By Michael Veine
Quality food plots will always improve a property’s deer hunting opportunties. They also improve the well-being of the deer along with providing other benefits for wildlife too. There’s no denying, however, that food plots will have differing impacts depending on the property’s characteristics, the surrounding lands and the food plot particulars. Food plots obviously have the most impressive impact where food sources for the deer are somewhat lacking.
For instance, food plots installed in prime agricultural areas work great but will likely not have the same dramatic impact as ones located in areas where no crops are available, like big woods regions. Done right, quality food plots in the big woods can transform a property into a deer hunting utopia.
As I write this story, Michigan’s whitetail rut is peaking big time. I have a well-maintained Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot in my rural backyard in southern Michigan. Yesterday I spotted a huge 12-pointer in the middle of the lush clover with a hot doe nearby. Today while eating lunch, I got to witness a Pope & Young class 8-point actually breed a doe near that same plot. Most outdoor writers are ultra-avid deer hunters that spend little time writing at this time of the year, and I’m no exception.
The rut is exploding, and here I am behind my computer during prime hunting time. What gives? There is some irony here. I have an assignment to write this article on big woods food plots. Due in large part to the food plots on my remote Upper Peninsula hunting property, my two Michigan buck tags were used up a month ago. This fall, writing an article during the rut is no problem whatsoever.
My Upper Peninsula property consists of 160 acres of remote forest land that I bought in 1995. About half the property was clear-cut in 1996, and the balance consists mostly of wetlands with a few high spots here and there. As the crow flies, it’s about four miles to the nearest farm, so “my” deer live their whole lives in a big woods environment where quality food sources are scarce.
Ten years ago, I installed my first food plots on that property. Since then, I’ve expanded those plots every year and now have 10 food plots. My centerpiece is a five-acre plot I call “the Big Field,” which is centrally located on the property. All the other food plots satellite the Big Field at strategic locations. The Big Field is rarely hunted. However, the small plots are all meticulously setup for optimal deer slaying opportunities.
On opening day of Michigan’s archery deer season I hunted a stand I call “The Box.” I named the stand after a scene in the classic movie Cool Hand Luke where Paul Newman is punished by the warden and put in The Box. That ground blind reminded me of that movie scene as the temperature climbs to sweltering degrees when the sun is out; then it plummets when shade envelopes the blind. It was still sweltering inside The Box when I spotted a big-bodied deer approaching the food plot from the west. He wore a dandy 8-point rack. Just before I could draw my bow for the shot, he turned around and walked off to the same direction he had come from. No shot, but still quite the thrill.
The wind did a 180 overnight, so the next evening I was hunting a similar setup on the other side of the property that’s perfect for north or east winds. That stand is a pit blind that I call “The Hole.” The blind overlooks a small food plot and mineral site where I've been placing 30-06 Mineral Plus Protein for many years. The plot is planted in Imperial Whitetail Clover. It poured rain all morning, so I skipped that hunt, but headed out to The Hole at 1 p.m. It was still spitting rain an hour into my sit when I noticed a nice buck heading toward the food plot from the east.
Judging from his sagging belly and large body size, he was obviously an older deer. His rack clearly showed three points per side on the tops. I’m not an overly picky deer hunter. I simply target bucks that are at least three years old and pass up the younger ones. In the U.P. though, there is an antler restriction law in place. A combination license comes with two tags and entitles a hunter to take two bucks. The “unrestricted tag” can be used on a buck with a minimum of three points (one inch long) on one antler. The restricted tag can only be used on deer with at least four points on one antler.
As soon as he lowered his head to feed, I drew my new bow and sent an arrow injection into his lungs. At the shot, the buck whirled around, tripped over a stump, regained his footing and then trotted off about 50 yards before piling up just out of sight. He turned out to be a 3-1/2-year-old (aged by a biologist) 7-pointer that dressed out at 174 pounds minus the tenderloins.
A week later the winds turned to the south, which is perfect for hunting a stand I call “The Den.” I once found a bear hibernating on that ridge, thus the name. The Den is in a saddle between two ridges with a beaver pond flanking the setup, forming the ultimate natural funnel setup. I spiced the spot up with a food plot (Imperial No Plow), mineral lick (30-06 Plus Protein) and a water hole that I dug by hand. We’ve managed to kill 10 bucks from that stand, but besides the extreme rate of success there, it’s also just a beautiful spot to sit and watch nature. The fall colors explode around that stand. It’s my favorite place to hunt. It was noon when I finally settled into the stand. I didn’t have much time to enjoy the scenery though. Exactly eight minutes later, I heard the faint sound of foot falls in the distance. The sound grew louder as a pair of approaching deer sauntered into view. The lead deer was a dark-colored brute with a big body and decent-sized, chocolate-colored rack. The trailing deer was also a buck, but it appeared to be a yearling, so as soon as the lead buck cleared a big cedar tree, I came to full draw and put a perfect shot on him. From my 30-foot tree stand, the shot entered high in the chest and exited out the front leg.
