Hunting Ag areas

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


User avatar
Sam Ubl
500 Club
Posts: 1647
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:38 am
Facebook: https://www.carbontv.com/shows/chase-na ... red-slider
Location: Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby Sam Ubl » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:39 pm

I think they'll typically head for their core bedrooms first thing in the morning. I stumbled on a couple beds out in the open last summer when I walked into a small cluster of white oaks surrounded by mostly lowland on one side and ag fields on the other to set a camera. They were positioned within 15 yards of the hard transition from thicket lowland to hardwood on a small bump of elevated ground. There were rubs very obviously from the buck(s) that were bedding in these couple beds so I knew "they" were bucks. It didn't strike me until I was driving home these were probably night beds where potentially a single buck was laying down to chew his cud.

The next morning I stopped back there on my way to work and with loafers an dress slacks, tip-toed in there and moved my camera over one of the beds with the other in the background - they were 10 yards apart. Three days later I went and pulled my card. It was one buck using both beds each night as he fed on the abundant acorns.

So I guess what I'm saying is that typically I'll find the majority of "close" proximity beds according to food sources in the summer and early fall are typically night time beds versus the dead of winter with heavy snow when they yard up and day bed close to food for other reasons.

The buck buck in my story above was a 2-year old 6 that actually bedded about 250 yards away in a 2 acre cluster of dogwood growing along an old drainage ditch on this piece. I know because I had scouted that bed and set up on it only to watch him rise from it one evening. So, I guess it may also come down to what you deme as close.

[ Post made via iPhone ] Image


Chase Nation | Reality Hunting TV | http://www.chasenation.tv
Watch Chase Nation on Carbon TV: https://www.carbontv.com/shows/chase-na ... red-slider
Huntmore | http://www.huntmore.io/
mheichelbech
500 Club
Posts: 4188
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:00 am
Facebook: mheichelbech@gmail.com
Location: Charlestown, IN
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby mheichelbech » Thu Mar 27, 2014 1:12 am

When you have corn and beans near each other, do you find there is a normal feeding pattern progression, where maybe they go from beans in Summer to brownup, then to acorns as they drop, then to corn or is a lot less predictable than that? The buck I am chasing, last year, had him on a plot watcher camera through late Summer hitting the beans about every evening then he dropped off the radar, probably due to my scent, but I think he went to bed in the corn after that as he was spotted in that area during the rut.
"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
iowa whitetail
500 Club
Posts: 690
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2013 2:07 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby iowa whitetail » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:22 am

mheichelbech wrote:When you have corn and beans near each other, do you find there is a normal feeding pattern progression, where maybe they go from beans in Summer to brownup, then to acorns as they drop, then to corn or is a lot less predictable than that? The buck I am chasing, last year, had him on a plot watcher camera through late Summer hitting the beans about every evening then he dropped off the radar, probably due to my scent, but I think he went to bed in the corn after that as he was spotted in that area during the rut.

thats exactly how it is you will lose your buck right when they lose there velvet,shortly before or after. You can pretty much count on having to find that bucks new location could be half mile could be two miles but he will stay there until all the doe's in that area are bred. After that he will most likely return to that area again during the end of the rut for a brief time then he is off to the next place. This is what i have found.
User avatar
Southern Man
500 Club
Posts: 3827
Joined: Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:04 am
Location: Extreme Western Kentucky
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby Southern Man » Fri Mar 28, 2014 12:58 am

mheichelbech wrote:When you have corn and beans near each other, do you find there is a normal feeding pattern progression, where maybe they go from beans in Summer to brownup, then to acorns as they drop, then to corn or is a lot less predictable than that? The buck I am chasing, last year, had him on a plot watcher camera through late Summer hitting the beans about every evening then he dropped off the radar, probably due to my scent, but I think he went to bed in the corn after that as he was spotted in that area during the rut.


From what I've seen, deer won't stick to just one food source. They'll hit several during their feeding times. There will be a major draw on one of them but they won't dedicate themselves to it totally. What matters is the food source they go to first. During the summer and early fall beans here are a big draw. You can watch bucks every evening all summer long feeding in beans. But come fall, that changes. Sometime after velvet shedding, bucks disperse. Some will travel to new areas, but here, most will not. Feeding patterns change and it appears they have disappeared. They are still there, just feeding differently. When acorns drop, that trumps everything. Even then, bucks won't "camp out" on a white oak, but will feed there a while then move on to another food source, whatever it is. I have watched bucks come to acorns, feed, move on to greenbriar, feed, then on to a picked cornfield, arriving there just about dark. Who knows where they go for the rest of the night. Watching does will give up some good intel on different feeds. Does will feed all the way to a preferred food source while bucks spend a lot of time standing and looking as they walk and occasionally takin a bite or two of something..

