hoyt3

I've got permission to hunt a large apple orchard (about 1500 acres of apples and corn). I went looking around for the errant whistle pig tonight and basically got skunked. my secondary agenda was to see if there were any decent deer around. I did see four. one doe, a fawn, and two bucks. one I didn't get a good look at the other posed for me for several mins at about 50 yds. he was a 16-18" 2.5 y.o. eightand would tempt me for sure. I hunted this spot last year without a sighting, but in late october. I'll be hunting it in early october this year while the apples are still up. here is the question. the property is not easy to access, at least this part of it. if you take a horseshoe and cut it in half, put the apple trees in the inside of the shoe, and the woods on the other, that is basically what it looks like. the orchard itself is only about 75 acres (this part anyway). it slopes downhill into the woods and fence line. I need to get some ideas on how to access the area without being seen. I already know I am going to park my truck several hundred yards away on the other side of the hill. I was thinking of two access routes. one, go through the woods just on the inside. two, walk the edge. anyone have any thoughts on this? I don't think that I am going to hunt it in the am, simply because I think the deer are in the orchard and all I would do is alert them. I'll be there early enough in the season that they will still be coming to the apples in the pm, especially with the light hunting pressure around them.

Deerslayer_37

Being able to hunt an orchard......yeah, if i could hunt anywhere, that'd be a dream spot. I'd hunt edges. Deer are edge orientated. find out where the bucks are staging, and hang some stands. I know a few orchards here are open while one up by my dad's hometown is completely high fenced to keep deer out.

slayer

JoshKeller

I bet there is a funnel those deer are using. You may not even be able to see it while you are standing on it. Get yourself an arial photo, and post it on here. I would bet that if you went in early enough (noon maybe?), and set up in a ground blind within range of any potential funnels, you would have success.

Also, make sure you approach from downwind. I've seen plenty of deer that were not alarmed for more than a minute or two after seeing a human walk by. But when that scent hits them, they go crazy!

Terraserver.com and Mytopo.com are good sights to get them for free.

cardeer

Before the season sit and watch the edges from a long distance and watch for the deers most requent entry points from ythe woods then set up there on the edge.