Kill/Staging Plots

[Hookhunter20]

I was wondering how many of you plant and effectively use "kill Plots" on your hunting lands. I have 47 acres in the lower Catskills that I picked up last year. I have to do quite a bit of land management as much of the woods around my fields had been logged about 10 years back and is now an overgrown mess that's great for deer cover but impossible to navigate and see more than 10 yards through. On the bright side the top of the mountain is great and my entire lower field is corn which is farmer managed and my middle and top field is hay. I will be keeping a lot of the under brush for bedding and travel cover but want to cut trails through it to help redirect deer travel. My other thought was to make a few 50-100 yard wide by 100-300 yard long staging or kill plots in and near the cover to catch the deer before they make their way to the big fields at night. After dark the hay fields are absolutely covered in does. My question is how many have used this tactic and what are good seeds to plant, being that I have corn and hay would a late season browse like turnips and radishes be best or an all around option like clovers and oats?

[RoadKill44]

I don't have a lot of experience and I'm just attempting some of the same stuff myself. Nor do I know the elements of your land.

 

This may help.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_fPWzsHtC8

 By going to this link you'll find it goes to many more.

 

Up to now  I've always paid attention to where they are traveling during hunting season and find a good spot to be. The following year I build a blind and cut what I call shooting lanes that radiate outward from the blind. Six lanes will do and I never cut the brush near the blind. This places you on the crossroads of those shooting lanes and many times the deer hit a lane and walk toward you.  Other times they'll stand in the brush between lanes. You'll know where your shot is going to be and can move into position while they're view is blocked. Deer like edge and narrow paths.

 

​It sounds like your first step is going to be establishing a series of paths just so that you can get through for the first hunt. And of course look for last years rubs, the big oaks, and wild apple trees.

 

 

[First-light]

On the size I wouldn't make them that big. Just put it by a major travel route from bedding to corn.

[G-Man]

300 yards long , can't cover that with a bow.. kidney bean shaped plots taking into account sun light being able to hit it for most of day, so east west set up, late Season turnip, brassica, winter wheat, winter rye will be your best draws, though depending on deer population, you may need to over seed with a white clover. This may seem redundant but a WI white clover will out draw about anything I've used.

Edited March 22, 2016 by G-Man

[Culvercreek hunt club]

irregular shaped plots with many corners and points out into it promote movement in the plots. Much better than a square. 

[The_Field_Ager]

I am currently designing a small kill plot by a new stand for this upcoming season. I have cut and will maintain a  pathway through some brush and saplings, leading deer to a very small corn patch (maybe 50 plants) about 15 yards off from my stand.  The deer hammered my heritage corn veggie garden last year. So this year I will use corn to have my revenge  

Edited March 22, 2016 by Papist

[G-Man]

I am currently designing a small kill plot by a new stand for this upcoming season. I have cut and will maintain a pathway through some brush and saplings, leading deer to a very small corn patch (maybe 50 plants) about 15 yards off from my stand. The deer hammered my heritage corn veggie garden last year. So this year I will use corn to have my revenge

50 plants in the woods? Coon will have that pulled down in milk stage.. the only success I've had with corn is as a feed field minimum of 1 acre..

[Hookhunter20]

I don't have a lot of experience and I'm just attempting some of the same stuff myself. Nor do I know the elements of your land.

This may help.

By going to this link you'll find it goes to many more.

Up to now I've always paid attention to where they are traveling during hunting season and find a good spot to be. The following year I build a blind and cut what I call shooting lanes that radiate outward from the blind. Six lanes will do and I never cut the brush near the blind. This places you on the crossroads of those shooting lanes and many times the deer hit a lane and walk toward you. Other times they'll stand in the brush between lanes. You'll know where your shot is going to be and can move into position while they're view is blocked. Deer like edge and narrow paths.

​It sounds like your first step is going to be establishing a series of paths just so that you can get through for the first hunt. And of course look for last years rubs, the big oaks, and wild apple trees.

I'll check out the link, and that is how I always hunted my local spots just sub out a blind for a stand. It's just kind of hard to pin point a brand new property that's a 2 hour ride north for me. I'll check out the apple trees I have a few scattered through the property and definitley get started on my trail system

[The_Field_Ager]

50 plants in the woods? Coon will have that pulled down in milk stage.. the only success I've had with corn is as a feed field minimum of 1 acre..

 

 

Maybe. My neighbor has a similar set-up. Seems to have had some luck. I might inter-plant with other stuff too.

[Chris B]

Maybe. My neighbor has a similar set-up. Seems to have had some luck. I might inter-plant with other stuff too.

 

Papist I have had the same problem with my plots, but with any of my crops. Anything under an acre and my plots got pounded to nothing.

[wildcat junkie]

What would be the best things to plant? I'm thinking of a mix of winter rye & beets or turnips.

[G-Man]

Honestly,I would.plant purple top turnips and imperial whitetail clover.. when the turnips ar done the clover remain and can be over seeded following summer, and give you a great strutting area for turkey in spring.. if you don't have time to replant the clover itself is a great draw

[gjs4]

If you don't know how to hunt deer a kill plot is a one and done venture. Best approach to such a deal is to plant a plot away form bedding that allows you to hunt  stand along the way multiple times without tipping the hat to the deer.

 

Kill plots= night time feeding (regardless of what you plant).

 

The darn what you plant question is always a simple answer too...... plant what isn't there and is the highest desired for the period of time you plan to reap the rewards. Grains and sugars are what cold weather hunters want...mast trees are your best bet if you have the time

[RoadKill44]

I'm not extremely knowledgeable when it come to tree identifcation. I do know the white oak, red oak and chestnut oak leaf shapes. To help I've taken spray paint and marked green "O"s at eyelevel on the oaks while they are leafed out. When I come back and the leaves are down and the woods looks completely different, I can still find the spots where deer will be looking for acorns. I'm finding they prefer a cluster of shorter oaks over one big oak. I think they find comfort in the lower canopy.

[G-Man]

All a kill plot is is a stop a deer may pause at on way to a feeding field

[sailinghudson25]

I got a spit like yours,  except I don't own the hay and corn fields.  My backyard is the "morning coffee" before their meal.

Pick a big tree, put a stand up.  Then put 3 plots in the scrub breaking them up. Like 10 yards between them.

 

Then make a private entrance to the stand.

 

Also, the old times would maintain they hay fields.  Run a spring harrow to cultivate it every other year, then every 5 to 10 years plow, lime, and reseed.  It's expensive to do the whole thing, so just do a corner of it.

My coffee spor is 1.5 acres.  A 1/2 acre plot to the right,  manicured edible brush with lanes ahead,  a wide shooting lane plot to right 10 yards by 60 or so.  All oaks are lime and fertilized,   the maples in this spot are my firewood.  Last Friday of rifle season, I cut one or two down.  A few days into muzzleloafing season, I cut the high up branches to deer level on the cut down maple.

 

Most deer I harvest is while I'm walking in.