Hunting NEAR Standing Corn

[deerminator]

Planning on hitting one of my best spots this weekend once or twice. I have stayed out of there til now except to check cams now and then.

I was very excited til I realized, the corn is not coming down before then nor probably the next weekend or maybe even til gun season or after. But then I've been reading a lot on the web about how hunting near standing corn this time of the year can be awesome. One author said "think about it, how difficult is it for you to walk through standing corn? Now imagine if you had a wide rack on top of your head? Wouldn't you take the path of least resistance instead, hugging the field edge while you were cruising for the ladies?"

Seems to make a lot of sense. I plan to have my decoy out one evening in a draw on the edge of a small woodlot that meets three fields that come to a point there. Thought is it will be visible from many prime travel spots within hundreds of yards away.

Who's hunting near standing corn this weekend. And any tips, experience you want to share with myself and the rest of the forum?

[Abndoc]

Get ready! If you are rattling or calling they will be on you quick...and they move through the corn likes ghosts

[96trigger]

I hunt lots of corn field edges. The deer will often travel the edges and not travel in the corn field, especially the bucks. What I always made sure to do was walk straight through the field to my stand or walk along the rows about 10 in from the edge. I didn't want to leave a scent trail along the field.

Corn is planted much closer together now than it was 20 years ago. It is difficult for bucks especially to move through the narrow rows. This may be one of the few times I don't mind having my scent blow out into the field, depending on where my shots are.

[pikehunter]

+1 to the other comments. Especially to the being ready portion. It always amazes me how much ground a WALKING deer can cover in a short amount of time when it has a destination in mind. If they're trying to get to a specific feeding location at late light, they can be by you before you even know it.

[deerminator]

Thanks guys. So do you ever hunt the edges abutting the timber? That's another option besides the open but secluded draw in between the woodlot and corn. Otherwise, I have lots of "tunnels" created by the first row of corn and islands of woods at various spots. The only problem is, there aren't many good trees to get stands into. I have a blind set up about 30 feet back from the corn into the woods before the land starts sloping down into a valley. But I had that there for when the corn comes out and I put a decoy into the field. 30 feet seems awful close to the main trail I'm thinking. Thanks again!

[erikwells]

Deerminator, I have the same issue. I setup my stands in the woods but so far the deer are sitting in the sweetcorn and squash patch. There is a fenceling with a little brush and trees. No real good trees for hanging a stand. I have sat in the cover and made shooting lanes and sit with my leaf suit with a tree behind me. They are there I just haven't been there at the right time yet. I'm torn if I should sit in my woods as I'm hoping the combines might chase some deer out of the corn and I'm in a funnel spot or should I sit by the sweetcorn this eve. I'm torn. Any opinions? I have 2 cameras in the woods but I won't pull the cards until this eve. Good luck and thanks for all of the great insight.

[sticknstring]

Going to be windy today, could try hunting the corn itself. Fun way to spend an afternoon.

[96trigger]

If you can find a spot to ambush the deer when they come into the field, that would be your best bet. I have never sat in the corn, but know plenty of people that have. The deer will often walk along the field edge, sitting about 10 rows in with a shooting lane has been successful for some guys I know. They all claimed the deer had no idea they were in the corn.

[Musky Buck]

96trigger if the bucks don't like traveling corn we're in trouble because we have t-cams deployed everywhere on cornfield edges and we're getting no nice bucks at all. Where I'm at the irrigated fields, the deer like to travel the wheel tracks through there, my experiences too trigger I have to agree, many times I've sat a center pivot using the field road as a shooting lane and I have yet to see a buck of any caliber there, see lots of does and fawns usually but no bucks really unless they're just that nocturnal enough maybe.

[deerminator]

Tell me about it Erik. I still haven't decided where to head out to in a little bit tonight. I would say be aggressive if you're going for your first deer I think you mentioned on another post? Get out of the woods if they're not there. I would try that fenceline again or the standing corn as 96 suggests. I have taken one deer from the ground each year the past 10 years, most of them big does. Usually because they are moving earlier. I have had chances at decent bucks and connected twice and missed twice.

[bigbucks]

If there's standing corn or green alfalfa they're hitting one or both. One of my places they're just hammering this hayfield every night. Landowner's seen as many as 17 out their & usually at least 10. Last night I shot a nice doe on the field road coming out of the pasture to an open gate.

I have sat in the corn edge on a bucket, on top of a dirt pile on the woods edge next to corn, or in tree stands on the edge. Deer definitely come through the corn. A little buck almost ran me over once. I think he stopped at 8' or so. I could have shot him with my bow.

They very often don't make much noise in the corn until they get really close. Fairly easy to call them out at least to the edge because they can't really see what's outside of the corn.

