Farmland Scouting 1/17 to 1/20

[basspro05]

Thank you for bumping this up, when you talk about crop rotation, are you saying that they tend to bed in these fingers and islands in the crop fields when its corn rather than beans or the opposite?

I have a lot of public areas in KS I can apply this too hopefully, this is great information. Thank you!

Yup, exactly what I have found. The beds in the isolated cover fingers definitely get used more when the rotation is in corn. No doubt it's because of the heavy pressure and the corn provides the overhead cover and security for them to move during daylight hours along the edges.

Look for old erosion and irrigation ditches as well. That is where that B/C I encountered was bedding. It had Johnson grass and shorter corn stalks than the area surrounding it. Tough buck to hunt when they bed like this; definitely have to wait two years to match up the bedding conditions in this particular ditch.

Thank you, one area I have scouted pretty well will be corn this rotation, so do you think they are more prone to bed on the ridges or treed lots if its in beans?

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Thank you for bumping this up, when you talk about crop rotation, are you saying that they tend to bed in these fingers and islands in the crop fields when its corn rather than beans or the opposite?

I have a lot of public areas in KS I can apply this too hopefully, this is great information. Thank you!

Yup, exactly what I have found. The beds in the isolated cover fingers definitely get used more when the rotation is in corn. No doubt it's because of the heavy pressure and the corn provides the overhead cover and security for them to move during daylight hours along the edges.

Look for old erosion and irrigation ditches as well. That is where that B/C I encountered was bedding. It had Johnson grass and shorter corn stalks than the area surrounding it. Tough buck to hunt when they bed like this; definitely have to wait two years to match up the bedding conditions in this particular ditch.

Thank you, one area I have scouted pretty well will be corn this rotation, so do you think they are more prone to bed on the ridges or treed lots if its in beans?

Beans are a good food source, but deer will travel a long way from good bedding to get to food if they have to. Two years ago there was an isolated island of trees with a highway on the backside and Beans for hundreds of yards in the other three directions. I was hunting and inside corner of two crop field types in a lone tree; I watched a real nice 130-135 inch buck two different nights come out from his bed on that island. This year I plan on trying to kill that buck if he is till alive...He will most likely be around 5 now if still alive. They will bed where there is isolation and no pressure first and foremost. It doesn't matter if It's corn or beans but the place has to be isolated. The thing about corn is it provides enough cover wherever it grows; If you combine the corn with already isolated spots you have a good recipe for mature buck bedding. If you take the cover of the corn away you are left with woodlots and grown up fence rows as the best cover. That's when they bed on the downwind sides of woodlots and bed using their vision.

Look at isolated spots with cover first and then look at your food source second. Corn just makes certain areas more attractive while it's standing. If mature deer don't feel comfortable in the woodlots because of pressure where do you think they go? The best ISOLATED cover they can find.

[MOBIGBUCKS]

I found some new bedding this year with the crop shift. There are a couple great examples I'll add to the thread if you guys want me to add a couple. I would have to draw a map with my pictures though ..You can't see the bedding influence on any topo or aerial in one example.

[basspro05]

Your info is valuable man go for it, please

[hunter_mike]

Your info is valuable man go for it, please

X2!

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Your info is valuable man go for it, please

X2!

Sorry, I meant to post sooner! I've been chasing turkeys


Here is a great example of a spot you would have a hard time finding on any aerial or topo map...It's one you have to visually find by walking your boots off I apologize in advance for the rudimentary drawing, but its' the best way to illustrate what I found. I was out scouting and came in from the upper elevation headed down to the creek. I instantly picked up a big buck that had just jumped from his bed. He was a good one! Probably 140-150 class if I had to guess. After watching him go, I walked down to where I seen him bedding and started investigating. When I find great spots like this, I instantly sit down and try to figure out details about the why, when, how he is bedding there, and finally how I might kill him. I was in this one spot for two hours to put this into a perspective...

The buck was bedding on a point that was created by years of creek erosion. It was pretty dang cool if I might say so myself. I found two beds on the point where he routinely repositioned himself with the wind blowing over the higher ground (also where most hunters would access--like me for example) He would enter the point from the cornfield and left waist high rubs going in and coming off the point. This area was in Corn for 3/4 of the season, so he felt very safe entering and exiting this bedding area. He liked it even without Corn because he had a wind, terrain, and vision advantage over anything that might get close to him. Here are some pics and the map to show some perspective of things.



Bed #1



Bed #2



Him looking down the point...



Other view from the bed..This is how he nailed me coming down the Hill



His rub as he leaves the point...Most would think this is a field edge rub... Nope! You Gotta look closer sometimes.

[Bowhunter4life]

Great find MO...

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[Jackson Marsh]

Good stuff Mobig!

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[hunter_mike]

Awesome!

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[KLEMZ]

Mobigbucks....one of the best threads on the beast! I managed to miss it until now....I don't know how it's not on the all time best tactical threads list?

[mipubbucks24]

Great thread, tons of bedding info to learn from in these conversations, thanks for posting.

[Lockdown]

Mobigbucks....one of the best threads on the beast! I managed to miss it until now....I don't know how it's not on the all time best tactical threads list?

I was just going to look for it. If it isn't there it needs to be! (Nice bump Klemz.)

Great read MOBIGBUCKS... Thanks for taking the time to put it together. Your findings are the same as what I'm seeing here in MN.

The thing that stuck out to me most was when you mentioned how the bedding can be tough to pick out off an aerial in farmland. It is SO true. Often times the fence line, island, and overlooked type bedding won't jump out at you while cyber scouting. You won't know which points and fingers are bedding fingers. But once you get an eye for it in the field, it'll jump out at you from a distance.

[mainebowhunter]

Mobigbucks....one of the best threads on the beast! I managed to miss it until now....I don't know how it's not on the all time best tactical threads list?

I was just going to look for it. If it isn't there it needs to be!

Great read MOBIGBUCKS... Thanks for taking the time to put it together. Your findings are the same as what I'm seeing here in MN.

The thing that stuck out to me most was when you mentioned how the bedding can be tough to pick out off an aerial in farmland. It is SO true. Often times the fence line, island, and overlooked type bedding won't jump out at you while cyber scouting. You won't know which points and fingers are bedding fingers. But once you get an eye for it in the field, it'll jump out at you from a distance.

100% agree. I have been spending lot of time cyber scouting public in nebraska. You can find general areas but...you can use ground mode to "walk" through the bottoms. But until you land on the ground and start walking it much of it is up in the air.

Going to read through this post later on tonight.

[mainebowhunter]

Just got done reading. Would love to hear some follow up on this thread. Should have been 2 more crop rotations since this thread was started.

[MOBIGBUCKS]

Ha! Back from the dead!

Ill put some stuff together and and give some updates. My early season recurve buck from last season was from this area.