Bedding in Standing Corn
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
I'm a dairy farmer and chop a lot of corn in the fall. I see a lot of deer come out. Big mature bucks seem to be in the fields with a tree in the middle or water way etc. The other times I've seen them in the field they use wind to there advantage. They'll bed in the corner of the field to see anything coming from outside the field and smell anything coming towards them through the corn.
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- jmaas07
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Hawthorne wrote:One thing I have seen and heard I did'nt mention in my earlier post is bucks will do some rutting in corn. I've heard grunting and chasing within standing cornfields. I've sat next to fields while they are combining waiting for a buck to run out many times and can't say I've ever seen a buck run out. Ive seen a ton of does tho.
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Few years ago I was at a relatives house sitting in my truck in the driveway while a farmer was combining across the street and I saw a pretty nice buck pop out of the corn so I put the binocs on him and as soon as I did he got blasted, it was pretty wild. The farmers wife was siting in the weeds off the field edge waiting for something to get kicked out
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Robert wrote:I'm a dairy farmer and chop a lot of corn in the fall. I see a lot of deer come out. Big mature bucks seem to be in the fields with a tree in the middle or water way etc. The other times I've seen them in the field they use wind to there advantage. They'll bed in the corner of the field to see anything coming from outside the field and smell anything coming towards them through the corn.
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Good stuff Robert! So you see them wind to back scenting the corn watching the open area. Have you ever noticed them to lay downwind of trees or other note able structure to scent what passes through? How about time if year? You said chopping corn so that sounds like they're in the corn before pressure gets high. Some fields around here are chopped prior to archery opener.
I think a deer's biggest fear while bedding in corn is coyotes. I'm sure they know the deer are in the corn too. We talk all the time about mature bucks picking bedding areas where people NEVER go. The middle of standing cornfield is surely one of them. But it sounds like they want the structure there too.
I was thinking about how they could bed on the downwind edge like Robert was saying. A couple years ago I was walking along a very small drainage with corn on both sides to access a stand. Known bedding was the opposite direction on private. When I got 20-30 yards from the downwind edge a deer went crashing off through the corn and headed toward a nearby swamp. This fits perfectly into what Robert has seen them do. This deer, I assume buck, was 3 or 4 rows in. That's it.
I'm liking all the first hand experiences! It's more meaningful than "I think they do this"... Nothing better than concrete proof!
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
As luck would have it, a big property I hunt had corn last year. Through scouting I found a trail cam that had been left on the edge of a big field since October 15....so I checked it. I bet 80% of the photos has deer, both bucks and does, coming out of that corn at dark or in the night. Once the corn was cut those photos nearly stopped.
Since it was my mentality for years to bypass the corn as "food" and plan my hunts with the wind blowing towards the "food" and away from the "bedding" or travel route I have several times spooked deer from in the field OR right on the edges as was mentioned before. Its hard mentally to hunt the corn as a bedding area. Last year on stand we had two young bucks come out of the corn to the wood COMPLETELY opposite of what we were planning for. I have had similar experiences on that same farm before.
I know this, when the corn gets cut, deer sightings sure seem to go up.
Since it was my mentality for years to bypass the corn as "food" and plan my hunts with the wind blowing towards the "food" and away from the "bedding" or travel route I have several times spooked deer from in the field OR right on the edges as was mentioned before. Its hard mentally to hunt the corn as a bedding area. Last year on stand we had two young bucks come out of the corn to the wood COMPLETELY opposite of what we were planning for. I have had similar experiences on that same farm before.
I know this, when the corn gets cut, deer sightings sure seem to go up.
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
I'll have to get details from my Dad, but he killed this buck coming out of standing corn with 2 yearlings. It was probably 8-10 years ago and I can't find which piece of public it was, I don't know if they were bedded on structure in the corn. He showed me his set up when I helped track it, and he was set up in a lone tree/shrub about 100-150 yards away from the main grove. I want to say there was a bit of a low spot where they were heading in to the CRP. I'm talked a couple foot elevation change, not even enough to drown the crops out. Here's the buck:
My 2010 buck came out of a standing corn field. I just looked to double check and there are no rock piles or anything for him to bed on. If he was bedded on the down wind side of the corn he should have been able to see me access my stand, so he must have bedded a ways in. I was set up in a tiny grove right on the corner of the corn. He came out of the middle a few hundred yards away and fed his way along. Took him forever to get to me.
