Neighbors keep shooting biggest bucks during rifle season. Only outlier is they have the late season food sources

alldaysit

5 year old buck +
Ok, I’ve lived at my location for 6 years. The neighbors kiddie corner to me own an 80 acre parcel with 29 acres of tillable property. The past two seasons of rifle up here in Wisconsin, they have shot the biggest bucks we have on camera. Two years ago it was a 170+ typical 10. Last year it was a 160+ typical 12. I hiked the property last year after it was put on the market for above average price. My hunting property is 3/4 a mile from it and my home neighbors the property. When I walked it, the woods was below average for holding capacity of white tails. Mostly mature woods you could see through. The water source is a river that I also live on. No ponds or waterholes. The stands appeared to be poorly placed. The only outlier was they still had standing corn they leave for the deer.
I have attempted to get late season food sources on my smaller tract but I am chronically unaccomplishing this fact due to my local herd consuming all food sources by November 1st. I have not seen a shooter buck on my properties during rifle season on my tract, ever in 5 years. During bow season I have them regularly and do see them, and when lucky harvest them!

Here is my question for those with late season food sources. How have they changed your property for late season hunting? Do you retain target deer because of the food sources? How important do you feel it is to have late season food sources.

As far as I can tell, it’s very important and a large missing part to my habitat program. Hinge cut Browse can’t make up for acres of a late season food source during rifle season in my opinion.


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Is there a chance that activity on yours is higher/more intrusive before rifle season than it is on theirs?
 
maybe they're just better hunters than you are



*that was sarcasm
 
Does are always where the food is. Bucks are always where the does are during breeding season.
 
LOL, maybe.

I have very tight tolerances on activity on my parcel. I have outside access, and only hunt at most 80 yards off the property line; I have barricaded my entrance roads also with specific openings that have worked very well over the past few years. I hunt with the wind blowing onto the neighbors and never into the center of my property. My neighbors to the north and east hunt, but the south and west side properties do not hunt. Basically, the entire interior of my property is a sanctuary that I only enter to recover a harvest; which was once last year and once the year before. I haven’t been winded by a deer on my parcel in several years. The hunting actually gets better as November moves on with a bow. When rifle season hits in Wisconsin it seems all activity greatly reduces. I still see deer each sit, does and small bucks, but the neighbors are shooting the bruisers and I’m missing a late season food source.


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Sounds like you've got it figured out then. Install a late season food source and you'll be the one shooting the biggest bucks in the area.
 
I think Native may have touched on it... You can have better cover and food for most of the year...but if that standing corn offers the deer better food and cover during your rifle season...then that is where the does will be and thus the bucks to follow. Do those same neighbors - bow hunt? If not that lack of pressure can make those open woods and the standing corn even more inviting.

On my place I specifically target the November time frame. I live if farm country and most of the crops will be harvested by 11/1 in my area. As such that grossly alters the cover and food sources. I don't worry about feeding the deer in the summer months...I let the neighbors and the other farmers soybean fields do that. Sure I may hold a few does, but I seldom hold a buck. Instead I have to wait for the rut to bring the bucks to me via the happy does I do have. To do this I plant plots specifically for fall grain production or late fall food. I also don't hunt much of our early bow season...all I tend to do is educate those few does I do have and that is a bad thing. Standing corn is king in my area with standing soybeans being a very close second. The corn is great because of the food and cover it provides.

if your focus is on rifle season...then you need to tailor your hunting and practices around that. I can't provide a year round habitat for deer - I don't own enough property to even consider it. The deer are going to wander onto other properties. I don't have adequate cover to hold mature bucks, so I have to increase my chances of lure them in to me. Food during a time when food is limited, cover when the pressure is at it's peak and the ladies are how to do that. I have never shot a deer that broke 150" yet so maybe my plan is flawed as well. But adjusting to this plan helped me shift to shooting P&Y class deer during our gun season.
 
Ditto what Native Hunter said above.

I've owned my property five years now. The first two years I planted / hunted a very small single food plot and shot shooter bucks only early in the rutting season before they seemed to go AWOL.

Past three years I've expanded my plantings considerably and most definitely have noticed that towards the end of season several additional shooter bucks have made my place a temporary home so that they can fill their bellies, lick their wounds, and rest after having run the race for several months. Haven't shot any of these late visitors as by the time they showed up I'd harvested a self-imposed limit of 2 bucks per season.

