farmland hunters?

[tim]

typically spend most of my time in the bluffs of western Wisconsin, when I cant I have a farm I hunt in se Wisconsin. it is complete opposite situation, it is relatively flat farmland with slight elevation changes and a couple marshy areas. so small pockets of woods with a lot of ag land. typical se Wisconsin or northeren iliinois type area. this year I got caught flat footed 2 times, once getting to my area late , the other leaving my stand early to see if the 1st time I got caught was a fluke(it wasn't). on the farm there was a big corn field at the front of the farm with a nice alfalfa field behind it completely secluded. so I went out and bought a ground bling and set it up on a thin treeline I felt I could get away with and observe the field without disturbing much. it was on the north end of the field and rarely do I seem to get north winds. well I sat in that stand almost every night watching deer mostly just to see what happened not expecting to be able to kill anything. what i learned shocked me. 90% of the nights the deer entered the field with the wind to their backs. 5-7% I would say with a cross wind and only a couple times with the wind at their backs. of those times the bucks entered with the wind to their backs every time except maybe once with a cross wind. I could have killed bucks 3 or 4 times with the nicest being a nice 8pt I thought was 4yrs old but I held off due to high standards me and another hunter have for that farm.i couldn't believe all these deer entering the field with the wind to their backs. I don't usually sit on field edges nor do I sit in a spot so often but I had a great setup deer usually don't come from and I was intrigued by their behavior. is anybody else seing this on farmland deer? this is in stark contrast from the bluffs. the only reason I even sat that field was because those deer were in it so early, then after seing how they were entering the field I had to know if it was a fluke after seing it wasn't it changed my entire way of thinking im going to hunt this farm early season if this continues

[CallMeFishmael]

There have been many reference here to deer leaving the marsh with the wind to their back, which is similar. So it seems like the answer to your question is yes. I believe Dan said he has seen this the majority of the time. It also seemed that a lot of guys set up for this as well. I think in farmland, it probably has as much to do with direction of the bedding as it does direction of the wind.

[Bucky]

I see it a bunch in the marsh.... wind to back or cross wind mostly

[Wlog]

Yep, I see them enter fields with the wind to their back all the time. Alot of the farmland spots I've hunted over the years consist of small blocks of woods or narrow strips of woods or hedgerow. They are bedding relatively close to the fields most of the time and they feel safe after being undisturbed all day. When they get up they seem to go where they want regardless of wind direction.

When the wind is blowing over the tree tops from the woods towards the field and the field is a little higher ground than the woods I also see it have a vacuum effect and suck back towards the woods, so really in that situation they still have the ability to scent check the field before they step out of cover. Also if they are entering the field in a low spot or drainage there could be some thermal effect pulling air down into the low spot. You've got to take all those variables into account.

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[dan]

I see it as often as I see wind to face, maybe nmore so wind to back... I would be willing to bet you have a typical farm bedding scenario. The smartest old bucks will often bed right on the edge of woodlots with the wind blowing from the woods so they can smell behind, and watch in front... Very common.
The reason I beleive this is going on by you is because you said the over all majority come out that way... Makes me suspect "edge" bedding... its exactly why a guy needs to understand how a buck beds even if he don't hunt beast style. If you set up on that feild edge with that north wind, he is going to see you coming for a mile... When they bed like this we hunt them where they go, rather than where they are... So basically we do what you did with the observation stand, and then watch closely to determine if the buck wanders far enough in daylight to get picked off at one of the tree lines.

[Stanley]

Ideally a farm that is set up for hunter approach from the East usually means deer will come from the west and enter crop fields. If the farm is set up where the deer bed on the east side and travel to the west to enter crop fields. You will see more deer traveling into the wind. If you think about it, it's not the buck choosing how to travel in correlation to the wind. It's more the set up of the farm and how the hunter chooses to set up.

If as a hunter if you set up on the East side of a farm with a west wind the deer will be traveling with the wind at their backs more often than not. When I select a property in farm country. I like the food sources to be on the East side of the farm and bedding on the west side. We get way more west winds than we get east wind. This plays into an advantageous approach. This also puts the wind in the hunters favor as bucks leave beds to go to food source.

