I agree.

For now though I would concentrate on water. They will certainly hold in the corn for the food but just like us they need water as much or more than food.

Just wanted to echo what you have been told. Have hunted Illinois 5 times. When the corn is still standing the deer up there will lay up in it just like they do in a thicket here in Alabama. Hunting can be slow and tough when the corn is still up. After they harvest the corn it will throw them back into the woods and you will see more deer. As others have said be back there the week in November before the first gun season comes in. Rut should be kicking in and you will still be getting a crack at them before that pumpkin army invades on day one of gun season. LOL!

I agree completely.

Just something to think about but where I do most of my hunting (pike co) there are a lot of out of state guys with leases and something that is getting more and more popular is finding a local they trust and letting them hunt the property for free and in return they get a lot of good information and someone to watch over the lease.

I know you would probably like to have it to yourself and your group but being so far away you probably have trespassers anyway. You might actually have less people on your lease doing it that way.

Ive never had to do what your doing because fortunately I live in a prime deer hunting area but I can imagine showing up for a week with no information, scouting etc. Is pretty tough.

Not to point out the obvious but if I could live in a grocery store I would, as stated above water might be the key to more opportunity but until the corn is out it will be tough. Good luck.

How many times have you guys seen a deer drink water?

Are you saying a water source is not a good option?

I'm not saying rule it out. Just asking because I rarely ever see a deer drinking water. They don't sweat like we do and their diet specially right now in Illinois has a very high moisture content.

I wouldn't call it a bad idea but I would call it over rated.

I'm willing to listen though.

For us here in Central Il we have seen about two straight months with little to no rain and I mean no rain so that is going to put alot of stress on whatever water sources are left and everything else that did have moisture in it is dead so for us here finding a water source is going to help somewhat.

Have you been hunting on water?

Were still green as Ive ever seen it on the west side of central IL. We haven't had much rain but the acorns are still loaded with moisture and corn is still 20-30% moisture.


I guess my point is not that they don't drink water but that for every 1 deer I see drinking water I see hundreds of deer coming in and out of food and bed/cover.
Looks like we going to have some cold coming finally.