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Post by coop on Nov 29, 2017 20:02:56 GMT -6
Strategies: - I hang a lot of stands so we have lots of options. - Everybody hunts good wind. - I cut & clear small trails to my stands for quite approach. - Plant long narrow food plots with corn for food and more importantly screening. Food plot stripes to spread out preferred food - Small sanctuary in the center. Selective harvest followed by a tremendous amount of hinging & cutting. - Food plot stands are off limits in the morning with a few “sneaky, corner-plot” stands. - If more than one person is hunting, we all hunt kinda close to one another so we’re only disturbing a portion of the farm. We all walk in at the same time. - Very little hunting until late October. No early October morning hunts unless camera intel demands it.
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Post by MN Slick on Dec 2, 2017 9:13:42 GMT -6
Only hunt during prime conditions and stay out of areas that have tough access or are prime bedding. Being over 5.5 hours away sucks big time but it does keep the pressure off.
I have a hard time not hunting on food. One of our plots brings deer from all directions so hunting off that plot limits encounters. We try to have someone drive in to pick us up or hope the back door exit into the erosion ditch covers our exit. My brother, who tends to hunt the same spots way too much, went 6 for 7 on the plot in November and not in a good way, lol. He hunted the plot 6 out of 7 nights during the rut. However, he passed up 3 different P and Y deer and had another booger when he tried to stop him with a grunt so I can't say it didn't work for him.
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Post by Tooln on Dec 4, 2017 22:47:26 GMT -6
If I never hunted over a plot I'd more than likely be less successful than I currently am. My plot is half acre and deer could come from any direction on any given day. Although I do have stands heading to the plot I find myself more often sitting on the plot.
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Post by Freeborn on Dec 5, 2017 7:27:53 GMT -6
For you guys who hunt food-plots, how are your sets setup and how do you manage using your sets? Here is how my one food-plot set is setup and here is how I use it.
I have a ladder stand about 15' inside the woods that borders a 40 acre prairie grass planting to the west and a marsh to the east. The food-plot is 50 yards away from the stand and I access from the east and I access along the edge of the marsh which is below the line of site of the food-plot.
I only hunt this stand in the evenings and even with that I struggle with exiting the stand without alarming deer. Once I am on the ground I am fine but I am visible in the stand.
My big concern with hunting food-plots is busting deer out of them, how do you guys hunt your plots so you don't burn out your set?
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Post by Reagan on Dec 5, 2017 7:41:22 GMT -6
The plot where my daughter killed a spike gets hunted every year. Between her, my parents and a nephew there have been up to 4 maybe 5 deer killed out of the same blind in one season.
It may get hunted 3 days in a row and then rest for a week or two. It may be all bow and some years there is some gun hunting.
Dad said there was a doe feeding in the plot at noon last Saturday. Our gun season opened the previous Monday.
We hunt hard. But we don’t hunt day after day. We rotate to different stands. We never drive deer and our land is mostly a gun season sanctuary.
I️ would not hunt that plot with the intention of killing a mature buck. But each year a nice buck is spotted in that plot. Usually from the house and not the blind.
The key is having a good population of deer. Yes we spook and educate some deer, but others will be back.
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Post by batman on Dec 5, 2017 7:51:40 GMT -6
For you guys who hunt food-plots, how are your sets setup and how do you manage using your sets? Here is how my one food-plot set is setup and here is how I use it. I have a ladder stand about 15' inside the woods that borders a 40 acre prairie grass planting to the west and a marsh to the east. The food-plot is 50 yards away from the stand and I access from the east and I access along the edge of the marsh which is below the line of site of the food-plot. I only hunt this stand in the evenings and even with that I struggle with exiting the stand without alarming deer. Once I am on the ground I am fine but I am visible in the stand. My big concern with hunting food-plots is busting deer out of them, how do you guys hunt your plots so you don't burn out your set? Access along a marsh edge is typically a no no. Not saying it is wrong for your spot but deer usually like traveling that same edge. They will know you were there.
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 5, 2017 8:12:00 GMT -6
I have stands by several foodplots. All are set up for NW or similar winds. The best set up is when I walk across the yard , through the windbreak to a stand. Two stands are set up on tiny woods plots and the deer tend to only spend a few minutes on them. We could call these staging areas. Just a concentration point for rubs and scrapes before going to the ag fields or more exposed foodplots. I like standing corn in the two bigger plots for cover and I like open rows or trails to them. With standing corn a deer can pop up at anytime and you have cover to exit/enter your stand.
