Hey guys I dove in head first this year and got tired of being a guest on other people's hunting leases so I bought one of my own. The location is not as prime as I would like but it's what I could affordwithout being murdered by my beloved bride. I back up the edge of town in elctra I have 315 acres with a 3 acre pond and a few much smaller Water sources. I have never started a brand new lease so I'm kinda overwhelmed wondering where to start. I wanna start feeding as soon as possible and get some cams up to see what's there. About half of the lease is VERY thick scrub brush with a few oil lease roads scattered around but most of it is VERY rough. Foot ora rough ride on a 4 wheeler. Is it to hot to start feeding corn? What is the best way to get a good idea of what if anything is passing through. Thanks in advance

Hey Adam, Welcome to THF. My Deer are not hitting corn due to the great range conditions. They are hitting the protein feeders some.

Welcome. Put up a few game cameras out first to see what you see. Try hand corning with cameras on it first before work on a feeder set up. You got some time and sounds promising.

Yep, observe for a bit. Try a couple of cameras on trails before deciding where to place feeders and blinds. Maybe buy a popup for year one. They are easy to move around until you decide on something more permanent.

I would start putting cameras out at the water sources to see what you have.

Work backwards from those to identify their travel routes and pinch points/intersections.

Hand corn those spots with cameras next.

Take your time, don't try to over do it. See if you can find trails, skat, rubs. Try on the roads hand feeding. Get a topo map. Anybody hunt the place before you? Ask questions of the previous owner. Try to catch someone from the oil lease company, leave a note for them.

I would put my feeders and stands at the water sources, fire them up and be done wit it. Put your cameras out and if they aren't producing move them after dove season.

Put out cameras and dump a bag of corn at each. If deer or hogs are there, they will find it.

Here is an easy setup I used last season. I set up a pop-up blind, and staked it down with some tent stakes (it came with cheap wire stakes). I added a folding full size camping chair. I purchased a camera stand, at a resale shop, for about five dollars. I use this for a gun rest. I also set up a hanging feeder. Once you have a more permanent spot located, you can always up grade to a box blind and larger feeder.

great advice above - take it slow - what I have learned over many years is that the fun is in the journey and the process - getting results is fun but it is all about the journey in getting there

As far as the land manager knows nobody has hunted this plot. I will only be able to make trips to my lease once a week so I'd like to drop feed and set up a camera and see what comes in over the course of the week.

Welcome Adam! Like Stompy said the deer are not hitting the corn much right now. Nothing wrong with setting a feeder up and just watch to see what happens. Spend some time out there just easing thru the pasture to see what you can see. Early mornings and late in the evenings if possible. Are you the only hunter on the place?

[img]https://ibb.co/jkDjV5[/img]

This is the lease. It's roughly a half mile deep and a hair under a mile wide.

I can't get the pics to work lol

There are 2 other guys who will be hunting the lease. According to Google Earth the lease is about a mile wide and a little bit over a half mile deep going by the landmarks givend to me by the land manager.
I figure I need to place my plots and stands towards the far end of the place. Not sure how close to the houses the deer will venture.

We split the lease 3 ways but I presume we will almost never been there together due to our work schedules.

here you go.

Does that area have good deer?

Personally id go walk around and scout the areas you will be hunting and see what kind of trails I can find. Id prob start close to water and find their travel routes. Throw up some cameras on heavy trails and close to water. After a week or so id prob hand corn some areas I thought looked good and put a cam on it. If you don't have cams spend a few evenings just sitting still close these areas and see what you can spot. I would also use google earth to do as much scouting as you can prior to putting boots on the ground. This is how I do it on Ft Hood and have good results. You can usually spot some good looking areas just from google maps. If you don't have time to do all the hand corning and scouting find a couple potential spots on google maps and then go put some feeders up. I wouldn't fill them though incase you decide to move after a few weeks.

I keep hearing that it does. I never spent much time out there though. So we shall see

Electra can be a great area.

Looking at the map, one of my biggest concerns would be bullet travel. Gonna have to be EXTRA sure all hunting parties understand that a miss could easily land in a house if not taking proper precautions.

The three of us have a agreement all shooting lanes will face south and east away from town and we will be using elevated stands so misses will be catching dirt a few feet behind the target.

At first I was very concerned about the deer not moving in that close to town but the more I think about it the less concerned I am. Because I have seen deer in very close proximity to much more populated areas.