Food plot works

spaniel

5 year old buck +
My home place is 15.3 acres, and I've been working for about 10 years to turn the back ~6-7 acres into core deer habitat. This involved repeated kills of thick fescue pasture that choked out any trees starting. Planting about 800 trees. Now it's at a state most trees 5-7 feet tall, not really cover, mostly patches of grass mixed with goldenrod. A couple pine groves ~6ft tall.

I had a bummer gun opener this morning, I was down at my other 53 acre property 90min away and missed a gimme shot on a nice buck. Weather went to crap, so decided to just come home and hunt the home plot.

When I bought the 53 acre last year it came with 1.5 acres of food plot land but they were strung out so I elected to take soil samples, start over doing everything right (learned a lot here). At the same time I decided to put .5 acres in on the home place. The home place is entirely surrounded by agriculture and very little woods/big cover anywhere. My theory was if I put greens it it wouldn't help bow season much, but once all the crops were in, it would be a magnet and the cover would hold them in the day.

I stalked in and immediately realized there would be deer. I last walked it a couple weeks ago, before the last of the crops came down, and the sign was much lighter. Now, they had stuff beaten down and beds and trails everywhere. I didn't get 50 yards in and I saw a head pop up. It took off before I could get it in the scope, cut out and ran down my gun range. Got out and got a bead on it but it was moving, far, and small, so I let it jump the fence. Figured since it took the range and didn't bust through the rest of the cover I'd go back in and stalk through. Another 50 yards I jump 2 more deer. Now I have a freeway not far off the south of my property and houses not far to the north, so I am constantly planning my stalk and being super careful about which direction I'm shooting. Well this time they threaded the needle and went someplace I felt safe, so when they stopped to see what had pushed them I got them in the scope and the 458 SOCOM sealed the deal. Short track job to a freezer filling antlerless.

It is clear the clover/brassica plot has completely changed how this property holds deer once crops are off. It will only get better as the cover improves. Next year I'm hoping to dig a small pound to put water on the property for them, then they'll have no requirement to leave.
 
Cool, story thanks for sharing. Its super nice when all the hard work starts paying off. Congrats!
 
Glad you are having some success. I will warn you that in years when the harvest is stalled and you have some standing crops however.....can have a dramatic impact on the value of your plot. I see this every once in a while and am seeing it this year as I have 2 areas of standing corn and very limited use of my green plots this year. It can be VERY difficult to compete with standing farm crops.... The value of your cover will not diminish, especially in areas where cover is very limited. I have this same issue on my place, so I understand. Having a pretty small parcel also can be very restrictive as well. Good luck.
 
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