Deer are drawn to food sources, water sources, and areas that provide a lot of coverage. This is true for deer during all seasons; the only thing that changes is the type of food they seek. You can refine your early season hunting tactics based on the terrain you’re hunting. To hunt deer on farmland, focus on the edge of the food source. To hunt deer in forests, focus on clusters of rubs or scrapes. Follow these basic guidelines and focus your hunting efforts in the areas that are the most likely to produce results.

Farms

Deer that frequent farms will be drawn to the natural food sources on the property. You can find them in corn fields, bean fields, and other rich vegetation. They will try to stay along the edge of a fence line if they can, so look on the edges of the fields for deer activity.

Try to locate their bedding areas. On farmland, they will make their bedding areas in whatever area of cover they can get. This could be a cluster of thick bushes, shrubs, or piles of other foliage. Try to hunt the open area between their bedding area and the food sources. You will be able to catch them on their journeys between the two without causing them alarm at either location. You don’t want to hunt a food source too heavily, or you’ll scare the deer away. You also don’t want to hunt directly over their bedding area for the same reason.

Elevate your Stump blind so that you can see over the fields and have a full scope of any entry points. Position yourself between the food source and the bedding area so that you can keep an eye on each location from one of the many full-sized windows that completely surround the blind.

Forest

Deer that frequent wooded areas will be drawn to oak trees that produce acorns, or apple trees to use the fruits as their food source. When scouting deer in the forest, use the trees as your guide. Deer will leave scrapes and rubs throughout the forest to mark their scent for rut season. Rubbing their antlers on bark or licking low-lying branches leaves a scent behind that does can track when they’re ready to mate and lets rival bucks in the area know that they’ve been in this territory. If you are seeing rubs on multiple trees, that could mean that there are a large number of bucks in the area, or that the bucks that do inhabit the area are getting aggressive in their need to mark their territory.

Our Stump blinds like the Stump 4 ‘Scout’ can easily settle among the trees. Find a flat clearing nestled among the trees and place your blind at the edge of it to blend into the landscape while keeping the clearing open. If you wear the proper camouflage, you’ll be able to stealthily enter and exit your blind while blending in with the trees.

Whether you’re hunting farmland or forests, our Stump blinds will make the adventure comfortable. The 360-degree windows will allow you to see deer approaching from all angles, whether they come up through a soybean field, or through a clearing in the trees. You’ll be right there waiting, ready to open our silent, full-sized windows at a moment’s notice and reap the benefits of your harvest. Hunt the edge of fence lines and food sources, look for rubs on trees in the forest, stay comfortable and vigilant in a Stump blind, and you could have a great start to the season.

What’s been your key to success during the early season? Let us know in the comments below!

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