I have kept a hunting diary since I moved back to MT five years ago. The other day I got out my laminated aerial photos of my whitetail hunting zone, and started playing around with magic markers. I marked down every deer sighting in hunting season for five years, blue for sightings that included a buck and red for sightings that didn't. Then I sat around in my spare time for a couple days just staring at those dots trying to see a pattern, a sort of hunting Rohrschacht (how the blazes do you spell that word?) test.

Finally, it hit me like a lightning bolt, or a 130 grain Sierra Boattail, and I started marking out gridlines from the edge of the nearest open field. I put on line 1/4 mile from the nearest field edges, another at 1/2 mile, and so on. When I was done I tallied it all up and came up with the following:

Within 1/4 mile of an open field, I had 1 buck sighting and 25 doe sightings;

From 1/4 to 1/2 mile, I had 5 buck sightings and 21 doe sightings;

More than 1/2 mile, I had 7 buck sightings and 12 doe sightings.

All this may not be rocket science, but it highlights a fact that I had not identified before, and wouldn't have without the hunting diary. For five years I have poured a large chunk of my hunting time down the drain by hunting too close to field edges. In the future I'm going to stay at least a quarter mile back from those fields. (This land is USFS land in western MT, with the field edges defining the private property line.)

You are on the road to success grasshopper

Many here, including myself have done the same. Good job in finding that pattern and good luck with a gameplan to take advantage of it.

Good job my man now get down to some serious
scouting for stand placement now!

I tried that with an aerial of my place and when I connected the dots I had a picture of Dolly Pardon nekkid.............

Wow, you must hunt in some pretty big HILLS.

You should see the hills in this part of the country.

Coyote, as to stand hunting in this country...

I hunt with rifle and am more than willing to pick a ground set and stay put all day. When I started five years ago, I poured all my effort into stand hunting, and had absolutely zip for success. Sitting the best funnel I can find in my area is likely to result in a day of nothing, and two deer sightings in one day on stand is an awesome day. In other words stand hunting is for the birds here. Why? We have millions of acres of pure dark timber in this country, and I think reliable funnels for stand hunting are pretty much limited to country with more limited cover (?like MO farm country?). Once I gave up on stand hunting and started developing my still hunting tactics, I started seeing lots of deer.

Now, in eastern MT, where I get in about week of hunting each Nov., the equation is entirely different. Cover is pretty much limited to narrow strips along creek or river bottoms, and I stand hunt about 90% of the time with really good success.

Great job finding the pattern. Let us know if it helps you and how you do next year.