HOW TO HUNT FOOD PLOTS

 By
Charles J. Alsheimer

According to conventional wisdom, hunting food plots is one of the easiest ways to harvest the buck of your dreams. This line of thought is based on the idea that deer need to eat and a buck will eventually show up if you’re patient. At best, this assumption is a bit simplistic.  Make no mistake, hunting over food plots can be productive and exciting, but this approach is far from a “slam dunk.” Systematic analysis is needed in order to understand the role of food plots in a whitetail’s life and recognize how to hunt them. 

For starters, whitetails, especially those that are 3+ years of age, are incredibly wary, cagey, and smart. A mature whitetail is the ultimate survival machine; after all, it doesn’t reach maturity by being careless. For the most part deer are opportunistic creatures. They tend to expend as little effort and energy as possible in their quest to survive. However, security is a critical factor in determining a deer’s pattern of activity. Above all else, whitetails need to know they are secure before they do anything. This is especially true when it comes to eating. 

The Role of Food Plots

Whitetails are incredible consumers. During the course of a year, each deer eats between a 1 1/2 and 2 tons of food. As expected, the percentage of natural and agricultural food consumption will be in direct proportion to what is available. In a 50/50 mix of agriculture and forest habitat, roughly half of a deer’s diet will consist of agricultural foods (clover, alfalfa, corn, etc.). 

The key for landowners who plant food plots is to ensure that enough quality forages are available to meet the food requirements of the deer roaming their properties. Generally, about 3%-5% (or more) of a property should be planted in food plots. Both feeding and hunting food plots should be utilized.   

Feeding plots:  Feeding food plots should be large in size so that they have the capability of producing significant tonnage. These plots will normally be square or rectangular in shape and “equipment friendly” so that they can be worked with tractors as efficiently as possible. Because of their size, these plots most often will be frequented under the cover of darkness by all segments of the deer population. Seldom will a record class buck step into a large feeder plot during daylight hours.

Hunting plots: As the name implies, hunting food plots are designed to allow hunters to hunt on or near them. Hunting food plots should be laid out differently than feeding plots. For best results, they should be between 1/4 and 3/4 of an acre in size, secluded, irregularly shaped, and planted to attract deer during hunting season. Placing a hunting plot in a secluded area offers deer the security they need and will ensure that they use the plot during daylight hours. 

Logistics – The Shape of Things to Come

The location of a property’s food plots is a key part of hunting success. Generally, feeding food plots will not be the best places to harvest whitetails. Because they are large, most deer will not use them until nightfall. Also, their size makes archery hunting very difficult because deer that do use them are almost always out of range. Consequently, smaller food plots will be the ticket to hunting action.       

Elements: When laying out hunting food plots, always try to use the elements to your advantage. Setting up where crosswinds prevail is preferable to stand locations that are upwind from the plot. At the very least, stand locations should be downwind of the bedding area. In addition, make sure that the sun will not be in your eyes when you expect deer to come by the stand site. One of the worst things that can happen is to find yourself looking into a rising or setting sun when a buck shows up.       

Be forewarned, uneven terrain will cause the wind or thermals to swirl, so try to locate your ambush site where this will not occur.  

Shape:  Hunting food plots should be less than an acre in size.  Typically you will want them to cover an area equal in size to half a football field (a football field is about 1 acre).  If you intend to archery hunt on the food plot, make sure the plot is no wider than thirty yards at the ambush point.       

Three designs that I’ve had great success with are the L-shaped plot, the rectangle-shaped plot, and two small plots with an opening in between that gives the overall setup an hourglass shape. 

Generally, when deer come into the end of an L shaped plot they feed toward its bend.  Then, as they move through the plot, they tend to cut off the bend’s corner. They will also often enter an L plot in the corner of the bend and feed along the edge.      

Rectangular hunting plots are the most common and work best when they are about 30 yards wide and up to 75 yards long. Deer typically will enter the end of the plot and work their way along the edge of the plot before exiting the other end. 

With a plot that resembles an hourglass, deer normally enter one of the two ends of the plot and at some point progress through the narrow opening that connects the two feeding areas. Note that hunting food plots are most productive when they are located between a prime feeding food plot and a bedding area because deer will tend to use them during daylight as they move between the two.

Bottleneck’em with structure:  One of the goals of hunting is to force deer to come within shooting range. Bottlenecking deer past your stand, whether it is on a food plot or in a transition zone, can be done many ways. I’ve used structure in the form of brush piles and built low fences to successfully alter deer movement. 

It’s relatively easy to pile brush so that deer are forced to use a particular trail or a certain section of a food plot. The key is to make the piles thick and long enough so that deer cannot easily pass through them or over them. When a thick brush pile is constructed, jumping it becomes difficult, thus forcing deer to walk the pile’s edge until it ends. In addition, piling brush behind a stand to keep deer from going behind you on the downwind side of your set up is a great strategy when stand hunting close to or at the edge of a food plot.

