Let’s hear about THE VERY BEST set up (hunt location or stand) you ever had...

[44magpastor]

I used to hunt a pinch point in a hardwood bottom. Had a ladder stand between a creek and a large beaver pond. I would hate to guess how many bucks were taken there, over the years, by different family members.

Unfortunately the timber was cut 3 years ago, and the area is overgrown with sweetgum saplings, chinaberry, etc.

 

[jav]

Back in the early 70s I hunted along the Chattahoochee river in South Fulton. A friend of mine was growing soybeans along a 4 mile stretch bordering the river. There was a 30 acre swamp that divided 2 sections of soybean fields. I saw the only Boone and Crockett deer of my life from that swamp. My girlfriend at that time, now my wife missed him at 15 yards. It was a once in a lifetime setup.

 

[Railroader]

It would have been about 1980, on some family land in Millwood Ga...

A HUGE oak, with a seat my Dad and I built into forked limb, where my feet dangled about 15 feet above a well used trail..

I had me a surplus camo M65 field jacket, a coon skin cap, and a new pair of boots. I was carrying a single shot Stevens 20 gauge, loaded with a rifled slug.

I was shaking so hard acorns were falling, when I popped her tween the shoulders, as she walked right under me... You'd have thought a ton of bricks had fell on her. That first deer kill was very up close and personal.

I still have the gun, the land is long gone..

 

[Thunder Head]

Bow only spot,
In hind sight this existed because the guy next door used to sell vegetables and kept the fields bush hogged. When he stopped doing that along with the doe slaughter. The spot dried up.

It was just a 3-4 acre woodlot. Sandwiched in between a clearcut and some fields. It took half a season. But i soon realized, 9 out of 10 deer walked thru the exact same spot. Probably less than 10 yards wide. Didnt seem to matter which way they came from or where they were going. It wasnt out of this world because you would only see deer like every 3rd sit. But, if you did 90% of the time they would end up in bow range.

Makes me sad

 

[TomC]

An absolute orchard of persimmon trees on Clark Hill WMA back in the day. Within earshot of a campground and barely past the legal limit from 2 dirt roads. Not sure if bark on pine trees regrows but if you see a massive pine tree (It would be HUGE by now) skint clean from YEARS of climbing, you found it. Hint hint, find the road that dead ends into a pump station on the lake, back track a ways, check out old Google Map imagery for the pot of gold. Dad and I flung a bunch of arrows at that spot from our fold up seat Summits! Often we would bowhunt probably 75 yards apart at the same time, separated by a hog's back. Dad said he saw 26 one afternoon after a rain storm. Thats a big number in a totally wooded area! Dad would check me out early EVERY Friday afternoon from Pinckneyville Middle School in Ptree Corners and we would fly down the road to try to get to what we called, "The Point" in time to bowhunt the best spot ever! Wore that place out through my college years! Dad is 81 now and he talks about the spot often. The best of memories that will never fade!

 

[Jim Boyd]

An absolute orchard of persimmon trees on Clark Hill WMA back in the day. Within earshot of a campground and barely past the legal limit from 2 dirt roads. Not sure if bark on pine trees regrows but if you see a massive pine tree (It would be HUGE by now) skint clean from YEARS of climbing, you found it. Hint hint, find the road that dead ends into a pump station on the lake, back track a ways, check out old Google Map imagery for the pot of gold. Dad and I flung a bunch of arrows at that spot from our fold up seat Summits! Often we would bowhunt probably 75 yards apart at the same time, separated by a hog's back. Dad said he saw 26 one afternoon after a rain storm. Thats a big number in a totally wooded area! Dad would check me out early EVERY Friday afternoon from Pinckneyville Middle School in Ptree Corners and we would fly down the road to try to get to what we called, "The Point" in time to bowhunt the best spot ever! Wore that place out through my college years! Dad is 81 now and he talks about the spot often. The best of memories that will never fade!

GREAT post

 

[across the river]

The tract we had got cut, so there was a huge clear cut that had hardwood fingers that ran to a decent sized creak that lead to a big hardwood bottom. Bucks bedded in the 50 acres or so that ran against the interstate, and would walk along those hardwood fingers headed. There was one small hill with oaks that ran between the clearcut and cane break along the creek. Any deer walking the fingers would end up going through that spot. The number of mature bucks that funneled through that one spot was phenomenal. Nearly every buck I killed on that place came out of one tree on that hill, and you could hunt most any other part of that tract and outside of maybe the rut, not see a deer that wasn’t a doe or a 1.5 year old buck. I have never seen a place where one spot was so good compared to everywhere else in the place.

