Hour glass food plots?

I am not clear why you would create a small plot with a 10 yard pinch point and max 20 yard width?

First, the amount of food you have is very limited and won't last very long even clover that can regenerate.

Second, you will be on top of the deer and they will have little space to move and feed. If bow hunting, which is early season, you angle of shots will be very high and very risky.

If you are in the middle of bedding, you are just going to bump deer and eventually push deer out of that spot. You are always better off to hunt well off of bedding and catch them them coming and going.

Sorry, don't understand the logic.
 
It'll work. If I can get stuff to grow in mine anyone can. My top soil is very thin and acidic. It dries out very quickly in the summer. I'm going to try a summer plot again this year. I tried buckwheat one year but it was a complete failure. This year I tried a fall plot without burning it all down. Got a lot of smartweed growth as you can see in the picture. You can't get too fancy. Stick to the basics, clover, rye, oats. I've tried brassicas but they don't amount to much more than a single leaf sticking up.

As others have as fool proof of entrance/exit as you can. I have a blind to the left of this picture. Fortunately my entrance is from an elevated area that is fairly well hidden so I can stop and check the plot before I walk down to the blind.
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PatinPA, that looks like a great spot to shoot a deer!!!
 
Sorry, don't understand the logic.

If it’s long enough, deer will enter it way before dark and feed down it. They feed down my long strip almost daily. All bets are off during the rut. Does avoid it because they are constantly pestered by small bucks there.
 
I am not clear why you would create a small plot with a 10 yard pinch point and max 20 yard width?

First, the amount of food you have is very limited and won't last very long even clover that can regenerate.

Second, you will be on top of the deer and they will have little space to move and feed. If bow hunting, which is early season, you angle of shots will be very high and very risky.

If you are in the middle of bedding, you are just going to bump deer and eventually push deer out of that spot. You are always better off to hunt well off of bedding and catch them them coming and going.

Sorry, don't understand the logic.

Can't believe I had to read to page 2 to find this response. This plot sounds like a bad mistake.
 
PatinPA, that looks like a great spot to shoot a deer!!!
I shot that buck 20 yards from where he's standing in that picture. The only problem I've run in to is that deer started bedding on the uphill side which I've purposely left more open than downhill. I plan on putting an elevated box blind along here for this coming year.
 
Like everyone on here has reiterated...access is key...we have a small plot similar to this that was a huge mistake..it grows great clover and rye and is surrounded by great thick cover, but to get to it you have to either walk right beside a bedding area or across another plot...in 5 years of pretty hard work to upkeep this plot we have killed one doe out of a stand overlooking it and a camera on it shows little to no activity in daylight (until the thick of the rut). And this is a very secluded location! But a stand about 100 yards downhill that has better access has been a great stand to catch bucks cruising to check both the plot and the thick bedding...I think if you have the access figured out it should be fine, but it can be alot of work (especially in the timber) for little or diminishing returns.
 
I think maybe like all things habitat and deer hunting related....geographic location is key, and it's hard to understand a plot as small as the OP's without knowing all the details.

I have a small hour-glass shaped plot EXACTLY like the OP is describing...in the middle of big, Northern woods. No mast. No ag. Low quality browse. And low DPSM. My little plot is the only game in town. I do have other slightly bigger plots on the land, but this one absolutely works. 80 yards in total length, no more that 25 yards wide, and the pinch point is only wide enough for a tractor to move through. It's maybe 1/8th of an acre. I do clover in one half and rye/oats in the other. When I made it 7 years ago I purposely left a small spruce at the pinch point with an overhanging branch and I dreamed of the day when bucks would use it to make scrapes.

Does use the plot spring, summer, and fall. I rarely get bucks on camera. More than just food, the plot becomes a social hotspot. Because of my low DPSM it doesn't get hammered. Then, in November the magic happens. I begin to start seeing bucks show up at night...all age classes. I get bucks sparring in it at 2 AM. And then, right around the 3rd week of November I begin getting bucks cruising the plot during daylight looking for does.

Here's a pic sequence of 3 days in a row back in November 2017 of 3 different bucks that showed up in my little 1/8 acre hour-glass that I had never seen before...the last being a once in a lifetime buck for most hunters in Mass. We just don't grow them that big typically.

I can't say for sure that it will work for the OP. But I can say that small plots like these are not bad ideas in all cases.



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It'll work. If I can get stuff to grow in mine anyone can. My top soil is very thin and acidic. It dries out very quickly in the summer. I'm going to try a summer plot again this year. I tried buckwheat one year but it was a complete failure. This year I tried a fall plot without burning it all down. Got a lot of smartweed growth as you can see in the picture. You can't get too fancy. Stick to the basics, clover, rye, oats. I've tried brassicas but they don't amount to much more than a single leaf sticking up.

