Water hole advice

[MN Slick]

I gotcha on mornings only during the rut.

Accessing via the yellow arrow requires me to walk an abandoned road bed which is part of our south boundary and then head north on our West boundary to the yellow arrow. I don't own the CRP to the west so I can't come in from straight west. Accessing from the south with a west wind will push my sent into the cover and over the bed on the larger point to the south as I head north. I may have to sneak up the erosion ditch east of the water hole via the creek bed for evening vigils. I plan on going down soon to scout and shed hunt which will give me a better idea of how to best access it.

Thanks

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Looks like a great spot to kill a big one!

What part of Missouri are you hunting?

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[Casper]

Dan hit it right on the head as usual. I would find the beds on those points, take a seat in them and see how close you can get to the beds without him seeing or smelling you. Its a killing water hole, make sure they will get to it in daylight outside of the rut.

[dan]

Dan hit it right on the head as usual. I would find the beds on those points, take a seat in them and see how close you can get to the beds without him seeing or smelling you. Its a killing water hole, make sure they will get to it in daylight outside of the rut.

Right on Casper, one thing I really push with water hole positions like this is to also do some cutting between the points and the pond to give the bucks thick cover from the bed all the way to the opening for the pond so they feel safe moving that distance. Mature bucks don't like exposing themselves in daylight.

I would also consider making an access path up that erosion ditch now, so your not trying to quietly cross deadfalls or other obstacles when its go time... Having the stand position where bucks don't walk is important too... I usually would recommend if your coming up the ridge that you never walk to the pond in hunting season unless its to retrieve, or track a dead buck... A dead fall dropped in front of your stand tree blocking deer from walking over and smelling your access is a good idea too...

And, as Casper hinted, make sure the bucks can't see your access from there beds.

[MN Slick]

Great stuff guys, thanks. MOBIG, my farm is close to Princeton.

I've only owned the farm for 1 year and didn't have a chance to scout for beds before green up last spring. The timber is extremely mature right now and really didn't get much use last fall perhaps because of zero acorns but I believe it's because the timber is way too open. I'm working on a timber sale now which will be followed by TSI work to open up the canopy even more. I'll make sure to get sunlight to the ground around the ridge top along with extra hinge cutting for screening between the pond and the beds. In 2 to 3 years it should be thick and gnarly in there.

I can't wait to get down there in a couple weeks and dial in the plan based on the feedback! Thanks again.

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Great stuff guys, thanks. MOBIG, my farm is close to Princeton.

I've only owned the farm for 1 year and didn't have a chance to scout for beds before green up last spring. The timber is extremely mature right now and really didn't get much use last fall perhaps because of zero acorns but I believe it's because the timber is way too open. I'm working on a timber sale now which will be followed by TSI work to open up the canopy even more. I'll make sure to get sunlight to the ground around the ridge top along with extra hinge cutting for screening between the pond and the beds. In 2 to 3 years it should be thick and gnarly in there.

I can't wait to get down there in a couple weeks and dial in the plan based on the feedback! Thanks again.

Oh man, your farm is in an amazing area! Did you guys hunt it much this past season? I think you are gonna put some giants down when you get everything setup!! Have fun and Good luck!

[MN Slick]

Thanks MO, we are very fortunate for sure. We hunted it a fair amount. Learned a bunch, some good some not so good. We were onto a great 8 pointer in late October we thought we had a good chance to kill the first couple days of November. After a couple hunts in November it was obvious he changed his pattern or was off cruising or with a doe.....or so we thought. Turned out he had locked up with another big 8 sometime just after I saw him on Oct 26. We found them dead on Nov 6 and they had been there for awhile. You can see a pic of them on here, viewtopic.php?f=287&t=16674, both over 140 for sure. I shot my 2012 buck on another farm down there.

We had another nice buck showing up on the cameras often as well that we think is a 3 year old. I planned to give him a free pass since he looked young and spends a lot of time on our farm. My brother...not so much on the pass, lol. He saw him in early November but no shot and I watched him follow a doe into a vulnerable spot the 2nd day of rifle but didn't even want to tempt myself by getting a"closer look" so I continued to my stand. I'm glad I didn't temp myself because he survived gun season. Other than that saw some nice up and coming deer and had a lot of fun hunting over a decoy.

Slick