Archery Store Owner Scores with No-Plow

James Page of New Hampshire faced a problem that many serious deer hunters face. He wanted more deer on his 50-acre tract of land but couldn’t get any large equipment to the areas he wanted to plant with food plots. His hunting situation wasn’t unique; he had a small parcel of land dominated by hardwoods and softwoods and the only logical place to plant a food plot is where heavy equipment cannot venture.

Page runs a small archery business as a hobby and had sold No-Plow to other hunters. He knew the product would fit his hunting situation since No-Plow is an annual seed blend that doesn’t require the same ground preparation that other perennial seed products need. It is what its name says: – a food plot seed blend that doesn’t require a tractor to establish the plot, which makes it ideal for isolated locations.

“I sell quite a bit of No-Plow through my archery business,” Page said. “The archery business is a way to keep busy. I work on bows and build arrows. It’s not a full-time job, it’s a hobby that makes me a little bit of money. I enjoy working on bows and setting up bows. It’s fun to do.

“We have a couple of two-acre plots of No-Plow. Both are situated towards the middle of property and it was hard to get a tractor there. I have an ATV, but I don’t have any attachments. These were fields that we reclaimed, so we did a little bit of brushwork, but the majority of it was just grass. The No-Plow worked really well. The deer are coming into the property and staying near the fields.”

Page said the No-Plow plots don’t necessarily keep the deer off the neighbor’s properties, but it does keep the deer on his land longer than prior to using No-Plow.

The proof is in his archery results. Page has taken some nice deer the past few years with his bow because, instead of the deer browsing through his 50 acres, they have now set up shop near his No-Plow fields.

“I used to see some respectable deer before using the No-Plow, but I didn’t start taking them until I used No-Plow,” he said. “I shot a 3-year-old 8-pointer that has real nice mass a few years ago. I didn’t have it scored, but it was a good deer.”

Page said he had never seen the buck before, but the doe-attracting ability of the No-Plow played a major role in his success with the mature deer.

“That morning we were going to the stands and we jumped a deer,” he explained. “At 9 a.m. I noticed a deer working its way down the edge of the field. I thought it was a doe because it had its head in the No-Plow. I couldn’t really see the deer because it was misty out that morning. After the deer picked its head up I noticed that it was a buck and had a real nice rack. It took 30 minutes for the deer to work its way towards me. He came 20 yards from the stand and the rest is history.”

Last year Page shot another good buck, proving that the 8-point buck wasn’t a fluke.

“I took a nice 9-pointer last year. It doesn’t have quite the mass as the 8-pointer, but it was a great deer,” he said. “This deer was shot before the gun season so there wasn’t much pressure before I went hunting that day. I was taking my time walking in the snow when I heard a deer run off. I stood still for about an hour because it didn’t sound like the deer went far.”

Sure enough, it took an hour before the deer started moving again. Page didn’t know if the deer was a buck or a doe until he caught a glimpse of it walking through some pine trees.

“Then I saw the rack,” Page noted. “I grunted and the buck turned around and came right to me, close enough to shoot it.”

Page also noted that his deer were quite heavy. The 8-pointer field dressed at 175 pounds. The 9-pointer was 160 pounds. The nutrition that No-Plow provides not only helps grow larger racks, but it also keeps deer in much better health. Healthy bucks grow larger bodies and larger antlers.

The soft-spoken Page said he doesn’t know if he has any great insights on how to hunt near food plots, but added, “We try not to pressure the deer once we get the food plots growing real good. We hunt them lightly. We have many stand set-ups that we use depending on the wind and what the deer are doing. If the deer are coming into the fields, we hunt the fields. If the bucks are hanging back, we hunt accordingly.”

Page also added that he is thinking about adding Imperial Whitetail Clover to his food plot mix in the coming years. He said he loves No-Plow but would also like to have a quality perennial planted on the property.