G-Man

Pygmy, my overshot wad is a cardboard punch. i get a lot better pattern using the shot cup rather than the feltwad.

A great spot even better if your a SABRES fan!!

I have a knight 12gauge and a traditions 12 gauge. loads are similar except i usually buffer the shot in my traditions. Standard load volumetric 1 1/4 oz of blk powder to 1 1/8 oz of no 6 hardened(non plated shot)I also use a 3in shot cup(winchester) rather than the wad and cardboard standard. I get a good pattern at 40yards and have taken several birds. I little slow for a second shot as the x-full choke tube must be unscrewd to reload,it extends out the muzzle with knurling so it can be done by hand.

Best of luck!! Make some good memories regardless!!

i usually go with blk power the 1st week for my first bird(i'm on vacation) after that i like the reach of my 835 on my time limited hunts. First i ever heard of a 28 for turkey i'll have to look up what the pellet count would be....

I should point out if you are planting hunting plots is such quanity and slightly larger size you are probably feeding deer year round, this can easily be determined if they are not eaten to the ground, or an even better way is to weigh your deer before food plotting and after food plots have been established. An example in 1993 a yearling buck on my property field dressed between 101-118lbs in 2010 a yearling now weighs 112-125, horn size has increased slightly with the resident yearlings (as seen on trail cams all year), but dispersal still brings in lots of other little guys so i don't like to use antler size as an example of nutrition. Say you have 10 plots totaling 4 1/2 acres, your deer herd is in ballance and the property is not over hunted,or collectivly your neighbors and your plots add up to significant acerage, your probably feeding deer. Most people get started in a hunting plot maybe a half acre or smaller and expect the herd to bloom into monster bucks and plentiful fat doe. The media has done this thru our great hunting shows and magazines, wonder plots that small don't exist. True management of whitetails is more than drawing them in,or trophy buck production, If you are trying to truly better your herd(the people that stick to food plotting are usually doing some kind of timbermanagement/habitat management as well). It takes a lot more work than throw and go. Don't get the wrong inpression i am not trying to talk anyone out of putting in hunting plots to help aid in getting your deer. I am just trying to raise awareness of what not to expect(huge deer). I have seen a lot of hunters put in a plot and then 2-3 years later give up because they aren't seeing the deer they believed they should. All i am saying is realize what you have planted feed or attaction(hunting) i see a lot of posts that read it was eaten before i could hunt it, or they didn't hit my turnips till febuary. Hope this kind of explains why that happens its not like tv.

wow a 28gauge. .. what kind of range do you limit yourself to?

I've never had chickory die out from being mowed...but i have had it take over and shade out the clover. My opinion clover/alfalfa seed is expensive and i don't want to mix it with a cheaper if you will crop.

As food plots are listed as one of the exceptions for feeding deer i can't call it bait....jmo

People do the same with bows/bbguns/slingshots. Not right and people responsable should be punished.

Your soybeans may do well the first year as the deer aren't use to them,same holds true for turnip. after they find out they like them...well like you said wiped out. There is only a few things you can do plant larger plots or reduce the deer herd. If your just looking for feed black oil sunflowers will draw deer to eat the heads before they bloom and if they make it thru turkey and deer will eat the seeds. As for seed.. bird seed will do same as whole corn,or oats or wheat in bulk. just do a germerination test to see if your wasting your time or not. 100 seeds placed on damp paper towels (kept damp) covered by another. wait a few days and count the number of seeds that sprout 80 out of a hundred will be 80% germ. Although you will not get the seed coating(inoculation and fungicide) that comes with certified seed, or knowing if its roundup ready it will grow. Oats(planted a few weeks late are a great draw in october as they headout) , winter wheat is good as well.

The last i heard on this was a guy was feeding birds and a bear was coming into the bird feeders it eventually got curious about a freezer on the man's neighbors' back porch. dec was called and man told to stop feeding birds..he didn't and bear returned damaging the freezer and taking a frozen 20lbs turkey. neighbor called in a bear complaint and the man got a ticket.. haven't heard what the fine/punishment was, or what happend to bear.

Fantail, you keep planting your plots what most people fail to understand anything is better than nothing. While you might not feed a herd the deer will move to your neighbors plots, or put less pressure on natural browse and they are healthier for it. Stretch, a feeder is a lot different than a food plot as most feeders dispence food at specfic time and deer are trained to come at that time. food plots are 24/7 and deer not contitioned to come at specfic time. Size a plot of would not change that fact.