I also thought back to my teens and an encounter walking out of a riverbottom after an evening hunt. At the time it was the biggest buck I'd ever seen... probably a 120-130" deer silhoutted on the horizon. He obviously had come out of the corn and here again I just checked... no structure out there. On top of that I accessed the bottoms on the upwind side of that corn field. Either he was bedded far enough away that he didn't smell me, or it was dark enough he felt safe.
I can believe that.
I think big bucks spend a ton of time in the corn. Especially if there's a creek or slew in it, they theoretically have no reason to leave. Food, water, security. I always think of edges where I see bucks in the summer time. Corn field edge feeding in the beans. ALL... THE... TIME.
As far as deer sightings once the corn is out, my sightings double.
My 2010 buck came out of a standing corn field. I just looked to double check and there are no rock piles or anything for him to bed on. If he was bedded on the down wind side of the corn he should have been able to see me access my stand, so he must have bedded a ways in. I was set up in a tiny grove right on the corner of the corn. He came out of the middle a few hundred yards away and fed his way along. Took him forever to get to me.
I also thought back to my teens and an encounter walking out of a riverbottom after an evening hunt. At the time it was the biggest buck I'd ever seen... probably a 120-130" deer silhoutted on the horizon. He obviously had come out of the corn and here again I just checked... no structure out there. On top of that I accessed the bottoms on the upwind side of that corn field. Either he was bedded far enough away that he didn't smell me, or it was dark enough he felt safe.
briar wrote:As luck would have it, a big property I hunt had corn last year. Through scouting I found a trail cam that had been left on the edge of a big field since October 15....so I checked it. [glow=red]I bet 80% of the photos has deer, both bucks and does, coming out of that corn at dark or in the night.[/glow] Once the corn was cut those photos nearly stopped.
Since it was my mentality for years to bypass the corn as "food" and plan my hunts with the wind blowing towards the "food" and away from the "bedding" or travel route I have several times spooked deer from in the field OR right on the edges as was mentioned before. Its hard mentally to hunt the corn as a bedding area. Last year on stand we had two young bucks come out of the corn to the wood COMPLETELY opposite of what we were planning for. I have had similar experiences on that same farm before.
I know this, when the corn gets cut, deer sightings sure seem to go up.
I can believe that.
I think big bucks spend a ton of time in the corn. Especially if there's a creek or slew in it, they theoretically have no reason to leave. Food, water, security. I always think of edges where I see bucks in the summer time. Corn field edge feeding in the beans. ALL... THE... TIME.
As far as deer sightings once the corn is out, my sightings double.
- Ridgerunner7
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
I've killed a handful of big bucks out of standing corn including my biggest. I actually called him out but he was bedded in a small island about 75 yards from the edge. Two I stalked up on bedded in the corn. They usually like to bed at the tip or dead end of a hedgerow that ends in the corn (often grassy swale), islands in the corn, islands on the edge facing a more open area with wind to back ( have video confirming this many times). In areas with small wood lots and high-pressure they will bed in the corn downwind of the woodlots so they can scent check it . Imagine a rectangle shaped would lot, and the wind is blowing from the south west corner to the north east corner. The buck would bed in the corn 30 to 75 yards into the corn in the NE. That has been my experience . Need to set up just off wind to hunt it.
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- DaveT1963
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Just ask a combine driver how many big bucks bed in corn fields..... My son in law cuts corn and other crops from Nebraska to Texas every year - YES big bucks will often bed in standing corn provided it is large enough and in a location that offers security. As mentioned above - usually it is on an elevated point or hard to sew section ------ which are easy to identify after a field is harvested - look for elevated areas with grass/weeds/brush, log these areas in your GPS for hunting in 2 years with normal crop rotation.
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Anyone have pictures of Swales etc in corn fields they have located bedding in or spots they have set up on?
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Standing corn can definitely slow down the hunting during the rut thats for sure. It just took your bedding area and increased by 30x the cover. When I show up in November, standing corn is the last thing I want to see. If I hunted there in October, it would totally change my approach.
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
I have had mixed success stalking in corn. I've shot a couple doe's, but have never seen any bucks. It's actually kind of fun for a change of pace from sitting in a treestand. I'd usually hunt the morning, then stalk the corn during midday on real windy days. Anything to extend my time hunting!
