Places to hunt the first week of season???

[Bowhunt]

I have a couple of areas that I have would like to ambush a deer and would like your advice on them and how you would hunt them.

Place 1:

Pro: Alfafla field with lots of deer and secluded!

Con: How do I get out of my stand without spooking deer there are deer in the field, and deer still staging well after dark. How do you get out without spooking them too bad? I am hunting by myself so being picked up at the stand will not work.

How do I get out of here at night?

Place 2:
Deep Ravine with side hills lined with white oaks that are are going to have lots of acorns, water source from creek, and plenty of shooting lanes with lots of deer sign. Hunted in past and seen 2 to 3 bucks a time, but I get picked off alot even with carbon suit?

Con: Deep ravines the wind swirls alot!

How do I beat the wind??

 

[Pupster]

Well area number one would be my choice. The downside of getting out without being detected means a lot of out of the way walking! Leaving out the "back door" so to speak. My place like this requires I leave when darkness falls walk down a deep ravine, totally the opposite direction of my truck, out to the road and walk the road back to my pickup. Going in to my stand it takes about 2 minutes or about a 150yd walk. Leaving takes about 15 minutes and a 1/2 mile walk. I hate it but have no choice.

Area 2 I personally wouldn't hunt due to what you already mentioned....swirling winds.

Good luck! Remember your best chance at a big buck is the first siting in a stand after that your chance fall offf dramatically!

Are you bowhunting?

Pupster

 

[jharrell]

Hey, area 1 sounds like a perfect place for the patented Muddy Cow call technique!!!

Area two is a tough one but I would not hunt right in the ravine itself. They have to be coming in and out some place so I would try to find where I thought they were coming from, figure out windage, and hang a stand to intercept them in route. This may sound crazy but ravines like you have described can be just what the doctor ordered on a really windy day.

 

[Bowhunt]

I am bowhunting pupster, I love Iowa. Hunt the rut with a bow!! I am also planning on a sept Wi hunt, and a november Mo hunt if I tag out here so I will get my bowhunting in!!

Headgear, what is the reasoning behind the windy day theory??

 

[jharrell]

My experience on really windy days is that my deer sightings go down. If you can find a food or bedding source out of the wind there is a good chance the deer will come to visit. Now I'm not talking about those breezy days I'm talking about those days when you wonder if the tree your sitting in is going to break. I have been out on the edge of fields or good paths in the timber on those kinds of days and I should have just stayed home because the tree rats didn't even make a showing. There is a bluff where I hunt in Iowa that faces the north with a corn/bean field at the bottom. It also has oak trees all along the face of it. On really windy days when the wind is out of the South I sit at the bottom of this bluff. Usually the deer will show up at some point during the day to feed out of the wind. Also a really bad wind can screw up your shot.

 

[afterpy]

I know there is an attraction to hunting along a field edge with a lot of deer activity. I agree that hunting a food source early season is a good tactic also. Maybe a suggestion to help increase your chances for a close encounter is to locate a predominate funnel or secluded corner where deer traffic would seem to be heaviest entering the field. Many times I will drop back into the woods from that entry point 40 to 60 yards to intercept deer coming into the feeding areas. Mature bucks will hang in these areas only entering the field after your shooting light has diminished, thus increasing your odds to cut'em off at the pass sort of speak. This may also help your dilemma of getting in and out of your stand undetected, as mentioned before a back door exit may be a choice to consider. I sometimes do a coyote yip or two , to push the deer away while not alarming them to human presence . When I hunt these areas I wait until it is completely dark before doing my exit, the least amount of detection the better. Good Luck.

Scott