A hunting plot should conatain "deer candy" clover,turnips,brassica,oats,winter wheat. It is designed to maximize the area covered by a single or two stands. It may be shaped to concentrate deer movement and activity in a specfic area Be it a point or a intercection of two long food plots, and maximize the amout of edge. Deer eat a lot and although the media and seed companies want you to believe that a 1/2 acre of wonder clover,or whatever will produce monster bucks...it will not. the tonnage needed per deer is amazing. How many of you have a plot mowed to the ground?? A few deer can do this in a few days and the nutrional boost they recieve is minimal. Most people planting plots are looking to attract deer during the season after it closes the deer clean out the plot and are left to find what they can. A feed plot is usually large and square or rectangular shaped, it is not effectivly hunted by a single stand or many stands. Think farmers field deer may enter and leave the field at numerous points. Its main planting is for nutrition, a large corn field for winter carbs,clover and alfalfa for protine. It should be large enought to provider food through the entire winter/spring in the case of corn, or year round for clover. The new fad it to take a large feed field and cut a corner off it and plant another plant making a hunting plot on the edge of a feed field. Yes some people will hunt feed fields but they are not designed for the hunter in mind. I have two winter feed fields of corn 3 and 7 acres. they are not hunted over directly but do draw deer to the area. I also have a 3 acre cloverfield as a way to provide protine, athough i believe if you want big bucks age is a much more important than nutrition. Having a destination feed field can be great if you get an early deep snow during gun as the deer will come in from neighboring properties and use it as a wintering food source and will bed in or close to it. Although if you do plant for winter feed remember to plant enough as deer will concentrate and can cause significant browse damage if the food runs out, or even worse you will find a lot of starving or dead deer in the spring.

Dave, 4's are big maybe good in foliage but 5's or 6's will usually give you a lot better pattern as you get a lot more pellets per oz. but shoot what patterns best out of your gun. as an example, i have a friends father i took out he wanted to shoot 3" reemintion duplex loads so i made him pattern his gun with them it was aweful, tried some win 3" no 6 and it was a bit better, he had some rem 2 3/4 5's shot those and the pattern put 11 pellets into the head neck turkey target at 40yrds. he now shoots them and immediately went and bought 2 boxes. He had never spent the time to actually pattern the gun before, it could shoot 3in so thats what he was going to use but the gun shoots much better with 2 3/4. try a lot of different makes/shotsize and length to see what works best.(it can get expensive and i would try a shell from a friend if you could)(don't worry about patterning high/left right, that can be corrected with a sight/scope later). AS for the mossberg with the factory turkey choke it is devastating, my gun perfers winchester 3 or 3 1/2 xx 5 or 6's but my turkey hunting mentor uses federal 3 in no 5's for his 835. everygun is different! Good advice from pygmy pattern that gun on a turkey target! In my opinion mossberg 835 best turkey gun for the $$.

I use a mossberg 835 with factory x-full winchester 3 1/2in winchester 6's. And have shot birds at 65yards in a field and usually 45-50yards and can't take a bird under 20 as the pattern is about the size of a quarter.

Anything can be considered bear food...and if the photographer/trapper gets a warning from dec yes I can see how the person could end up on the wrong side of the law very easily. Although i'd like to think the warning would be if nusisance complaints were caused by the feeding. Unfortunatly there are the gung ho officers and judges out there who do not posses commonsence and would make it seem a fellony.

Indirect feeding(like a bird feeder) is only illegal if a warning is given. The bear population is getting crazy at least here in wny. I always enjoyed seeing them (it use to be once every other year or so) now i get at least 1 picture a week. This Fall after having (3)3-d targets eaten i tried a block only to have that eaten., add in 3 treestand seats,and a stool dragged off(which i still haven't found) I've had enough of bears and wonder why the dec is still trying to protect them more with this law. This fall i hope to try to control the population in my neck of the woods a little......

Rematch Sabres/Philly ..... Go Sabres!!!!

Just wondering who actually plants true food(feed)plots vs hunting plots. I would say a food(feed plot) should be over an acre in size where a hunting plot less than that. I would start a poll on this but am far from computer savy... The steps required for the two differ and what would be planted in my opinion vary for each.

If you want to help deer survive the winter, corn is good or sorgum. Although most people i know plant food plots as hunting plots not destination feed fields. A work of caution deer eat a lot and a small plot of corn can be gone in short order, a winter feed field should be large enough to have the food left in march/april as that is when natural foods are at the lowest. I started with an acre field of corn 14 years ago and now plant 10 this is the 1st year there has been any corn left.

Not a huge turnip fan, yes they get eaten but they take a lot out of the soil. The recomendation is not to plant them in same location every year. I've had turnips and clover next to each other and although they get hit, the clover is always dug down to and i don't have to plant it every year. I've seen a lot more deer in a good clover/alfalfa field than in a turnip field. With the price of gas/fertalizer a perenial is making a lot more sence than plowing, and planting every year. further when the turnips are hit thats it done.. clover withstands grazing pressure a lot longer which is important to me if i plan on hunting over it especially if we get an early frost and my "honey hole"is eaten to the ground before i can hunt it.

the clover needs a fertalizer of 0-(?)-(?) basicaly no nitrogen, chickory will use the available nitrogen fixed by the clover.

well at least there is a fishing pole in the pic.....

Congrats Burt! more to come now you've broken the ice!