Successful stand or blind placements

[KentuckyTJ]

Well, since this is the slow period (for TG and me at work) I thought I'd post a diversion from the myriad of tuning posts. Like others, I find most of my enjoyment from all hunts in figuring out the quarry, finding hot areas and selecting the best spots for tree stands or ground blinds. When I sit one and have a chance at my intended target I get a great sense of accomplishment from that.

This past fall this was just such a place that everything came together. I would like to see your successful setups with explanation on why you chose the location.

Walking back to the truck from a stand further into the farm on two occasions I noticed some does browsing at the end of this finger field.

     

I got on the aerial map when I got home and noticed the end of this field and our property line with a homestead on the other side of it made a possible travel funnel. On the next visit to the farm I went over and inspected the woods at the end of this field.

Low and behold a well used deer trail went around the end of the field in the woods. I walked up and down the loop in the trail around the field and found what I thought would be the best ambush spot in an ash tree. The stand was set at the blue dot on this aerial shot. The deer I ended up killing came from the white arrow and the red line was his exit path after the shaft and broadhead did its job.

     

Stand set and ready

     

This is my view from the stand and the deer came in on the trail from left, walked just behind the tree in middle of pic and stopped with a soft grunt I sent his way in the opening just right of the base of the tree cluster.

     

This pic is from the spot where the deer was standing back to my perch. I like plenty of back cover and think that is key for a successful setup for deer. The end of that finger field is behind the stand.

     

     

     

[Michael Arnette]

This will be a good one! I'll need to go through my pictures and find some as well

[23feetupandhappy]

I like it TJ!!!!!!
I too like to figure out why deer use curtain areas and then capitalize on my findings!

Known successful stands are good but there's something about finding that New Spot    TJ.......
OH for a cool crisp fall day  

[KentuckyTJ]

Bring 'em guys. I know you both have some great examples.

[23feetupandhappy]

This is one of my spots that just seamed like it needed a stand in it.......
15 ft ladder stand.....

 

Green = Ag field
Orange = Switchgrass
Pink = creek
Red = deer being shot
Blue = fencline

Here is a couple of views from the deers point of view at the shot locations...

Cold snowy November afternoon.

Behind me to the SE on the other side of the fence, 7 yrds.....

 

Not a lot of cover but the split trunk help break up your outline!

 

Fun Hunt with my Brothers!!!

   

Another November hunt....
Across the creek to the SW at about 27 yards
Again, not a lot of cover but the split trunk helps as well as the steep terrain coming out of the creek bottom.

 


 

She only went 15 yards!

 

Here is a pic from this last fall directly to the right of my stand at about 4 steps!!!!!

 

This spot is a grantee but has produced for us over the last 4 or five years.

[CoachBGriff]

This is a genius thread TJ!

I'll be taking pictures to share soon!

[twitchstick]

Planning and preping for the hunt is one of the best aspects of the hunt IMO. Keep the storys coming!
   

[jonsimoneau]

This will be a good thread. I'm in!

[awbowman]

Heck of a spot TJ.

I'm the same way Twitch.  I like the planning and actually prefer other people to kill the deer, especially kids.  But if they don't kill them I will.  Love a deer neck roast cooked slow at the camp.

[jonsimoneau]

Bringing this back up because it's the best thread going! This pic shows the area where I killed my best buck, which is the one in my avatar. "Catfish Hunter". I first saw him in late July where indicated. I originally didn't think much of this spot I had just gained permission from and I think you can see why. Not much deer habitat. All I could hunt was the hedgerow to the north and the treeline bordering the CRP type stuff on east side. I know everyone thinks Illinois is all like Pike county but it's not. This pic accurately shows the types of spots I'm hunting most of the time. After I saw the buck I knew he would hit 190 as a non-typical. The very next day a friend and myself setup 2 old film trail cameras and 2 stands as indicated. We backed out and I did not check either camera until Labor Day weekend.  I was ecstatic to find one but only one pic of the buck. I knew when the corn came out the buck would relocate to the nearest big timber a mile or more away. I had to get him in early October. The first time I hunted him I sat in the stand on the far west end of the northern hedgerow because I believed he was bedding in some scrubby willows just to the north of that location. I didn't see anything. If I remember right I hunted that stand again when conditions were right and again blanked. On October 4th I was walking out after an evening hunt on the dirt/gravel farm road.  I was headed from the north to the south when I got to the curve adjacent to the grass when I noticed a very large track crossing it. The next day after work I slipped in and hung a stand and hunted it till dark without seeing anything. The weather was rainy/crappy that day so I felt I did not disturb much and on a hunch I hunted the stand the next day which was October 6. I saw nothing until right before dark when I heard a deer walking through the corn. When the deer stepped out he was a nice shooter buck but he was one that I recognized from a trail camera pic as a buck that frequently traveled with Catfish Hunter. I let him go hoping Catfish Hunter was with him. He was. 20 seconds later I could hear him bringing up the rear. He was quartering down wind and using the first buck as his security. He took forever to step out of the corn but when he did offered me a close but hard quartering away shot which I took advantage of. I actually thought the deer would come from the grass to my right...but I was wrong. After I recovered the buck I easily backtracked his trail to his bedding area in the standing corn (low deer numbers here and loose soil makes tracking them easier). He was using a patch of grass that did not get planted in the corn as his bedding area that day. It hasn't happened like this since for me....but it will probably always be my greatest buck and my greatest success in the outdoors. He is the only animal I have ever had officially scored and he grossed 197 as a non-typical 6x7 and netted 188 and change.