He bolted off with that typical tail-flopping scramble of a fatally hit deer. I heard him crash within five seconds and was weighing him back at camp by 2 p.m. He tipped the scales at 178 pounds dressed. That buck also carried seven points and was aged by a biologist at 3 1/2 years old, too.
I started planting food plots on my U.P. property in the late 1990s, but it wasn’t until I met a U.P. consultant a few years later that I really got serious about my food plot efforts. He showed me the unreal impact that big woods food plots can have on deer when done correctly. He bought a small, remote piece of U.P. hunting land in an area where deer densities were very low (five deer per square mile). Due mainly to an intense food plot project, he transformed that property into a deer hunting nirvana. When he first bought the property, he only saw one small buck there during the entire first hunting season. Now he regularly has a dozen adult bucks frequenting the property and manages to harvest some impressive bucks there every year.
When he first bought it, the land was completely forested. He carved out seven acres of food plots from the dense woods. Some of the plots were created by hiring a pro with a bulldozer; he was able to clear some of the sites himself though, using his small tractor equipped with a front loader. He has one larger plot that is very irregularly shaped and centrally located on his land. He also has several smaller plots in other strategic locations. He plants most of his access roads and trails into food plots too, which really increases the total acreage of forage available to the deer. After clearing the sites, he had soil tests done and determined that all of his plots needed lots of lime to raise the pH. Often, forestlands will be very acidic and liming needs to be factored (and budgeted) into the food plot planning strategy.
A few years ago, after a bird-hunting outing with him, he took me on a tour of his property. We carefully snuck around the property and changed the SD cards in several of his motion-activated cameras located on the food plots. We even snuck up on a nice two-year-old buck feeding nonchalantly in one of his food plots. The deer never knew we were there. He designed access routes to all his hunting locations so he can quietly sneak into those areas without spooking deer.
There were scrapes and rubs all over the place, but the real eye-opener was back at his house on his computer. He had recent digital game camera images of about 10 adult bucks, and some were real eye-poppers indeed.
He inspired me to continue improving my property for deer and other wildlife. Every year I add new plots, improve existing ones and otherwise better the habitat and hunting experiences on my property. When I first bought my property, the quantity and quality of the deer on my land was poor. Nowadays, I enjoy outstanding hunting and have managed to harvest adult bucks every year there for the past 10 years. The enjoyment of my hunts has increased exponentially with the investments I’ve made as well.
My big woods property has been transformed into a deer hunting paradise.
As I write this story, Michigan’s whitetail rut is peaking big time. I have a well-maintained Imperial Whitetail Clover food plot in my rural backyard in southern Michigan. Yesterday I spotted a huge 12-pointer in the middle of the lush clover with a hot doe nearby. Today while eating lunch, I got to witness a Pope & Young class 8-point actually breed a doe near that same plot. Most outdoor writers are ultra-avid deer hunters that spend little time writing at this time of the year, and I’m no exception.
The rut is exploding, and here I am behind my computer during prime hunting time. What gives? There is some irony here. I have an assignment to write this article on big woods food plots. Due in large part to the food plots on my remote Upper Peninsula hunting property, my two Michigan buck tags were used up a month ago. This fall, writing an article during the rut is no problem whatsoever.
My Upper Peninsula property consists of 160 acres of remote forest land that I bought in 1995. About half the property was clear-cut in 1996, and the balance consists mostly of wetlands with a few high spots here and there. As the crow flies, it’s about four miles to the nearest farm, so “my” deer live their whole lives in a big woods environment where quality food sources are scarce.
Ten years ago, I installed my first food plots on that property. Since then, I’ve expanded those plots every year and now have 10 food plots. My centerpiece is a five-acre plot I call “the Big Field,” which is centrally located on the property. All the other food plots satellite the Big Field at strategic locations. The Big Field is rarely hunted. However, the small plots are all meticulously setup for optimal deer slaying opportunities.
On opening day of Michigan’s archery deer season I hunted a stand I call “The Box.” I named the stand after a scene in the classic movie Cool Hand Luke where Paul Newman is punished by the warden and put in The Box. That ground blind reminded me of that movie scene as the temperature climbs to sweltering degrees when the sun is out; then it plummets when shade envelopes the blind. It was still sweltering inside The Box when I spotted a big-bodied deer approaching the food plot from the west. He wore a dandy 8-point rack. Just before I could draw my bow for the shot, he turned around and walked off to the same direction he had come from. No shot, but still quite the thrill.