 

[westcobbdog]

For me a private farm in Morgan County where the older gent who owned it was into quail not deer but quality managed his 400+ acres for both. There were so many deer and bucks every hunt was a lot of fun. His goal was 1 to 1 buck to doe ratio.
Unfortunately my buddy left that job ( old guy was his employer ) and we both got voted off the island if you will.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Awesome thread, so cool to hear all these stories. Look forward to finding/developing a place like this someday. I've only ever hunted one place successfully but it is mine and I am slowly managing it into a decent place to hunt. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[johnnyk2000]

An absolute orchard of persimmon trees on Clark Hill WMA back in the day. Within earshot of a campground and barely past the legal limit from 2 dirt roads. Not sure if bark on pine trees regrows but if you see a massive pine tree (It would be HUGE by now) skint clean from YEARS of climbing, you found it. Hint hint, find the road that dead ends into a pump station on the lake, back track a ways, check out old Google Map imagery for the pot of gold. Dad and I flung a bunch of arrows at that spot from our fold up seat Summits! Often we would bowhunt probably 75 yards apart at the same time, separated by a hog's back. Dad said he saw 26 one afternoon after a rain storm. Thats a big number in a totally wooded area! Dad would check me out early EVERY Friday afternoon from Pinckneyville Middle School in Ptree Corners and we would fly down the road to try to get to what we called, "The Point" in time to bowhunt the best spot ever! Wore that place out through my college years! Dad is 81 now and he talks about the spot often. The best of memories that will never fade!

Now that's a cool read. Well done

 

[johnnyk2000]

I have 2. Both on military instaltions. One was in A14 on Fort Stewart. It was a pine tree right along this firebreak. I had a trail camera on it that was never stolen but had people walking by it all the time. I had to climb high but it has produced several deer and hogs.

Second, is on camp lejeune where I currently hunt. I put my stand in some sort of oak tree that never produces. It is about 100 yards from a landing zone about about 10 feet from a "Do not enter, impact area" sign. I can actually watch Marines train while in the tree. Oftentimes hear the topic of conversation. The deer come walking out of the impact area to browse and often times have to wait for them to pass the sign a good bit to take a shot. Last year the helicopter crew chief was so used to seeing me in the tree that he wave at me. The roter wash would near blow me out the tree but the deer didn't care.

 

[Jim Boyd]

Great stories, folks - keep them coming!

 

[HughW2]

Great pics! Gotta love that smile! Keep them for your memory book.

 

[gma1320]

A place I hunt I Bartow county. It is a hardwood ridge between two fields that connects to large woded tracts of land. The fields on each side are at different elevations. It ridge acts as a funnel between the two big pieces of property. In the middle if the ridge is a deep water runoff gulley that goes from the upper field to the lower field. The deer have no choice but to go around the ditch at the top or the bottom of the ridge. You can climb a tree and see both trails going around the ditch so bo matter which way the deer go around you can see them and get a shot.

 

[jhanie79]

Fixing to loose my best spot, this will be my last year there. Its 35 acres land locked with a creek and water authority property. Theres a 5 acre field right in the middle of it. Been hunting it for 10 years, and have killed a 120in plus deer out of that field every year.

 

[lungbuster123]

A nice clear cut on Fort Benning surrounded by thick swamp bottom....was maybe 6-8 months cut at the time. We hunted it about 4 days and saw a lot of deer including killing these two just two days apart I had setup going in on a long cut strip getting back to the actual clear-cut that was probably 600x450 yards. Unfortunately this was the last season this area was huntable but it sure paid off for us that week. I actually saw one that made both these look like babies but he was on a doe something serious and had no intentions on slowing down....killed that tall 10 maybe 15 mins later. A few days later my brother shot this nice 11 point coming straight across the clear-cut at about 11:30 in the morning. Definitely a fine week of hunting and a spot I would give anything to go climb a tree again.

 

[Jwsisson]

Macon Co
Hunting below a 5ac lake. Big swamp about 50 yards below dam planted pine on one side beautiful hardwoods on the other great pinch point. Killed 3 of best bucks there