What's Hot?

[mnz71hunt]

As opener approaches, scouting gets more and more important. Finding a buck and then hunting him when he's still in a summer pattern, sometimes is one of your best opportunities to score big.

What is everyone seeing right now for action. Is it alfalfa, soybeans, food plots or something else?

Local scouting around the area has deer on soybeans. I haven't made it to southeastern, MN where I normally yet, but hope to soon.

Usually I target an edge on alfalfa the first two weeks, the move to edges along corn fields.

[bigbucks]

I've been seeing deer in beans & alfalfa, but I have found tracks on cornfield edges. It's not like you can see them in the corn while you're scouting, it's too tall. I'm like you I hunt corn more once October rolls around & more & more the closer you get to gun season.

[Cooter]

Boy I know apple trees are magnets as soon as the fruit hits the ground.

[Stratosman]

I also hit alfalfa and soybeans, but corn has been reel good to me also in the past, the key is in the scouting, especially where I hunt they have all three options on the same farm plus a river. I'll hunt the edges of all three until the leaves start to drop.

[kc0myy]

I am going to be hunting on open land. I really don't know what to look for because this is my 1st year really trying to scout for deer. I walked out in the field and I saw a few beddings. but what do deer eat out in the woods?? next to the bedding I found some clover so should I set up a few yards from the bedding and cover?? I know I have to find where the deer are bedding and where the deer are eating. but I need help please tell me what I should look for!!! THANKS

[bigbucks]

If the beds you found were in an open clover field, they were most likely night time beds. They lay down after they feed & chew their cud, get up & feed some more, etc. If you go on evening stand, they most likely won't be bedded there, but it sounds like a pretty safe bed they'll be coming there from some thick cover to feed in the eveings. Try to find the trail entering the field & setup on the edge to start with. You then want to hunt that when the wind is blowing from the trail to the field or across it some way, so they won't smell you before you get to take the shot. If you find that they come too late for a shot then you may need to go farther down the trail into the woods to get them before it gets too dark. I have a field I hunt where that's sometime a problem, but unfortunately in that case I can't get access to hunt the woods they actually come from.

[Bassboy1645]

to me this is simple deer hunting 101. yes find the trail back into the woods and if you go back far enough you should run into some nasty thick cover and ultimatley the deer daytime beeding area. now the trick when u find this is to never go to the beds again but find an ideal spot where they will pass by on this trail. a staging area is a good place to start. take my example. i hunt a pinsula of trees 50 yards wide and 100 long. its surrounded on three sides by sloughs. on one end is a knoll and thick cover where they bed. the other end is a grass field where they browse. midway down the trail theres a natural clearing in the woods right under an oak tree. Bingo! but looking around to make sure i had found the spot, i ecountered a fallen tree over the trail and noticed the deer go around this and only on one side. this narrows that part of the woods to thirty yards. easy shot. do u get what im saying? find a place or funnel wehre the deer are wedged into a spot and hang a stand there. goodluck!!!!!!!!!!

[Hotspotter]

Stratosman:

You hunt for deer the same place as turkeys? I'm maybe a handful of miles from you if you do. Send me an email.

Thanks,

Joel