Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How would you hunt this property?

Winner, winner, chicken dinner....

well, the best way to hunt that, would be by swinging through northern illinois and picking me up :-D. But since that aint in the cards, id try and guess what I think is bedding, then i spec' id try and be down wind of said bedding and down wind of the faint trail that will inevitably be paralleling it, and see what I see, hopefully a 170" cruising through at 1st or last and then go from there.. id keep that 7saum on the sticks, and my eyes on the glass.

The big nightlight-in-the-sky will be turning full power that week.

All I can guess would be to hunt any type of funnel area and I am sure you will know it when you see it. Deer really seem to relate to rivers

That area looks way different than what I hunt in the Western Kansas flatland plains.

Good Luck on your excellent new adventure.

Full moon? Hunt the thickets and secluded feed midday. Some of those places along the river?

I wouldn't even make a guess without spending some time there. I've found lots of good spots that you wouldn't think would work, and lots that look good, but aren't.

We have a hedgerow on our farm with a treestand 40 yards from the highway, if you put one of your buddies there, he'd think you were nuts. My brother bowkilled a 180+ from there last year. You feel like an idiot sitting in it with cars whizzing by, but.....

Just like any other property� From the outside in. Start with the highest place you can find and do some glassing. This is really important to me, so I would go as far as climbing on top of the roof of the house, looks like there are some battery tanks on a location in the Northwest corner you could get on top of. Maybe find a wind mill even. Get your eyes on the deer and try to establish a pattern. In that country it would be likely that you watch a buck go into one of the draws or out in the crp and bed down.

What are the crops? Looks like winter wheat and alfalfa from the pics. By that time the alfalfa should be browned and the wheat should be more desirable. Never know until you know though!

If you just want to hunt and get in the thick of things. I would hunt off the fields in the morning watching the draws and crp, and hunt on the fields in the evening.

I'd get down in that creek chest deep in water and wait till they come for a drink.

Love it...it is amazing how deer adapt. Guys can forget that does relate to residential dwellings that border woods and cover because those residential areas offer safety from wary predators like coyotes, bears and wolves.

Deer are where you find them, and bucks will do anything to mount a hot doe, even if she is in the backyard or next to the highway.

everything I said, but from 10-2

Oh Hell No!!! I'd bring ME!!

Good luck Scott. I have this feeling things will go well for you..... Again!

Kind of like a 20 year old college kid!

Are you hunting this morning?

From the perspective of one who has had little opportunity to hunt larger tracts of land-

If the deer haven't gone nocturnal I'd hunt the bottlenecks where treelines offer cover between crop areas during morning and afternoon hunts. In the mid-day or if they're nocturnal I'd be finding high vantage points with good viewing and glass for bedded up animals.

All the above while staying downwind.

If you could get the right wind, I'd start in the rougher stuff @ the bottom of the 1st photo. Sneak and peak into the wind beginning ~90min after sunrise. For the 1st 90-120min of shooting light I'd be sitting on the tallest hill I could find with binocs and a spotter.

I hunt this same type of land form. The truly big bucks post-rut will mostly be up in those draws. They will feed down around the river at night but be back at the bottom of the draws by sunrise. You have to be there somehow. Get your butt out of bed and be already sitting up there with glass long before sunrise.

The south wind is going to mess you up. Hunt across the wind from the outside edges in. If you push deer out of the outside edge draws without getting them, they will gradually move themselves toward the inner property. You should be able to get many days of hunting out of that property if you have it to yourself.

If you have a wicked cold snap or high snow, they will be looking for corn to eat over against soybeans, as the corn has more energy to keep them warm. If it is sunny and rather mild, they will look for green fields and greens.

If you have the property to yourself, then you need to be out there all day long, just poking around in nice weather, or find heavy bedding cover in bad weather and get out of the wind. They will move around all day long if they feel undisturbed and are well away from their feeding areas.

Well gents, I'm back. And, thank you for the input on this property.

The ranch was even more magnificent than I had even imagined. Magnificent, and OVERWHELMING.

I spent three days glassing and gently walking perimeters etc. prior to the season. In all the days of glassing and hunting, I only went one morning (out in the cuts to the SW) where I didn't see multiple bucks - some of them really good bucks.

I spent all day in the field whether hunting or scouting (sometimes hanging stands etc) and did indeed notice a fair amount of midday movement.

It didn't take me long to realize the big guys weren't going to be near those fields in the daylight so I tried my best to be in spots in between fields or logical travel corridors. And I passed on some bucks that I would have been proud to take anywhere else but I was looking for a really good one.

I have a weakness. Well, actually, I have a whole slew of them, but one that is germane to the hunt is my penchant for rattling when things get slow or for mid-day fun. It's playing with fire really as it sometimes forces to make decisions in an instant.

Well, here is my mid-day Kansas buck that was rattled in and "getting away" before I got to properly evaluate him:





Random buck pict:


Video of some bucks coming to the horns mid-day.
[img]http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/z345/joan4321/Video/th_IMG_3464_zpsxwm09jrh.mp4[/img]


I truly had the hunt of my life in hunting this ranch.
The ranch owner is simply as fine a gentleman as you'll ever encounter and am proud to call him "friend".

You have been deer hunting in Shang Gri-La.

What a beautiful place. Congratulations on a great buck.


What rifle did you use on this hunt?

It is indeed a hunting mecca. Problem is, I passed on a couple nicer bucks earlier.
And, truth be told, as much I think I know about whitetails, I got a real education on this place. *grins*

I used the 257 Weatherby until I had it in my head that it was once again cursed - switched to the SAUM that morning, and, wallah.

I used the Weatherby on a doe later in the afternoon - seemed to produce when trying to find a baldie. Of course, it was not uncommon to see 40-50 deer on the wheat field where I shot her.

If the one you killed is a small one I can only imagine what the big ones were like.