Hoyt_Viper

Man, our ag fields are going nuts with all of the rain we have had this season. The soybeans are waist high and corn is double head high. I just got a new area I will be hunting and its pretty much all bordering 600+ acres ag fields (soy and corn). My entrance to my stand set ups are pretty much on the field side and a hell of a walk.

Would you go around or through the fields in early AM? What about PM...and why? Would your answer be the same if it was cut or early bow season when some may be still standing?

boilermaker85

IMO I Would say slip in along the edge.as not to spook any deer.Or damage the crop. even after the crops are cut.The tree/fence line wont expose you. Even if it is a long hike.As with most adventures getting there is the best part. p.s google earth your prop it may show u the way thats easiest.and alot easier than topos. goodluck

kickin_buck

In the early AM, you have to assume there will be deer feeding in these ag field. Therefore, IMO, you best option is to slip along the fence row. This will limit the number of deer you will bump and help conceal your movements and being skylighted. This would go for both when the crops or in, as well as when they have been removed.

PM hunts are little different. If you are getting to your stand before the deer are entering the ag fields to feed, I would see no reason why cutting across (after the crops have been removed) an ag field would hurt anything.

GMMAT

I wouldn't hunt it in the AM's.

Hoyt_Viper

I was on the same thought too, but things are a bit different this year...my daughter starts the big "K" and was just told I am on "bus stop" duty on afternoons Mon-Fri. Most of my hunts will be in the AM, except Saturdays. Talking about throwing a wrench in my gears!

The reason for the post is that although I feel most comfortable sneaking in around the field, I have bumped many deer that are loitering in the edge of woods waiting to come into the field or looking for some leg. I was almost thinking that if the corn is still standing (early bowseason) that I could easily cut through quietly with just as much chance of spooking any...if I get there early enough, both AM or PM. I am using my new GPS (birthday gift from friends and family )this year so sneaking through 10 ft corn wouldnt be an issue.

I guess that it will also depend on wind, shadows, etc. on if I choose the outer edge. Sounds like trial and fire on this one.

GMMAT

They'll also bed IN the corn. I wouldn't wak through the corn field while it was still green or go through it in the dark (AM Darkness).

Beezer

I'm by no means a great hunter, but common sense told me while watching a show one time that it didn't seem right to walk across the very crop fields the guys were planning on hunting. As if they knew I was calling them idiots, one immediately answered my questions about what they were doing. Their reasoning was that the deer come from the treelines, not the middle of the crop field. So, by walking across the field itself they limited their scent trail to just the section they walked through. Since it was the middle of a large field, there was less of a chance of being scented. If they'd walked along the treeline to their stands, they'd have chanced putting a scent trail along the entire treeline, thus increasing the chance of being scented by deer.

Seemed odd at the time, but it also made sense to me. Then again, I'm still a beginning hunter myself.

Hoyt_Viper

My exact thoughts exactly. I wouldnt feel bad about walking on eggshells through it, and come out exactly where my stand is. Walking around it just seemes to leave such a large opportunity to leave a scent around the circumference of the very field, more than make a straight beeline to it, in half the time and possibly jump a deer, with same odds as around it. I have patterned them minimally but watching them show up 45 minutes before sunset, and in mid day taking the same minimal risk of transvering a straight stalk to my stand. I have seen more deer bed in the surrounding cedars and straw grass surrounding the crops, than in them.

Again, scent control, wind and the ability to cautiously, very slowly taking the direct line to it concealed by standing corn. It (the corn) gives me the same coverage especially dragging a scent rag or grunting occasionally while making the trip. I have seen this written in hunting magazines, and the content of the story was about successfuly getting to the opposite side of the ag field, rather than taking a 360 degree around the field vs possibility bumping more than a straight line through.



Of course GMATT will contradict, but to each its own. And who knows, the late season corn after the cutting will no doubt leave a very challenging trip to my stands. I have them set up covering a semi-circle on the hunt side of the fields so wind and elements will most definately dictate the way I would do it in different scenarios, or even scrathing that hunt.

no doubt I sound lazy about walking the outer circumference of the field, adding an hour to my being on the ground, but I just think of just the same possibility of bumping the tree line that undoubtedly hold deer watching the fields, undetected until you hear the snort and get the whitail finger.

Jeff, I have bumped more deer on the woods edge around a field than concealment (scent,shadow,como) and stalking through it. Theres obviously ways that will be determined from the particular days winds that would change the approach, but you have your reasons and the article suggesting a low profile and slow paces with the cover of the corn was the preferred path, I believeit was a story in North American hunter (which I belong), or it was maybe Field & Stream.

Again, the input from my fellow HNI hunters will vary, but I guess without seeing my set up, you may very well change your mind

GMMAT

Jeff:

I honestly don't care how you do it. If you think deer won't bed in corn....then you're on your own.

I was trying to help you. I don't need the confrontation.

Give 'em hell.

p.s. Link me to the article that tells the hunter to hunt a corn field edge in the AM and to enter through the middle of the corn.

Hoyt_Viper

Confrontation...wasnt even close. I am just looking at my best options, and myself...I will probably, well in most occasions, do the opposite what you do. Your scenarios are not the same as mine, and vice versa.

The shortest point from A-B is my goal, and without laying down a mile long scent and several wind directions, I may very well sneak in through them when they are still standing. Its giving me cover, and theres a 10-1 chance I will bump a deer in there. The on the perimeter may be 20% higher, who knows..

When they are cut and thined out, different game plan. I wanted to hear others opinions, which happened, but your posts seemed to be adament about your ways and styles...and I wish you the best.

Thanks for the replies, and I stated in a previous post on this thread, it will more than likely be trial and error. Never been out there bowseason to see whats standing, but the corn is fricking giving my best cover to get in, without walking 2 miles around it and leaving scent all over the perimeter. I may lay off until later in the bowseason, as I have other leases, but this being a new one, and the great agriculture this year I wanted to give it a shot. I stated above that I am playing bus stop dad, and my hunts are limited to morning....just looking for advice fellas.

Yours is taken Jeff, but you really need to stop trying so hard to be the devils advocate to posts. I respect your methods and wont ever sit here and suggest how you should hunt my ways. Im successful in my choices....you?