Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
I should be able to glass it for one evening at least, and it's across the street from an amish farm where I know the family. They give me some good info on the latest movement. The farm itself is about 300 acres, about 120 of it clover and the rest woods/marsh. Immedietaly west of the woods is a lot of marsh and water and then more big woods.
After reading Stanley's write-up on corridors, I started to consider that trail that forms the island. That island is THICK pines and very difficult to walk through, as is the woods to the West. This field has been CRP or pasture in the past, but clover this year could turn that secluded-feeling trail into a nice corridor IF I can get set up without blowing out any bedded deer.
I'm having trouble getting the topo posted from work. It's a total of 6 ft of elevation change across the whole area, but the marsh is just West of that woods, and just to the south of the triangle is a marsh corridor that feeds into the field. I will try to get the topo uploaded from home
After reading Stanley's write-up on corridors, I started to consider that trail that forms the island. That island is THICK pines and very difficult to walk through, as is the woods to the West. This field has been CRP or pasture in the past, but clover this year could turn that secluded-feeling trail into a nice corridor IF I can get set up without blowing out any bedded deer.
I'm having trouble getting the topo posted from work. It's a total of 6 ft of elevation change across the whole area, but the marsh is just West of that woods, and just to the south of the triangle is a marsh corridor that feeds into the field. I will try to get the topo uploaded from home
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
Hopefully this works. I know it's tiny. You can see the marsh as well as something of a border of the aerials I uploaded. The topo covers more area than the aerials.
- hunter_mike
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
Bump just for an awesome visual thread that gets me pumped
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
hunter_mike wrote:Bump just for an awesome visual thread that gets me pumped
All of the beds in this thread should be holding big bucks with the crop rotation coming back into rotation this year. These spots didn't hold the bucks last year because of the food source rotation. I found beds this year in other locations that where used more because of the security of standing corn. It really takes a solid two years of scouting to see the big picture in rotated farmland country.
- hunter_mike
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
MOBIGBUCKS wrote:hunter_mike wrote:Bump just for an awesome visual thread that gets me pumped
All of the beds in this thread should be holding big bucks with the crop rotation coming back into rotation this year. These spots didn't hold the bucks last year because of the food source rotation. I found beds this year in other locations that where used more because of the security of standing corn. It really takes a solid two years of scouting to see the big picture in rotated farmland country.
I can't wait to hear how that goes for you
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
I bowhunted the public Farmland cedar bed thickets from page 10 this past October. I had a really nice 130's buck come out on one, but stayed just out of bow range. One of the other beds had does pop out of it I was definitely there on the wrong day, but the wind was right for them to bed there. That little spot is awesome though; It's literally yards from a busy blacktop road. You have to cross a deep creek and there is no close public parking spot! I think this little public spot will produce one of these years
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
hunter_mike wrote:MOBIGBUCKS wrote:hunter_mike wrote:Bump just for an awesome visual thread that gets me pumped
All of the beds in this thread should be holding big bucks with the crop rotation coming back into rotation this year. These spots didn't hold the bucks last year because of the food source rotation. I found beds this year in other locations that where used more because of the security of standing corn. It really takes a solid two years of scouting to see the big picture in rotated farmland country.
I can't wait to hear how that goes for you
Thanks man. I will keep everything updated as I hunt the spots.
I'm excited for the year after next too! I had an encounter in mid October with a true 170 plus giant not far from some of the spots shown in this thread. I was walking through a creek to get to one of my spots when I seen a "decent rub" on a tree down on the creek. When I walked up to it, I stepped in a depression in the creek and realized the buck's rub was well over my waist. I knew there was a monster near and I made my first mistake right then and there...I should have hang and hunted Of course I went to my spot and watched that monster come out of the corn with a nice 130s. He came right down by the rub I had passed in the creek I tried to set up on him with the next east wind but he never showed. This is a prime of example of why we hunt mobile...If you don't have your stand and sticks you aren't going to be in the game when you find sign like this. I had my stand and sticks on my back too I still feel really dumb right now.
- hunter_mike
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
I think i remember that story from the live from the stand thread. Do you think he was using the same bedding area you were hunting that night and just a different exit route? I still think you did a great job just by having an encounter with such a buck.
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
hunter_mike wrote:I think i remember that story from the live from the stand thread. Do you think he was using the same bedding area you were hunting that night and just a different exit route? I still think you did a great job just by having an encounter with such a buck.
I was hunting a staging area where the bucks usually come out of the corn and cross a timbered creek before heading out into another feed field. The area I hunt receives a lot of hunting pressure and most of the bucks will bed in or around the standing corn. The 170 was bedding in the corn and was crossing the creek in a different spot heading over to possibly scent check a doe bedding area on his way out to feed. He stayed in that area over 10 minutes...I had to watch him rake his antlers in grape vines and make a scrape on the creek bed edge. These bucks are tough to kill when they bed in the standing corn. I think to kill them you really have to pay attention to fresh sign and tracks. These monsters don't walk in the small woodlots very much in daylight; they know they can be killed there. The isolated fingers and cover for bedding are only part of the bedding. I think the remote grass patches near the edges of the fields will have these bucks bedding there more often than obvious land features you can see on an aerial. Back in January, I'm fairly certain I found where he was bedding. It was an old slough that ran out into the cornfield. It must have had grass or something that made it attractive for him to bed there. I'm still not sure because the harvest destroys all of that sign. In retrospect, I wish I would have just marched out there and looked for myself. I was hoping to arrow him so I did not do that. I hope he makes it and I have a chance to hunt him in a couple years. You never know he might end up in one of these other beds I have pegged to hunt for this year
- Stanley
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
Great thread.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
Nice job and good luck. Awesome!
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
Absolutely a great thread. A lot of great information shared here. I sure hope you get a crack at that 170 MOBIGBUCKS... best of luck to you man!
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- Jackson Marsh
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
One of my all time favorite threads, a lot of great information.
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
Thank you for bumping this up, when you talk about crop rotation, are you saying that they tend to bed in these fingers and islands in the crop fields when its corn rather than beans or the opposite?
I have a lot of public areas in KS I can apply this too hopefully, this is great information. Thank you!
I have a lot of public areas in KS I can apply this too hopefully, this is great information. Thank you!
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Re: Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20
basspro05 wrote:Thank you for bumping this up, when you talk about crop rotation, are you saying that they tend to bed in these fingers and islands in the crop fields when its corn rather than beans or the opposite?
I have a lot of public areas in KS I can apply this too hopefully, this is great information. Thank you!
Yup, exactly what I have found. The beds in the isolated cover fingers definitely get used more when the rotation is in corn. No doubt it's because of the heavy pressure and the corn provides the overhead cover and security for them to move during daylight hours along the edges.
Look for old erosion and irrigation ditches as well. That is where that B/C I encountered was bedding. It had Johnson grass and shorter corn stalks than the area surrounding it. Tough buck to hunt when they bed like this; definitely have to wait two years to match up the bedding conditions in this particular ditch.
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