Stand and Feeder placement?

I've been thinking of moving either my stand or feeder, or even both. I've mapped out in the picture below a few things.

There wasn't really anything wrong with last years set up, but I was very restricted on what I could see due to how thick everything is around me. My feeder was about 60-65 yards from the stand and is pretty close (to me at least) with a rifle. I haven't moved my stand yet, but did move my feeder with intentions of moving the stand next time out (to the Blue X). The more I look at the land, I'm thinking of clearing out the area in green, but I'm not sure if that area would be best to clear or the orange area would be best. With the orange I could set up two feeders. I'm waaaaay over thinking this lol.

I've had a camera on my feeder since I have moved it (Pink X) and have yet to have a single deer show up. It is close to my blind but last year I had deer walk 10' in front of my blind and not pay any attention to me. Only pigs, coons and a bobcat have shown up in ~2 weeks.

I've tried stepping off distances of the new options but its pretty hard with the brush. Either way if I make a change up from last year, i'll remove brush.

Where would yall move things around, if any?

Legend:
Red X - Current blind location
Yellow X - Last years feeder location (~60-65 yards)
Pink X - current feeder location (moved it 2 weeks ago, Aug. 8)
Blue X - Blind location I've been thinking to move it to
White X - possible location to move feeder to if blind stays in the same location
Orange area - if blind moves to Blue X, will clear out
Green area - if blind stays, clear out

Move blind to blue X cut an alley left to open space at bottom left of pic and then ahead of you to see all the way to white X

Is map situated where up is north?

I'm Lost....

Feed More

Map is situated correctly. North is up. I'll do different maps to ease the pain Sniper lol

I like Nav's Plan and also cut you two shooting lanes to the left and right to Chum Amigo...You can NEVER not have enough Lanes to chum

Looks like a great Area

In the first post, forget the pink x. It's a temporary location for the feeder right now.

Here is how I hunted last year...




Here is how I was thinking to move blind and feeder, plus adding a second feeder...




In the second picture, the clearing farther west of where "feeder 2" is, theres a small ridge between the feeder and that clearing and I don't think i'll be able to see it. Maybe I need to walk it again

It's a great area, but man is it thick. There's parts of this place that you cant hardly get through without crawling on your hands and knees with a helmet on. I know i'll have to clear more and more as time goes on, but there are a lot of monster pines. At least in the green area below, the pines are still fairly young and only about 4-6" in diameter making them easy to remove.

That's perfect or clear you a couple lanes or one lane to the right of that Road Sir...


You can drive in and chum those lanes and chum that road back to your stand...

Of the options you described I'd also do what Nav said. But if it were up to me, I'd look at putting the stand due south of the pink X on the opposite side of the road, where you can see north towards the green X and southeast back down the road. I'd then clear the green area, back down the road to the southeast and maybe another lane to the south depending on how thick it is down there. That would give you a "T" shaped area of view with 3 different shooting lanes. I'd put the feeder at the white X, and then you could add a 2nd feeder in either of the other two shooting lanes if you wanted to.

If you do a different map, center up the area so that we can see what is south of the area better. Also is the white X the lowest elevation and the blue X the highest elevation of the stand and feeder area?

Offer Nav and I, 2 135" 8 points and and we will have a Blade there in the mng


Didnt realize it was that thick Amigo

How often do you hunt this location? Which direction do deer approach feeder from?

Last year I hunted that location all year. It's my FILs place and he's had the same hunters on there before I was a twinkle in my wife's eye. I've been limited to location due to other hunters or the thick woods, or a swamp. This year I can switch between my stand and my brother in laws since he's in S. Korea playing army man.

Deer really come from all angles. The red below show all of the major trails in this vicentity. That blue line is the main road for other hunters stands. There's probably 5 other stands past me.

wish I could amigo. I haven't even gotten to bring my dad out yet. Been scared to ask yet

I would almost back that stand up right on that road where I could chum that road also...

The blue one?

