Are Food Plotts important to seing deer?
#3

Umm weird poll, but I think the answer is yes. You will see more deer, maybe lots more deer. The big one will still probably be in the woods untill after dark. I like standing corn for hunting season, soybeans are good summer nutrition, clover helps in the springand fall. Turnips are good for winter.
#5
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: The forests and farmland of Ohio
Posts: 625

If you are in an agricultural area such as i am i don't think a food plot would make much difference but in areas where there is mainly forest and not other feed stuffs to eat such as wheat, soybeans, and corn year round they would make a difference. Also if you have a large amount of people that push during your gun season leaving corn fields uncut until after gun season will help to increase the amount of older deer you will see next year because the deer have a hiding place that hunters cannot push very effectively
#6
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SW Georgia
Posts: 22

Food plots can be a huge advantage if you like to see a lot of deer, though the amount of activity in them you'll see by older bucks during daylight hours will be small except around rut.
I plant a lot of food plots and have tried growing lots of different things in them thru the years. I've tried white clover, wheat, oats, crimson clover, rape, milo, corn, 2 different Biologic varieties, and a few other loose ends. This doesn't include my summer plots that have gotten iron clay peas.
I've experimented with strips of different things so I could observe what they hit the hardest when given choices. After trying all of the above, I've settled on corn and crimson clover as being consistently the best.
I usually have about 16 food plots planted during the season. I see lots of deer in most of them butregularlyfind shooter bucks there for only a few weeks each year. Of course one can show up at most anytime during our 4-month season, but I frequently kill my best bucks back in the sticks.
I plant a lot of food plots and have tried growing lots of different things in them thru the years. I've tried white clover, wheat, oats, crimson clover, rape, milo, corn, 2 different Biologic varieties, and a few other loose ends. This doesn't include my summer plots that have gotten iron clay peas.
I've experimented with strips of different things so I could observe what they hit the hardest when given choices. After trying all of the above, I've settled on corn and crimson clover as being consistently the best.
I usually have about 16 food plots planted during the season. I see lots of deer in most of them butregularlyfind shooter bucks there for only a few weeks each year. Of course one can show up at most anytime during our 4-month season, but I frequently kill my best bucks back in the sticks.
#7

Well, if you want to see alot of deer, then you would probably want a food plot. But some of the best hunting you can do is to penetrate their bedding areas.
#8
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 122

ORIGINAL: shplantation
Food plots can be a huge advantage if you like to see a lot of deer, though the amount of activity in them you'll see by older bucks during daylight hours will be small except around rut.
I plant a lot of food plots and have tried growing lots of different things in them thru the years. I've tried white clover, wheat, oats, crimson clover, rape, milo, corn, 2 different Biologic varieties, and a few other loose ends. This doesn't include my summer plots that have gotten iron clay peas.
I've experimented with strips of different things so I could observe what they hit the hardest when given choices. After trying all of the above, I've settled on corn and crimson clover as being consistently the best.
I usually have about 16 food plots planted during the season. I see lots of deer in most of them butregularlyfind shooter bucks there for only a few weeks each year. Of course one can show up at most anytime during our 4-month season, but I frequently kill my best bucks back in the sticks.
Food plots can be a huge advantage if you like to see a lot of deer, though the amount of activity in them you'll see by older bucks during daylight hours will be small except around rut.
I plant a lot of food plots and have tried growing lots of different things in them thru the years. I've tried white clover, wheat, oats, crimson clover, rape, milo, corn, 2 different Biologic varieties, and a few other loose ends. This doesn't include my summer plots that have gotten iron clay peas.
I've experimented with strips of different things so I could observe what they hit the hardest when given choices. After trying all of the above, I've settled on corn and crimson clover as being consistently the best.
I usually have about 16 food plots planted during the season. I see lots of deer in most of them butregularlyfind shooter bucks there for only a few weeks each year. Of course one can show up at most anytime during our 4-month season, but I frequently kill my best bucks back in the sticks.
#9
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: SW Georgia
Posts: 22

ORIGINAL: gypsybill
Do you see the big bucks later in December, well after the rut, on your food plots in daylight hours?
Do you see the big bucks later in December, well after the rut, on your food plots in daylight hours?
As we get into late December and January,natural food sourcesare limited, and a nice sized patch of cloverand/or corn will always be a popular spot. Bucks will still feed there, but the issue is simply how much time they might be therewhena hunter has the ability to see them.
#10
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 122

Thanks, shplantation. I built a big box blind in the middle of about a 10 acre food plot (wheat) just before deer season. During late October there were deer on it every day during shooting hours butalmost all were does. During the rut I set up two decoys, a buck and a doe, and hunted from the house where I was invisible but did not have any buck come to my decoys. Do you think the new house kept them away? Think next year would be enough time for them to get used to it or would late season this year possibly bring them out around it in the daytime?