Jesse's Off Season Thread

[Milo]

I agree with mountaineer. i learnt a we things from "some fuckin goofball" a couple years ago and completely changed they way we are doing things. we need a new slogan..."Get ya some jungle baby" green is good for early spoonheads mostly...oh and if i were you., i would have a camera hanging near that cedar year round..

 

[jagermeister]

Well...I think the major problem with green food plots is that they dont provide cover. It still doesnt solve the major problem of mature bucks showing up in daylight hours. I think green food plots are tricky and i firmly beleive the older bucks associate these types of plots as "daylight danger areas"...and they avoid em only to show up at night.

JB...The coons wouldnt deter me to grow corn. Sure..they will knock stalks over here and there but actually thats good..it will create more of a jungle effect. It will be a thicket of standing corn..fallen corn but it will still provide cover. I would plant the corn as tight as i could knowing the coons will be coming...Im telln ya it wil be a maze(no pun intended) of food and cover come November.

No..Im taking prescription meds right now..However...Id plant corn. Trust me..They will come and they will feel comfortable about it...It wont solve the problem of the nocturnal crap that goes on but it will help tremendously.

However, once corn is planted..No trail cams..No visiting the plot..No checking up on it..No early season hunts...Let it alone and hit it hard come late October and November. You got to have the element of surprise...If you dont have it..All your hard work will be for nothing.

The last thing that mature buck must think when he enters that corn food plot and senses your presence is.."Oh Shit..whats he doing here."

Interesting. Actually, a lot of that makes good sense, mounty. Are you sure you're feeling ok? lmao

I agree with mountaineer. i learnt a we things from "some fuckin goofball" a couple years ago and completely changed they way we are doing things. we need a new slogan..."Get ya some jungle baby" green is good for early spoonheads mostly...oh and if i were you., i would have a camera hanging near that cedar year round..

That makes a lot of sense too, Milo. I've only ran food plots for the past couple years, all green, open plots, and I can count on one hand how many trail cam pics of nice bucks I've gotten in those plots. The does and fawns love the shit out of them, but the bucks won't even go near them in daylight hours.

 

[Milo]

My opinion, the best food plot you can put in is one that has green forage available when its miserable ass cold and all the acorns are gone. pretty much a muzzeloader season plot or very late archery for our climate. with so many people dumping corn its sometimes hard to compete.

 

[Mountaineer]

Fellows..

Since ive started hunting Ohio, Ive learned one thing..Those older bucks live and die in the thick. For me to hunt open timber is even a No No and the thought of hunting an open green field is absolutely out of the question.

No self respecting buck will venture out into an open field. If they do, then they live under extreme light pressure and thats pretty much un heard of in ohio.

Fill those open green fields into an instant 10 foot high clearcut of corn. The great thing about it is..you dont have to wait 10 years .. it grows in 4 months.

 

[epe]

Well...I think the major problem with green food plots is that they dont provide cover. It still doesnt solve the major problem of mature bucks showing up in daylight hours. I think green food plots are tricky and i firmly beleive the older bucks associate these types of plots as "daylight danger areas"...and they avoid em only to show up at night.

Sorry but you are wrong on that one.. We have taken 4 Mature bucks out of a field- food plot area, and have seen several other Big bucks in it over the years, along with several 3 1/2 year olds we have taken The 11pt In my profile pic hit the field 3-4 days in a row up to two hours before sunset. All were taken pre-rut, rut.. You need the does around. The does bring the bucks...

 

[xbowguy]

I believe all are good. But I TOO believe from experience, that the best food plots are the small ones which border the thick stuff and are in the "Out of the way places" The Big Boy's around here seen to hang in the low spots out of sight. Seems if they are in an open field, it's way back off the road ~~ Not always but as a majority of times.

 

[Mountaineer]

epe..

Sure..i beleive during the rut they will..absolutely. But from my experience..No self respecting buck will enter open timber or an open field unless he grew up not afraid of an open field or open timber.....What the buck will do and how he will behave depends upon what he's been exposed to in his lifetime. If they Blunder through open timber and wide open fields then i would say they have No fear in doing So. For example...My one cat is care free ..blunders around with absolutely no fear of anything..I expect her to die of unatural causes..On the other hand, my 2nd cat is scared of its own shadow..never leaves my deck and would never venture off the property..She had a lot of bad experiences as a kitty and it has an effect on her behavior..She has fear and is suspicious of everything different in her little world . She will die of natural causes.

 

[Mountaineer]

From what ive heard about jesses hunting spots is that the deer behave more like Cat #2. His deer are exposed to poachers..trespassers..cars..dogs..adjacent property hunters and of course him self.

Give them bastards as much cover as you can and they will travel in the daylight.

 

[Milo]

Sorry but you are wrong on that one.. We have taken 4 Mature bucks out of a field- food plot area, and have seen several other Big bucks in it over the years, along with several 3 1/2 year olds we have taken The 11pt In my profile pic hit the field 3-4 days in a row up to two hours before sunset. All were taken pre-rut, rut.. You need the does around. The does bring the bucks...

i agree with most of your statement. problem is that no food plot i have ever seen will compete with a white oak. In very lean acorn years i have seen chicory be effective but the best of the best is still green soy beans....but there has to be no white acorns. very secluded large food plots can be effective but you have to have the heavy cover very close. I have all but given up hunting food plots but i try to find the best path they use to get to it.

 

[Alphamax10]

Great stuff! I was just out this past Monday doing the same thing. Leaving my cameras out for a few more weeks. I'll be sure to take pictures next time and post them.

 

[hickslawns]

No..Im taking prescription meds right now..However...Id plant corn. Trust me..

