Combined Corn

[David Frank]

After a lot of scouting, I finally thought I had a big buck patterned. He was coming out of a standing corn field in the evenings, using a slough crossing to get to a dugout for water. There is a thick tree belt on the north of the standing corn field. I went out to hunt the slough crossing tonight and found that the farmer had combined the corn. I hunted anyways and no deer used the crossing. I talked to the farmer after, and he said that he kicked a "huge buck" out of the corn yesterday when he combined. After discussing the rack (tall, wide, and very white), we decided it was the same buck.

My question is, what will this deer do? Will he switch bedding areas to the thick trees and continue to come to the dugout for water, or will he attempt to find another standing corn field, as there are plenty still around. Obviously there are many factors that play into this situation, but from everyones best guess, will he stick around the same general area?

I think he probably will. I'll just have to do a little more scouting to try finding him!

[harvey lee]

I would guess that with the rut this close he will still be in the general area.Is there a swamp that is near the combined corn field? I would think he will move to the heaviest cover near the same area.If there are alot of does in that general area,he should be near.Are ther more water sources in this area or only the one spot?

[David Frank]

This spot is only about 1-1.5 miles from a river bottom, but that dugout is the only water in the immediate area (on the same section of land) that I know of. There are no swamp areas, but there are a couple of thick tree belts and sloughs. I agree that he should be in the same general area, especially since there are a ton of does around. I am just a little scared because I know there are other archers in the area on land that joins up to the land I have permission to hunt. I also know that this area gets rifle hunted as well. I am Hunting pheasants with my father on tues. and leaving for the black hills to deer hunt on Wed. - Sun. This doesn't leave me much time to get any new patterns of this buck figured out. I know there are more bucks in the area, and with the rut coming around, I'm sure that with enough hours in my current stand, one would present a shot, but I was just dissapointed to see that my plan didn't come together as I expected it to.

[tjm]

Not sure how much crop land compared to woods ect.. but if you know this bucks a corn field deer my best guess is he's in the next 1 over that has water/cover.If the next field over is lets say a half mile-1 mile away with no water he will probly hit the area he was in way before and after shooting hours then head into the standing corn for the day

Same thing happend to us this weekend.All set up and poof half the field got picked during the nite and he was gone.Only corn field left around we cant hunt so i just forgot about this 1 and moved on.Gun hunters will polish him off this weekend

[David Frank]

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully he makes a mistake after a hot doe!