How do your plots affect the "Huntability" of your property?

[BenAllgood]

Could it stand on its own without them or does your property require them as a major piece of the puzzle?

 

[g squared 23]

First year we had the farm, no food and it was a ghost town. Still a transition area between two chunks of other cover, so we’d see some deer and maybe get a crack at one, but the plots make everything much more huntable.


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[KSQ2]

I'm not really sure when it comes to our property, we've never had much luck hunting over the plots there, I'm sure it helps keep deer around, especially in the late season. Now on a couple properties we hunt and the landowners allow us to put in plots, those places would be almost unhuntable without our plots.

 

[Elkaddict]

First year (no plots or hinge cutting) we’d see a deer or two every few days hunted. After 24 acres of hinge cuts and 17 acres of plots, deer are every where, and seen in and out of the plots essentially every sit. I’ve counted as many as 37 in one plot at the same time…. The hinge cuts provided extensive bedding and literally tons of browse within easy reach…. Night and day difference for us.

 

[Native Hunter]

My plots are definitely a draw, but the mast trees (especially persimmon, chestnut, oaks and apples/crabapples) are the biggest factor in the fall. It’s nice to have both - and the necessary cover as well.

 

[dogghr]

Well....yes kinda. I hunt pinch points so while they are probably traveling to a plot eventually they would still pass my spots. But with that said a combo of plots, which I seldom directly hunt, and my random clusters, all on the typical downwind side, tend to manipulate deer/buck travel as they move between the clusters and at the same time scent checking the plots, all of which is occurring 100-200 yards downwind of the plots which are segmenting my property south to north. Confusing dialogue even for me.

 

[deer patch]

Depends…My farm is mostly timber with 5 different plots. The years we have acorns, plots are overlooked until late season but years we don’t have any acorns, then the plots are a definite draw. Problem is the weather patterns for the last 5-8 years, we have had poor or no acorn production due to late frost, pour downs during pollinating season and then drought every single summer which caused the trees to abort there crop.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I spent the first 25 years of my hunting career mostly hunting deer in the woods without any food plots around, and then the next 15 years hunting mostly food plots or travel corridors to food plots, and it's amazing how hunting food plots has totally changed everything.
Its not as much about getting bigger deer, the best part of having good plots is that the quality of each individual hunt is so much better, It'd be awfully hard at this point to go back to hunting without any food plots in the vicinity. To go out for an evening hunt in the beauty of nature and seeing many different species of wildlife is an awesome experience that's not going to happen often unless you have prime habitat, which involves good habitat management including food plots to make it happen.

 

[Drycreek]

I’m sure there would still be some deer on my place when acorrns fall or in spring when the browse is tender, but not near as many as are in my wheat plot on any given day in the fall. The same can be said for the lease I’m a part of. Before I started growing food plots the deer sightings, especially does, were few and far between. Lots of planted pines, a veritable desert as far as deer food. We all know to have bucks in the fall you have to have does. They are as important as food plots IMO. I plant in the spring to help the does with milk production and the bucks with antler growth, as well as overall herd health. Spring plots are not always successful depending on moisture, but my fall wheat is usually outstanding. Just ask these four legged buzzards !

 

[SwampCat]

I’m sure there would still be some deer on my place when acorrns fall or in spring when the browse is tender, but not near as many as are in my wheat plot on any given day in the fall. The same can be said for the lease I’m a part of. Before I started growing food plots the deer sightings, especially does, were few and far between. Lots of planted pines, a veritable desert as far as deer food. We all know to have bucks in the fall you have to have does. They are as important as food plots IMO. I plant in the spring to help the does with milk production and the bucks with antler growth, as well as overall herd health. Spring plots are not always successful depending on moisture, but my fall wheat is usually outstanding. Just ask these four legged buzzards !View attachment 24047

Pigs actually changed the way I manage my food plots - for the better. I used to plant a lot of beans - but the pigs started preventing that crop from happening. I started utilizing clover for a spring and summer plot and wheat for fall and winter. Those plantings are much easier to manage than beans. Hogs will graze all of it - but not bad to root. I didnt even pull the trigger on a deer last year - even though I could have almost every hunt. I am still shooting a hog or two every other week. The hogs actually provide more opportunity - for me - than deer. Cant go out and shoot fifty deer a year and expect to have any deer left. No matter how many hogs I kill - there will soon be some more. I might go as much as a month without an opportunity - but usually not that long. It has been four days since I shot one.

 

[lakngolf]

My plots are definitely a draw, but the mast trees (especially persimmon, chestnut, oaks and apples/crabapples) are the biggest factor in the fall. It’s nice to have both - and the necessary cover as well.

And I always thought it was the OLD barns!!

 

[bowhunt160bucks]

I don't need food I need cover so I the mixes I use are millets GS and Sudex. I plant for the birds and the deer are a welcomed bi product.