Help coax my dad...

[Mortenson]

Into leaving some standing corn to improve his spot. He's old school farmer and has never left anything. He actually left 8 rows a few years ago, and then when the field was finished, he rode back over and got them. I just had to laugh. Anyhow, it's a new year, and at a sprightly 73, deer hunting remains one of his favorite hobbies. Hoping for some good feedback and then I'll show him the thread.

The purple is a brand new, 1st time plot, taken out of ag production. It's a brassica combo with clovers and winter rye. The remainder of the 15 acre field is in corn. Inside the yellow borders is our farm. Most our access comes from the center of the farm. Just the way it is. We can only enter from the west, and have a rock road all the way into the center. Good parking is at the blue star, where a truck can somewhat be hidden by 2 old cattle feeders and a small wedge of switchgrass screen. The blue line is the route to get to the ground blind (orange star). You guys with your trained eyes, where are you seeing some standing corn left as the biggest benefit? 2 options displayed would be a block of rows in red to the west or headland rows in black, possibly 8 or 16 (or more?) rows from which the blind is backed into currently. I'm thinking if we left some of those black headland rows, it'll help the plot feel smaller to the deer. Assume deer can come from any direction. As the gun seasons press on, more will probably come from the north. We'd prefer any form of N wind. E would also hunt. SSW would not be good, but he'd probably still hunt and just watch other directions. This is a little bottom section of the field that has always been good, and I think we just made it better. Thanks for looking!

 

[scott44]

If I had to choose between your 2 options I like the black, I know this is a big step for your dad but maybe I'd run a sorghum strip up on the plot side too. I think isolating that back corner would work well.

 

[DiSc0Rd]

0 chance. I'm married with two high school children and I told my dad I was going hunting last weekend and he was so worried he couldn't go in case I needed help. Oh did I forget to mention I was taking my also married with children best friend, because I was. I think no matter how old we get or how much info we have we are always our fathers little boys and farther knows best. You best bet is if he is a betting man. Wager better hunting of he leaves some and hope he bites. Good luck my friend i think you will need it.

 

[Troubles Trees]

He plants the corn with the intent to get paid for it, so maybe offer to pay him whatever amount he would get from the corn he leaves it standing?
If that doesn't work, bribe him with delicious JERKY :) nobody can resist the power of JERKY!!

 

[Bill]

I’m with Scott on this one. Leave enough rows to make those turnips seem like a little field of their own. Nice place for a deer to come out in daylight to nibble while not having to be nervous of watching the whole field for danger. Deer didn’t use my small fields near the road much before dark. After planting road screens they could care less about traffic and they use them all times of the day.

and if it were me I’d leave everything from the waterway east

 

[Catscratch]

My grandfather was the same. He would agree to leaving a buffer strip next to the edges or some grain out... then farm right to the ditch. He just couldn't do it.

 

[j-bird]

So I just rent the 3 acres and be done with it (simply square off the larger field and take what's left..... I plant MG along my path to hide my entry and I plant the entire plot in soybeans with a pass around the outside in corn and with a few long runs of corn to help break the plot up some. Once the beans start to yellow I follow up with a mix of brassica and cereal grains for some green and I just sit tight. The crops will bring the deer in and making it feel enclosed will help it feel secure as well. You can plant strips or how ever you want.....Since the area isn't perfectly square and the like I would be adding in some mast trees along the edges as well where it makes sense.

 

[35-acre]

At 73 if he's still out there hunting and has a passion for it, be happy you get the time with him.

I have some remote hunting property, that was my dad's and he turned it over to me (it was his fathers before it was turned over to him). Our cabin was built by him and his father (this is deep woods; no electric, water, barely cell signal, etc.). While my dad still likes to go, he can no longer hunt due to some physical limitations stemming from surgery several years ago. He still goes with me some weekend but all he can do is sit inside and keep the fire going. We get to visit when I'm not in the woods, but it's not really the same. No talk of the hunts and what we both saw or what we could see tomorrow.

More about your situation.... in a way:
Lots of things have changed near my place, open land turned into leases and people who did have places up there have left or no longer come up (age-related). That's all caused a nice quiet place that we could retreat to to have some extra stressors. Last year those stressors really just came to a head. I was all worked up about things going on there and while I still owned the place and hunted it made things far less enjoyable for me. Even on stand, it just wasn't enjoyable to the point that I actually thought of selling the place.

