New lease, what we learned after one weekend. Any advice?

[justin84]

My buddy and I got a good deal on a lease last minute so we went and checked it out this past weekend. We picked some spots to hunt based on the map only and did a little bit of walking just to get a lay of the land. Here's what we found out:

-There's a trail system marked in green
-Existing stands are marked with a star (we've heard there are more but haven't got the locations yet
-Corn is standing in the field; coming down within a couple of weeks
-The majority of the property is pine of different ages. The majority of the hardwood is oak, mature, lots of acorns
-The yellow line marks where i saw three bucks between saturday and sunday morning. Littered with fresh rubs. North of that edge is a marshy area that is definitely a bedding area. No one else hunts up here.
-Majority of the pressure is from the southwest trail leading to the stands marked with a star.
-The very southeast corner has some good hills where it transitions from pine to big oaks.

So we're heading back 10/21-10/24 and I'm curious what you might focus on knowing what we know now, and given the timing of the corn coming down and potentially some chasing starting to ramp up. Would you focus on the buck bedding up north, the edges inside, the cornfield? Maybe the hills in the SE corner would be worth a sit?

As always, any advice is appreciated. Love getting feedback from all of you guys.

[Babernathy]

I'd find the closest acorns from that marshy area. Hang a stand up there and it will be perfect for the early bow season.

[jxwilliamson]

I would get a climber and sit in the upper right area where the yellow ends and or possible back on the upper right corner. Both of those areas look to be "edge" areas. Also I would plan to hunt both of those areas where the trails come together and there are not stands. I would hunt those areas very strategically since there hasn't been much pressure there most likely you chance at an early sesaon mature buck.

I would look to see where the doe groups are spending time to give you an idea of the bucks will be checking in the rut.

[justin84]

Thanks, guys. I didn't get a sense of where does were bedding when we were there the first time.

The north side of the marshy area where I marked in yellow has a south facing slope (see very top of topo). Never ventured over there yet just stayed on the south side. I did have it marked as a possible spot for the upcoming weekend.

Need to spend more time in the interior and on the east to get a better idea what's going on.