I'm curious how far everyone's shooting houses are from their food plots.

We rifle hunt and our property is heavily wooded. Our shooting houses are on top of the plots and out in the open. There is no way to come and go discretely. It's been this way for 20 years, long before I joined the club. We are seeing less deer but we know we've got a decent herd. I'm renting some pallet forks tomorrow and will move two of them off the plots and into the woods. I'm going to cut lanes and I'm willing to sacrifice not seeing 100% of the plot to reduce the pressure. I'm in favor of moving them all but not all of our members are convinced. My argument to them is, if you want the same results then we should do nothing. I feel this is the cheapest way to make a difference. Hopefully these plots will become more productive and they will see the light. Your thoughts?

I think YOU are right. We set our stands 60-80 yds off plots when possible. If you have a rifle that's a chip shot.

You are exactly right IMO. All of our stands, houses or ladders are off the fields. Some just 5 or so yards, but we have a way to get out without being seen other than 1 field that is L shaped. Gotta walk the road that's next to one part of the field. When there are deer in there at dark, I'll send a text for someone to drive down and pick me up. For whatever reason, I feel better about that than walking out.

I feel this is something that should have been done a long time ago. We have some historically good plots. These have been hunted harder in the past few years because of the decline of the other plots.

You are absolutely right.

You MUST have a approach/exit that it blocked from the deer. You could plant a screen ,I have Leland Cyprus beside one of mine.

Having them in the right spot for the wind and the deer movements are as important as distance....if you have the house 50-60 yards away...but upwind of the field...it really ain't gonna matter... Having a way to and from the house undetected is just as important....

Some of ours are right on he field and some are 40-50 yards away. I prefer them being well off the field and not upwind of the field or trails leading to and away.

Egress and ingress is one of the most important parts of stand placement.

If you can't get in and out clean, you are wasting you time, in most cases

some of them Texas boys that kill a lot of really big deer put the stands 200 yards off the plots. Only time anyone goes closer to a plot is to retrieve a dead deer.

We have always tried to hide the shooting houses off the plots to make entering and exiting the plot without being detected.

In addition to the above mentions requirements, I always tried to put stands where the rising and setting sun is not in my face, assuming I already had the spot downwind of the plot and hid well enough to approach and depart unseen.

We repositioned 3 shooting houses today. I was a lot of work cutting lanes but I'm sure it will pay off. The $27.50 I spent renting the forks was worth every penny. I think I'm going to plant a screen on one of them. Hopefully I can find some fast growing evergreen shrubs.

When I used to hunt a whole bunch, the difference in how many deer I would see and how they acted after a weekend of old men kicking the doors of shooting houses open 20 min before hard dark all weekend was shocking.... Scaring deer off as you leave a shooting house isn't good for business...

Now that I've got a 4 year old that likes to go and a 19 month old that probably will too has me looking at shooting house design totally differently...doesn't it Daggerz?

I'm also looking at planting some sort of screen to get the little ankle-biters to and from the shooting houses undetected

Carrying a 4 year old and all of her stuff isn't exactly stealthy

I've never liked sitting close to a plot. Always back off.

At my club they think you should have to walk through half the plots to get in a house, put it on the edge of the plot or in the plot apparently.

That would be a great idea, but myself and many other lease from timber companies, and that'd require cutting a lot of those rare pine trees. I wish I could sit them off that far!