Quick tip for micro farm groves...

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Lockdown
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Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:18 pm

This is especially for the tiny ones. 10-12 acres and smaller...

Hunt while the corn is still standing. You can access without being seen (though the corn) and they feel safer because they have the corn to escape into. If you've got a little grove you've been thinking about pulling the trigger on, get in there before the farmer takes his corn.

One grove I used to hunt is only 5 acres. I killed there once, and got a cam pic of a buck I called Curly (mature buck) in daylight in mid October. Daylight pics of shooters were non existent after they cut the corn. I ran cam there for quite a few years.


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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby P&YBuck1 » Thu Oct 18, 2018 3:46 pm

Thanks Lockdown for the tip!
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:35 pm

I would like to add that big bucks will still bed in tiny groves and rock piles, especially if pressure is very high in the surrounding woodlots. My area is very low pressure... they have other unpressured bedding options with better escape.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby hunter10 » Fri Oct 19, 2018 12:10 am

I have noticed this too in many instances. A lot of guys around here want all the corn off for their gun hunts. I prefer to hunt with standing corn surrounding the area. I find deer travel more and feel more secure because of the quick escape routes. It also keeps me on stand longer knowing at any time a good one could come down the corn/woods transition or right out of the corn
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Redman232 » Fri Oct 19, 2018 12:31 am

I just had a great hunt last night off the ground in a 6 acre patch surrounded by corn. I moved with the wind thru the corn and made it to the patch woods with 1 hr of daylight left. 3 does, 1 yearling and 1-100" 8 pointer, none of which had any clue I was in there. Fun hunt.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby matt1336 » Fri Oct 19, 2018 12:34 am

...and the corn/woods transition is a good one. Ik Stan talked a lot about his success using these transitions. I’ve done ok too. The key is to be able to find a place you can clearly shoot into the corn and/or get a good shot angle as they walk that transition
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Bowhuntercoop » Fri Oct 19, 2018 5:31 am

matt1336 wrote:...and the corn/woods transition is a good one. Ik Stan talked a lot about his success using these transitions. I’ve done ok too. The key is to be able to find a place you can clearly shoot into the corn and/or get a good shot angle as they walk that transition


This is kinda odd but when I used to hunt a lot of farms in pa I would ask the farmer if I could remove some rows in the summer. I would let the first 2-3 rows on the transition stay, then remove say 2-3 rows wide and 10-15 deep. Would give them an opening they they would walk through.

I have friends that own land and due the same thing. Almost makes mini shooting windows.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby greenhorndave » Fri Oct 19, 2018 8:48 am

Lockdown wrote:This is especially for the tiny ones. 10-12 acres and smaller...

Hunt while the corn is still standing. You can access without being seen (though the corn) and they feel safer because they have the corn to escape into. If you've got a little grove you've been thinking about pulling the trigger on, get in there before the farmer takes his corn.

One grove I used to hunt is only 5 acres. I killed there once, and got a cam pic of a buck I called Curly (mature buck) in daylight in mid October. Daylight pics of shooters were non existent after they cut the corn. I ran cam there for quite a few years.


Totally seeing this. Tons of sign and activity in a U-shaped small plot that had corn in the middle of the U last year. Tons of sign and some scrapes when sweet corn was high downhill from the U this year. But with beans inside that U this year, it became a sign ghost town once the corn outside it got cut. There's even a huge oak at one of the tips of the U and the acorns are piled up and no tracks in sight. They just won't go there at the moment.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Nelson87 » Sat Oct 20, 2018 9:09 am

This is why I wish our season opened earlier. This is my 4th year hunting farm country and so far most of the corn that I have access to is gone by Oct. 1, and what's not gone by then is shelled within the first week. There has been corn on neighboring properties longer than that though, and I've been able to use that to my advantage.

Access gets tougher for me once the corn comes down.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby tgreeno » Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:26 am

Ryan, How often have you found bucks actually bedding in the corn? Or do you think it would be mostly immature deer?

I've have times this season where doe's are coming out of the corn and heading into bedding in the evening. And also had trail cam pics of buck coming out of bedding heading towards the corn early in the AM.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 21, 2018 12:11 am

tgreeno wrote:Ryan, How often have you found bucks actually bedding in the corn? Or do you think it would be mostly immature deer?

I've have times this season where doe's are coming out of the corn and heading into bedding in the evening. And also had trail cam pics of buck coming out of bedding heading towards the corn early in the AM.


Does and immature deer bed in it A LOT. As far as mature bucks go, I’m not 100% sure how often they bed in it. I think most of the time they’re in a classic farmland bedding feature (grassy swale, rock pile, brushy fence line, etc) with corn around it. One jump and they have a sea of corn to hide in.

I know for a fact when the guns come out the deer head to the corn if it’s around. Including mature bucks. The guys I talked to at Wasteland last year kicked up one of my target bucks and he ran through the entire riverbottom to escape into the corn.

I’ve been seeing more deer and a few more quality bucks this year and I’m positive it’s because of all the corn in the fields during gun season last year. Anyone in a high pressure situation is missing the boat if they’re overlooking cornfields. We always talk about big bucks hanging out where people never go. Not a lot of guys hanging out in corn fields these days. ;)
Last edited by Lockdown on Sun Oct 21, 2018 12:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby Lockdown » Sun Oct 21, 2018 12:18 am

Greeno I have witnessed mature bucks bedding in cornfields multiple times. I know they do it. Just don’t know if they PREFER to bed in the corn or woods.

Last year or the year before I encountered a huge buck at location X walking out in the dark. He was with a yearling buck and when I first saw them I thought it was a doe and a fawn. That’s how much bigger he was :shock: they were in a small patches of mowed grass next to standing corn and a drainage ditch. My wind must have just missed them when I accessed.

Dad killed a nice buck coming out of a drown out spot in a corn field years ago. 3 yr old... probably his #3 MN bow deer in decades of hunting. I jumped a small buck bedded just inside the corn in a drown out area in SD opening weekend, and am pretty sure the two year old I saw while on stand came out of the corn.

When I was in my teens I bumped a real nice buck that was undoubtedly bedded in the corn. If fact I winded that whole field while accessing. In that situation the ground is flat then drops 10-15 of elevation then flattens out again. I wonder if he was bedded in the corn right on the lip of that ridge... kind of in a hill country fashion. I’m betting that elevation advantage allowed him to see down those rows a loooong ways. 100 yards or more.

Just something to think about.
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Re: Quick tip for micro farm groves...

Unread postby tgreeno » Sun Oct 21, 2018 12:55 am

I think your correct about them liking to be near. I forgot to mention. I stalked a a smaller cornfield last week. This field is adjacent to some bedding along one end. And during summer glassing I had seen a couple decent bucks frequenting the area. Hence the camera i mentioned above. I came up empty on the stalk, but did see some good looking tracks in that field. And on one end backtracked a trail across a 50 yard grassy strip into a thin creekbottom. I found 3-4 really nice beds & a bunch of rubs (Oct 11th from my journal) adjacent to that field. Classic farmland bedding IMO.

Almost impossible to hunt that area, unless I sit a couple row inside the edge of the corn. Or sneak in and sit in the grass. But I'm betting if he's there, he may not move until after dark?
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