Hang a tree stand on the closest elevated hardwood ridge near a corn or bean field. Most of the deer that come and go to the feed will cut across that ridge somewhere, often in or on the edge of thick green cover. I’ve seen it happen dozens of times each season. Set up downwind of the heaviest doe trail you can find, with rubs and scrapes nearby. Good for either morning or afternoon.

  • Rutting bucks love to troll across an old pasture or weed field that connects crops and a woodlot. It’s a natural pinch point. Set a tree stand just back in the woods where the buck will stage and look for does, and move back to bed at first light. The edge of a weed field is a great place to erect a box blind for gun hunting.
  • Hunt a fence-line funnel that links crops with a brushy, staging site or woods 100 to 200 yards away. A lot of times there’s not a good tree for a stand on a fence, so build a small brush blind on a downwind edge where the fence dumps into the brush. Small is the operative word; if you build a huge blind or, worse, pop up a camo blob, you’ll spook deer. You might whack a buck from your little hiding spot morning or evening.