Drop_Tine5214
Member
Gray rectangle= Gravel Road
Red Square= Barn
Green Stripes= Bean Field
Yellow Stripes= Corn Field
Yellow blotchy Line= Line of CRP separating the fields (about 5 yards wide)
Green blotchy area= Timber
Blue= Large Creek
Anyways, I want to start by saying that funnels are one of my absolute favorite places to put a tree stand. If you find the right one, you will almost always have deer come by you and always be in range. In this particular example, my stand is located where the red X is. The two large tracts of timber to the East and West are both large THICK bedding areas. I put my stand in the narrow finger of timber between the two that is only 25 yards wide. This way when deer from either bedding area what to go to the other one or go to one of the fields, they will almost always pass right by me at 20 yards or less because it is the only cover connecting the two. Not only that, but when I have a North wind, it just blows over the creek and I will almost never be winded. This is a pretty deep creek with steep banks that deer will not cross anywhere near me. This can also be advantageous to calling because bucks cannot circle downwind of me. I have sat in this stand 6 times so far this year and have had deer at 20 yards or less every single time.
The only disadvantage to a setup like this is entrance/exit routes. The only way to reach this stand short of getting a canoe into the creek is to walk across the bean field, near the CRP. This little strip of CRP is all knocked over and pretty thin so there is no hiding me if I walk through it so I just walk on the edge of it. This takes away morning hunts for me because the deer are out in the field feeding at night and cannot approach the stand without spooking them. I have been tempted many times to hunt this in the morning but have been able to resist because I know it will end up with a lot of spooked deer.
So, this particular funnel is exclusively an evening stand for me, which is good because I'm not much of an early bird anyways. When I leave at night, if there are deer in the field I can just call the farmer that owns the property and lives across the road to drive his pickup across the field to come get me. A vehicle driving across a field seems to spook the deer far less in the long run than a person walking out of the timber in camo.
Anyways, I just thought I would share for some of the lurkers and newer hunters who are looking for answers when they hear people talk about funnels. This type of funnel is a narrow strip of cover connecting two bedding areas. While this is my favorite type of funnel, there are a lot of other kinds of terrain features that can funnel deer past a stand. You just have to get creative and think outside the box sometimes. I would love to just post a topo picture of the land but the landowner is not comfortable with that. All I will say is that it is in Southwest Iowa. :way: