The Fence Row That Keeps on Giving: My Best Spot Isn’t on a Map

The Fence Row That Keeps on Giving: My Best Spot Isn’t on a Map

It’s not a big lease. It’s not a secret honey hole. It’s a weedy fence line that most folks drive past—and I’ve killed three bucks there in five years. Sometimes the best place isn’t remote or wild—it’s forgotten.

🚜 When the Best Spot Is the One Everyone Ignores

In eastern Iowa, permission ground is a fading luxury. But five years ago, a friend of a friend gave me a nod to scout the back edge of a hay operation near the county line.

The property was 160 acres—but almost all of it was open pasture and cut hayfield. It looked useless for deer. No timber. No water. No bedding cover.

Except for one thing: a gnarly, overgrown fencerow that split the east and west halves. No more than 200 yards long. Brambles, mulberry saplings, old cedar skeletons. A tight, brushy line leading to the neighboring hardwoods.

I nearly didn’t hunt it.

Now? It’s my most productive bowhunting location. And nobody else even asks about it.

🦌 Why That Fence Row Works Year After Year

Deer are edge animals. And that weedy strip? It’s the perfect midday highway. They bed in the cover next door, cross at dawn and dusk, and use the fence line as both a windbreak and travel corridor.

The cows avoid it. The farmer never bush-hogs it. And during the rut, it becomes a bachelor runway.

Three out of five seasons, I’ve taken a mature buck within 70 yards of the same crooked post.

🎙️ “It’s not the size of the property—it’s the precision of the pressure.”

📍 What Makes This Location Tick

✔️ Single-access entry
I only use one route, in the dark, down a drainage ditch, with wind in my face.

✔️ No calling. No rattling. Just stillness.
I let the terrain do the work. The bucks are already cruising. I just intercept.

✔️ Absolute scent control
No bait. No attractants. Just discipline and wind mapping.

✔️ Post-rain and first-frost gold
Activity spikes when conditions break. A light rain or cool snap funnels deer into that row.

✔️ The neighbors hunt hard—so I don’t have to
The bucks use my fence row to escape pressure. I’m hunting their plan B.

🧰 My Minimal Setup

Everybody wants the big lease. The food plot. The permission with the cabin and the creek.

But I’ll keep my busted fence row.

🎙️ “Sometimes the best place isn’t remote or wild—it’s forgotten.”

So next time you scout a property and think, “this is too open,” or “there’s nothing here,” ask one more question:

What does this place offer that hunters overlook—and deer love?

Odds are, that’s where your shot will come from.

📍Filed under: Hunting Locations
🕯️ Difficulty Level: Simple Entry, Smart Exit
🦌 Result: 3 Mature Bucks in 5 Years
🌾 Location: Eastern Iowa Hayground Fence Row