Kevin Hansen, email me a pic of your buck at jonsimoneau@hotmail.com and I'll post it for ya!

What a great thread.  I've learned a lot.. and have much more to learn!   I've got a couple questions for you Jon...
Sounds like you primarily have the rut in mind when you pic your spots (at least the ones described here).  Do you save the spots just for the rut or do you hunt them in Oct. and December as well?  
And if you do hunt these spots in October, do you take does from them as well?   Jon you described passing on does, which I totally get because its the rut and your buck hunting.   But do you avoid shooting does in an area where you are focused on bucks?

Nice buck Jon!

Hi Tim. In this situation, I was choosing rut hunting spots. This property is 4 hours away from my house so I mostly am only able to get there during my vacation which I try to take during November.  When I'm hunting near my house though I have gotten to where I rarely hunt the same stand more than 3 times per season. A lot of them don't even get hunted for whatever reason. I've been laying off the does because our deer numbers have decreased so much in the last 10 years.

Here is the buck Kevin shot. What a beauty!

Great thread Jon and a beautiful buck you and Kevin have taken.

Terrific thread!!

I checked back beginning of December and saw nothing.    

Just checked back again today!!

 

Congrats!!

I especially enjoyed your discussion about "headers."  For whatever reason, I seem to discount them.  But, I had a very productive spot years back, in the middle of the woods, and always wondered exactly why deer converged through that area.  Well, a big part was a header 100 yards to the east of the bench I hunted.  Also, I believe was the structure of the dense cover on one side and blow down on the other which funneled the deer.

Anyway, I thrilled you got a nice buck.

Thanks guys. Our season is wrapping up here. I'll be out this Feb/March scouting more and hoping to setup the situation for next season. Best of luck guys.

Great thread. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  Thanks guys.

I look forward to this thread reviving later this spring as we get out and begin scouting again in earnest... Can't wait!

Reviving one of my favorite threads...
I've got a couple of new spots scouted and stands hung. One of my new spots is a header location located near the top of a steep cedar covered ridge. Haven't had a chance to hunt it yet, but am hoping the wind is favorable this coming weekend. Need a wind with a strong westerly tilt to hunt here undetected. My stand is hung in a group of 4 cedar trees and has great background cover.
Another new stand is a true funnel location. Extremely steep hill to the south with hinge-cut trees for 100 yards up the slope to further funnel deer movement. To the north and west is a 6' high woven wire fence. My stand sits against a cluster of 4 oak trees growing right in the fence line. I need a southerly or westerly wind to hunt the stand.
Deer numbers are down due to EHD, but my hopes are still high.
How about the rest of you???

Got out last night to check a stand, for the first time this year. I was mildly surprised to find a scrape in close proximity to the stand. It was larger than a bushel basket, about twenty feet from a wick that I had left out last year.

Think I'll hunt it Friday if things work out. I saw quite a few deer out feeding as well, at sundown.

Now I have a stand in the old ratchet strap tree marked "S" on my map on pg 3                      

Discussion below - Refer to my map on pg 3 of this thread....and see how the best laid plans change in a year            :eek:          

The "B" stand I was talking about there didn't pan out because 1. the farmer didn't plant the field last year and 2. it's too close to the bedding (I was kind of afraid of that).

Subsequently the farmer bailed on his contract (all talk, no action there) and I'm doing the food myself - 3 acres + about an acre on the other side of the farm - and let the other 15 or so he was farming go back to weeds/brush and nastiness (ie deer cover).  I mudded some beans into that field finger in may (2 acres), and the finger across the drainage (1 acre).  They didn't do much between the deer and may/june drought.  I broadcast 400 lbs of oats on those 3 acres in early September and they took off, so I've got good feed in there now                      

I also changed things with respect to the old logging road coming in from the southeast....last spring I did some chainsaw work and now the whole area from the S end of that finger in the map around to "S" stand is 6-8 acres of thick hinge cut and felled trees - its a real mess in there.  I cut off the old logging road where it came up the hill from the SE and made it come out 15 yards south of the "S" stand.  Then I drove my quad with the sprayer on the back all the way from the new "old logging road" entry south of "S" down to the bottom of the main drainage (not shown) to the southeast...like 400 yards in.  I turned around there, and sprayed hot roundup all the way back up the logging road to the new exit south of "S".  This was in May, I was in there snooping around a couple weeks ago and that logging road is still clear and open from the herbicide (the only opening thru much of the blackberry regrowth from the timber stand improvement) - and a heavily used deer trail.  The "new trail" behind my stand and down the hill - this is a deer trail, not logging road - is also heavily used and my primary stand on the whole farm is a new ladder stand I put up on that trail where it crosses a nasty drainage down in there that really pinches the deer movement.

This timber stand work, and moving the logging road changed the whole deal - now with the undergrowth and new growth the "S" stand tree is doable from a cover perspective, and I can shoot both the "new trail" and the moved logging road without having to be as close to the bedding as the "B" stand.

And this is just one situation of about a dozen on the place I'm trying to work out (this might be the easiest/shortest to describe)                    

I know the landowner real well and he and lets me pretty much do what I want in there.  

Love the chess game!

R

GREAT info, Ryan! Thanks for sharing. The landowner sounds like a great guy. Please keep us posted on how things play out this fall. I agree, Love the chess game!

Good stuff guys. I too did a ton of scouting this past spring and tweaking things to hopefully up my odds. I'll post some better info when I get a little time.