It was about 3:15 p.m. on November 8, when my son and I walked carefully to our stands. I knew the rut should be heating up soon, so I wanted to get in the woods as soon as we could. We got settled in, and about 15 minutes went by when Kyle radioed me, “Dad, be ready, I just saw a buck chasing a doe real hard. He looks like he’s heading your way.” Well, that got me fired up and ready; but after about 15 minutes, I figured they must have run off in another direction, back into the deeper, thicker part of the woods.
We were about 300 yards away from each other in a small 18-acre piece of woods that is a funnel between bigger woods and another piece of woods that connects a farm. There are two fields on each side of our woods where does feed, and it’s usually pretty active during the rut. I’ve taken a lot of bucks over the past 21 years in this small wood lot. Right about then I saw legs of a deer on the other side of the thicket I was in. He was coming from the bigger woods. I saw his head and knew it was probably a shooter. In our zone, it’s three points or better, so I got ready. The buck turned and headed toward my stand, but I lost him in the brush. Then I saw a small treetop whipping around, so I knew this buck was looking for does. He moved closer, about 20 yards away and started working on another tree and pawing the ground. The trouble was he was heading straight at me with not a lot of cover between us. I now had to figure out how to draw my bow without him seeing me. I hoped he would turn to my left so I would have a better shot. Well, he picked his head up and still came straight at me. The only chance I had was to draw while he was behind a small limb I had cut part way and let hang down. I drew slowly, and when I got back to full draw and he didn’t see me, I knew all I had to do was to put the arrow right behind his shoulder. At this point, I hadn’t really looked at his horns. It was probably a good thing I was preoccupied with how I was going to get the shot off. When the arrow disappeared through the buck and he ran off, I saw his wide rack. That’s when I knew I probably just shot my best buck in 33 years.
I waited for what seemed like forever – about 20 minutes – and I climbed down and walked the seven yards to where the arrow was stuck in the ground. I called Kyle on the radio and he met me near my stand. We discussed what had just happened and took up the trail. It was slow going at first, not much blood, but we could see where he ran in the wet leaves. After about 100 yards, Kyle spotted him up ahead. When we got to him we could not believe how big his rack was, along with the size of his body. The buck was a mainframe 9-point with a kicker and scored 159-6/8 gross and 146-3/8 net P&Y. Now this may have been my best buck ever, but the best part was having my 16-year-old son along with me, on one of the best days I’ve spent in the deer woods.
Imperial Food Plots Part of the Management Plan
I did some small test plots five years ago to see how they would work on my property. They worked great. In fact, I saw a real nice 8-point in a plot before hunting season that year. I have 60 acres along a small mountain range in the southern tier of New York, about 10 acres of it flat ground between a road and a creek.
The farm ground on one side of my property is planted with corn and cut for silage early. The farm ground on the other side isn’t used for crops. It grows up in weeds and the guy mows it every couple years. So there aren’t any green fields within a couple miles. That’s why I wanted to try food plots. I planted some Imperial Whitetail Clover in a small plot. It’s hidden on flat ground about 75 yards from a creek on well-drained, rocky, medium-loam soil. The pH was 6.5 when I tested it, but I still put lime and fertilizer on it before I planted in mid-August, and it came up well.
The deer started feeding on it immediately. I put up a trail camera and got pictures of fox, coyotes, rabbits and deer – bucks and does. In 2004 I bow hunted two weekends and saw does and three small bucks feeding in the plot. This past August I sprayed and made the plot bigger.
I used a roto tiller for test plots and an ATV small-cut harrow and drag to make the plot bigger. I wanted to try something in addition to Imperial Clover, so I added Extreme in the area that I had made bigger. It was the third driest year in history in this part of New York; and despite that, the Extreme came up well.
After my good success I wanted to expand my operation and put more food plots in other areas and maybe try to lease the weed field from a neighbor. I think bigger plots will really work on my New York land, but I live 4 1/2 hours from the area, so I don't get up there as much as I would like. I thought, why not try planting plots at home as well. I live in really good farm country in New Jersey.
My son and I prepared a food plot along the edge of an 18-acre woods and a cornfield. It’s a buffer strip with no farm crops. We worked it up with my ATV and planted Imperial Whitetail Clover on one end and Extreme on the other. So far it has come up really good, considering how dry it’s been here in New Jersey. We are seeing a lot of deer and tracks along this strip.
I expect when the acorns start disappearing the deer will hit the plot even more, especially the Extreme after the first frost, which is usually in early November. I figured the Imperial Clover would be effective here because it grows good in heavy soil and that is the condition along the field edge, which is wet most of the time. It looks really great.
I’m looking forward to updating you and your readers. I really like the food plot idea—it’s good for the deer and it’s fun to do. I'd like to make it an even bigger project and try to grow larger and healthier deer. I think New York is the place it will work best. The potential is there.
My son was really excited with the largest buck of my life. He is 19 years old now and really getting into hunting. He had his best year in 2004. He took two bucks in the Jersey bow season on the 18 acres, a buck in New Jersey on a farm we gun hunt a half mile from the 18-acre lot and a 129 B&C buck in New York with a gun. I took a buck with a muzzleloader on the 18 acres, a buck on the farm with a gun and an 8-point in New York with a gun.
