Natty Bumppo
5 year old buck +
Hey guys...getting clobbered by a crazy Nor'easter today. Thought I'd start a thread asking for opinions. It's always good to "look before you leap." I've been kicking around an idea for a small destination plot for the past few years and wanted to seek some input before I move forward this spring.
Quick recap of my land...about 30 acres that borders both my MiL and BiL...beyond that hundreds of acres of lightly pressured, low deer density, State forest. No ag anywhere. No hard mast at all. Lots of browse, tons of cover, old fields, and wild apples that grow just about everywhere.
I've been hunting the land now for 15 years and have spent the last two putting in some small 3/4 acre hidey hole food plots. You can see them circled in the pic below. Nowhere on my land can I squeeze in a food plot anything bigger than about an acre without bringing in some serious equipment...ledge, swamps, etc.
The only place I could do a 3 acre plot easily that would provide a lot of food for deer is in my backyard. Beyond the barns and the kids' playsets is a 3 acre field that I mow twice a year. Wild clover volunteers easily. I have done small 10x10' test plots in the past and get can soy beans, buckwheat, birdsfoot trefoil, and clover to grow. Just wanted to reach out to see if 1) anybody has done something similar, and 2) if doing something like this presents challenges for deer hunting that I may want to avoid despite the obvious benefits. For example, you can see that all of my access trails to my stands go through this field. My concern would be blowing deer out of the field in the AM and upon my return at night.
Bow season opens mid October here in Mass., and by then most everything has gone dormant. I thought maybe a perennial clover/chicory/trefoil plot that would provide great summer forage but that would go dormant end of Sept. and not really attract too many deer into October and November.
Looking for any thoughts. Thanks in advance.
A few pics of the field...
Quick recap of my land...about 30 acres that borders both my MiL and BiL...beyond that hundreds of acres of lightly pressured, low deer density, State forest. No ag anywhere. No hard mast at all. Lots of browse, tons of cover, old fields, and wild apples that grow just about everywhere.
I've been hunting the land now for 15 years and have spent the last two putting in some small 3/4 acre hidey hole food plots. You can see them circled in the pic below. Nowhere on my land can I squeeze in a food plot anything bigger than about an acre without bringing in some serious equipment...ledge, swamps, etc.
The only place I could do a 3 acre plot easily that would provide a lot of food for deer is in my backyard. Beyond the barns and the kids' playsets is a 3 acre field that I mow twice a year. Wild clover volunteers easily. I have done small 10x10' test plots in the past and get can soy beans, buckwheat, birdsfoot trefoil, and clover to grow. Just wanted to reach out to see if 1) anybody has done something similar, and 2) if doing something like this presents challenges for deer hunting that I may want to avoid despite the obvious benefits. For example, you can see that all of my access trails to my stands go through this field. My concern would be blowing deer out of the field in the AM and upon my return at night.
Bow season opens mid October here in Mass., and by then most everything has gone dormant. I thought maybe a perennial clover/chicory/trefoil plot that would provide great summer forage but that would go dormant end of Sept. and not really attract too many deer into October and November.
Looking for any thoughts. Thanks in advance.
A few pics of the field...
