Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Post topo’s and Aerial photos for free advice. Food plotting, land manipulation, water holes, ect.
  • Advertisement

HB Store


mheichelbech
500 Club
Posts: 4188
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:00 am
Facebook: mheichelbech@gmail.com
Location: Charlestown, IN
Status: Offline

Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby mheichelbech » Thu Jul 18, 2019 12:48 pm

It seems to me that generally, building food plots are sort of anti-thetical to Beast style hunting, total surprise, etc.

I get that they can be great for private land that doesn’t have ag anywhere around, or maybe to draw deer from other places but I wonder if, I’m the hunt for a mature buck, they could do more harm than good via all the scent, disturbance, etc.

What do you think are the occasions could be helpful I.e., worth the effort in pursuit of mature bucks?

One of the properties I hunt was timbered (not heavily) this year and there are logging roads throughout now. Was wondering if it’d be a good idea to plant something on some of these narrow strips...or if I’d just be putting bucks on alert and eliminating the element of surprise moreso.


"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
Ranger Matthews
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby Ranger Matthews » Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:00 pm

It’s all relates to the fact that you are changing the habitat. You can either make it better or worse depending on what you have. Jeff Sturgis is pretty well renowned on the topic and he has several books and a bunch of YouTube videos on the topic. I don’t think anyone will argue that you can’t improve the deer hunting on a piece of property it’s just that you need to define your goals and make a plan. “Beast” style hunting is generally more aggressive and often better suited for larger tracks of land and a run and gun approach. Not to say you can’t have that approach anywhere. I think there are a ton of different hunting tactics discussed on the Beast site and you just need to find what fits best for your area and situation
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby dan » Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:32 pm

Placement is key. Removing or disturbing bedding based on where you place or how often you visit a food plot can have a negative result. For the most part food plots help and I wouldn't think of them as doing harm. But I can recall many times when I was hired to look at a property and wished they would of called me before they put in water holes or food plots because they ruined a big buck bedding area or it's a kill plot that's not quite in the right spot or placed where it cant be hunted based on evening thermals etc. Bedding trumps food in most cases. Your land can only hold as many big bucks as it has big buck bedding areas and they just don't move far enough in daylight to bank on pulling them in considtantly. There are 2 kinds of plots. One you put in the wasteland areas to keep big bucks on your property and do inventory with cameras and the other type is small and strategically placed close to bedding areas as a kill plot. Those are very easy to over hunt and ruin your bedding but can be deadly if you have the restraint to only hunt them 1 to 3 times a year.
mheichelbech
500 Club
Posts: 4188
Joined: Thu Nov 21, 2013 10:00 am
Facebook: mheichelbech@gmail.com
Location: Charlestown, IN
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby mheichelbech » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:24 am

dan wrote:Placement is key. Removing or disturbing bedding based on where you place or how often you visit a food plot can have a negative result. For the most part food plots help and I wouldn't think of them as doing harm. But I can recall many times when I was hired to look at a property and wished they would of called me before they put in water holes or food plots because they ruined a big buck bedding area or it's a kill plot that's not quite in the right spot or placed where it cant be hunted based on evening thermals etc. Bedding trumps food in most cases. Your land can only hold as many big bucks as it has big buck bedding areas and they just don't move far enough in daylight to bank on pulling them in considtantly. There are 2 kinds of plots. One you put in the wasteland areas to keep big bucks on your property and do inventory with cameras and the other type is small and strategically placed close to bedding areas as a kill plot. Those are very easy to over hunt and ruin your bedding but can be deadly if you have the restraint to only hunt them 1 to 3 times a year.

Yea these would be kill plots. It's hard to justify a bunch of work (clearing weeds, brush, etc.), fertilizing and all that to only hunt a spot 1 to 3 times.

I get it that it'd be worth it if it was a bigger food plot that allowed for hunting it without impacting the overall plot. I'm not even sure the size of the plots I'm talking about, the food would last into hunting season.
"One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be." — Theodore Roosevelt, 1893
dan
Site Owner
Posts: 41588
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:11 am
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HuntingBeast/?ref=bookmarks
Location: S.E. Wisconsin
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby dan » Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:56 am

I look at it a little different and think it's only worth it if you only hunt it a time or two a year. Why waste all that time and work if your going to ruin the spot. Kill plots can almost be unfair if within 100 yards of bedding and with a cell cam with a huge battery life telling you when to move in.
User avatar
Buck_it
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2019 4:28 am
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby Buck_it » Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:25 am

I personally have planted some plots in the wrong places for the wrong reasons when i was new to habitat improvement. As i started to understand bedding on this particular property, i realized the end goal of what we were trying accomplish was the wrong concept. We had the idea of planting and hunting these plots hoping the big one would come along at some point, but as time went on, everything became nocturnal because of over hunting. As we started to understand this particular piece of property (450 Acre private property) and how bucks traveled and locations of bedding our goals turned from hunting over a large food plot to giving them a reason to stay with bedding, water and small kill plots. The particular property i'm talking about didn't have agg fields within a 5 mile radius, so we wanted to give them things other options to eat. We left 4 plots as sanctuaries (3 at 1/2 acre or smaller and the destination plot at 2 acres) while hunting the transition from those kill plots to our larger destination plot and bedding. We also made sure to give the deer a lot of depth on the property by strategic placement based on observed movement over the years. Now i'm relatively new to the beast style of hunting due to primarily hunting private properties, and am now transitioning to cyber scouting and hunting public land rather than relying on my families property 2 hours away to better my odds. Now other people may have different examples and incite to this topic, but this is what i have experienced with food plots. Every property is different and the surrounding properties can influence quite a bit of how you look at food plots.
User avatar
thwack16
500 Club
Posts: 2037
Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2015 2:07 pm
Location: MS
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby thwack16 » Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:28 am

Lots of thoughts on this, but not sure where exactly to go with my answer.

The first thing that dings into my head as a "yes" answer to "Can they hurt?" is if someone else or several someone elses are hunting the property with you. It's human nature to take the easy path to a food plot and hunt it. And typically a permanent stand gets setup, so it's even easier. That leads to overhunting and having them give you an adverse effect.

Conversely, in a perfect world, you can layoff all these little plots and let them do what they're supposed to, hold deer on your property. If you read ArrowBender's Q&A, you'll see where he talks about keeping his doe groups happy. That's something I've always taken notice to and tried to do as well. With several plots, little pressure, and good bedding, you can do this. That can draw bucks in for the pre-rut and rut, and even keep them there for the late season(Something that's not talked about a lot in my opinion. More does (giving a better chance of one missing being bred the first time and cycling back in), more food, less pressure equals a perfect place for a buck in the late season)).

As for your question of bothering deer by doing work on the logging roads to prepare to plant, I doubt It would hurt a thing.
User avatar
cspot
500 Club
Posts: 1307
Joined: Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:13 pm
Location: Western PA
Status: Offline

Re: Food plots - always helpful? Can they hurt?

Unread postby cspot » Fri Jul 19, 2019 9:46 am

I put in plots but it really isn't to kill big bucks. We have shot very few bucks off of the food plots. Most of our deer have come near other food sources especially acorns. I enjoy planting them though and they are a good place to shoot a doe.

Like mentioned above the biggest issue is overhunting them.


  • Advertisement

Return to “Land Management”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests