1999 - Hunting Season

The Bowsite Food Plot 

 August 28

 October 5

 

My first look at the plot came Saturday morning. The plot was not tall, but it was green and lush with good healthy growth. Much better than this same time last year. I attributed the plot quality to the late August feeding of 5-25-25 which we had neglected the previous season. Although it had been a very dry Summer, September (here in the Northeast) was one of the wettest on record. This also helped considerably.

Saturday morning I hunted the main exit trail leading out of the clover. I got there long before light and sat in the dark for over an hour. During that hour I had one big wave of deer run by. This was odd. Had something spooked the deer?

We call this stand "The Highway" for obvious reasons. Typically on opening day I see 5-10 deer near this stand. I was surprised that by 8:30 AM there were no deer sightings. Shortly before 9:00 AM I saw a young bowhunter walking through the woods from the plot with a portable treestand. That explained the deer movement early and the lack of deer during daylight.

On Monday morning I had a doe and yearling come by my stand at 7:30 AM. I had a nice shot at the yearling and took him with a perfect double lung shot (at 8 yards). That filled my antlerless tag.

My brother-in-law sat on the plot Monday evening ( I could not hunt again until Tuesday). He had six deer come into the plot, a 4 point, a forky, a spike and 3 does. He had a shot at the forky and shaved some hair off his back. He had no other shots that afternoon.

Because of the evening action in the plot, we decided to give the land a rest on Tuesday morning and headed up to the plot for the afternoon hunt. A doe came in early and fed, non-stop, on the clover for over an hour. Since both of us were tagged out for antlerless, we just watched.

At 6:00 PM, a glance behind my stand revealed a spike buck heading in my direction. It was early in the week but I decided to take the spike if it gave me a good shot. He walked beneath my stand and hit the main trail in front of me. I waited for him to enter the clover. When he began feeding I hit him with a sharp, quartering away, shot at 10 yards. The deer ran out into the middle of the clover, stopped, then headed downhill out of sight. We trailed him the next day in the thickets below the plot. He had only gone 150 yards. I was officially "tagged out" in three hunts with two shots. Not bad.

My buddy continued hunting the food plot on Wednesday and Thursday evening. He had a doe come in on Wednesday and the four point came in on Thursday along with a doe. Unfortunately Bill was unable to get a shot. At one point there were 50 turkeys in the clover along with a doe.

On Friday morning, Bill tagged out with a spike taken on state land next to my property. It was a great hunt on the plot with lots of deer and some nice close shots. The Buckwheat (what was left of it) saw no action by deer but I was constantly jumping turkeys out of it. That was interesting.

 Note on Quality Deer Management (QDM)

The Bowsite Food Plot is located on a 30 acre parcel of private land surrounded by other small parcels of wooded, private land that is open to hunting. This parcel, as well as all of the surrounding parcels, are not posted. We, as do our neighbors, want to encourage the local youth to hold onto our hunting heritage. The landowners have agreed to keep the area open and have also agreed that any deer is fair game - no trophy mgt. In addition, there is a significant amount of State property across the street. This area sees a lot of hunting pressure.

 

We hope you enjoyed our second year tending our food plot, we'll be back next spring to kick off our third year of the Bowsite food plot!