This is the diagram that I drew up for my big buck story and really illustrates exactly what I'm talking about here. I observed the buck on this movement pattern more than a couple of times. The wind was not the same on any given sighting. The buck held pattern even so. I the hunter needed to set up with the wind in my favor to kill the buck. I wanted a west wind and got a SW wind which was perfect for this set up. Remember the buck doesn't dictate what wind to use. The hunter dictates what wind he can kill the buck with.

I could not have killed the buck with an East wind, if the buck traveled with the wind to his nose.

[Hawthorne]

I've seen nice bucks beds on the edges looking into a field with wind coming from woods then leave on the Backdoor into the wind.Probably to go to does or acorns. I've observed this from sitting close to their beds in a cross wind

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[dan]

I've seen nice bucks beds on the edges looking into a field with wind coming from woods then leave on the Backdoor into the wind.Probably to go to does or acorns. I've observed this from sitting close to their beds in a cross wind

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Yea, i did not mean to imply they always go into the crops... They bed those edges cause its the best spot. They can see in front of them and smell where they can't see... On islands in fields its a bullet proof set up for the buck. He can smell the timer and see the field, you can't hardly get near them.

[CallMeFishmael]

This makes it sound like farm country is a lot harder to hunt than swamps, marshes and hill country, especially if they are bedding on the edge and then going straight out to a field. Does rut hunting prove more successful in an area such as this then?

[tim]

thanks for all the response. I hope I can put it all together this year with all I learned last year and maybe get a early season kill. I do believe they are bedding really close to the edge as is being said. it will be tricky but one thing I did notice is they all seem to want to be in 2 portions of the field when they come out, they even run right to the spots. 1 spot specifically which is 60 yards from my observation setup.

[Lockdown]

So Tim the alfalfa was surrounded by corn and trees? And you were on the downwind side of the alfalfa... Am I understanding that right? (If not please elaborate)

I understand what Stanley is saying in this scenario... If all the bedding is to the North and you always had a North wind that would explain your findings.

I will add this... When I am out and about I often see deer feeding on the downwind side of smaller groves, and especially wooded fence lines. I went to visit a buddy in east central SD this past summer and it didn't take long to notice that 90% of the deer I saw feeding in bean fields were on the down wind side of the tree lines. I never would have noticed this pre-beast.

Most of these shelter belts were 20-50 yards wide by 1/4 mile long.

It only makes sense... They feed on the downwind side to detect danger in the trees. Coyote... Human... Dogs, whatever.

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[Hawthorne]

This makes it sound like farm country is a lot harder to hunt than swamps, marshes and hill country, especially if they are bedding on the edge and then going straight out to a field. Does rut hunting prove more successful in an area such as this then?

I've mostly hunted farmland since I've hunted and rut or late season are the best times. All of October can be good if you have a summer pattern on a buck the first few days or cold fronts with rain. Starts oct1 in my state. I think the states that have an early or mid September opener could really be good in farm country. Plus early season its easier to get on the bucks bedded without being seen.

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[Stanley]

This makes it sound like farm country is a lot harder to hunt than swamps, marshes and hill country, especially if they are bedding on the edge and then going straight out to a field. Does rut hunting prove more successful in an area such as this then?

It takes time to develop a system that works in any terrain. If a buck is bedding on the East side of the cover on flat ground it will take some planning on how to approach the bedded buck with a west wind. Remember not all bucks bed on the edge. Bucks bed where they are safe and secure. Another thing to remember a standing corn field is both cover and a food source. So there really is more involved than just an edge with standing corn.

[dan]

This makes it sound like farm country is a lot harder to hunt than swamps, marshes and hill country, especially if they are bedding on the edge and then going straight out to a field. Does rut hunting prove more successful in an area such as this then?

I think its not that hard if you understand the bedding.... Its very wind based. There is two common places they bed on flat farm land. One is exterior transitions ( looking at a field smelling the woods) the other is interior transitions that usually smell the field, and watch the woods... Interior transitions are the easiest to hunt. However, not everything is flat on most farms. Even what most hunters consider a flat farm has some roll to it. And bucks bed elevation based even on small elevations...

Last week we did a workshop and found countless buck beds on the "flat" farm we looked at... Every bed we found was there because of transition or elevation... Nothing is random when it comes to buck bedding.

[hunter10]

Dan, what did you encounter when you found the flat farm land beds.. Could you tell right away which ones would be used more than the other as you said you found many? I am still learning how to tell what bed is better than others when dealing with farm land that doesn't have mature deer living there all the time

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