Leave feeder alone and plant down where the blind is. I'd be more worried about hunting what looks like a drain running NE to SW in the upper lefthand corner. Looks like there should be some acorns up that way. (btw, if that's timber company land, pine removal runs $250/each.

better bring several extra chains for your saws ... there would be LOT of cutting needed, it's very thick! He just needs to turn his wife loose with a good set of lopes and a couple trips she will have it purdied up with shooting alleys.

Nope. Its my father in law's land. You are correct about the drain, but just flip it. It runs from SW to NE. There's a wet creek running through it, then to a swamp, then to a decent sized pond. Good eye.

I would switch the feeder and stand location since prevailing winds will be southerly, have another stand for North wind days, maybe by the road as Sniper suggested. I'd use the blue road and walk in from there (top right of last photo)

So, find a way to get to it without disturbing much. Would wait for a North wind to hunt it though, but once scrapes show up, you can likely find a community scrape up there somewhere and let a camera scout for you. If the area flooded back in May and you haven't gone to look at it since I'd definitely do it since water current will thin out a lot of the underbrush.

Yeah, if winds are southerly, you've got things backward.

I'd clear the green triangle and forget the orange rectangle. Then move my stand to the northwest corner of the green triangle and remove the tree just to the north of the pink x. Then put the feeder between the pink x and the southern point of the green triangle. This would allow you to see past the feeder and down the road a ways. Finally, put some doe urine or something on your boots when you walk in past the feeder to your stand.

*Removing that one tree north of the pink x would actually allow you to see into that little opening that is alongside the east side of the road.

Yes Sir...the Blue road...

Good Luck this Year and looks like a Great piece of Property

I have looked back towards that creek some and I've even thought about putting one of those lean to, 2 man tree stands (wife sits with me quite a bit during season). I can get back there but it's pretty thick and would make for very short shots.







Last year I kept a pretty good eye on the winds, and in that little hole I'm located in, it swirls around like a nascar track. There isn't a constant wind direction. I'm surrounded by 40-60 foot trees in all directions. I have a little wind radar that we designed for one of our customers that clamps to a tree about 30 feet from my stand. One minute it'll blow this way, then the next minute it'll blow that way. The deer haven't seemed to worried about me being there except this one old snorter doe. She's always the last one in, and she'll snort at anything

Thank ya sir. Next time I'm out, i'll have a look at swapping things around. I haven't walked too much in the area between the blue road and where it says "feeder-last year", but that's part of the "crawling on your hands and knees with a helmet" type country. lol...THICK THICK THICK! I'll take some pictures next time I'm out to show a little better lay of the land. I don't really have any good ones, just a few of where the feeder is located.

Spent some time out in the woods cleaning up this past weekend. Walked around quite a bit to see what the final plan was going to be and decided to just leave the stand in its current location and move the feeder farther back. I gained approx. another 40 yards from where the feeder used to be and can see a lot more area now. The pics below don't do any justice of how much my wife and I cleared out.

The feeder last year was around 50 yards to the stand and the new location is closer to 90 yards now. There's a nice shooting lane between the two red lines below, but I can now also see through the trees from the furthest west red line and the feeder



Cut one tree down then remembered to take a before picture.



After..

When I said a lot of this country is thick...this is what I was dealing with. You can't see 10 feet back in there.

Now you're directly up wind if it stays the common Southerly flow

It is fun work though, even if the humidity is 180%

180% and zero wind in that little hole while working Saturday...I looked like I jumped in a pool when I was done.

I looked into swapping the stand and feeder location like you previously posted, but that's a lot of clearing in thick brush I cant even currently walk through. My FIL was supposed to burn a lot of the place back in feb./march, but never got around to it. If it happens this next year it should open up a whole new can of worms and my options should greatly improve.

I like Nav and Snipers ideas. East Texas deer are real spooky. You need to get the feeder away from blind. Also, the way you have it set up, your scent is going right to the feeder when the wind is from south.

Wind and the currents can do strange things especially when the wind has to bounce off trees and hills and tend to swirl. It's not just going to follow a straight line in most cases.
I would sit in the blind and with a south wind and use some powder to check the wind currents. Crushed cattails are better as they ride the currents further and are easy to see.