That is the funniest thing I have ever heard you say Mountaineer. I don't even want to know if you are serious or not. Let's just leave it at funny. lmao

Tons of great advice on here. I think most all of it can be argued both ways. Give me a shout sometime Jesse and I can tell you where we saw the most activity around our plots. Keep in mind, we are in flat country with tons of agriculture around. I will give you more details than I can type.

What makes the most sense is what Duck Commander and Mountaineer said. Focus on enjoying it and forget about the end results was something I think we all need to remember at times. Thanks DC! With the pressure in your area, what Mountaineer said does seem logical. Here is my take and what we are doing next year as a result of what we learned this year on our plots. Next year we are putting out nearly all corn. Two reasons. 1) Cover and food. 2) We are going to pick it in February and recoup what we can out of our investment. Probably not worth it for a few acres. We are talking about opening up a couple fence rows though and planting 20-30 acres next year. BUT. . . we are leaving about 20 yards along the edges of the fields leading up to stands in green. Stands will be hung close to where they are now. A couple will be moved. A couple more will be added to include at least one of our Big Dog Bow pods purchased through Hank Tucker Outdoors for areas with no suitable trees. hehe The deer tore UP the wheat and turnips in the early season. I honestly believe the turnips got hit harder early than they did in this mild late season. In fact, the radishes probably brought in more deer than the turnips which was a big surprise. On a side not, the meat has been delicious this year. Best diet and variety our deer have ever seen. lol

Ultimately, as much corn as possible with strips of green roughly 20-30yds wide along the edges (preferably leading to a stand site) is what we are going with. This might be a thought to consider for you as well in efforts to achieve the best of both worlds. Just some of my thoughts. In all fairness though, this is the first year we have done much in plots. Despite heavy reading and research, you know this is not anywhere close to expert testimony. We are still learning a lot.

 

[mrex]

i agree with most of your statement. problem is that no food plot i have ever seen will compete with a white oak. In very lean acorn years i have seen chicory be effective but the best of the best is still green soy beans....but there has to be no white acorns. very secluded large food plots can be effective but you have to have the heavy cover very close. I have all but given up hunting food plots but i try to find the best path they use to get to it.

Nothing will compete with a producing white oak...especially an old "wolf oak" or mature fence line tree. In 34 years of bowhunting, I've seen 2 B&C's from a stand and both were browsing in an open / mature grove of white oaks in broad daylight...and yes Paul, both areas received plenty of hunting pressure.

A few years ago, I planted 12 acres of field corn next to a mature pine grove. That's a big food plot for this area. The pine grove harbors a large winter turkey flock that disperses early every spring. My motivation for planting the corn had nothing to do with deer hunting. My hope was that the coons would knock the stocks over and a few more turkeys would stick around later into the spring to help clean up the mess. By mid January of that year, there wasn't a single kernel left on one cob...the coons and deer had eat it all.

I agree that standing corn is both an attractant and excellent source of cover. An added benefit of standing corn is that it hides deer from nighttime hunters.

 

[finelyshedded]

Great post Mike to which I totally agree! Another great reason to have standing corn is during this time of year it's an excellent spot to shed hunt.

 

[Redhunter1012]

I also hunt the flatlands. I have a few nice bucks on the wall taken during archery. My approach to bucks before the rut is to hunt trails coming off the "Beans and Greens" in the morning just because around here no mature buck will show itself in an open field before dark. Most of my evening spots are situated around corn. They will always show up earlier. I hunt mostly small parcels of land and I'm starting to believe these Big bucks around here actually live in the standing corn damn near as soon as it's tall enough for them to be concealed. We scout from the roads in the summer and it's amazing how many deer walk out of a green corn field right at dusk to hit the beans, especially after a good rain.

 

[bowhunter1023]

I got out to do a little scouting and shed hunting yesterday afternoon and came home empty. I did happen across some decent sign in an area I had been contemplating hunting in the past. I spent a little while scouting that area and ended up choosing a pretty good tree for a stand. It'll be tough to get to and will most likely be a rut only spot, but it should be worth the effort...

I've seen better, but I know who made it!!!

Heck of a scrape on the logging road just below the tree I picked...

My worthless shed dog...

 

[finelyshedded]

Great pics Jesse! Don't get discouraged yet on the sheds! Many are still packing.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Greg and I covered about 3 miles yesterday on a shed hunt/scouting mission on a big farm we have hunted off and on for the past few years. I only hunted this particular farm once this year and had to deal with some dipshit from WV, which seems to be par for the course on this farm. We found a handful of treestands yesterday and one display of hunting prowess unmatched elsewhere. Poke a hole it the bottom, hang it 20 yards from your tree, then sit back and wait!

While we were scouting an area of the farm we both feel holds some good deer, we stumbled across this monster...

We did not find any sheds, but we found a handful of decent rubs. This first rub is a sign post that has been hit 5-6 years in a row...

This one was less than 100 yards from the one above...

I should have used something for size reference on this one as it was much better than it appears in the pic...

We also happened by the site of some heart ache for me on the 4th day of the season last year...

You can tell by the angle and the fact that this is 20' up the tree, that I was no where near the deer when my release went off. It still haunts me to this day and will for years to come. I'd still love to know what happened to that deer!!!

 

[Huckleberry Finn]

That's painful...

Good to see that Greg kept his pants on by the big tree.

 

[finelyshedded]

That's painful...

Good to see that Greg kept his pants on by the big tree.

That tree didn't have a knot hole, that's why!lmao

Great pics Jesse! Sure looks like a great property to scout and shed hunt though. Did you see any other boot tracks?

 

[hickslawns]

Thanks for the update. Keep after them. You will find your sheds sooner or later.