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Mature buck bedding in standing corn is a pressure induced activity. I see virtually no bedding activity in a section of standing corn that doesn't have some sort of other attractant (tree, swale, water, etc.). It's been my experience that when hunters hit the woods in the fall is when a shift occurs and more deer start bedding in the corn. Other crop fields are picked, leaf drop, and human scent are hitting the deer from all angles; where would you go? I used to live in central SD...one endless corn field. The hunting pressure was low. Almost all the mature buck bedding was associated with the prototypical big buck lairs (structures, isolated cover, wetlands, cut banks, swales, etc). If a buck was bedding in an ag field there was another feature present.
Also, I don't believe bedding in corn is predicated on the wind. Wind in a standing corn field blows over the top the plants producing a very stale environment. Bedding in corn is more than likely an audible bedding locale.
Also, I don't believe bedding in corn is predicated on the wind. Wind in a standing corn field blows over the top the plants producing a very stale environment. Bedding in corn is more than likely an audible bedding locale.
- Ridgerunner7
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
I see bucks bedding in the corn utilizing wind a lot. When the corn becomes dried out and droopy the wind cuts through it pretty easily. In the example below I've had kills or close calls in the following three beds. The bed in the middle to the north was used when all of those fields were in standing corn. There is a small swale about the size of a pick up truck where the buck would bed on the point. I placed a trail camera over it and it was confirmed. I snuck up to that bed and windy conditions a couple years later , once it was empty and once it had a small two-year-old bedded. Never knew I was there.
The bed straight east of their had corn to the east and beans to the west. A mid 150s buck bedded there in the early season with wind to back facing the beans and would feed out into them in daylight. I filmed this on two occasions. The bed to the south had a wind blowing from the small woodlot to that area as indicated by the arrow. On the season opener I had two shooters come in together into that woodlot about 30 minutes before dark. I was set up with a just off wind. After corn is gone this area is vacant.
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The bed straight east of their had corn to the east and beans to the west. A mid 150s buck bedded there in the early season with wind to back facing the beans and would feed out into them in daylight. I filmed this on two occasions. The bed to the south had a wind blowing from the small woodlot to that area as indicated by the arrow. On the season opener I had two shooters come in together into that woodlot about 30 minutes before dark. I was set up with a just off wind. After corn is gone this area is vacant.
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Ive also noticed that bucks will sit in a fenceline ajacnt to corn. I know of one well used bed that's in a fence line, on a hillside that faces the most commonly used hunter access. Last season there was a 40 acre corn field right next to the fence line bed. If he saw a threat he disappeard into the corn. Hunters would think that they'd be accessing in a good place cuz the wind would be in their face. The buck had the wind to his back and looking down hill, down the fence line.
Brushy hill side fence lines are awesome bedding opportunities in farm country.
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Brushy hill side fence lines are awesome bedding opportunities in farm country.
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Ridgerunner7 wrote:I see bucks bedding in the corn utilizing wind a lot. When the corn becomes dried out and droopy the wind cuts through it pretty easily. In the example below I've had kills or close calls in the following three beds. The bed in the middle to the north was used when all of those fields were in standing corn. There is a small swale about the size of a pick up truck where the buck would bed on the point. I placed a trail camera over it and it was confirmed. I snuck up to that bed and windy conditions a couple years later , once it was empty and once it had a small two-year-old bedded. Never knew I was there.
The bed straight east of their had corn to the east and beans to the west. A mid 150s buck bedded there in the early season with wind to back facing the beans and would feed out into them in daylight. I filmed this on two occasions. The bed to the south had a wind blowing from the small woodlot to that area as indicated by the arrow. On the season opener I had two shooters come in together into that woodlot about 30 minutes before dark. I was set up with a just off wind. [glow=red]After corn is gone this area is vacant.[/glow]
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Which is why when guys from the Northeast show up to the midwest, their jaw drops with the amount of sign on the edges. But in reality, the sign has gone by as many of the deer using that piece have moved. The cover is now gone, virtually rendering the place a ghost town. The sign looks very fresh..as it was made right before the corn was cut.
During the rut, there is no place I would rather be in the evening than a cut corn field with a decoy. Especially when the corn field butts up against known doe bedding areas.
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Re: Bedding in Standing Corn
Really good thread fellas. Awesome example RR7
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