As others have as fool proof of entrance/exit as you can. I have a blind to the left of this picture. Fortunately my entrance is from an elevated area that is fairly well hidden so I can stop and check the plot before I walk down to the blind.
View attachment 48913Beautiful spot and deer!
 
I think maybe like all things habitat and deer hunting related....geographic location is key, and it's hard to understand a plot as small as the OP's without knowing all the details.

I have a small hour-glass shaped plot EXACTLY like the OP is describing...in the middle of big, Northern woods. No mast. No ag. Low quality browse. And low DPSM. My little plot is the only game in town. I do have other slightly bigger plots on the land, but this one absolutely works. 80 yards in total length, no more that 25 yards wide, and the pinch point is only wide enough for a tractor to move through. It's maybe 1/8th of an acre. I do clover in one half and rye/oats in the other. When I made it 7 years ago I purposely left a small spruce at the pinch point with an overhanging branch and I dreamed of the day when bucks would use it to make scrapes.

Does use the plot spring, summer, and fall. I rarely get bucks on camera. More than just food, the plot becomes a social hotspot. Because of my low DPSM it doesn't get hammered. Then, in November the magic happens. I begin to start seeing bucks show up at night...all age classes. I get bucks sparring in it at 2 AM. And then, right around the 3rd week of November I begin getting bucks cruising the plot during daylight looking for does.

Here's a pic sequence of 3 days in a row back in November 2017 of 3 different bucks that showed up in my little 1/8 acre hour-glass that I had never seen before...the last being a once in a lifetime buck for most hunters in Mass. We just don't grow them that big typically.

I can't say for sure that it will work for the OP. But I can say that small plots like these are not bad ideas in all cases.



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Look at those brow tines!
 
Again, thanks for all the replies. My 80 has 20 acres of swamp, 4 acres of hardwoods and the rest is poplar trees that are 3-4" in diameter. My thinking is to open up a few small places in the poplar area and one in the hardwoods to make as a social place before they head to the field next to mine for the night. My hope is that by making these small openings, I will actually have a place to take a shot in the timber that is so thick. My other goal is to hopefully create consistent travel for deer. Right now, they meander through mine because it is more of a mono-culture of young poplar. My only other option for hunting mine is to sit right on the line fence and wait for the deer to come to the neighbor's ag field.

My deer numbers are not the highest. I'm guessing I have 4-5 does with fawns at the most living on the 80 during the peak of the year. Right now, there is not a deer on my land. They moved to the winter yard a few miles away.

I keep seeing that this plot might be a disaster, what makes guys think that? Deer bedding too close? Not enough clover to feed deer? Again, just trying to learn as much as possible.

One last piece of info. My plan is to have the plots 50-60 yards off the neighbor's field and the blacktop road. From hunting here the last 2 years, deer usually don't bed next to the road or the field edge. They go into the woods, 150-200 yards to bed. If they continue, they would be 100-150 yards away from the plots and I can access from the road.
 
Again, thanks for all the replies. My 80 has 20 acres of swamp, 4 acres of hardwoods and the rest is poplar trees that are 3-4" in diameter. My thinking is to open up a few small places in the poplar area and one in the hardwoods to make as a social place before they head to the field next to mine for the night. My hope is that by making these small openings, I will actually have a place to take a shot in the timber that is so thick. My other goal is to hopefully create consistent travel for deer. Right now, they meander through mine because it is more of a mono-culture of young poplar. My only other option for hunting mine is to sit right on the line fence and wait for the deer to come to the neighbor's ag field.

My deer numbers are not the highest. I'm guessing I have 4-5 does with fawns at the most living on the 80 during the peak of the year. Right now, there is not a deer on my land. They moved to the winter yard a few miles away.

I keep seeing that this plot might be a disaster, what makes guys think that? Deer bedding too close? Not enough clover to feed deer? Again, just trying to learn as much as possible.

One last piece of info. My plan is to have the plots 50-60 yards off the neighbor's field and the blacktop road. From hunting here the last 2 years, deer usually don't bed next to the road or the field edge. They go into the woods, 150-200 yards to bed. If they continue, they would be 100-150 yards away from the plots and I can access from the road.

If your access/road is to the south and you'd be walking 50-60 yards to the stand, and the deer don't frequently walk between this location and the road, you might be pretty good. You could do things to keep deer from crossing there like putting up a section of snow fencing. Laying a bunch of trees down to block it could work too but i'd be more worried about them bedding adjacent to that. If you hunt it a bunch they might still get you pegged with remnant scent after you're gone but that's the case anywhere.

