Hunting the edges of corn fields

[robinhood2010]

I'd like to start out by saying what an awsome wedsite. I have been blessed with a place to hunt just across the creek 600 yrds. from my back door. On the north side of the creek is nothing but thick briars and a small swampy area. Just north of the woods is corn for as far as you can see and a fence line that runs at the edge of the west end of the corn. I have a good idea where the deer travel and there enter and exit routes. I also see where the deer go for water. My question is where should i try to set up at and what time of the season is best to hunt corn fields? Thanks for any tips or advice.

ROBINHOOD2010

[Mooresville Rocket]

I don't know if your hunting season is still in or if this advice will work for you, but in my experience, the best advice is not to hunt the bedding area's or the feeding areas.

I don't know if your question pertains to bow hunting or rifle hunting or shotgun hunting, so I guess we need a lot more information.

Also what would be helpful would be the state and county where you plan to hunt.

My experience is that deer mainly moves on their own, early in the morning and late in the evening. Your best results will come from a tree stand blind, where you can sit without being detected. If the owner of the land permit's, you need to install your tree stand now and leave it up all year long.

As the deer gets used to seeing that stand in the tree, they will not pay as much attention to the stand as they would if you hang it the day before the season starts.

Some of my best experiences comes from having a tree stand where you can sit all day. That means that if you live in a northern part of the country that you need some type of protection from the rain, snow, wind, cold. Permanent stands works the best for that situation.

I designed a permanent deer stand where you have a 4' x 4' platform, with walls and a 3' x 3' fireplace that holds a decent sized kerosene heater. With the door closed and the extra pieces of plywood over the window openings in bad weather, you can sit in it all day with not much more then a regular coat and a second pair of pants and work shoes.

I don't like windows because they hold too much sound in when you fire your rifle and I lost my hearing once from a tree stand with windows in it.

I would suggest putting your stand near a funnel or on the top of a ridge where the deer frequents. Deer will walk over one food source to get to another.

My success and my families success was due to the fact that my stand was in a grove of white oak trees and the acorns were plentiful this year. You couldn't take a step without stepping on them at the beginning of the season.

Corn is too unpredictable, because as you just said, when they have options as to where they can feed, they will go as they please and they might or might not use the same trail more then once a week unless the trail goes directly from a bedding area to a feeding area.

You also need to realize that deer needs a drink of water at least two times a day. So hunting near a water source is a very good way to ensure success.

The only hard part about hunting near water is that if it is a babbling brook, the sound of the water might mute out the sound of hoof beats and you won't be able to hear them walking through the woods and in time your ears will ignore sounds and loosing one of your main senses for hunting, is a handicap and not a advantage.

[Turkeygirl]

If it's cold and you've got snow on the ground...hunting near a corn field is a very good bet, especially if you know their travel routes to the field. If the deer are pressured though, you may want to be back in from the corn field a little bit, in some heavier cover. I was hunting the last few days of our late archery season and I saw deer almost all of those days, especially in the evening. I was about 100 yards from the corn field, in a stand weh ave in the hemlocks and the deer would come out and browse quite early on the little saplings and ground cover until the light started to fade and slowly made their way towards the field.

There is no definite "for sure" answer but I would hunt around the corn field...find a trail leading to the field and set up on it.

[robinhood2010]

I hunt more of archery season than any other time of the season because of pressure. The area that I hunt is in johnson county in Indiana. I'm pretty sure that most of the area as decribed earlier in my first post must be a bedding area on the southwest end of the cornfield. It really has been hit or miss and I know there are some nice deer on the property. What can I do to cause them to pass by the area more often in the spring when food is scarce? How close can you set a stand off of a trail and get away with it? Our hunting season is over on January 3rd. Have a happy new year

ROBINHOOD2010

[layin on the smackdown]

Early in the season, you want to stay off the field edges and intercept them coming and going from it - whatever the food source might be at that time...When temps start to drop, deer will change their feeding patterns from greens to grains...usually late October into November and December. If you have a good number of deer in the area, it might not be a bad spot during the rut - especially if does are using it, but late season is the best time to hunt the edges of a cornfield. I would not recommend hunting on the edge of any food source in the mornings because you may have the risk of bumping deer out of it...afternoons/evening hunts are the best bet for a food source - especially late in the season.