Plot locations - head of draw vs tucked between draws

[BenAllgood]

If you have open pasture hills with wooded draws sticking out into them, what's your preference for food plot location? On the one hand, you have plenty of stand locations along the edge of the draws with plots being at the end destination, but on the other, those secluded little coves tucked back in there are sure nice too.

 

[Dukslayr]

If you have open pasture hills with wooded draws sticking out into them, what's your preference for food plot location? On the one hand, you have plenty of stand locations along the edge of the draws with plots being at the end destination, but on the other, those secluded little coves tucked back in there are sure nice too.

If I’m planning to hunt the plots, I’m putting them wherever I have the best opportunity to get in and out of the stand without bumping deer. If I’m planning a hunt plot, stands and stand access is the first thing I think about. I’ve got CRP ridge tops with draws coming up into them through most of my farm. My food plots are mostly mid ridge top so I can get in and out if them without bumping deer. If I tucked them all the way back down the ridge into pockets I would have a hard time getting back in there without bumping deer out of the draws at my place.

 

[Catscratch]

Your place sounds a lot like mine; grass hills with finger draws and creek bottoms running through it. I personally plant plots in one location (it's kind of like the center of a wheel) and hunt the draw leading to that location. I've never had much luck hunting plots without bumping deer and repeatedly spooking them. Either they are already there when I show up, they stay way after dark and I spook them getting out, or winds eventually swirl and I get pegged. If I can catch them coming and going and let them have the fields to themselves I tend to have better all around hunting. My best finger draws run east and west, hard to hunt north and south draws with our normal winds.

 

[j-bird]

Being a "flat lander" myself. I would look at how the deer tend to move as it is....and you may need to be even more specific than that as young bucks and does can use a property very differently than a mature buck will. I also like Cat's point about not hunting right on top of the plot as well, but instead the path leading to and from it. And like Dukslayr mentioned you have to consider your hunting access in and out. I know in the hills the thermals and the like can be a real trick at times so I would look at all of those things and see where it makes the most sense from a hunting perspective. If you have several of these draws pointing to the same area....like a hub of a wheel like Cat mentioned. You could have a very interesting place to hunt and put a plot.....especially once the bucks start cruising.

 

[BenAllgood]

This is what I learned about the property this first year of hunting. I had two plots (in Yellow). The deer bedded during the daytime in the red areas (there may be other areas I haven't found yet), but they bedded all along the edges at night (multiple beds located on field edges). They seemed to walk the edges. Some walked in the field and some walked several yards inside. There didn't seem to be much traffic in the very bottoms except to cross in a couple spots. Since the travel seems to be following the edges, I was going to move the plots to the end. There's a pretty good ridge between the plots. I thought about tucking them back in those two corners, but the there wouldn't be much room for various winds. The thermals seemed to take milkweed and pull them either straight up, or straight down the bottoms. If the deer continue just using the sidehills for travel, having the wind blow straight down the chutes wouldn't be that bad. The fields are hay grass that is being converted over to old field right now and hopefully pollinator plantings in the future. Winds were primarily out of the SSW and some W this year. That could take my scent and pull it straight down the bottom instead of along the sides where they travelled.