Where to place stands?

[buckeyehunter]

This is my hunting grounds, just wanted to see where you guys would put your stands and why?

Red is property line. But I can hunt on the south and east side.
Blue ovals are ponds watering holes.
Blue line is very shallow creek, stays dry in the summer.
Grey diamonds are where we have killed our best bucks. 2 bucks at the big diamond.
Yellow lines are a barb wire fence.
Everything else is pasture fields or woods. mixed with mainly poplar,oak,hickory.

The surrounding property is hunted real heavy. The farm to the south was strip logged about 4 years ago so it is THICK with no trees of any size.Most of it is so thick you can't walk through it.

The farm on the west side is hunted VERY hard. If its brown its down!
I can also hunt these farms and the one on the east side.



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[Deleted]

Sweet spot. To make it a Honey Hole we need to know some things. How many acres is this? Do you own or lease the land? Can you plant food plots? Where do the game trails run through the property?

[buckeyehunter]

It is my Dads/ uncles land. There is about 150 acres inside the red and several hundred surrounding it. There are no food plots but I could plant a couple small ones. The deer trails are pretty much every where.I'll try to mark them tomorrow. He has about 20 cattle also. Me and my wife are the only ones that hunt this land. Also there are old logging roads all over it.

[grassi25]

Obviously your big diamond is a good spot. If you look you will notice they follow the thick woods. The yellow square on the right looks like a spot they would cross from one section of thick woods to the next. The two squares on the left are nice corners of open area near thick. That looks like a great place for a food plot. Ofcourse its tough to judge from these maps.

[buckfever]

creek bottoms are always good. the land is usually lower in those areas and the deer can use it as a travel coridor with pretty good cover. so setting up along that creek bed is where i would be. it's evidenced by the bucks that you've killed. what i would do is find the trails that they use and figure out where they're going and why. it's probably from bedding areas to feeding areas and vice versa. it takes a lot of work to cover that much area, especially when the majority is wooded like that.

[buckeyehunter]

Orange deer trail
Pink ridge top

The trails don't seem to go anywhere, they just seem to spread out at the ends. These are trails that are there every year.

[buckeyehunter]

Pretty good Grassi, I 've seen lots of deer in those areas. I've seen 2 big bucks where the two close squares are. Seen them in the early part of the season. The other spot all I see is does.

[Deleted]

This property could be a great management farm. With the ridgeline running all the way around the property, it makes it hard to access on foot & keeps it nice & private. Ide post a shit load of No Tresspassing signs on the property lines.

Ide start thinking about food plots soon. There's alot of open ground to be planted that could provide year round food for a Herd. Ide also Manage the Herd by culling the weaker Bucks & culling more does if nessicary to get the Buck, Doe ratio evened out. If there is tall grasslands or CRP on the property, Ide cut some connecting trails all over the propery with a Brush Hog.

Well, heres my vision for your property Buddy. =]
Food Plots, Big Ones =]
A shit load of Treestands, Elevated Blinds & Ground Blinds
Brush Hog cut Trails

[buckeyehunter]

On point, there are trails exactly where you put them. You only missed one but it is a rock cliff! There are several trails all over the farm cut with a brush hog. We cut hay on some of the food plots you posted but some could be made into plots.
The ridge to the north is not hunted (as far as I know). It is all steep hillside. The rest of the property line has access by 4 other farms.One is hunted very hard so I hate to plant food plots for them to kill everything that moves plus the cattle will eat it all. I have some feeders out but as soon as the cows find them they empty them out.
We try to let the small deer walk including the bucks and usually only kill one or two does every year. We dont eat that much deer meat and it is hard to find anybody around here to give it to or we would kill more does. I don't we are making any difference in the herd because of the neighbors killing everything. There is 2 of us hunting on our place and atleast 10 hunt on the one other farm!
You guys are a lot better at this than me!!lol

[buckeyehunter]

I also have trails cut all over that are just wide enough to get a dirt-bike through. I mostly just use them for still hunting.

[crowhunter]

I wish I had the acreage you have but I agree that it's almost impossible to manage that size of property when you have the hunting pressure around you like that. However, I also agree that food plots will help draw and hold deer on your land, especially when there is little hunting pressure on your land and especially late season. The cattle present an issue. I would plant standing grains and fence it off from the cattle. I don't have a photo editing program, so I'll just describe... I'd plant in the small field on the northeast side north of where you killed the bucks. I'd also be willing to bet that that farm that was strip logged is a favorite haunt of the big bucks. You said you have hunting access to the farm... I'd blaze a sendero down the middle of it and hunt it from a box blind. I'd also plant the sendero with oats or rye grass. It's a lot of work, but that's what i'd do.

[Deleted]

I agree with CrowHunter. Great ideas Buddy.
Ide also put in an Apple Orchard somewhere on the northern side of the property to draw the game to that side of the property.

[allhunter]

i agree get some apple trees planted that will be the best spot on the whole property

[buckeyehunter]

Thanks guys, all good ideas! I think I will get some apple trees planted and clear out a place on the stripped property. That is where I always thought the big ones were anyway. It is just to thick to hunt it. Also the guys from the other farm hunt it to. Maybe next year I will have some apples and a plot or two somewhere on the north side.

[crowhunter]

Good luck buckeye; I look forward to see pix of that big ol' Ohio buck you bag.

[passinthru]

Well be waiting for the pics!!! lol

[buckeyehunter]

The pics will probably have my wife in them, she is the lucky one!!! Lol

[dagr8bilster]

We should all post some pictures of your hunting areas and see how we can "help" each other out with stand placement or hunting helps. I know I could benefit from the expertise and wisdom of the masses found on this forum.

[kandjbrewer]

You got a good spot with hunting pressure hard all around you. with the acreage you got i would hunt it smart, I'd plant a food source that will keep the deer in with you, oats, wheat, clover, chickery. I suggest you hunt closest to the thickets where you been seeing the big bucks. Remember don't hunt the same spot too hard and keep pressure on your deer so they won't be pushed off on your neighbors. Wish you the best of luck.