I was hunting in Kansas last year with my
good friend Mike Wheeler from ‘Wheelers Whitetails’. I have known Mike for many
years and have always looked up to him for his hunting knowledge.
Mike was a
pioneer of sorts. Nobody I had ever been around and none of the hunting videos
I watched had ever talked about food plots or Imperial Clover in the early to
mid 90’s. He showed me all of his Imperial Whitetail Clover plots. I was
amazed. Being an average hunter, with average results, I had no idea the impact
these plots would produce. His deer were bigger in body and rack size, and more
predictable. His hard work was paying off, and if you have seen his trophies,
you’ll know what I mean. Over the next several years my hunting got better and better.
Using Imperial Clover food plots, lots of work, lots of practice and heavy
scent control my deer hunting became a lot more fun. I had been hunting a food
plot and seen very good deer activity. It was very warm that week, highs in the
70’s The does would fill these clover fields every day, and I knew it was only
a matter of time until a trophy stopped by to check up on them. At about 3:40
there were not any deer feeding yet, but I caught movement to my left in the
north side of the ditch coming through the brush. I looked back and saw that it
was a good buck coming up the brush line to the food plot. The wind was dead
wrong. I shoot left handed, every thing seemed backwards. There was a dead tree
on the ground I had ranged at 37 yards. I begged my brain to slow my heart rate
down, but the adrenaline just kept pumping. The buck finally presented me a
shot while standing over that log. I was elated!! I had just harvested the best
buck of my life. The buck grossed 173 1/8 inches. 19 inches coming from the
second main beam. He has even a third beam that comes out and has a drop off of
that. What an awesome animal. 