Constructing a low fence is another great strategy that many seasoned hunters use to funnel deer past their stand locations. Generally, the fence should be a three-strand wire fence that is four to five feet high.  I’ve seen set-ups where the length of the fence was as short as 100 feet and as long as 100 yards. It all depends on the location. Though deer can easily jump a fence this low, more often than not they will opt to walk the fence to its end.  By placing a “V” section of fencing (small end by the plot, open end towards the bedding area) from the edge of a food plot into the woods deer will travel down the funnel, leaving the hunter with a great shot.          

If the fencing borders a food plot, a well-worn trail can be created either by making an opening in the fence or bringing the top two strands of wire together. It will not take long for all the deer in the area to begin using the narrow opening because they will prefer to go through rather than over the fence. This is a time-tested strategy that most sage deer hunters have used a time or two in their hunting careers.    

Enhancement: Enhancing food plots, especially hunting food plots, makes them more attractive to deer. I enhance my hunting food plots with a “drink” of fertilizer twice a year.  This is like putting frosting on a cake. If you cannot do it twice (spring and fall), be sure to do it in the fall. The fertilizer will give the forage the added boost it needs and make the plot more attractive. 

Low Impact Hunting

Low impact hunting is of utmost importance if you hope to hunt food plots successfully.  Your number one goal is to make deer feel secure enough to want to come to the food plot during daylight. For this reason human activity must be kept to a minimum in the area being hunted. If you think you can ram around on ATVs and wander the entire property (both bedding and feeding areas) on foot, think again. You’ll do nothing more than force your deer to become nocturnal. The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” sums up an important part of successful food plot hunting. The less deer know you are around, the better the hunting will be.

Hunt transitions zones: By definition a transition zone is a point between the bedding and feeding area. For most (but not all) food plot hunting, it’s best to position stands between the food plot(s) and bedding area. This keeps deer disturbance to a minimum and allows for morning hunting (when deer are traveling from the food plot to the bedding area) and afternoon hunting. There almost always is a tight funnel, bottleneck, or pinch point in the transition zone. This is where your stand(s) should be placed. 

Hang several stands and hang them early: One of the tricks to hunting food plots is to hang more than one stand. If there is a prime funnel between the food plot and bedding area, consider hanging two stands – one upwind and one downwind of the primary trail – so the locations can be hunted if the wind shifts. Also, hang the stands well before the season.  This will allow deer to calm down after your intrusion.

If you intend to hunt on or very close to the food plot, try hanging stands at different locations on the plot. All deer are different, so their access points to the food plot may not be the same. Also, it’s a good idea to rotate where you sit so that deer do not become aware of your presence. When hanging stands on or near the food plot, it is critical that you be downwind of approaching deer.

Don’t over-hunt: One of the primary reasons for hanging multiple stands is to insure that a location is not over-hunted. It’s not easy to get whitetails to consistently come to a food source during daylight. The last thing one can afford to do is educate the deer in the area.  If you spook a mature buck, change hunting locations because you won’t see him again at that spot. Whitetails may not be black labs, but I can assure you after fifteen years of raising them they are incredibly smart and they learn from their encounters. Also, if the wind isn’t right, don’t push the envelope. Hunt a different stand.

Be scent free: Working the wind is paramount when it comes to food plot hunting.  Being as scent free as possible ranks right up there with having the wind in your favor. With today’s technology, no one can make an excuse for not having their garments and equipment scent free. The scent-free clothing and scent-free sprays on the market have been proven to be effective and are worth the price.

However, if you don’t control your breath odor, it doesn’t matter what kind of scent precautions you take. Breath odors spook deer as quickly as body and equipment odors.  A person exhales 250 liters of air into the surrounding environment every hour, and the resulting odor will turn a deer inside out when detected. 

Breath odor can be neutralized two ways. First, chlorophyll tablets, which can be purchased in most drug stores, do a good job of neutralizing breath odors. Perhaps an easier way to eliminate foul breath – provided you have apple trees where you hunt – is to carry an apple with you and suck on a chunk of it as you sit in your stand. Apples are “nature’s tooth brush” and will take away unwanted breath odors.     

Groundwork: Raking the entrance and exit trail to each stand is a technique I’ve used with great success. Whitetails are uncanny at picking up the sound of people walking in leaves. With the aid of a lawn rake you can turn what is typically a noisy entrance to your stand into a sound-free walk.

Use ATVs to your advantage: If you’ve hunted whitetails on food plots very long you’ve had to deal with how to get out of your stand at the end of the day without spooking deer that are feeding in front of you. Most people simply lower their bow or gun and climb down, “letting the chips fall where they fall.” Every time you do this you are making the deer more and more nocturnal. They learn fast.

Long ago an outfitter taught me how to remedy this problem with the use of a tractor, vehicle or ATV. At the end of the sit have someone come to pick you up. In most portions of North America, whitetails are used to motorized vehicles. Rather than you spooking deer as you climb down, let the vehicle spook the deer from the food plot.  Once they are gone, quietly climb down. In most cases the deer will be back on the plot within a half hour of your departure, and because it was the vehicle (and not you) that spooked them, they will not become nocturnal. This is an incredible technique.           

