Consider one of these 10 key spots for a hunting site on opening day, and sportsmen still have a few days to work with formulating hunting plans. Forget about the old stump at the same old deer crossing that has been an unproductive favorite because one buck was shot there 25 years ago, and dare to try something new and different this year. Here are some hot areas that have worked well for me over many years.
*Backyard Woodlots
Such areas hold more big bucks than many people think, but they often are ignored because they are too close to the house. Look at tiny one or two-acre woodlots, abandoned apple orchards or any spots where the cover is grown up and very thick. Ignore spots that are wide open. Favorite deer hideaways are often small and always thick with blowdowns, briars and brambles.
Bucks that use such areas are almost always buried deep inside long before sun-up. Watch these areas from a distance, and learn where deer enter and exit these tiny pockets of cover, and locate other nearby spots where deer will go. Bucks often move during the 30 minutes before sunrise or the 30 minutes after sundown. Learn their precise exit routes, and be downwind from their next destination. Often deer move out into open fields, and this is where a scoped flat-shooting rifle works best. Shots may 100 to 300 yards, and a quality scope with great light-gathering qualities will come in handy.
*Cattail Marshes
I first learned about cattail marshes as good deer cover years ago while duck hunting at Michigan's Fish Point on Saginaw Bay. I was jump-shooting the cattails, and stopped once to get my bearings and heard something walking toward me. I was hunting into the wind, and just stood still. A good buck walked through belly-deep water, and stopped when he saw me 10 yards away. He wheeled around and sloshed back through the water toward shore.
That buck was heading for a muskrat house just a few feet from where I stood. The top was flattened, apparently from constant use by the buck laying there over a long period of time. Walk around a cattail marsh, check the soft ground for deer tracks, and begin searching for a high and dry spot in the marsh where deer can bed down. Deer will walk through a marsh or swamp to reach safety. Find such spots and you’ll probably have the area to yourself. Most hunters do not want to work that hard for a deer.
*Cedar Swamps
A cedar swamp can be a thing of beauty to deer hunters. They offer superb bedding cover, often contain water, and bucks and does always gravitate toward the closest cedar swamp as the firearm opener kicks off with a bang. Savvy hunters make certain they are well ahead of the deer on opening day. Be in place long before the eastern sky starts to lighten up. Follow the rules for when firearms can be loaded.
Every swamp has some high and dry areas, and this is where deer bed. Scout such spots now, and learn where the travel trails are and where bedding areas are found. If a creek meanders through the swamp, pull on waders and walk into the swamp. Scout for sign of recent deer beds or crossings, and find a nearby spot that is near the water and downwind of where deer bed down. Again, a short-range firearm with a hollow-point or pointed soft-point bullet will work well. Be there long before the deer arrive, sit tight, be still and shoot straight.
*Christmas Tree Or Evergreen Plantations
Most such places are located in northern counties, and many are now surrounded by high fences to keep deer from nibbling on the young trees. However, an unfenced or low-fenced plantation can be a magnet for opening-day bucks.
They provide thick cover to hide deer, and are best on opening day. As soon as the morning sun creases the eastern horizon, and shots are fired, deer start heading for thick cover. Many hunters sit at the edges of the plantation, but I’ve found it’s better to sit deeper inside it. Find a well-used runway, and a spot downwind of the trail. No need for a flat-shooting firearm here. The shots will be close and a .44 Magnum or a .30-30 or .35 Remington will work just fine. Most shots will be at 30 yards or less.
*Drainage Ditches
These narrow and fairly deep ditches are found wherever farmland exists because many landowners installed drains so excess water would flow away from the fields. They are far more common in southern counties than northern Michigan, but wherever they are found, can be a great place to ambush a moving buck.
Key places are where a drainage ditch is found near a swamp or woodlot. Deer use them to travel from one location to another, and most are four or five feet deep and are bordered with tall grasses, sumac or weeds. Find a spot where the ditch makes a sudden turn toward heavy cover. Sit low and within 50 yards and downwind of the direction change, and be ready for a quick shot. Do not sit up high at field level but down in the ditch. High-sitters will be silhouetted against the sky for an approaching buck.
*Fence rows
A fence row, especially in farm country, usually grows up and becomes very thick and tangled, and deer use them during their travels to avoid crossing open fields.
A fence row can be easy or difficult to hunt. If the deer move through the thick cover, they can be hard to shoot. If the fence row is open, hunters can shoot from 100 yards away if the deer are on the hunter's side of the fence. Don’t shoot through a fence. If the area is thick, wait for the deer to reach an opening, such as a gate, before shooting.
*Funnels
A deer funnel is big at one end, necks down, and empties into another big area. Deer move both ways in funnels, and it can be just a strip of trees between a cedar swamp and a field or woodlot. Anything that is thick, and can funnel deer movement from one area to another while providing some cover is an excellent place to hunt.
A funnel provides passage for moving deer, and hunters should spend all day on stand. Check the prevailing wind, and build a small blind or install a pop-up tent downwind of it. Deer often move through in stops and starts, and once away from thick cover, they are looking all around for danger. A well-placed tree stand along a funnel is a great spot for an ambush. Funnels aren’t always easy to spot, and usually are 100 to 200 yards in length but they can be shorter. They are one of the best spots to bushwhack a buck.
*Hilltops
Deer often are driven by hunter pressure toward open fields, and if the field has a hill, try sitting on it. Such hills, with flat land all around, are good deer-hunting spots if they are within 100 yards of a woodlot, ravine, swamp or other heavy cover that deer are trying to reach.
Deer frequently run around a tall hill rather than going over it, and if there are more than one hill, a hunter may have to try the others to determine which spot is best. Such locations call for a flat-shooting bolt-action rifle and a good scope. Quality binoculars are required, and the hunter must pay attention. It doesn’t take a buck long to run around the base of a hill, and jump into some brushy tangle and disappear from sight. Be alert at all times. More bucks escape simply because the hunter is lulled by inactivity and they don't pay attention.
*Islands In the Stream
Years ago my pointer boosted a ringneck pheasant into the air, and I shot, and winged the bird. It set its wings and glided partway across a river and landed on a tiny island in the middle. The water was shallow, and my dog and I waded across. We found the bird, and also found a big buck bedded down.
That discovery was an important one for me. The island wasn’t 50 feet long, grew only a few small willows and some tall grass. Bucks learned that few people went there so as soon as the opening-day shotguns and muzzleloaders went off in this southern county, the buck splish-splashed across the river and holes up on the island. Less than a month after hunting and shooting that rooster pheasant, I remembered that particular buck, and went early to wait. One hour after daybreak I heard the buck coming through the water, and he came ashore just 10 yards away and provided an easy shot. Don’t overlook such areas but make sure the land is not privately owned.
*Standing Corn Fields
Think about it. A corn field has everything a deer needs for survival: food, cover and water if there are any tiny depressions in the earth. It’s why deer head for standing corn as a place to hide. A deer can live summer, fall and winter in a big corn field.
I lived near Flint 40-some years ago, and we hunted those mile-square corn fields. Deer were hard to move so we began hunting smaller pieces of land. This method is ideal when snow covers the ground. Get on a deer track and hunt into the wind. Stop often, look left and right down the rows of standing corn, and then move as silently as possible forward, and look down the next row. Keep working into the wind, and don’t rush the job. It can take hours to work an 80-acre corn field, but if it’s heart-pounding action you seek, you’ll find it if you walk up to a bedded buck and shoot him laying in his bed without a care in the world.
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