2013 Hunting Redisign

[Deebz]

I like the bend in the creek near the SE corner of your property that looks like it comes right close the ag field..kind of an inside corner...

I'm also a sucker for those fingers of timber that stick out into the field... ie on the west edge of your ag field and the boundary between the ag and crp...

do you access from the road to the north?

[JPH]

Yeah guys, that SE field corner has a lot of good sign and there are several well used trails feeding out from the timber. There is also a rutted trail leading from the CRP, across the thin finger of timber and out into the crops. I've got trees picked out for stands in every location.

My biggest issue is that our winds tend to be westerly. I expect bed to feed movement from east to west, so evenings might be a little tricky,

[kellory]

Without boots on the ground, here are my thoughts.

JPH starting over.jpg (129.32 KiB) Viewed 318 times

[JPH]

Thanks Kellroy! You've got a sharp eye because walking the ground showed good sign very close to several areas that you pointed out.

[JPH]

There are a few spots that are hard to see on the photo that really excite me.

#1 is the highest point on the property and is right in the middle of a very healthy oak/hickory timber. It looks like the circled area may have been logged in the past because it is pretty spacious. I'm planning to hang my most comfortable stand as high as possible here and reserve it for mornings and mid-day during the rut. I have a feeling that this will be the place to be once the bucks start chasing hard.

#2 is the lowest point on the property. There is a pretty level stretch of bottom timber with multiple trails leading out into this sheltered pocket of row crops. It is a small pocket that can be covered in bow range. I'd see that as a great location for the early and late rut, when food is running the show. If I can manage to slip in there undetected, evenings should be exciting.

imgBig.asp.jpg (76.91 KiB) Viewed 304 times

[kellory]

What did you find at the "sweet spot"? is that a dry pond? And #2 has good possibilities, but I though it too close to both the property line and what appears to be a road. Don't want to see road kill /accidents as a result of a hit/miss. On the north end marked in white appears to be a creek/ ravine/ funnel in to the north field area. I would expect that to show heavy use, especially with the trees you mention nearby.

[JPH]

The area you called the sweet spot is nothing remarkable from the ground. The timber drops into the field pretty steeply there. The deer seem to funnel into the crops in the area I marked as #2. At least that's what the trails seem to indicate. The boundary is close to that spot but it is a creek, not a road. It would be impossible to shoot into the next property from there, at least with a bow. And the boundary on the north is a gravel road.

[kellory]

I was guessing fairly flat. i don't suppose you have a topo map? and if 2 is off water, that should be very good, I thought it a rode, with a structure at the orange circle.

[Jelf]

I don't know where you are in Iowa, but you can use Gmap4 to look at a high resolution topo map for that farm you have leased.

The link below starts Gmap4 and is zoomed in on one of the the state forests in Iowa. To find your hunting spot just click Menu ==> Search. Enter the name and state for the nearest town. Then just pan and zoom the map to your spot. To flip the map to the Google aerial click the button in the upper right corner of the map and select Satellite or Hybrid.

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.p ... llshade=18

Gmap4 default map: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php

Gmap4 homepage: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.html

Joseph, the Gmap4 guy

[Ohio farms]

Hey Jelf,
Your site is so much better than Google Earth. Thanks for sharing the site and welcome to the forum.