How would you hunt this

Been struggling the last few years trying to hunt my place at home. It’s 11 acres border on the east side by an ag field rotated corn and beans every year, the south side by a gravel pit and neighbors on the west side. I have 3 food plots rotated beans and corn. The map below shows my property lines in red, deer travel routes in blue, 4 stands in yellow and food plots outlined in green. My biggest issue is the prevailing north or northwest wind. Due to the travel patterns of the deer coming to my property(blue lines) It is almost impossible to hunt the wind anywhere on here if it is north and very tough if it is northwest. The deer don’t bed or live here, they just come to feed or water at the pond on the west side. I could wait weeks in the fall to get a south wind or an east wind. That really cuts down on hunting time. Any suggestions? The top of the map below is north.

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I would sit in each of your stands during a N or NW wind and use milkweed to see where the wind is actually traveling. You may be able to adjust your stand set up in a way where you can get a shot off before your scent stream reaches the deer. Looks like a nice little property!

I know this will sound like blasphemy, but do the deer really care about scent? Given that this is an “outer suburb” area with plenty of human activity, do the deer react to scent in the same way that the rural deer do?

I was just out with one of my sons the other night on a bike ride in a metro area park and we spotted some deer heading toward us in the park. So we stopped in a dip in the trail where the deer would pass within 15 yards of us, but they would not SEE us until they were very close.

But the wind was blowing such that I was sure I was going to hear a snort and hear them running the other way because the wind direction would have betrayed our presence long before they came over the brow of the hill such that they would see us.

The deer just kept walking. They went right through our scent cone, and walked right past us within 15 yards of us without even a glance. One was a 6 point buck with good mass, one was a long 4 pointer, and one other deer that I couldn’t see if it had buttons or not.

So what I’m wondering is are your deer going to react to human scent the same way a deer in a very rural area would?

Grouse

Grouse,

I’ve also experienced what you are talking about, so no doubt they sometimes don’t care at all about scent. But I say why take the risk if you have the opportunity to avoid it? If Sticker has deer on camera that are anything like his avatar picture I wouldn’t want to take that chance.

But again I totally agree, there are certain areas that deer will tolerate human scent and certain areas they will not like your example.

Tough to know without walking it but it looks like you really are kind of SOL on your two stands furthest south for any kind of North wind and sometimes that’s just the nature of the beast. If they really like to run your chunk of woods north and south my instinct would be to try and hunt the East side of it and hope for a Westerly wind, which you should get. You could even get away with a NW if you were far enough North on your chunk of land. Your other option would be to buy a redneck or banks style blind and keep the windows closed. Pretty expensive fix but it does work!

Enclosed blinds and Ozonics.. like Pat said $$$… but you could hunt when and where you wanted to hunt.looks to be your only option without educating everyone that is around…
My favorite wind to hunt is NW wind, BC it seems deer are on their feet because of the cold front, followed secondly by the 1st South after a bunch of Norths…. (the second one would be great for you to sit in a traditional tree stand on those dates on your property)

The main questions you have to ask yourself is, “do I want to shoot a mature buck? Does? Or just want to hunt?”
Personally, if you were after a mature buck, I wouldn’t hunt until one starts showing up during shooting hours.
I started doing this 3 years ago with my primary stands and have killed 3 mature bucks on September 19, October 28, and October 17.
Run your cameras, check them once/week, and hunt accordingly.

Appreciate the advise.

As to Grouse’s point, although this is a “city” location and they do get my scent in the area year round, come hunting season they do seem to be aware of human scent and steer clear of it. They don’t freak out and run the other way, but I have had them get my scent and alter their path.

Protourbaits1 wrote:

The main questions you have to ask yourself is, “do I want to shoot a mature buck? Does? Or just want to hunt?”
Personally, if you were after a mature buck, I wouldn’t hunt until one starts showing up during shooting hours.
I started doing this 3 years ago with my primary stands and have killed 3 mature bucks on September 19, October 28, and October 17.
Run your cameras, check them once/week, and hunt accordingly.

Yes I want to kill a mature buck, already have the trail cams up and he is already showing up during shooting hours. This may change as we get closer to hunting season, but I am going to keep my eye on him.

The banks blind and ozonics are great ideas also, but I am not going to get approval to spend that kind of money

Again I appreciate all the advise above, good info!!

The pic below is early July of this year.

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