He has the same disease a lot of deer “experts” have - including a few on this very forum. Everywhere is different. If you think the way deer act on your place is the way they act everywhere - you need to get out more. I have about 25 acres of food planted in nine different plots. My wife hunts one stand she calls hers, overlooking a two acre wheat plot. That is the only stand she hunts - sometimes ten days in a row. Drives up and parks the side by side 100 yards away or I drop her off at the foot of the stand with the motor running and LED lightbar blasting. It is in the center of our property. She will see almost every buck we have on camera from that stand. And every big buck if the neighbors dont shoot them first. The last day of season may be better than the first because the acorns are mostly gone and the bucks are starting to get back on their feed. I have seen my ground without food plots. With food plots, we easily see, conservatively, five times as many deer. What Mr Sturgis says in his video may very well be true in his area. It is not in mine.
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Pressured food plots
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j-bird
Well-Known Member
I think the key is understanding what the limiting factor of the habitat is at the time and hunting it in a manner to be a less disruptive as possible. IF that is cover...then hunting the edge or trail to/from a bedding area could be great...IF you can get in and out. IF it's food, then again hunting that resource is good, but again, you need to be able to get in and out. I agree in that you stand to educate more deer and do it faster by hunting on top of where the deer congregate much more so than hunting a location where the deer filter by and move off. Your plots can be to raise the nutritional plane or to help in patterning the deer, or simply help them thru a stress period...
I have been "stuck on stand" or "bumped deer in the dark" more so in and around plots far more than when hunting a travel route. I may see less deer overall when hunting a trail vs a plot....but those deer I do see I tend to have a better chance to kill if I want AND I seem to be less likely to educate them as well. Doesn't keep me from hunting plots...especially with my kids. And I have 3 bucks on the wall from hunting plots...but those bucks where after the does feeding in the plots...they where not there to feed themselves.
I have been "stuck on stand" or "bumped deer in the dark" more so in and around plots far more than when hunting a travel route. I may see less deer overall when hunting a trail vs a plot....but those deer I do see I tend to have a better chance to kill if I want AND I seem to be less likely to educate them as well. Doesn't keep me from hunting plots...especially with my kids. And I have 3 bucks on the wall from hunting plots...but those bucks where after the does feeding in the plots...they where not there to feed themselves.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
A few different perspectives here, an enjoyable read. But one message comes through loud and clear, pressure is always bad when hunting big bucks.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
I think you are spot on when you say pressure = bad. Lots of way to skin a cat though and we all seem to have our preferred methods.
weekender21
Well-Known Member
Even in a specific county things can be drastically different from one farm to the next. Terrain, ag, local deer density, neighbor pressure etc. I think Jeff’s general points are good but obviously his exact experience on the WI Farm he hunts isn’t going to be exactly like every other farm.
I like his books and videos because they force me to thing critically about the small details on our land.
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I like his books and videos because they force me to thing critically about the small details on our land.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
jsasker007
Active Member
Pressure is bad that's for sure. I think the deer are still on the property they just become more nocturnal than other times of the year but nocturnal is anytime after dark so I think hunting staging areas that are nearby is a decent chance to catch deer AROUND the foodplot and not right on it.jmo
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
Foodplots are a tool, like other tools. I agree that too much pressure will ruin them for mature bucks, or even not so mature bucks. I found this out the hard way. If you pressure it enough, the does might not even show. Pressure is relative though, controlled by the fact that if they don't know you're there, then there's little to no pressure. That's one reason I have multiple locations to hunt, governed mostly by wind direction. If the wind isn't right, I simply don't hunt there, I go somewhere else. All my stands have to have a way to get in and get out with a low chance of being winded. I never, but never, walk across a plot to get to a stand. I also try really hard to be able to access my stands, bow or gun, at 2 or 3 in the afternoon without being seen by deer in the plot. Sometimes I can't see as well as I'd like to, but if they can't see me, that's ok. I try to keep my stands in the shade as much as possible, sometimes makes for a cold sit, but if the deer are in the sun, they can't see my stands as well.
The main reason for food plots on the places I hunt is to give the deer something good for them and that they like so they hang around. Being this is primarily timber country, if I didn't grow plots, I wouldn't have as many targets. After all, my number one reason for hunting is to see deer and take some home now and then.
The main reason for food plots on the places I hunt is to give the deer something good for them and that they like so they hang around. Being this is primarily timber country, if I didn't grow plots, I wouldn't have as many targets. After all, my number one reason for hunting is to see deer and take some home now and then.