[Possum Head]

Enjpyed going on these hunts!

[KAZ]

Great thread! I must have missed it originally....      

[FlintNSteel]

The lease I'm on is in the hill country of SE Minnesota, so lots of narrow draws, ridges, etc.  The lease is 807 acres, but if I had to go down to a 5 acre lease, I know exactly what 5 acres I'd pick!  Two large long ridges are separated by a pretty steep and narrow valley.  Where that valley comes to the top there's a relatively flat area about 75 yards deep between the head of the valley and the fields on top.  While deer do cross in the valley, their much preferred path to get from ridge to ridge is around the top and through this flat area.

 

We have two "Bumpy" stands for wind consideration.  It's named "Bumpy" because in 2012 I took a 12-pt off this stand that had several protrusions from the base of his right antler that in velvet looked like big bumps.        

 

The stand is behind this deer and a bit above the top of the picture nestled into a crotch.

 

 

These photos are from ground level, but looking from the direction of the stand.  Lots of good buck traffic through this area:

 

 

 

Funnels and ridges are critical considerations in our area.  Hope you enjoyed the pics.

[KAZ]

Let's see the harvest pics of Bumpy....    

[jonsimoneau]

That's really good stuff. Great bucks!

[FlintNSteel]

Jonsimoneau,  that's a great buck!  Being from more "big woods" country myself, I look at your ariel photo and wonder how deer make it for cover and food when the winter comes.  

I used to go over to far Western MN for some hunts and it's much like your photo...lots of fields, very little cover.  Took me quite a few trips to learn how to hunt in that kind of country.  The deer over there suffered immensely in hard winters.  Once the crops were out, there wasn't much of anything left for them. In late season, we'd do drives where the standers were a quarter-section or more away and one driver went into a 1/2 acre woodlot and would kick out dozens of deer.  Terrain and available cover certainly plays a huge role in how we set up for a given hunt.

[J-dog]

Pretty woods! Got to get a pic of eastern NC woods to put up,

[Ray Lyon]

 

So here's the family fruit farm that I hunt.  Yellow highliter is the property, about 115 acres, most of which is cherries or apples. The neighbors also have some apples too which I've noted. Yellow small lines are deer travel and orange is how I get from parents house to the stand sites.  Predominant winds from southwest in early season and northwest and west later in season. My number one stand is on a little knoll about 50 yards from the 2 foot wide creek that runs through the property.  Between the stand and the creek and a little to the south is what I'd call a staging area for the rut. Wild apple trees and scrub brush and always about 15-20 scrapes in there. Also, you can see from looking at the big picture, this is a funnel from all the larger blocks of cover in the area.  From October 1st season opener until first week of November the orchards are just like woods with lots of leave cover. November 15th to 30th is our gun season.  Apples get harvested in the first 3-4 weeks of October, so while there are lots of drops there's also lot's of human activity (everything is hand picked). That number one stand site is great from November 5-15th. On the north side of the property, there is a wooded valley with oaks that leads into a 5 acres cedar swamp to the west. Someone now has a stand in there, but early season while the apple harvest is going on I'll find bacherlor groups of bucks traveling.  The recent TBM article about ground blind seating took place at spot number two with my daughter. Spot number 3 is better for late season when all the leaves are down. the neighbor isn't hunting in the swamp and deer travel the edge of that swale from the swamp to head south across the road and into the creek bottom to get apple drops. There is another neighbor to the southeast who sometimes hunts the section of woods labeled beechnuts. When those trees produce, the deer are in there.  My problem with that section is entry. I have to cut across the open orchard (where there's apple drops) so I can be spotted in the afternoon from deer in there or if it's predawn, busted from the deer out in the apples. Coming in from the long way around from the north from stand one and then east to the beechnuts takes me through a lot of the travel corridor or heading downwind, so the southeast section of the property is not hunted much by me. The woods to the southwest of the property is hunted by other neighbors.  

When I grew up on this farm in the 70's, it was RARE to see a deer. Now there are crop damage permits issued to keep the herd in check and from damaging young fruit trees.  The property to the south and southeast of the southern border is a large commercial grape/winery operation. There are houses all along the western edge of the property now.

[Ray Lyon]

Late season trail camera photo from creek bottom just below stand one.

   


Morgan on her way out after December sit close to above picture.
   

Morgan in front of orchard while still in October leaf cover.  You can see the difference from picture above when no leaves on orchard in December.


   


Morgan sitting in the ground blind at #2 on property map

   

[Ray Lyon]

 

ground blind at the end of the cover just south of #3 in early December before snow fall.