Hang licking branches: Have you ever wondered how the “experts” get deer to stop in a spot that offers a great shot. Many do it with mock licking branches.  I can’t begin to tell you the number of whitetail bucks I’ve killed over the years while they were feverishly working a scrape’s overhanging licking branch. By hanging a mock licking branch along the edge of a food plot (within 15-20 yards of your stand) you’ll have a scent-posting site that deer will seek when they come to feed. 

If you are hunting a well-used trail between a bedding and feeding area, place mock licking branches every fifty yards along the trail. A string of mock licking branches will make a trail more attractive to deer.  Using plastic draw ties, I attach a mock licking branch to an existing branch about five feet off the ground. If there is no existing branch over the trail, I attach the mock licking branch to a wire strung between two trees. Once the branch is in place, expose the earth below the licking branch to make the site look like a natural, active scrape. I’ve used attractant lures on the branches but have found they are not necessary.  Bucks usually use the mock scrapes within 48 hours.

When to hunt: “When is the best time to hunt food plots?” is a frequently asked question.  The answer is any time. However, because of the physical nature of whitetails I’ve discovered that afternoons outshine mornings. Why?  Because deer are able to feed throughout the night and are generally ready to bed for the day by the time dawn arrives.  So, by the time morning rolls around most deer have left the food plot and bedded for the day. The majority of deer will bed the entire day, so by the time late afternoon arrives they are ready to get up and feed. For this reason they tend to be more active around food plots the last two hours of the day than in the morning. Generally I’ve found that it’s best to arrive at your food plot stand at least three hours before nightfall.

The moment of truth: When bowhunting a hunting food plot you must be on alert at all times.  Opportunities can happen fast around a food plot and if you think you can wait until a deer is in the plot before coming to full-draw, it may be too late. A deer can easily detect your movement if it is in the open and there is nothing between the two of you except air. So, have your bow ready and be positioned for the shot as soon as you hear a deer coming.

Coy’em with a Deke

Decoys can be very effective on food plots. If you use a doe decoy place it 20-25 yards in front of your stand so you are looking at the decoy’s rump. Typically, when a buck approaches a doe decoy he will stop a short distance from the decoy, as if to check it out.  At this point, there is a 50/50 the buck will bolt or walk away so if it’s a buck you want to harvest take the shot. 

A buck decoy should be about 25 yards away, facing you. Also, make sure the buck’s antlers are similar to antler sizes in your area. Often, when a buck approaches a buck decoy it will do so with its ears pulled back and all his hair erect. If you want to harvest a particular buck do it on his approach, because if you wait for the buck to attack the decoy you’ll have only a moving shot. Once the attacking buck realizes he’s fighting plastic and not fur he’ll bolt for cover. 

Whatever decoy you opt to use, make secure the decoy to the ground and spray it with a scent eliminator. And, never leave it in the field when you are not present.

To make the decoy more effective, add motion. Try attaching a white handkerchief to the decoy’s rump. Run monofilament from the handkerchief to your stand, and periodically give the line a slight tug. The handkerchief will look like a wagging tail, which adds realism.

The Bottom Line

When all is said and done, the decision to hunt food plots boils down to how good a hunter you are and how much you want to educate deer. If you hunt the edge of a food plot, you always run the risk of putting deer on high alert and possibly causing them to become nocturnal. Man is the whitetail’s worst enemy, and if deer continually encounter humans in an area, they will stay out of it during the day.

However, hunting food plots can be productive if you figure out how to be invisible as you move to and from the stand and while you are on the stand. All things considered, hunting whitetails on or near food plots might just be the most challenging way to pursue North America’s favorite game animal. 

Food Plots and Kids – Made for Each Other

Today’s kids require action to stay interested and involved. When it comes to “getting their feet wet” and keeping them interested in hunting, there is no better place to do so than around a food plot. If done right, food plots have the potential to create a lot of deer activity, which is just the ticket kids need to develop an interest in hunting. An example of this can be gleaned from an experience Whitetail Institute’s vice president, Steve Scott, had last fall.

“The thrill of killing a trophy buck is unmatched, with one possible exception. The joy and thrill of helping and watching a young hunter kill his first buck, no matter the size, is one of the most enjoyable experiences hunting can offer,” says Scott. “Over the years hundreds of hunters have discovered that the activity found around a food plot is tailor made for launching a kid’s hunting career.

“This past year one of my most enjoyable hunts came while hunting on a food plot with an 11-year-old boy. I was able to give that kid something no one else will ever be able to give him, the joy and excitement of killing his first buck. He’ll never forget it, and neither will I. I think I had more fun than he did.

“I was able to offer this young man the perfect set-up by hunting a food plot where I knew the action would be high. By allowing him to see a lot of deer, the setting created an attractive venue for this youngster. He’s hooked on hunting now, and I believe he’ll become a lifetime hunter because of the experience. This is part of what food plot hunting brings to the table.”