I think it's important to know all the food sources the local deer population has to feed on and what the priorities are. It can vary a bunch and a lot of those are not cropped fields even in heavy ag country. That's one of the reasons hunting the bucks bed is better than hunting food. The bed, to me, seems like the only constant in the travel pattern.
You Can't Argue With A Sick Mind
mheichelbech
500 Club
Posts: 4188
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:00 am
Facebook: mheichelbech@gmail.com
Location: Charlestown, IN
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby mheichelbech » Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:00 am

iowa whitetail wrote:
mheichelbech wrote:When you have corn and beans near each other, do you find there is a normal feeding pattern progression, where maybe they go from beans in Summer to brownup, then to acorns as they drop, then to corn or is a lot less predictable than that? The buck I am chasing, last year, had him on a plot watcher camera through late Summer hitting the beans about every evening then he dropped off the radar, probably due to my scent, but I think he went to bed in the corn after that as he was spotted in that area during the rut.

thats exactly how it is you will lose your buck right when they lose there velvet,shortly before or after. You can pretty much count on having to find that bucks new location could be half mile could be two miles but he will stay there until all the doe's in that area are bred. After that he will most likely return to that area again during the end of the rut for a brief time then he is off to the next place. This is what i have found.

I think you nailed the problem for me...finding him after velvet drop! It's so dry around here during that time, hard to find tracks....hope to pinpoint rubs he has hit this year, they should be distinguishable as they guy I'm after definitly has a lot of junk in the front.
"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
iowa whitetail
500 Club
Posts: 690
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2013 2:07 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby iowa whitetail » Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:16 am

Look for him close to the nearest spot with the highest doe numbers he won't stay really close to them but near by. If you can get night pic's of him in that area wait for rut then go after him

[ Post made via Android ] Image
User avatar
AntlerAddiction
Posts: 158
Joined: Fri Nov 01, 2013 4:08 am
Location: Central KY
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby AntlerAddiction » Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:42 am

Keep them coming guys. Lots of good info in this thread. :clap:
iowa whitetail
500 Club
Posts: 690
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2013 2:07 pm
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby iowa whitetail » Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:10 am

mheichelbech wrote:
iowa whitetail wrote:
mheichelbech wrote:When you have corn and beans near each other, do you find there is a normal feeding pattern progression, where maybe they go from beans in Summer to brownup, then to acorns as they drop, then to corn or is a lot less predictable than that? The buck I am chasing, last year, had him on a plot watcher camera through late Summer hitting the beans about every evening then he dropped off the radar, probably due to my scent, but I think he went to bed in the corn after that as he was spotted in that area during the rut.

thats exactly how it is you will lose your buck right when they lose there velvet,shortly before or after. You can pretty much count on having to find that bucks new location could be half mile could be two miles but he will stay there until all the doe's in that area are bred. After that he will most likely return to that area again during the end of the rut for a brief time then he is off to the next place. This is what i have found.

I think you nailed the problem for me...finding him after velvet drop! It's so dry around here during that time, hard to find tracks....hope to pinpoint rubs he has hit this year, they should be distinguishable as they guy I'm after definitly has a lot of junk in the front.
The advice i can give you is if you have a buck you really want, after you loose him when he turns hard horn is use your cams in the spots you think he might be. Sometimes you cant find them they go along ways away or someplace you cant hunt.
If you do get him on cam even if its a couple night shots if you do it right he is in big trouble.
Tylerduffy95
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2019 1:49 am
Facebook: Tyler Duffy
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby Tylerduffy95 » Sun Jan 26, 2020 3:35 pm

I have a buck bedding in a fence row attached to a drainage ditch he he can see every access to him how would you go about setting up on him
User avatar
CattailCommander
Posts: 135
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2018 8:04 am
Location: MN
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby CattailCommander » Thu Feb 20, 2020 3:51 am

Tylerduffy95 wrote:I have a buck bedding in a fence row attached to a drainage ditch he he can see every access to him how would you go about setting up on him


Is there any way to sneak up close enough by actually going IN the drainage ditch? Waders, kayak, etc..? Unless he can see in there too, you might have to catch him coming back to bed some how or belly crawl along the fence row or drainage ditch. Hard telling without pictures or anything. Think outside the box
User avatar
Lockdown
Moderator
Posts: 9957
Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2014 4:16 pm
Location: MN
Status: Offline

Re: Hunting Ag areas

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Feb 20, 2020 7:15 am

bcarey2 wrote:
Tylerduffy95 wrote:I have a buck bedding in a fence row attached to a drainage ditch he he can see every access to him how would you go about setting up on him


Is there any way to sneak up close enough by actually going IN the drainage ditch? Waders, kayak, etc..? Unless he can see in there too, you might have to catch him coming back to bed some how or belly crawl along the fence row or drainage ditch. Hard telling without pictures or anything. Think outside the box


In the ditch was my thought as well.



Great thread! Is this thread in all time best tactical? I agree with everything that was said.

The more I scout during the summer months the more I believe that most big bucks in my area (which is dominated by ag) are doing one of two things:

1) Only hanging out in low spots in fields where they can browse without being seen. Sometimes these spots are only a couple feet lower. I am convinced mature bucks are masters at remaining hidden even in “flat” and open terrain. The buck I shot last year (not that he was mature) is the perfect example of this.

2) living in a sanctuary or on extremely low pressure land.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Deer Hunting”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Hawthorne, Jonny and 85 guests