G-Man

you can always make a cage of welded 2x4 welded wire in a diameter of about 1 1/2 ft. keeps deer from browsing and rubbing since you removed the tubes...

I've used the same nocks for 3 years, pass thrus and missed shots, i only use "dead old ones" for practice cause the weight is the same and it gets old shutting em off all the time , the 6 on my bow are for kill shots only and are now going on year 4, deer no 5...

try putting a pinch of sevin dust in each tube, will kill bees and hornets on contact...lasts quite a while...

Anything done is better than nothing.... even a failed plot causes new growth(native grasses,browse, ect) As for myself is it worth it? my camp has litterlay taken up to 5% of my towns take on average. When everone has a bad year we still take 15+ deer. since starting food plotting/ timber management in 1995 we have harvested 293 deer off the property with almost 1/3 being antlered buck!! I know that we would not be able to take this number without doing management of food sources/ cover. It has inspired several neighbors to ask for help in improving their own property's (deer wander so helping a neighbor is the same as helping myself) now if everyone would learn/ want to let all the little guys walk we would have a gold mine, slowly they are changing their attitudes and wait for a bigger one as they see the better bucks out in the plots in summer, and knowin they are there seems to be the difference maker. So is it worth it ...... it is at least for me and a few others i know...

I have a field that when there is high wind the deer flock to, makes no sense at all as they can go 100 yards and be on back of hill and out of wind, they are there all the other times as well but completely unpatternable as no defined trail in and out of field. all i know is after 20 years i know if the wind is howling its the place to be.

did u have mesh over the tops?, have used tubes for years and have had good luck with them.ever a problem with wasps or coon, of course i do allow trapping for coon on my property, and the trapper takes quite a few every year...

had one deer run off with arrow at dusk , got to see exactly where it went thru the rose bushes , was wierd watching light bouncing thru woods and was easy to see arrow sticking up in dead deer rather than following blood trail thru the roses when it was much easier to walk around and right to deer. Missed a shot in a corn field and arrow skitter down 50 - 70 yards, nade arrow east to find, reallt dont think i would of found it otherwise, except in the tire of the tractor in the spring.

i prefer the bright green over the red, orange. seems much brighter to me , i'ved used lighted nocks for 4 years now and they last 2-3 years. just be careful of inertia activated, have a friend who covers his nocks in a sleve of camo to hide the bright colors of the fletching, problem is the drive down the bumpy road to camp turned on his nocks, drained the batteries as he didn't know they were on.went to use them and didn't light up. bad way to learn batteries are dead.

Cleveland,ohio has posted signs, not to throw lit cigarettes out windowas potential for fire is high...all along interstate 90...

if i didn't have some one to give meat to i'd scale back my hunting a lot, but buck, big buck,doe they are all the same to me. as for just big buck, i've turned down lots of hunts for big buck , in iowa,ohio,new brunswick, if i can get a deer here i would not shoot one in another state /province. it just take more work to get one here... and thats the part of hunting i enjoy!!

bucks n does have different habitat needs, if you find the doe the buck will eventually be there, bucks now are in bachlor groups and will and do move many miles when they break up, not to interested in buck pics right now. leave them up as long as you like sept i check once a week, summer n fall 1x month or more...i pull mine week before bow so as to leave wood undesturbed as much as i can before i hunt.

I have 2 stands that are only 60 or so yards apart, but it is in a thick area your max range is 20 yards, 2 guys hunt there , they have both taken deer at the same time that the other hasn't seen as they came in from different direction, as well as one seeeng and getting a deer with the other one seeing nothing. entry and exits and not over hunting an area is a bigger concern than how close stands are....

maybe 3 or really good 2year old, try turning the camera 90 degrees, he didn't get old by being dumb. the big ones i get on cam learn to avoid the camera by walking behind it or off to the side of it, sometimes a simple turn will get u another picture especially if its in a funnel area where they have to walk through it.

We got lots of turkey nests while mowing hay, not to mention, fawns while brush hogging, and the hundreds that get hit by the trains evry year.

50 cal, round balls 454 casul 45-70, 30-06,12 ga, various slugs, 58 cal round ball, 69 cal roundball,

hot n dry, no mast, berries are about ripe lots of them wandering looking for food, lack of food makes for a lot more sightings, and not just bear, deer have to look for food in poor mast years as well. lots of apples last year = deer sightings down by 20%. cam photos show same or increased pop from previous year. find the food find the game!!!

if the buck is not in the top 20% of deer cam pics it gets a pass. does, had 2 piebald that were all withe with brown patches on their heads, got passed several years until a pocher shot them both took the heads and left the bodies in the ditch.

2year and 3 year old pics , they are pretty much done growing now 2nd - 3rd week of july they are starting to harden horns, same deer bad genes or bad nutrition, you need to know what your deer winter on and of food was available, the area your in may be different than a spot 10 miles down the road. if its one of your top bucks on camera consider him a shooter. waitig for a minimum in size you may never get is fustrating, we try to take a buck from the top 20% we have on camera and it works well.

always used smoothbore, breneke slugs. 99% of my deer are under 75 yards. Never understood sighting in a shot gun for 100 yards.. woods to thick to see that far in most places i hunt anyway...

unfortunatly it is an illegal crossbow to use in nys as axle to axle is not long enough,....

I broadcast spread my urea, i have done both adding 12-12-12- or 10-10-10 at time of planting and adding urea later. ON new sod ground, i would spray roundup or like equivilent(there are alot more cheaper knock offs) just check the active ingreedient. and add pure urea later after burn off. LOL thanks for the compliment!

I have an old field and stream that shows an army of cats marching over a hill with a trail of small game ghosts floating up to heaven. The caption reads "Protect your small game! KILL all feral Cats!! not politcally corret now adays but has a lot of truth in it...

urea, 45-0-0 is the way to go for a better yield apply when a ft high or so, if your plants are purpleish the need potassium as well. as for the field not growing, you may of got a bad bag, check the date on the bag, yoou chapter may of had some leftover from a previous year and gave you that. Did you use the correct plate (if you use them in your planter) a crushed/damaged seed won't grow. Lack of rain after germination will also kill the young just sprouted plant, crows will pull fresh grreminated corn (a lot more than u think possible(i lost my 2nd planting of sweet corn to the bastrds this spring 5-6 pants out of 10 50' rows is whats left.. they pull the sprout and eat the kernal..

My friend bought one for his wife, shoots extremely well, made by mathews. extreamly adjustable. a little short axle to axle for me personally. i plan on buying one for my nephew who wants to start bowhunting this fall.

I use atrazine fro preemergance, what little i have left... if the field looks like i'll need it. For the most part rr corn is the way to go most of the time. Corn isn't that hard prep is the same for any plot, the planting all the rows is the problem. it can be broadcast but be careful not to overseed, and disk into ground 1-2in deep max.