I'm going to be hunting a new area this weekend, and I'd like some advice on how I might set up my stands. I was given permission by a friend's family to hunt part of their family farm, the area outlined in red on the MS Paint pic below. They own a signficant amount of adjoining woodlands, but this area is leased to a hunting club. However, the woods immediately around the fields is off limits to the club, but apparently the deer have been moving heavily into the fields, and the owner's want them thinned. They have offered to let me freely hunt the area around the fields, so I'm going to head down this weekend for two days of hunting.
Only downside is this property is a 3 hour drive from my house, and I've been so heavily scheduled this year I've barely had time to hunt more locally, much less make a day trip to scout the area. The owners are not hunters, so they really had no advice beyond "deer are in the fields". Since I'll be going in cold, I was hoping some of you regulars in the forum could through out some advice as to how you might set up in this area with two hunters.
A few more details:
In this area of Virginia we can use rifles, but we must shoot from a tree stand. Technically I can hunt from the ground with buckshot only, but I think with so much open area rifles are the way to go.
There will be two hunters, myself and my SO. This will be her first time in the field hunting. I had her using a tree stand during the off season, so she's reasonably comfortable climbing (and will of course wear a harness). She's been shooting for years with me now, so she's very capable and safe with her firearms handling.
My initial thought was to find some nice trees to hang stands near the edges of the field with good fields of fire, and just get in early and hope for deer moving along the edges of the field. This is a meat hunt, as I still have space for at least two deer in my freezer. With multiple buck and doe tags between us, I'm hoping in two days we can get two deer.