Ambush site for mature bucks?

[loneranger]

Ladies and Gentlemen hunters,,I have a question about a proposed stand placement. I plan on tilling up some ground and planting clover and rye this late summer. The spot is on a fenceline on the edge of a large field, that is secluded from view. There is good cover and bedding spots on the other side of the fence. A good trail comes from there and crosses the fence now. There is a good tree for a stand on the fence line. Is it a waste of time to put a stand at the edge of a food plot, and expect to see a mature buck enter the edge before dark, during the RUT? I know it is better back in the cover, and there is cover back of the fence a ways, but when you set up back away from a food source you are always sitting there thinking,," I wonder if a doe came out to munch from another direction and is in that clover right now, and a good buck is checking her out and I can't see it." Is sitting on field edges a waste of time during rut? Or is it better to sit back on a well used trail going to the field? I haven't had alot of experience sitting on field edges. Thanks from the Lone Ranger.

 

[schweikert]

i have had good luck during the rut the last two years on field edges with corn and bean stuble. both were shot in the evening at about 5:00 and both times I had climbed down from my stand deeper in the woods and shot from the ground.

 

[WKP - Todd]

You should glass the field during the later part of the summer to see if and where a potential mature buck is coming into and feeding in the field before setting up.

The thing you have to consider is how a mature buck will use the wind in his favor when entering a food plot. Often times, they will scent check the field for other deer (and predators) before walking out into the open. You may set-up on the down-wind side of a field thinking you can't get winded, and the buck may have you pegged without you even knowing it. Mature bucks are a different animal and very rarely not use the wind in they're favor! The rut is the one time you may be able to catch them making a mistake!