it out to the northwest corner of those sparse woods, and sit therewith a good pair of opticswhere I can observe as much as possible)then get closer to where you have observed (hopefully a big boy) consistent deer. Nice map. looks like a great area.

Thanks for all the input guys. Answering a few questions:

- I made the map in Powerpoint. Most of the features were made using the custom line function that curves between points as you click the mouse. You can then go back and edit the points and drag them around to get it to look just like you would like. You have to close the shape to be able to color fill it.

- I don't currently have any stands out, I've just marked likely stand spots. I will decide, probably with some input from the site, where to put my stands. I will hang 3 in the next couple weeks and put up a forth after I tag my doe around my house (town is having a hunt).

- I too loved the land bridge on my initial Terraserver scouting of the area. It didn't look as great as I had hoped once in the woods. It is only about 10 yards wide and covered in very close growing small (1-2") trees. Where I have a potential stand site is one of the few areas I could hang one around there. Shots could be difficult unless I cut a shooting lane into the thick cover. Of course I might get some shots coming into or out of the funnel, but they could turn a lot of ways in the cover and avoid me. Also there were not so many prints crossing the bridge. However, it had rained recently so I probably could only see prints from a day or so. Someone pointed out that I might want to move it North of the bridge. I'll look into that. I would have to move it back quite a bit as it is open just north of the bridge. Could be tricky to still maintain the funnel effect on the North side.

- I like the SouthEastern most stand site a lot. I also like Hillbilly's suggestion to start out with more "scouting" stands where you can see farther. That would be a good area for that. It might be as suggested that putting it back more in the sparce woods would be the better stand location, but lower visibility.

- I too am worried to hunt the middle Eastern area with beds marked. Not sure I can get in there safely without disterbance. Maybe a morning stand?

- I also really like the North Eastern most stand location in the heavy cover between the river and corn. Pretty narrow woods (80 yds?). Heavy cover with the occasional area where the undergrowth opens up.

Thanks for the help!