My point in bringing all of my stuff up is that with of the changes going on (the new guys/personalities, the leases, other antics ranging from simple things like generators running all night to illegal activities) the change made me less comfortable. It caused me continual stress when I wasn't there and when I was there. I'm not saying that your situation is the same but if your dad is the one hunting that spot and it's in your capacity to allow him to enjoy the hunt and time with you, I say let him have it the way he wants.


(Sorry this wasn't what you hoped in response - good luck with your season)

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks for the feedback, good conversation. Jerky is a good idea, but his old teeth can't bite it anymore! He's been there, done that. It's not really a monetary issue for him. We're just talking a small amount of corn. And to be fair, I did convince him to take the 1.5 acre section out and convert to a plot. He was okay with that plan. We chopped it off on that angle because it follows a ridge of rocks, and that whole 1.5 is loaded with rocks. Rarely get much crop there, but usually break a firming point every other year, and jam rocks in places they shouldn't fit. We've discussed in past years eliminating that part of the field, and finally did it. Interesting sidenote - the 1.5 was sprayed with 130 lbs of uan this spring, and the brassicas got into it late summer and wow did they crank out the tonnage then! Really an eye opener.

It's just hard to explain I guess why these old guys struggle to leave crop standing. Just not how they were raised. I already rent half that farm from him. I could pay him for another acre of corn, and leave it up for him, then he'd probably just want to pay me to drive the machine over to it and combine it, lol. Like I said, hard to explain. I think he's okay with leaving a "small" amount mostly to help with strategy and blind concealment. Not looking to feed the deer for the winter, although I'd like to do that again (some may recall that we had cover crop soybeans there last year). So I was mostly hoping for suggestions on where might be the most strategic spots, most bang for my buck on a few extra rows here or there, not just those 2 potential options I threw out there. I was also concerned that if we left the angled headland rows, would it serve as a security funnel for deer on the move, getting them too close to the blind?

I do think he wants a nice buck this year. It's been a handful of years since he's even had a chance at one. So that's a big reason why he's more open to switching things up a little. It's all an evolution, as 35-acre spoke about above. We're trying to have fun with it, but it's tricky sometimes. I think if he knew what some suggestions specifically were, it'd help him see it. Lord knows I've battle-planned some stands for him in the past that didn't exactly pan out!

 

[bwoods11]

I have seen this many times. I work with farmers to leave corn as part of the contract, but they have a darn hard time leaving any? Usually is less than agreed upon.. I think many cannot stand to see it stand all winter. One year my friend hunted with me in Iowa, and we set up a blind in an area where they were supposed to leave "1/2 acre of corn" and he got to the blind and and I text him did they leave the corn. He said "I've got more corn in my shi* than they left in the field" Really laughed at that one.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

They are good at leaving the stuff around the edges that the coon and deer destroyed too. It is a lot easier to leave a few acres standing when there isn't any cobs on it.

 

[35-acre]

If you really think an idea might spark his interest, I'm wondering if a slight take on your black lines/standing corn would help? Deer (or a buck) will generally prefer to scent check a plot or field - in my experience. They will do a visual if they can't get the wind but they will want cover for sure. As we all know bucks tend to come in late/last light. So, what if the corn that you leave up gives them a little cover but not a tremendous amount (Something sparse enough that your dad might be able to see in to. I'm thinking that if you went in and bent some over some corn stalks a couple of feet from the ground to help thin it out a little more)?

What I've mapped out here is pushing the blind back a little to the corner but keeping site lines to the east (right) of the blind all the way to the back of the field and to the south (bottom). I would opt for cover of the blind as opposed to site lines but that's just me. I have a plot that I've been working on for several years and I usually hunt it from 5-10 yards back in the woods for concealment and wind direction/cover.

What I'm showing is leaving corn in a shape that will basically act as a little finger coming off that north edge and out into the plot headed towards the blind. This would act as some cover for bucks (and does) as it links up to the woods on the north and also picks up a little of the ditch. By hooking it on the west edge along the ditch slightly, it would add a little pocket on that side of the finger where a buck might step out early while still feeling a little secure. You could also do the same thing to the east/right at the back of the finger. Regardless of your choice, I would just make sure that your modifications allow site lines from the blind. Plus by moving the blind back towards the tree, you can keep it at a point (or trim) to allow for shots along both sides of the standing corn and back along towards where you park (just in case something slipped along that edge).

All of this creates a buffer/transition that might get the deer further to the field in daylight. The deer (bucks) might hold up in that strip. Does may even feed in the plot along that remaining corn with the feeling that they are steps away from cover (deer have that mental thing that corn = protection). But with the way you leave it you could still see them in it. That gives them protection but as it's being hunted you can still keep an eye on them.