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Post by batman on Dec 5, 2017 8:17:06 GMT -6
The best set up is when I walk across the yard , through the windbreak to a stand. Excellent stand set up we use often that can be hunted a hundred times per year.
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Post by badbrad on Dec 5, 2017 8:39:01 GMT -6
The best set up is when I walk across the yard , through the windbreak to a stand. Excellent stand set up we use often that can be hunted a hundred times per year. Part of my "post logging plan" is to have a 1 acre ish food plot within sight of the cabin (with some timber between but you can still see it) and to have that as a deer watching plot from our 3 season room and also to provide "fun" stands to hunt when you really got the itch to hunt but either don't have the time or the weather/time isn't right to hunt better stands.
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Post by badbrad on Dec 5, 2017 8:41:28 GMT -6
If I never hunted over a plot I'd more than likely be less successful than I currently am. My plot is half acre and deer could come from any direction on any given day. Although I do have stands heading to the plot I find myself more often sitting on the plot. And this is likely because you will see more deer on the plot. And seeing deer is fun. That is why so many people like hunting plots so much IMO.
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Post by Freeborn on Dec 5, 2017 8:54:34 GMT -6
For you guys who hunt food-plots, how are your sets setup and how do you manage using your sets? Here is how my one food-plot set is setup and here is how I use it. I have a ladder stand about 15' inside the woods that borders a 40 acre prairie grass planting to the west and a marsh to the east. The food-plot is 50 yards away from the stand and I access from the east and I access along the edge of the marsh which is below the line of site of the food-plot. I only hunt this stand in the evenings and even with that I struggle with exiting the stand without alarming deer. Once I am on the ground I am fine but I am visible in the stand. My big concern with hunting food-plots is busting deer out of them, how do you guys hunt your plots so you don't burn out your set? Access along a marsh edge is typically a no no. Not saying it is wrong for your spot but deer usually like traveling that same edge. They will know you were there. Agree, I only have to travel about 100' but you are right if they come from this corner they will hit my scent or Nose Jammer scent. If I didn't want to bow hunt out of this location (its on a very good scrap line) I could move it 100' south and rifle hunt only. This is a spot I am thinking of putting an enclosed stand on.
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Post by MN Slick on Dec 5, 2017 9:07:19 GMT -6
The plot I referred to above is about 2 acres. We have a redneck blind set up on the south end of the plot in a narrow strip of trees and an open ag field to the south. An erosion ditch runs east west from our east fenceline right behind the blind and is deep enough to hide us. We access from our east line behind a screen of miscanthus drop into the ditch and walk about a couple hundred yards in the ditch to the blind.
Best case scenario is to have someone drive in and push the deer off but we've slipped out many times by waiting until pitch black, dropping down the stairs, and taking a few steps on a path we rake and drop into the ditch. We planned on putting some netting on the blind to completely block their ability to see us climb up and down but didn't get it checked off the to do list this year.
Sidenote: we had a stand on this plot which required a N based wind and it is much harder to sneak out of than the blind. I can drape the windows and get everything completly packed up while deer are 10 yards away allowing for a quick escape when the opportunity is there. Additionally the blind allows us to hunt the plot no matter what direction the wind is coming from. And blinds are very relaxing to hunt from! I hauled my lap top in a couple times this year to review trail cam pics.
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 5, 2017 12:08:36 GMT -6
If I never hunted over a plot I'd more than likely be less successful than I currently am. My plot is half acre and deer could come from any direction on any given day. Although I do have stands heading to the plot I find myself more often sitting on the plot. And this is likely because you will see more deer on the plot. And seeing deer is fun. That is why so many people like hunting plots so much IMO. In many cases I see more deer when in a stand not on the plots. Exception is standing corn which provides cover and food. Would hunters have different interpretations of sex radios if they hunted thick woods instead of plots?
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Post by Satchmo on Dec 5, 2017 15:09:38 GMT -6
I set up all my trails to plots off of the main driveway/old logging road that runs thru my property to my shack and continues 1 mile to the end of the peninsula. Think tree branch. All but one of our plots and most other stands are within 100 yards or so of the main trail. Quick in and quick out. The plots all have enclosed stands and we have tried to do our best to screen entry and exit. Even gone so far as to put pole barn steel on the front legs of one and scrap lumber on another.
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