I like the idea of edge feathering but beware that it might become doe/fawn bedding and get you busted on your way to the stand.
 
Can't believe I had to read to page 2 to find this response. This plot sounds like a bad mistake.
Why is that?
 
If your access/road is to the south and you'd be walking 50-60 yards to the stand, and the deer don't frequently walk between this location and the road, you might be pretty good. You could do things to keep deer from crossing there like putting up a section of snow fencing. Laying a bunch of trees down to block it could work too but i'd be more worried about them bedding adjacent to that. If you hunt it a bunch they might still get you pegged with remnant scent after you're gone but that's the case anywhere.

I like the idea of edge feathering but beware that it might become doe/fawn bedding and get you busted on your way to the stand.
I was thinking about taking most of the cut tops and dragging them towards the road and paralleling my access. Kind of like a tunnel for me to walk through to access my stand. I'm guessing I will hunt these spots 2-4 times total over a 3 month hunting period. I really try to bounce around and not over hunt stands.
 
Again, thanks for all the replies. My 80 has 20 acres of swamp, 4 acres of hardwoods and the rest is poplar trees that are 3-4" in diameter. My thinking is to open up a few small places in the poplar area and one in the hardwoods to make as a social place before they head to the field next to mine for the night. My hope is that by making these small openings, I will actually have a place to take a shot in the timber that is so thick. My other goal is to hopefully create consistent travel for deer. Right now, they meander through mine because it is more of a mono-culture of young poplar. My only other option for hunting mine is to sit right on the line fence and wait for the deer to come to the neighbor's ag field.

My deer numbers are not the highest. I'm guessing I have 4-5 does with fawns at the most living on the 80 during the peak of the year. Right now, there is not a deer on my land. They moved to the winter yard a few miles away.

I keep seeing that this plot might be a disaster, what makes guys think that? Deer bedding too close? Not enough clover to feed deer? Again, just trying to learn as much as possible.

One last piece of info. My plan is to have the plots 50-60 yards off the neighbor's field and the blacktop road. From hunting here the last 2 years, deer usually don't bed next to the road or the field edge. They go into the woods, 150-200 yards to bed. If they continue, they would be 100-150 yards away from the plots and I can access from the road.
Maybe something else to consider... I wish I would have thought it through before having things logged. Now I have to (should) wait until I can get some $$ back if I have my property logged again. back when I first had my property logged there were no clearings at all. The field I had put in is about 1.5 acres (yes it's hour glass and it works great!). It's "the only game in town" (quoting a previous post by a fellow habitat-er).

What I wish I did now was step back and assess the true potential of the property before saws and dozers came in...
Where are gullies?
Where are creeks?
Where do the deer tend to bed?
What will grow up after logging (initially I created a doe factory by planting tall grasses in my field)?
Can I create more of a destination place for my entire property?

Last year, I started going through this and began mapping things out. I grabbed some images from others on this site of what I wanted things to look like/function. I decided that I wished that I had planned out some better long/skinny plots that could act as travel/feed at the same time. Plus if I layered them properly, I could hunt between them and cover multiple feeding zones (and having multiple makes the deer more comfortable). In this below image, these are NOT my picks, but the left is my property and how I wanted to make changes learning from others here. Now I'm in a waiting game (another 3 years or so for my mature trees to grow and have more profit to pay for this work).


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Here are two maps of my land. On the left image the plot would be the small green box in the lower left. All timber on this image is small poplar trees. There are only a few trees to even get a ladder stand in. The plot to the east is 1 acre in size and was created 2 years ago when I bought the land. Deer typically bed to the north east of this area. Deer movement is AM west to east/PM east to west.

On the right image, the plot would be the green box in the upper left. Deer typically bed towards the swamp and to the south east of the potential plot. Deer movement is AM west to east/PM east to west.


Both images north is the top of the picture. White trails are ones I have made using a saw. They are 2-3 feet wide and the deer have been using them for a year now. Red is the old logging road.
 

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Why is that?

Ever notice how people interact with the salad bar at all you can eat buffets? Almost everyone treats the table of greens as an obstacle when going for the main coarse. Deer and people aren't much different in this regard. Given the size of the proposed plot, nothing of great attraction will grow and nothing that grows will offer great attraction. He's basically forced to plant rye, wheat, triticale or some form of clover. I just fail to see any reason to create a void in a travel corridor that's already established between food and bedding. If anything, I'd be hinging poplars in that area to steer deer past desired stand locations and thicken the area over time.
 
A plot that small would be useless on my land. The deer would destroy anything desirable before it could even get going. I'm considering eliminating a few small plots that are several times larger than that. They just aren't worth the time and expense to put them in every year.
 
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