The wind did a 180 overnight, so the next evening I was hunting a similar setup on the other side of the property that’s perfect for north or east winds. That stand is a pit blind that I call “The Hole.” The blind overlooks a small food plot and mineral site where I've been placing 30-06 Mineral Plus Protein for many years. The plot is planted in Imperial Whitetail Clover. It poured rain all morning, so I skipped that hunt, but headed out to The Hole at 1 p.m. It was still spitting rain an hour into my sit when I noticed a nice buck heading toward the food plot from the east.
Judging from his sagging belly and large body size, he was obviously an older deer. His rack clearly showed three points per side on the tops. I’m not an overly picky deer hunter. I simply target bucks that are at least three years old and pass up the younger ones. In the U.P. though, there is an antler restriction law in place. A combination license comes with two tags and entitles a hunter to take two bucks. The “unrestricted tag” can be used on a buck with a minimum of three points (one inch long) on one antler. The restricted tag can only be used on deer with at least four points on one antler.
As soon as he lowered his head to feed, I drew my new bow and sent an arrow injection into his lungs. At the shot, the buck whirled around, tripped over a stump, regained his footing and then trotted off about 50 yards before piling up just out of sight. He turned out to be a 3-1/2-year-old (aged by a biologist) 7-pointer that dressed out at 174 pounds minus the tenderloins.
A week later the winds turned to the south, which is perfect for hunting a stand I call “The Den.” I once found a bear hibernating on that ridge, thus the name. The Den is in a saddle between two ridges with a beaver pond flanking the setup, forming the ultimate natural funnel setup. I spiced the spot up with a food plot (Imperial No Plow), mineral lick (30-06 Plus Protein) and a water hole that I dug by hand. We’ve managed to kill 10 bucks from that stand, but besides the extreme rate of success there, it’s also just a beautiful spot to sit and watch nature. The fall colors explode around that stand. It’s my favorite place to hunt. It was noon when I finally settled into the stand. I didn’t have much time to enjoy the scenery though. Exactly eight minutes later, I heard the faint sound of foot falls in the distance. The sound grew louder as a pair of approaching deer sauntered into view. The lead deer was a dark-colored brute with a big body and decent-sized, chocolate-colored rack. The trailing deer was also a buck, but it appeared to be a yearling, so as soon as the lead buck cleared a big cedar tree, I came to full draw and put a perfect shot on him. From my 30-foot tree stand, the shot entered high in the chest and exited out the front leg.
He bolted off with that typical tail-flopping scramble of a fatally hit deer. I heard him crash within five seconds and was weighing him back at camp by 2 p.m. He tipped the scales at 178 pounds dressed. That buck also carried seven points and was aged by a biologist at 3 1/2 years old, too.
I started planting food plots on my U.P. property in the late 1990s, but it wasn’t until I met a U.P. consultant a few years later that I really got serious about my food plot efforts. He showed me the unreal impact that big woods food plots can have on deer when done correctly. He bought a small, remote piece of U.P. hunting land in an area where deer densities were very low (five deer per square mile). Due mainly to an intense food plot project, he transformed that property into a deer hunting nirvana. When he first bought the property, he only saw one small buck there during the entire first hunting season. Now he regularly has a dozen adult bucks frequenting the property and manages to harvest some impressive bucks there every year.
When he first bought it, the land was completely forested. He carved out seven acres of food plots from the dense woods. Some of the plots were created by hiring a pro with a bulldozer; he was able to clear some of the sites himself though, using his small tractor equipped with a front loader. He has one larger plot that is very irregularly shaped and centrally located on his land. He also has several smaller plots in other strategic locations. He plants most of his access roads and trails into food plots too, which really increases the total acreage of forage available to the deer. After clearing the sites, he had soil tests done and determined that all of his plots needed lots of lime to raise the pH. Often, forestlands will be very acidic and liming needs to be factored (and budgeted) into the food plot planning strategy.
A few years ago, after a bird-hunting outing with him, he took me on a tour of his property. We carefully snuck around the property and changed the SD cards in several of his motion-activated cameras located on the food plots. We even snuck up on a nice two-year-old buck feeding nonchalantly in one of his food plots. The deer never knew we were there. He designed access routes to all his hunting locations so he can quietly sneak into those areas without spooking deer.
There were scrapes and rubs all over the place, but the real eye-opener was back at his house on his computer. He had recent digital game camera images of about 10 adult bucks, and some were real eye-poppers indeed.
He inspired me to continue improving my property for deer and other wildlife. Every year I add new plots, improve existing ones and otherwise better the habitat and hunting experiences on my property. When I first bought my property, the quantity and quality of the deer on my land was poor. Nowadays, I enjoy outstanding hunting and have managed to harvest adult bucks every year there for the past 10 years. The enjoyment of my hunts has increased exponentially with the investments I’ve made as well.
My big woods property has been transformed into a deer hunting paradise.