Think a lot of it depends on your herd in general. Everyone is out there trying to tell you their opinion on what’s best for them. Our true mountain deer and VERY different from a Midwest buck. Therefore everyone’s going to have a different experience. For us like many of y’all have said foodplots play a very important role. 9 times out of 10 you’re not going to kill the big boy in the plot, but know darn well he is coming there. Not only to eat but to check out the does when it gets around the rut time.
deer patch
Well-Known Member
After reading many of the responses on this thread I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve got dumb deer and particularly dumb bucks on my farm. They keep showing up in our plots.
I agree with this also ^^^^.
It's all about what the deer are accustomed too. My dad rides his Atv into his plot and parks it within 20 yards of his shooting house. He does park it in some downed cedars but it's still there. He is 71 and will not change his ways but Mature bucks come into that plot all the time. We are very selective in what we shoot even though the neighbors will shoot anything 2 1/2 yr old and older. I don't hunt over food plots as much as my dad does but when I do I can walk across the plot with deer in it and the does will just stand there looking at me as I'm disrupting there dinner and yes the mature bucks will come before dark. When I say mature bucks I am talking about 5 yr old deer.
Most years we will see every buck we have on camera.
George
Well-Known Member
I educated myself by educating a lot of deer. Where's educating a buck in a plot can have negative ramifications it's normally forgivable but the same nonsense down in cover, unforgivable. So I might also argue that not improving our deer habitat would also serve to improve our chances of killing a mature buck.
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Triple C
Well-Known Member
Loving this thread! Just goes to prove what so many have said...every piece of land is unique. I have more cover than the deer can use. 165 acres of thinned pines is almost impenetrable without mowing the thinned rows. Hardwoods not so much. Once acorns are gone and leaves dropped, it looks like a park. Swamp bottoms...a different story. That's Brooks hangout during the rut, particularly in the mornings and buck sightings can be amazing back in there. Largest buck taken was in the swamp bottoms. But, the majority have been killed sitting on a plot during and around either side of the rut.
In my opinion, it depends a lot on the normal activities of the property owners. I have an acquaintance who has a farm a three hour drive from home. Outside of deer season, he makes it down every two or three weekends. During season, he is there every weekend and takes off a lot to hunt some in the week. So the deer go from seeing him every 15 to 20 days, to seeing him all the time. I feed my catfish every evening during spring and summer. They boil the water. If I catch two or three of them - they are gone - sometimes for days at a time. If a catfish can figure out pressure, so can a deer.
I live on my property. The deer see me everyday and a lot of nights. I deer hunt, duck hunt, coon and squirrel hunt with a dog, hog hunt, crow hunt, trap, bush hog, disk, plant, cut firewood, and just ride around looking. I have a three hundred yard rifle range 75 yards from my front door. I have a clay pigeon thrower on my back deck. I have one neighbor, lives 150 yards from my house, who actually called me one time and asked me if I was OK because he hadnt heard me shoot in three days. It is not uncommon to see the biggest buck on the place standing next to my bow target - sixty yards from my front porch. We kill far more big bucks on the ridge up next to highways and houses than we do 1 1/2 miles away down in the bottoms. In a lot of areas, Deer will get used to humans.
I live on my property. The deer see me everyday and a lot of nights. I deer hunt, duck hunt, coon and squirrel hunt with a dog, hog hunt, crow hunt, trap, bush hog, disk, plant, cut firewood, and just ride around looking. I have a three hundred yard rifle range 75 yards from my front door. I have a clay pigeon thrower on my back deck. I have one neighbor, lives 150 yards from my house, who actually called me one time and asked me if I was OK because he hadnt heard me shoot in three days. It is not uncommon to see the biggest buck on the place standing next to my bow target - sixty yards from my front porch. We kill far more big bucks on the ridge up next to highways and houses than we do 1 1/2 miles away down in the bottoms. In a lot of areas, Deer will get used to humans.
TimberlandHollow
New Member
And it can and does change from early season to late season, and year to year as well.
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j-bird
Well-Known Member
I agree...I just think sometimes both writers AND consumers of that "knowledge" forget that NOTHING is 100% certain, written in stone. I used to tell my buddy when he would complain that the deer would not do what article X said they would..."Dude! Deer can't read! Much less read the stuff we do!"
farmhunter
Well-Known Member
I think Jeff is pretty smart and an astute observer of deer behavior. I can remember almost 20 years ago him really excited about his results with fall planted Rye in MI. I've been really impressed with what Jeff did with his passion for all things deer and habitat. Back in those days I think we both saw food plots a must. Rye in particular did a lot for the soil and he and both were praising its use - for sometimes different reasons. ( different forums, a lifetime ago). Today I'm more in agreement with him on the problems with foodplots then ever, he makes some great points - and I've seen some of the same results he discusses. However - back 20 years ago we were less concerned about the quality of the bucks as we are now, and I think we see the results through a different lens.
