Food Plot Objectives

[Paula]

I can be a bit odd and weird at times, i am ok with it.

[Fantail]

Habitat improvement. Seasonal success improvement. Overall satisfaction of good work and return from it.

Allot of time, money and pto goes into the property. So yeah I enjoy a good blood trail, so be it. I enjoy the work and feel good about it. The rest is free to be utilized by the wildlife, that often have a heck of a time through winter in the tug hill area. 

Maybe if I put up pictures of hillary it would scare the coyotes away.

[thphm]

Started making a trail this morning to get to some downed trees for firewood, might just open it up a little more and put some lime and  triple 15 down and sprinkle some oats seed.On the way up to that spot I went past one of my little plots and there bedded down just outside of it were 2 young fawns.        

[Doc]

I am not a real big fan of food plots as a hunting tool. But I will say that as farms continue to go out of production, and mature woods begin to take their place, It is not  a real bad deal for some of this land to be re-opened and planted with useful food sources for critters. Having spent more than 1/2 century in the same area of valley country, I have seen 90% of the once-farmed land go out of production. I have watched huge fields go back to kind of useless "over-story" maturity, and I can say that it does impact deer numbers and quality. So when I see people opening up land for food plots, I may question the motives, but I never question the benefits.

[Ford]

Food plotting is fun and benefits the wildlife.

 

To be honest, I enjoy putting in my plot, and watching the deer on my trail cams, almost as much as hunting.

 

They eat the heck out of it, that is for sure. And it is a small plot, a half acre. I want to plant late season foods to give them a boost during the winter months. My plot lasted well in to December last year, and with the lite snow, they used it.

[NYSuperSportsman]

I plant plots for a few reasons. I would say at this point being that I have been doing it for years, I am doing it mainly because I get a great amount of satisfaction from working the land and using the equipment. Secondly I want to keep the deer in my property and keep them well fed. Lastly I want to better my hunting situations. With major food sources on my land it helps me pattern the deer and enjoy watching them and maybe even shoot one once in a while.  I do hunt over my plots and I will continue to!  

I think that having the plots that I do does help with rack size but it is the last thing on my mind when I plan my plots. I just want healthy deer that feel safe on my land and I can enjoy watching and hunting. The big racks will mainly come from the fact that I pass up the smaller ones! 

[Doc]

I plant plots for a few reasons. I would say at this point being that I have been doing it for years, I am doing it mainly because I get a great amount of satisfaction from working the land and using the equipment. Secondly I want to keep the deer in my property and keep them well fed. Lastly I want to better my hunting situations. With major food sources on my land it helps me pattern the deer and enjoy watching them and maybe even shoot one once in a while.  I do hunt over my plots and I will continue to!  

I think that having the plots that I do does help with rack size but it is the last thing on my mind when I plan my plots. I just want healthy deer that feel safe on my land and I can enjoy watching and hunting. The big racks will mainly come from the fact that I pass up the smaller ones! 

Lol .... Finally someone who admits to using their plots directly for hunting and doesn't apologize for it. Great believable response on all counts.

[Ford]

Lol .... Finally someone who admits to using their plots directly for hunting and doesn't apologize for it. Great believable response on all counts.

 

I think we all use our plots for hunting Doc. Maybe not necessarily hunting over them, but that is why we are all here right?

[Doc]

I think we all use our plots for hunting Doc. Maybe not necessarily hunting over them, but that is why we are all here right?

Well, apparently not everyone. Some apparently just put in the plots as a benevolent gesture to the local deer herd ..... lol. Seriously, I have kind of taken note of the number of people who claim not to actually hunt their plots. In fact, this may very well be the first place I have ever seen anyone state that they use their plots directly for hunting. By the way, I am not trying to pass judgment on the idea of doing that. I just find it to be a rare situation to find anyone saying that on this forum.

[WesternNY]

Lets scrutinize everyone's hunting and land management tactics, or better yet, lets ride everyone that just sits back hunts, and complains about everything instead of improving the land.  

[NFA-ADK]

Plain and simple to me, If I grow it and spend excessive amounts of time improving my land why shouldn't I enjoy it while hunting???  Many things get a bad rap in hunting, I will never object to food plots or hunting them, they provide vast benefits that far outweigh the few deer removed from it when done properly.