 

[buckdeer1]

If he won't leave it knock it down so it won't be harvested if he changes his mind

 

[Mortenson]

Thanks 35-acre. Update is that he did just as you suggested. He left 8 rows and curled around like in your picture, creating a "cove" as I heard moderator Jbird describe once. Although the corn is pretty well depleted going that way anyhow. It really tightens up the feel of new plot. We had to go in afterwards and machete out the tops of some corn plants to open up shooting. Also won't shoot toward the neighbors, goes without saying. Here's my next dilemma - I mentioned how SSW winds will be worst, and that's exactly what the forecast shows for our 3 day opener next week. I suggest repositioning the blind, and he's a steady no on that. I'm thinking of getting him an Ozone machine as an early Christmas gift (he wouldn't buy it for himself). If anyone knows of a model they highly suggest I'm all ears. In the meantime I need to start searching for the Ozone threads. After harvest next year he's going to have a 25 year overdue shoulder surgery which will cancel his deer season. Hoping to help make this a fun year for him. Thanks guys.

 

[35-acre]

That's awesome! Good luck to him!

As for ozone...
I just happen to be packing my bag and I have 2 scentlok ozone generators charged and ready to go for the weekend. I have the small (20B) and large sized ones (the radial 400B). I would think the radial that I have would be too big for a blind but the smaller one should be good. I see that they now have some medium sized devices as well which would probably be better for a blind than the big one. You really don't want to have it be a strong smell. I didn't open the use manuals on their site but if I recall correctly they talk about room size for each unit somewhere. My big one was for like 100sq ft or something like that.

Ozone | Scentlok Technologies

www.scentlok.com

I got them on sale for 50% off. At the time that I bought mine, there was a lawsuit against them as there is a patent on the "in-field" ozone usage by a competitor ;). So now everything that scentlok sells in this line has to say "not for in-field use" but a lot of discussion on some other sites says it's absolutely good to go for the field.

I use plastic bins to store and haul my hunting gear. My cabin has a certain "cabin" smell and I store my stuff back in the bins when I come back and I fire it off once I put my stuff back in. It also looks like they have made some improvements on the design (inset buttons). The radial that I have has push-buttons (one on both sides) on the cylinder but transporting it often means that they get bumped and it's running or dead. To solve that I just put it in it's own plastic screwtop container and lined that with some paper to keep the buttons from bumping the side.

I'm on year 2 with these and they are still solid. The hold a charge well. I haven't had any issues.

I do recommend creating a small cheat sheet for how to use it and taping it to the side. It will help.

 

[35-acre]

When does that season open? How's it going for dad?

 

[Mortenson]

Season opener is tomorrow morning. It'll be the 1st sit at that spot. As of now, the winds all weekend have switched to variations of North. Should set up real nice.

 

[Booner21]

Thanks 35-acre. Update is that he did just as you suggested. He left 8 rows and curled around like in your picture, creating a "cove" as I heard moderator Jbird describe once. Although the corn is pretty well depleted going that way anyhow. It really tightens up the feel of new plot. We had to go in afterwards and machete out the tops of some corn plants to open up shooting. Also won't shoot toward the neighbors, goes without saying. Here's my next dilemma - I mentioned how SSW winds will be worst, and that's exactly what the forecast shows for our 3 day opener next week. I suggest repositioning the blind, and he's a steady no on that. I'm thinking of getting him an Ozone machine as an early Christmas gift (he wouldn't buy it for himself). If anyone knows of a model they highly suggest I'm all ears. In the meantime I need to start searching for the Ozone threads. After harvest next year he's going to have a 25 year overdue shoulder surgery which will cancel his deer season. Hoping to help make this a fun year for him. Thanks guys.

View attachment 32541

The blind in itself will make a huge difference keep the windows closed until it is time to shoot and you can get away with a lot. I have had a lot of luck with ozone and in a blind I would hunt it with the wind blowing right to where I knew the biggest deer in the woods would come from. Wouldn’t even bat an eye. As long as I Can get in without the deer winding me while I am walking in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[35-acre]

Season opener is tomorrow morning. It'll be the 1st sit at that spot. As of now, the winds all weekend have switched to variations of North. Should set up real nice.

My opener is tomorrow, so I'll be out of touch. I can't wait to see the pics on Monday! Good luck to you all.

 

[35-acre]

Still haven't seen that pic of your dad's big buck... At this point I'm living vicariously. I got a doe with the bow in early October, passed on plenty of other shots and have tag stew on the burner now.