[erikwells]

Hunted hard this weekend. Friday evening the wind sabotaged me. Around 6:00 about 100 yards away I see a deer running, another big deer behind it and then a 3rd that was the size of a small horse. I couldnt see well enough to tell you how big the rack was but it was huge. Wind was out of the south and the deer were straight nort of me. They scented me and stopped staring in my direction. I blew the grunt a few times but they said no way. It got dark and I walked out. Saturday evening I had a doe with 2 fawns come by at 10-20 yards. They were north of me and the wind was out of the east. They were very skitish (wind?, smell?). The doe was skinny and was not much bigger than the fawns. I decided to pass and just as I decided just to watch her tail went straight up and she bolted back the way she came with her head down almost on the ground. The fawns took their time and followed. Not sure what happened there. Kind of disappointed I was busted. Saw deer 3 out of 4 sits so I feel ok about that just a bit disappointed. Seems like the wind was not my friend this weekend. Still bummed out I was busted by the doe with the fawns. In hindsight I think I should have taken the doe, she doesnt look like she has enough to her to make it through the winter.

[96trigger]

Sounds like it was at least entertaining. Were you on the ground?

[erikwells]

I was in a stand but the stand is built on the side of a steep hill and is a platform built on a big rock. The stand is only 2-3 feet off the ground. Think my stink eventually settled down below and I got scented? Starting to feel like that. Not sure what else I can do to avoid that. It was pretty exciting to see deer for sure.

[deerminator]

I think if the wind is in your favor you are good. Keep changing up your spots if you're hunting the same property so they don't figure you out. I went out to check the farm place camera today. Lots more does but noticed some biiig tracks in dirt near the corn edge. The corn isn't coming down soon. Probably not until well after gun season so I took a walk through an open lane in the corn and noticed a lot of tracks that lead to an opening in the middle of the vast cornfield that is about 30 yards across. I may set up there one evening, about 10-12 rows back in a tractor wheel path that I noticed had no tracks in but that would give me a clear shot. Why not, they seem hung up in there right now. The neighbor just plowed down all the surrounding fields but the farmer who leases the landowner's property (my wife's relative), has thousands of acres to harvest and dry before he gets to this piece of land.

[96trigger]

Deerminator is right on. Keep changing locations, play the wind. It sucks when you can't hunt where you want because of the wind. However, I have had good success seeing deer in my 2nd and 3rd stand choices, just because I was playing the wind...on the other hand, I've been sitting in those other stands and seen nice bucks under stands I wish I could have been in. Best bet now is to play the wind, get the deer in front of you, and hope they wander over to you.

[erikwells]

Good advice I'll play the wind and sit in the spot (stand or not) that will keep me from being busted (or busted so quickly). The wind was all over the place this weekend. I'd love to see that buck again. I couldn't tell how many points he had but it was the biggest bodied deer I have ever seen. Deerminator, there was a guy harvesting cob corn this entire weekend pulling a green trailer with an IH. He had to be pretty close to Games based on the short amount of time he had between trips. Hopefully that will help your spot out a bit. I had some nice sized tracks next to the water this weekend. Too bad I took the boat lift out, it could have served as a ground/water blind. Good luck.

[deerminator]

Yes. Those fields coming out could help one of my spots. In fact, I shot my buck last year the evening after it all came out last year at the end of September. What a difference a year makes! My other spot, they mowed down all the corn on all of the land to the East and South, but there's no way the corn on the land itself and to the West and North will come down for a while yet. I would say they have about 5,000 acres to clear before they get to this spot. I've actually thought about going into the corn this weekend for a stalk. Worst thing I do is drive them into the woods!

Also, I wonder if the big tracks on the lakeside didn't have anything to do with an orange army moving through Sibley for the Youth Hunt this past weekend. I saw at least 4 people in full blaze orange right across the county road from the boat landing on Games.

[erikwells]

I saw a couple of Dads with sons going in from county 5. My oldest is 10 and that hunt is for 12-15 year olds. It will be nice to walk across the street to hunt when he turns 12. I put a camera down by the lake last week. I hope I have a picture or two of deer and not 1000 pics of waves. I'm not sure if I'll get out this weekend as I have my boys this weekend but we will see. I'll pull the dock this weekend for sure. Good luck.

[deerminator]

Good luck as well. To my knowledge, this is the first year they've done the Sibley hunt for youth (10 permits) or at least in a long time I think? Hopefully they continue to do it. I would like to see them open it up to a bowhunt too. Seems like they never get the take they want from the annual ML hunt in December.

[erikwells]

They had the hunt last year or maybe I'm confusing the muzzleloader hunt. I know where I'd hunt for sure. I talked to the fellows at Pete's and they said they registered 1 deer from the hunt. I believe they said they have registered 3 total as of last weekend. I suppose in the world of computers most register online so checking in with the places that have big game registration is no longer an accurate method to determine how deer hunting has been. Kind of bums me out a little bit. I dont embrace change.