Staging areas

[jsasker007]

Might be something that gets overlooked by a lot of folks. I've found that even on great food plots that attract deer every day where I'm at in central Minnesota the deer almost always hang back and mull around in staging areas for maybe a half an hour before they come out in the plots. Many times I've been out hunting bow or rifle and can hear the deer and catch glimpses of them in the staging area but the deer just seem to know just how long to wait to be safe. Can be frustrating when you know they are there but they won't show themselves until it's too dark to get a good shot. Then you gotta walk out at some point and wind up jumping deer and find out there were more than you thought and tails are everywhere. Sickening feeling to be so close and come up not even getting a shot. I've been setting up maybe 40 yards in the woods trying to catch them traveling because I can't seem to get them out in the open before dark. Any tricks to get them in the plots earlier? I really do like a shot at a deer in the open foodplot vs thinking you have a clear shot and hit the small branch you couldn't see in low light during archery. Same issues during rifle but the small branches don't affect my rifle like they do an arrow.

 

[SwampCat]

Back when all I did was bow hunt, I always hunted about 25 or 30 yards back in the woods. The deer were paying attention to the food plot - looking and trying to catch scent of something out in the food plot. Was much easier to draw on them than once they got in the food plot. Also, seemed much more likely to “jump” the string when out in a food plot

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I've had a couple stands in pines on the downwind side of food plots at camp. Like Swampcat said above, deer would hang in those pines testing the wind and looking out into the plots from the darker, shadowy pines. I set my stands along trails leading into the staging areas of the pines. Deer in those pines were much more relaxed than when they moved into the open plots. Out there, they seemed to be nervous - on red alert more. I've had some really close shots with a bow inside the pine staging areas - like 10 to 15 yards - when they were relaxed in the shadows.

Maybe do some early shooting-lane trimming to give easier shots in the staging areas? I cut off any branches that might interfere with a shot in several places along those trails. But I kept my outline broken with a number of branches on the sides the deer would approach from, so when they stepped into a shooting lane - it was too late for them. 10 to 15 yards doesn't give them time to react before the arrow is in them.

 

[Bill]

I've become a fan of a food plot finger that breaks off the main plot and goes into the timber in a narrower opening like 20 to 40 yards across. If you can get it to bend and be hidden from but connected to the main plot all the better. IME they will hit these areas and hang out before committing to the more open larger plot. I had 4 more of them bull dozed out a couple years ago.

 

[jsasker007]

When I was younger bowhunting a small field I would just take a knee on one side of the hay field and the deer always came out on the other side like clock work. Field was only about 40 yards wide. Sure gets your heart pumping when you can hear several deer walking around waiting to step out in the open. I do better bow hunting if I don't have a lot of time to over think things. Shot many deer on that field. My house sits there now. Now if I take a knee for more than a couple of minutes I need something to grab onto to get back up. Staging areas were the spots where I always had the most action hunting. Only had to get to that spot about 30 minutes before dark also. That was a nice plus when you have to run out to hunt after work and time is limited. I like the finger idea and I think I have a couple of spots I'll try to add a winding narrow finger to my plot.

 

[Catscratch]

I try to hunt at least a half mile back from staging areas on travel routes. I don't hunt plots as I just couldn't find a way to do it without bumping them on entrance or exit (and turning deer nocturnal). Deer use my plots in the daylight often now.


I do have 1 stand on the edge of a staging area. It's a phenomenal spot that's produced a lot of happy hunts! My entrance and exit to it involves crawling under the highway through a large culvert and climbing my stand behind a cedar tree. If not for the ability to get in and out without detection I wouldn't hunt there.