Post #3

FOOD - The third thing needed to produce quality bucks is food. Fortunately most areas have enough quality food to produce decent antler size without any hunter intervention. But supplemental food plots can give deer more minerals and protein then they would get from native plants. Deer are just like athletes, to reach their potential they must be on a good diet.

Although food plots can increase weights of deer and increase antler size also, it's harder to get this affect then you might think. A food plot here and another there just isn't enough to have a huge effect. It has been shown that sprinkling an area of woodland with a few scattered food plots doesn't have any 'measurable' effect on the noted deer weights. To get a noticeable improvement in body weights it takes about 1 acre planted and fertilized for every 40 acres of habitat. This is a ballpark figure so don't argue that it is 1 to 30 or 1 to 50.

An important note is that to have any real effect these food plots must be productive year round. It does little good for a bucks antlers if you feed him well during the fall but the rest of the year he must rely on native browse. Now what you hunters down south must realize is that our deer face different problems than the deer up north. Up north a deer during the winter might face outright starvation. And winter die offs occur quite regularly due to starvation. We do not face that same situation in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama etc. When our lands get overpopulated the deer do not starve. They will have plenty to eat but it will be of low quality. Therefore the body weights and antler sizes suffer severely.

I have seen areas in Louisiana that you could expect to see 50 deer per day when hunting, but most were does and rarely was a decent buck killed. Racks were small and body size was small also. None of these deer were in danger of starving they had just been slightly malnourished. Refusal to kill does leads to this type of situation and no type of restrictive buck kill will help.

My point is that even though food plots can be quite effective at increasing herd quality, it is more productive for most people to focus on food quality by limiting herd size, i.e. doe harvest. You see, there are many different plants that provide food for deer. Of these hundreds, some are more nutritious than others. The most nutritious ones are the hardest hit by the deer. So if the herd is to large then only the low value plants will be available for the deer.

I am not saying don't plant food plots just realize what it takes to increase body size and antler size. There are many reasons to plant food plots other than these reasons. One good reason to plant food plots is to keep the deer on your land more often. This will lessen the likelihood that someone else will kill them as well as increase your chances. Another is why most people plant and that is simply to see/kill more deer. That 8 point in your clover field may not be bigger because of the plot but at least he is in your plot.

And referring to genetics section earlier, I am not saying not to shoot that 200-lb. spike. But cull it to make room for another buck that will have a large rack.

Also, if you do control the timber on your land/lease remember that deer don't climb trees. Mature trees, even oaks, don't provide nearly the pounds of food per year that the same area of cutover provides.

we have a healthy number of mature bucks…don't kill a lot, but have quite a few…about 1 in 20 give or take would be my guess. This is in Jackson Co. and based on getting pictures of mature bucks year after year. I'd say our avg. score for a 4 year old would be around 120. Very few under 110 and like I said maybe one in 20 140+

No way to get an idea without game cam pictures. Most people high grade, so what you see dead is skewed. A lot of guys with good land will pass on quite a few 115-120" 4 year olds during a given season waiting on the small percentage that actually make 130+

your arguing with real statistics and one of the most knowledgable people on this site. He doesn't need to go to your property, unless it's in a high fence… They did a study at the King Ranch and I think the avg. 4 year old was around 125, if I'm not mistaken. You will not even get 40-60% in the best area of Iowa.

Good point, but for us 4 1/2 year old bucks aren't that rare. I guess we suck at hunting, so plenty of them make it to maturity. What that does allow me is the ability to get plenty of pictures of and track quite a few bucks from young to middle age to maturity and not very many will make 140. I struggled with this a few years ago, but now I just accept the facts and realize that any mature buck with it's chin on the ground is a quite an accomplishment. But again, this is just on our place… but also what I've seen on a couple of other very good places I've hunted in other areas of the state.

Correct.

This is very true where I hunt also. I also struggled with this for several years I thought if I could afford to or just be lucky enough to get in the right club where they only shot big deer I would be able to kill a 140 + every year. I got to where I could afford it and now I have now realized that is an unrealistic goal in Alabama. Now I realize that if you are in the right club you can have an opportunity to kill a mature deer every year but odds are he will only score 115-125 took me while but I have finally accepted that fact and hunting is a lot more enjoyable now the way it use to be when I was much younger and just wanted to kill something with horns. I would have loved to have hunted some of the places that these guys talk about years ago when you could set on a field one afternoon and see 40-50 deer but I think those days are pretty much gone.

Bamakis,
What is the source of your article?

It's not impossible but it is tough. There are places in Bullock Co and Jackson Co that you should expect a 130+ every year if you put in the time and a 150+ occasionally. I had a place in Jackson that I killed 11 over 120" in 9 years with only 2 of them less than 130. It was very good hunting but I've seen some that was better, especially in Bullock in a little area near Fitzpatrick. It is all private land and they still see 25 and 30 deer a day frequently. If you are lucky enough to get in a club over there it will be $3500 minimum and likely $5000.