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Morning hunt....edge or straight there?

Beentown

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Say you are going to spot for a morning hunt. You can either walk the field edge, or just inside the field edge but going to have to walk a longer distance through the woods to get to your stand. Or you can walk straight through the field to the stand and hardly have any time walking through the woods. Which do you do? What do you do for an evening hunt in the same stand? The field has been harvested. Sometimes there are deer in the field and sometimes not.
 

Fluteman

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That sound pretty similar to my Oak Flat Stand. I have found it is better for me to go the long way around, because I can round the hillside, staying out of sight of most of the field. I slip into the woods, and work around the edge of the hillside, so I can't be seen on the flat, and approach my tree where I can be heard from the flat, but not seen.

I guess my question to you is how does the field lay? Is there a way to get in unnoticed along the field? If so, I would go that route. Walking the woods will be noisy, but if it is your best route, to get in unnoticed, that may be the best option. What is your stand location? Are you trying to kill deer coming off the field, or do you expect them to come from other places?

As far as evening goes, if it is quiet, I would cut straight across the field.
 

finelyshedded

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Greg is right about how it lays. If there is a depression running down the middle it would be even more nicer but that's not always the case. I walk the edges at the farm I hunt because the fields are narrow with fingers splitting them up. The two accesses I use are along the edges depending on the wind direction. The fingers are where they usually bed or mill around mostly.
 

finelyshedded

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I'd walk through the woods. Deer are more likely to be out of it and in the fields.

This I also agree with as long as its not a thicket or a bedding area.

Charles brings up a good point here. Slipping in undetected is 90% of the battle, if not more.
 

xbowguy

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It's a tough call. I usually go straight to the stand and hope for the best. Sometimes go in an extra hour early and hope things settle back down.
 

jagermeister

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Where is the stand exactly?... Is it on the field edge, too? If it's on the edge, I would just walk straight across the field. If you walk through the woods you have to come out to the edge eventually which will likely spook deer anyway. If the stand is back in the woods, then yea I'd definitely try to avoid the field completely. I'm talking morning hunts here.

For an evening hunt, I'd walk in straight across the field and walk out through the woods (IF there are deer in the field at dusk).
 

hickslawns

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Interesting. I generally try to avoid walking thru the woods. We just don't have big wood lots. The deer tend to bed in them. Then again, this sort of depends on how thick it is.
Morning hunt- Depends on lay of the land and where they bed. Sometimes those deer are already bedded up by 6am.
Evening hunt- I would head straight to it.
 

Mao

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Coshocton, OH
Anyone ever try going in using a doe or fawn bleat in the dark in a situation like this? I was contemplating doing something like this for a morning spot where there is no way in but to walk along the corn where I will be hunting. The back door is the neighbors and that isnt happening. In the evenings, when I have deer around me, when its dark and I am getting down, I hit my rabbit squeeler to run the deer off around me. My thinking is that they are being run off by another animal not a human. I feel this is better then them running from me clanking down in my climber. Anyone else do this?
 

Beentown

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I wasn't using a specific scenario for myself. Was just looking to see what others do and what I can learn.

Phil brings up an excellent point about big fields and small woods. That is a problem I run into. The woods is so small they generally bed to within ear shot of you walking. Another problem it is so flat and our deer density sucks.

One loud noise and your likely not going to see anything for a few hours. Generally what I do is walk the long way around a field edge to get where I am going in the morning. I have to walk an open field to get to 90% of my stands/woods.

Evening I generally go straight across.
 

bowhunter1023

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What's a field? lmao

In the morning, I would take the long way around if I knew deer where in the field. In the evening, I would walk straight through the field. Those are the short answers I guess...
 

Dannmann801

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Springboro
Anyone ever try going in using a doe or fawn bleat in the dark in a situation like this? I was contemplating doing something like this for a morning spot where there is no way in but to walk along the corn where I will be hunting. The back door is the neighbors and that isnt happening. In the evenings, when I have deer around me, when its dark and I am getting down, I hit my rabbit squeeler to run the deer off around me. My thinking is that they are being run off by another animal not a human. I feel this is better then them running from me clanking down in my climber. Anyone else do this?

That is an excellent idea. I will be doing that from now on.
 
For a morning hunt unless the spot is secluded I would not hunt a field edge unless I can sneak in the back door to get there. That or go in at daylight so I can see before spooking deer off the field. Evenings go straight in, no sense in possibly spooking deer bedded back in cover.
 

aholdren

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Where is the stand exactly?... Is it on the field edge, too? If it's on the edge, I would just walk straight across the field. If you walk through the woods you have to come out to the edge eventually which will likely spook deer anyway. If the stand is back in the woods, then yea I'd definitely try to avoid the field completely. I'm talking morning hunts here.

For an evening hunt, I'd walk in straight across the field and walk out through the woods (IF there are deer in the field at dusk).

I do this JB but mostly because its my easiest access and Im a lazy azz. I have times that I've run deer out of the fields but most of the time they are right back with-in an hour of me getting in my stand.
 

hickslawns

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The only problem with walking in on a field edge around here is the deer bed in the fence rows. Often times our field edges are fence rows. Since deer like to follow edges, it can be a tough call. Really comes down to the lay of the property and prior bad experiences. Those experiences let us know the spots deer like to bed in the fences. Any rise in a field blocking view from the road will seemingly find the deer feeding on the other side. A depression in a field tends to become a deer crossing path in flat country as well. Makes it tough to cross in a "low spot" in the field because now you are walking a deer travel corridor instead of just a ditch. Flat country hunting allows for some excellent observation stands, but makes it pretty tough to get in bow range without getting picked off walking in.
 

dante322

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If its a cut bean field, I dont mind walking through it, they probably wont be there. if its a cut corn field, or a standing bean field, nope, go around.
 

finelyshedded

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Ive been known to start barking/howling like a dog. Similar effect. It clears them out.

I tried that once and they just stood there in the deathly silence afterwards! Prolly wondering WTF is that coy dog doing up in that tree! Rotflmao

Fugg! I did every animal call known to man and the fuggars just stood there! I didn't do an elephant call though!
 

RedCloud

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This is a tough question to answer. I know for me it just depends on the type of field, lay of the land, and where they may be bedded. The new stand I hung this year I have to walk across a pasture to get to the far woodline. Deer can be out in the pasture on my way in under the morning darkness but they just split to the woods and head to bed earlier then they wanted and by the time they get back up I have been in my stand for awhile and they forgot all about me. At least I hope lol. I can walk the pasture edges however, the deer enter the edges from the woods and start feeding around the woodline and would be right in my scent trail from the get go if I did this. I can't walk the woods to the south because the woods are way to thick and would sound like a bull in a china shop. I could walk in the woods to the north but then again the deer bed on that side of the woods as there is a ridge over there that gets the early morning sun. Best bet is just to put my head down and walk straight across the middle of the pasture.

Great thread to get us all thinking. Speaking of thinking I am going to start a thread and see what you guys think about it and get your opinions and thoughts lol.