Acknowledged caveat -- not sure how easy it is to compare my experiences in Florida to yours in Wisconsin. We have a REALLY long gun season that runs from Nov. 3 through Jan. 20. And really easy for me to provide them with food through the season as we don't typically do fall plantings in my neck of the woods until mid-October and we might get two light frosts during the entire season. We had a really warm September / early Oct here and I just put seed down this past weekend. Got a good rain last night so I'll have deer hitting tender shoots just in the nick of time by our season opening Nov 3.
 
Late season food sources is the name of the game where I am and the sole reason I plot. I'm sure given your location a late season food source holds the same importance.

Think of it this way. When the deer spend all summer feeding on beans and the fall eating corn where do you think they are going to go when the fall ag harvest is over? If a neighbor has a standing grain crop especially in the North that is where the deer are going to be. Personally I prefer beans over corn for late season attraction but I would assume in your case they will need to be fenced.

Plant the earliest maturing variety you can and over seed them in August with whatever type of brassica gets the most attention in your area. Once you take that fence down the deer are going to find it and if it's the only game in town it wont last long unless its a big plot or you have low deer numbers which I doubt either is what you have. The second season I would split the plot in half and do corn and beans flip flopping them every spring. I havent tried them but others have had good luck with them. You could try outlining the plot with pumpkins and or butternut squash.

If only it was as easy and cheep as it is to type it on a computer screen.
 
These are all good facts and really shine on why I haven’t held deer on my property late into the season. I don’t have the necessary food to draw them in. Browse and cover only go so far. I have does that live on the place but I don’t have mature bucks.

The neighbors property is hunted during bow season. I closely identified there entry and exit routes when I hiked it and could not see how they were shooting mature bucks consistently without educating them. I would say this, there AG fields are the only producing fields into late November for MILES. Thinking about it now, they most likely have every deer in a large radius of that property on it during rifle and late season.

I need to get a late season food source on my properties and it will take electric fences. I like the idea of early maturing corn and radishes. Deer love radishes on my place; they don’t seem to let them mature.


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I don't buy that they are holding ALL of the mature bucks ALL of the time, even with plentiful food in November and December. You say your food is gone by November 1st. Are you not planting rye? Planted in mid August it will provide a solid food source until the snow covers it, and many times that does not happen until late gun season or even after.
 
I don't buy that they are holding ALL of the mature bucks ALL of the time, even with plentiful food in November and December. You say your food is gone by November 1st. Are you not planting rye? Planted in mid August it will provide a solid food source until the snow covers it, and many times that does not happen until late gun season or even after.

Not saying you are wrong in saying you/he/we should be planting Rye. My experiences with food plots has shown me that unless I plant corn or soybeans my fall/winter plots will not be touched until the neighbors 2-3 acres of beans and or corn that are left standing for the deer are completely consumed. I think this is why my brassica go untouched generally until late January to mid February depending on the winter. For me Rye and WW isn't much more than a nurse crop, soil builder, and weed suppressor.
 
Don't underestimate the power of a bait pile either. Could they have a feeder out for the deer or just bait daily? On my land in WI I spoke with a neighbor who killed a lot of the better bucks I had on camera all year. He killed them by baiting with apples in a swamp right by his house. He could bait every day without spooking the deer and he wouldn't start hunting until the does at the bait pile brought in big bucks in daylight.

I had food plots, standing corn, little pressure, water, etc. and he could beat me with a well placed and maintained bait pile.
 
I don't buy that they are holding ALL of the mature bucks ALL of the time, even with plentiful food in November and December. You say your food is gone by November 1st. Are you not planting rye? Planted in mid August it will provide a solid food source until the snow covers it, and many times that does not happen until late gun season or even after.

I am planting rye. It’s my main crop. I plant the LC mix and substitute peas for beans as I have them available for free. This part of Wisconsin does not have much agriculture. When I say much I mean in the 4 square miles around my property, maybe 75 acres out of 2560 is agricultural. Throw in random food plots it might hit 90-100 out of that 2560. It’s timber and swamp.

I am excited for this year because I did not maintain my plots, and between the mature rye and weeds there is clover hiding in there. I’m thinking that they will have to work harder for that clover which may make it last longer into November, but the yield is significantly lower than when I traditionally maintain it. I guess we will see in a few weeks.

I’m not saying there HOLDING all the bucks, what I’m saying is they typically have the only significantly sized STANDING corn/beans for MILES during and after rifle season; and they are HARVESTING the mature bucks Lol.