 

Far to often we all like to play follow the leader and do as I say on these forums.  I am guilty as the next guy...  Taken to extreme we could say all hunters should only use traditional bows and arrows, no scents, calls, camo, or modern equipment, GPS, tree stands, food plots or land improvement, no trophy hunting, no compass and map, no cameras...   (I think we all know this would be bad for deer and hunting.)

 

We each hunt for our own reasons but I believe the general idea is to enjoy the outdoors.  Please do not frown upon other peoples way of hunting.  I love stalking deep woods for bucks.  But the guy who hunts a farm for deer in a tree stand with a 7mm mag will be just as happy to take a nice buck...  We argue about many stupid thing just like brothers and sisters, but with so much to argue about it is easy to say "You are wrong"...

 

AR restriction, Compound vs traditional vs black powder vs crossbow vs gun, tree stand vs blind vs stalk, Hoyt vs Mathews, Savage vs Winchester, lever vs bolt, carbon vs aluminum, lead vs steel I could go on and on and on...  We are stubborn thick headed and set in our ways.  Frankly I am amazed we agree on anything!!!  LOL 

 

Hats off to you NYSportsman for posting what you do and having no regrets about it.  One of the reasons I wear my camo hat it to instigate deer hunting conversations with NON hunters.  I will never back down about the proud tradition I uphold and neither should any of YOU!!!  Regardless of how you hunt, as long as you do it safe and ethically!!!

[gjs4]

There are so many reasons to plant plots but the big ones SHOULD be to:

 

increase herd health or

 

create usable movements for a hunting scenario.

 

 

The idea of kill plots and 200" Booners is not conducive of reality as most of our wives dont look like Tiff and there arent 200000 acres at our disposal. There are a few guys who get it in terms of laying out a property to establish a herd or likely movement/circuit to hunt. The vast majority do not. One should build on what they lack between- food, water and bedding. The orientation of each, and social interaction components should be based on stand sites w unpressured access/egress.

 

You will not copete with the farmer next door, Iowa has bigger bucks than NY for the nutrients in their soils. You can see county-county and town to town variance as much as state by state...so forget the idea youre going to make the lil guys you normally see into giant (age is what you need not to mention you need to build your soils which is where everyone cheaps out).

 

Hunt a food plot itself and you will have nocturnal feeding. So plant things that fill in the gaps that nature and the neighboring farmers have, give deer the bedding (which matters WAY more than food) and water and dont beat on it with pressure and VIOLIA- you will have some bigger bucks, more fawns and happier/healthier deer.

 

[Pav2704]

Well, apparently not everyone. Some apparently just put in the plots as a benevolent gesture to the local deer herd ..... lol. Seriously, I have kind of taken note of the number of people who claim not to actually hunt their plots. In fact, this may very well be the first place I have ever seen anyone state that they use their plots directly for hunting. By the way, I am not trying to pass judgment on the idea of doing that. I just find it to be a rare situation to find anyone saying that on this forum.

Doc... Why do you have such a hang up about those that choose to improve their land and habitat for deer hunting?

[fasteddie]

I didn't think Doc was being negative about planting food plots to improve their land and habitat. I took it as him believing that most folks that did this didn't admit to hunting over the plots and I would say that most of these "food plotters' are full of crap and probably have their stands positioned right at the edge of their plots !

[Doc]

Doc... Why do you have such a hang up about those that choose to improve their land and habitat for deer hunting?

Who's got a hang-up about food plots? I'm just reacting to the fact that finally someone has flat out said that they actually hunt their plots. I don't see how anything that I have said could possibly be construed as critical of food-plotting. Not only that but I am complimenting this guy on being unapologetic and straight up about using his plots for hunting. It seems that many, perhaps most, apologize for taking advantage of a resource that they have created, and I guess I really don't understand why. But anybody who has been paying attention has also noted that every time  food plots are even hinted at as being similar to baiting (which they are not), we usually get a rash of comments that food plots are not for hunting (directly). Finally someone has come along and straight up says that he hunts his plots. For me there's nothing to get hung up about with that. In fact I believe I said exactly that a few replies ago on this very thread.

 

I have said in the past that my version of hunting involves hunting the deer "as I find them" without any conditioning or pattern manipulation. That is a personal restriction that I do not put on anyone else. But I will say that if I were to put all the time and money into creating a food plot, I definitely would be hunting it and would do so openly and without apology. And that is exactly what I was complimenting NYSuperSportsman for doing. Don't try to make anymore of it than what it is.