How do you prepare to hunt deer on new land

[sturmruger]

I had a friend offer to let me hunt on his families land. I will be the only person hunting 117 acres. It is mostly farm land with about 25 acres of hardwoods. I am curious to know how THR members would prepare to hunt on land you haven't hunted before. I just bought a new treestand and will be spending most of my time in that waiting for my deer to come to me. I have been hunting since I was a little kid, but always on land I am very familar with.

Also would you prefer to be on the edge of the woods or right in the middle? I will be hunting with a 12ga so there won't be any long 200 yard shot since I rarely shoot over 100 yards with my shotgun.

 

[dfaugh]

Well, it depends on how much time you have, before the season starts, to do some scouting. I've hunted WI (my ex-FIL owned 150 acres) and one of my BILs used to spend alot of time plotting out game trails, way ahead of the season. And, one year I was there, he shot 3 deer before 10 am on opening day!

But, no matter where I hunt (I now hunt my own land), you can usually find a spot where more than one "game trails" come together...These will often be between areas where the deer bed down, and water or food sources. These can be harder to spot than you might think, especially once there's alot of leaves on the ground, or snow. But you'll see areas/paths where the grass/brush is sparse, and closer examination will usually reveal hoofprints. Set up your stand where you find 3 or four of these coming together. Might be on the edges, might be in the middle. My stand is set up on the edge, because there's a pond on the next property over, and I can see up 3 different trails, all leading down past me. Much of my property is too thick to see more than a few feet, but where I have my stand, I can get a clear shot between 35 and 50 yards (about all I trust myself to make a good shot witha a shotgun).

 

[.45Guy]

I'm stuck hunting a new piece this year. I'm hoping it will turn out well, as on the other side of WI 14 there is a piece of state owned land. I'll just set up real early high up on the side of the valley and wait for everyone else to get them moving. It looks like they run the valley pretty regular parallel to the stream.

 

[sturmruger]

.45guy your right WI is turning into a Liberal Loony Land. I wish we could give Millwaukee and Madison to IL.

 

['Card]

You may want to take this with a grain of salt since I don't use treestands all that often, but if I didn't have time to scout the land pretty thoroughly first I think I'd rather stalk than stand. Just move slow and easy, pause frequently, be conscious of wind direction, keep your head on a swivel and remember to look behind you fairly often - especially if you jump any and get them up and moving. If you're walking with your face to the wind when you spook a deer, it's pretty common for them to circle around behind you. They're curious critters, and they don't know for sure what you are until they get a good smell of you.

So move around and find out where the heavy cover is and look for sign to see what they're eating, where they're moving, and where they're bedding down. Once you know all of that you should be able to place your treestand with a lot more confidence.

As far as placing the stand in the woods or on the edge? If you're using a shotgun then obviously your range is pretty limited, so placing it on the edge of the woods might not be to your advantage. Not much point being ale to see where you can't shoot. I'd suggest back in the woods a little bit, allowing you to watch the open areas but still have good lines of sight back into the thick stuff.

 

[georgeduz]

have the owner of the land take you out and show you.

 

[MCgunner]

In Texas, it's a matter of finding a spot where the deer hang out of near a trail and puttin' up a feeder. Feeder watching is the national sport of Texas. It is productive, but it gets old sometimes sitting in the same stand watching the same feeder all season.:banghead: Still, not a lot you can do when you're not hunting a big piece of land and the cover is rather thick.

I'd scout that 25 acres of brush, find any bedding areas or sign or trails. I never know what I'm going to do until I see the lay of the place. If you're on the edge of a grain field with a 12 gauge, you ain't gonna be able to reach some of the deer you might see. That would weigh on my decision depending on what I found in that brush.

I know that was real helpful. ROFLMAO! But, it's not something I can sit down and tell you without seeing the place. That's why scouting is important.

 

[A_Swede_17_1911]

Can you get a map of the area? You can study that, does it have any natural funnels to the layout? You can hang a stand around on of those natural funnels. I would still-hunt the first time I was out there that way you could get an idea of the layout, and what it looks like then next time you could go out and hang your stand.


I would look for cover for bedding, feeding areas and water, and would still hunt the area that had all three. Also long as there was some trails and stuff around in that area.

You might also talk to the landowner, find out were they see deer at and what time of the day. If they seem in one area at all times thats were I would hunt. If the landowner hunts were does he hang his stand?



Good luck.

 

[Charles S]

Here is a quick shortcut to scouting. What you are looking for (obviously) is where the deer are. So how do you do that? What you need to look for is obvious choke points that funnel the deer into a relatively narrow area. If the land has contour a saddle is an excellent natural choke point.

You mention that the land is mostly farmland with about 25 acres of hardwoods. Look for narrow fingers of woods that connect two larger sections, again a natural funnel.

Deer will typically look for a good spot to cross a fence, walk the fence lines looking for a crossing with deer hair on the wire (does will typically go through bucks over) and a trail leading to and from the crossing.

Deer will find and generally stick to a creek crossing, look for this type of area.

Like stated above, if you can find the travel routes from bed to feed you are set.

I often look at topos and Arial photos prior to scouting to get an idea of the lay of the land and some ideas about where I want to look. This is really helpful if time is limited.

I hope this helps a little.

 

[sniper.160]

StrumRuger

The very first thing I would do would to get a topo map of the area, and setup at a good funnel area or food source, water source

 

[stolivar]

Also

go and use google earth if you have high speed internet. Also use a topo map of the area. I have pegged perfect deer spots from just those 2. But I also scout the area after I have both map and satelite photo. It saves a lot of time.


steve

 

[TrapperReady]

Other guys have mentioned most of the highlights. One thing that I also try to take into consideration is what's going on with the adjacent properties. It's not uncommon to have a neighboring property with a bunch of stands along a ridge or treeline, which acts like a gauntlet for deer trying to move through the area.

You can try to use it to your advantage (picking an area that's less covered or may be an escape route), or at least make sure that your not likely to be downrange when the shooting starts.

For example, this year I got access to some property (just a handful of acres) and scouted for the best spot. Unfortunately, the ideal spot was near the property line, and there was already a permanent blind just on the neighbor's side. I went with a different location which protected me from that stand's field of fire and covered a "secondary" approach. It worked out well, as I got a deer by 9:30AM of opening day.

With a lot of land to work with, I'd probably try to hunt overlooking a field for opening day, and then move into the woods after that. I keep it pretty simple and try to find the place with the greatest concentration of fresh sign. Food sources, tracks and droppings are more important to me than things like rubs and scrapes.

 

[danurve]

First I would count my blessings.
Then get the lay of the land. Scout it out durring Squirrel & Turkey season and find the water, mast, & routes, for you and the game. Get a feel for wind travel and where spots for stands would be depending on sunrise / sunset. If your going to set up a stand do it in advance and lock it down.

I would also report any coyote - predator sighting to the landowner and see what their position is on hunting them as well.

Volunteer to do repairs or maintenance, fallen trees, bushwacking, jazz like that.

 

[Charles S]

Volunteer to do repairs or maintenance, fallen trees, bushwacking, jazz like that.

An excellent suggestion, one that we all should follow. Again great advice. Hunters should be loved not dreaded.