I will also say this, when I waked that property I could not believe they had as much luck as they did during rifle. There are no ridges or knobs for bedding as and it’s mostly flat ground. I could see for a very long ways in the woods and I did not see any horn rubs from mature bucks. I only counted like 5 total rubs and There was not a horn rub on that property that was on a tree larger than 2” in diameter. I thought at that time I couldn’t justify buying that property for that price with no sign on it that would intrigue me to even hang a stand if it was public property.

This is why I am questioning what I am doing when it comes to success with a rifle. I am getting chances at mature P&Y bucks with a bow each year and I am very fortunate for that for the amount of $ I have invested. It’s a blessing. But I am NOT or AM or SOMEONE is doing something that is improperly affecting my rifle season mature buck harvest opportunities.

After analyzing and talking with you all today it’s obvious I need to step up my game and plant beans or corn.


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Don't underestimate the power of a bait pile either. Could they have a feeder out for the deer or just bait daily? On my land in WI I spoke with a neighbor who killed a lot of the better bucks I had on camera all year. He killed them by baiting with apples in a swamp right by his house. He could bait every day without spooking the deer and he wouldn't start hunting until the does at the bait pile brought in big bucks in daylight.

I had food plots, standing corn, little pressure, water, etc. and he could beat me with a well placed and maintained bait pile.
One of my first thoughts was also baiting
 
Don't underestimate the power of a bait pile either. Could they have a feeder out for the deer or just bait daily? On my land in WI I spoke with a neighbor who killed a lot of the better bucks I had on camera all year. He killed them by baiting with apples in a swamp right by his house. He could bait every day without spooking the deer and he wouldn't start hunting until the does at the bait pile brought in big bucks in daylight.

I had food plots, standing corn, little pressure, water, etc. and he could beat me with a well placed and maintained bait pile.

Son of a B. I hate baiting. If you can’t beat them mise well join them. It burns to type that.


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Some properties; are just one of those magic spots on the planet that bigger deer just want to be... that chunk might just be one of those. They could put in a machine gun and bazooka shooting range and still whack down monsters. I know of a couple properties that are that way and it is amazing how great of hunters those blessed landlords are... just ask them.

It sucks being right next to one of those chunks especially when your earshot away from gun fire and not seeing anything. I have a spot just like that, ... I'm in the process of slowly improving on it -- about the time I die it should be a slice of whitetail paradise. But the frustration is there, knowing they just show up and kill nice deer while you or me work our butts off and dont see what we want to be seeing.

Cover is king, water is golden and Late season food is the frosting on the cake - and deer have sweet tooths... give the deer food 24/7/365 and they will be there, eventually.... At least you have to hope so. " baiting with apples " I have come to believe one of the single best things you can have on your property beyond a year round water source is apple trees - they are social gathering places with a treat. Im logging this fall, and have a ton of apple trees (including crabs) in my nursery getting ready to be be transplanted. Im amping up the natural browse with wildlife shrubs and next year from then on (post logging) will have corn or soybeans with some late added broadcasted plantings in between the rows for an added source of late season feeding every year. When there is corn and or soybeans I have a ton more deer than just with clover, rye or wheat. Combine them all which is easy and I dont think you can loose - well you can lose money :-( and on a side note having too many deer can be a problem too its a balance thing I believe.
 
We kill our big bucks during the later, December secondary rut. We see more bucks when they are running wild eyed in November. We see more big bucks when it slows down in december. They are wearing down and looking for food - but interested in the does some, too. Best of both worlds. Ample food is the name of of the game for our late season.
 
Son of a B. I hate baiting. If you can’t beat them mise well join them. It burns to type that.


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I've been thinking about baiting myself. Our 160 acres is surrounded by smaller 10-35 acre parcels. The neighbors that do hunt hard put a lot into baiting, mainly corn or apple piles. I haven't convinced myself that it's necessary to hunt over bait but I'm seriously considering putting corn in some of my sanctuary spots in an attempt to advance a few bucks to the next age class. Corn piles are the death of many mature deer down south.
 
We put out corn for the grandkids to hunt - usually in an already existing food plot. During fall modern gun season, it is an eye opener to see how many deer, especially bucks, will visit a food plot and never walk over to the corn. I have seen bucks on many occassions feeding on durana clover 20 yards from a corn pile, stay in the food plot for thirty minutes, and never walk over to the corn. This fall, I put corn out in two of my food plots to conduct my camera surveys. The corn sprouted before the deer ate it in one spot - they did come in and eat the corn when it got about a foot tall. Another place, they eat every kernal - on the same property. My bucks especially, choose a high protien food source like beans or clover over corn. Does not as much. That doesnt mean the bucks never visit the corn - they will. If you have hogs, you may not want to bait.
 
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