Deer Habitat, Scouting and Where To Hunt
Two elements combined should show well why traveling deer hunters need to change their perspective on what is central mid-west deer cover. The first aspect is our mostly open, meaning flat land of long range observation. The second is our one mile road grid system. The dynamic that occurs is that deer become sensitive to long range observation and movement.
Contrast the Kansas, Iowa and Missouri agricultural region open land to that of the big woods states. In the big wood states such as Minnesota or Alabama the deer to be concealed move but a few feet to get into cover. Low to ground deer level hiding cover is everywhere in the big woods states. In Kansas, Missouri and Iowa deer must seek out cover spots to loaf/rest. Those spots are away from open fields that have road access or farm yards. Roads and farm yards that can be seen create no deer areas. Deer loafing spots become the isolated from direct observation of human frequented areas. These areas have no relation to size of the woody cover. It is this isolation factor that the deer seek.
Add to this of having a nearby water source and preferred to that part of the season food source completes the scouting points.
The rub on the tree where the rifle is leaning shows this to be buck country. The value to this picture for the new to the central mid-west deer hunter is the background and the deer hunting habitat it shows.
Another rub illustrating buck presence, the value of the photo is the cover habitat in the background. This wood patch is connected by a lightly wooded dry drainage that can just be made out as the ditch towards the background.
When the common colloquialism of river bottom deer hunting is stated this is what is being described.