Food plot shapes

Just wondering what shape food plots everyone prefers and why. I met with a guy last week that does land clearing about coming and making me a road and food plot for me on it and got a price. What I had in my mind was making a 40 yard wide strip that was about 200 yards long that went through where I hunt now that's right on the transition of a thick creek bottom and some 30 year old planted pines that have a few oaks mixed in and never been thinned. The guy I met with after looking at what I have suggested making a plot in the shape of a Turkey foot. The plan is to have the 2 outside strips paralleling the creek bottom where I currently hunt and the other creek bottom that runs into it and putting my shooting house in the corner where my small 4 wheeler trail comes in at. The middle run will be about 50 yards wide by 200 yards long going across a big sandy ridge with pines,small oaks and sparkle berry bushes everywhere and the 2 outside about 30 yards wide by 100 yards long. I know my timing is not the best to be doing this but I kinda had the rug pulled out from under me on some family land I've hunted all my life and after me asking over a month ago before the other guy who is not family and has 350 acres they own behind their house they got the green light to hunt it and apparently it didn't matter that I'd already asked as I do every year just out of common courtesy as I do every year.

A biologist will tell you that irregular shaped plots are better. I don't know why, but they do. Of course, the biologists are not the ones disking an irregular shaped plot after an already long day on a tractor. I think making sure to leave some cover on the edges is probably more important than the shape for us since we are hunting on a place trying to re-establish wild quail.

Let the terrain and cover dictate the shape. Try to keep the bulk of the open area on one side of the hill or terrace. If possible the south or east side. Then keep it near thick cover and even provide some cover within the field.

There was a guy that spoke at a seminar in Auburn one time on making your land more "huntable".....This guy was a life long deer and habitat manager....I forget his name....He had a big Texas looking mustache.....What he suggested was to have most of your food plots to be long and narrow about like you're describing.....But instead of making it a completely straight line......He made them in sorta like a line a drunk would drive.....like a gently curved "S". You could see still a good straight line down it but it took away that feeling of the deer being so exposed to a long opening. He felt like the bucks used that type of "lane" better. These lanes were 300-500 yards if I recall

Was it Mark Thomas? He used to post on here as caribouhunter but I haven’t seen him post in ages. I took some continuing ed classes where he was the instructor. All were highly informative.

Yep....that was him.

I love a long (at least 200) narrow plot! Reckon i like a long narrow plots, because i like hunting roads, if i find a bunch of sign on a road I'm gonna stick a chair somewheres and watch it 😁

My preference would be a horseshoe shaped plot for a killing plot if I had Trees available in the middle to climb or put a lock on. But as far as planting goes I prefer A rectangular 1-1 1/2 acre plot

He lives in the bham area. Has deer and a set of caribou horns in his yard. I passed his yard for years working in his neighborhood. I finally stopped to talk to him one day when I saw him out in his driveway. 3 hours later I left. Does a ton of work spraying invasive species and even lined up some crews to plant pines on a buddies property. He’s a wealth of info

Yeah, I really liked listening to him speak. A lot of his speech on making your property more huntable talked about how so many property owners managed for older bucks but couldn’t kill them because their property wasn’t set up to give them any kind of advantage. The deer had the strategic advantage in its favor. He talked about how a lot of folks who kill older bucks do so because of the set-up….It makes sense too. There’s really not as much to being a “big buck killer” as what folks play up a lot of times….It’s mostly about just the right property and the right set-up. That’s not to say that there’s not good hunters out there….like I was saying in another post….some situations are just better mouse traps.

I’m in 100% agreement on leased land hunting. But when it comes to killing good bucks on public land then those hunters are a step above most everyone myself included.

A buck can view a big rectangular food plot from any one vantage point around the perimeter. A “V” shaped plot, or turkey foot, or “L” can give us hunters an advantage. In some situations the bucks will be required to enter the field in order to look for hot does.

nothing to do with shape BUT your best dirt is going to be in a bottom. Huge majority of Alabama plots are on hills where the there was a loading deck and in most areas the soil is thin and poor. If I had my choice and I could put it where i wanted I would start with good dirt.

This. We had "The Horseshoe Plot" on our lease for years, was BY FAR the best plot I've ever hunted on. I visited a friend's club last year and they have a plot called "The Turkey Foot", it was really neat. They had a ladder stand at the head (think about where the turkey's ankle would be) and then three loooooooong strips angling off like the turkey's toes. Each strip was probably 200 yards long and 30-40 yards wide, and it was built dead smack in the middle of a huge block of thick planted pines. Only problem is I felt like a one-eyed cat watching three rat holes

some interesting shapes & why they did it that way in this video -

I dont think there is a magic shape or size. Location matters.

When I replanted pines at my place after it was clear cut I made multiple long "lane" type plots. One is almost a turkey foot with the road making the outside toes and the main lane the middle. Another one is an "L" shape, and one is not really a "V" but more of an obtuse angle with a shooting house in the notch of the angle. Most of them are only 20 yards wide, which may be an issue getting enough sunlight to grow well once the pines get larger, but I wanted maximum acres back in pines.

These lanes have been great and I see way more deer than I used too. I was able to place stands in such a way that I can get in and out with minimal pressure. I have long straight rows when bushhogging/planting. In my mind it has made a noticeable improvement to my hunting.

I like the turkey foot idea myself with the lanes.. In most places Ive hunted I think I see more mature bucks on smaller tighter fields rather than large open wide ones.
Fields on skidder trails and intersections are some of my favorite spots.

if all else is equal then more edge should be preferred biologically speaking. But other factors are more important in my opinion. More edge doesn't lead to easier hunting, growing, or planting.

Aspect, soil type and depth, and light (how much you want depending on your soil moisture/aspect) should be top of the list.

however, location on property is really important. I've got a 400 acre piece that has about 10 acres in foodplots. the problem is they are all on the south end of the property-by the gates. With a south wind it is next to impossible to sneak in. plus if a person wants to hunt other areas you've got to scare every thing off to get there. So, it really limits morning hunting to a few stands...or you just say the hell with it and drive through.

Was the club you visited in Perry County? If it was I've hunted "Turkey Foot" too and it was a great place to spend a morning or afternoon.

In suttle?

^^^^ This is how we do it... it is a pain to plow as you state, only a couple places with a regular rectangular/square shape. I do leave a couple widths of grass growing on the edges for small game and birds. Has seemed to help the few quail we have.

This field is about 10 acres and we use to plant the whole field but since deer are clannish there was always an old doe that would run other does off the field. We started cutting out smaller fields separated by high weeds and now there are different family groups scattered all through the field. We can also get into our stands easier and a lot of deer bed in the high weeds along the edge of the fields. During the rut the bucks will move back and forth between fields. We have been planting the field since the early 80s so clover grows in the weeds and you will see deer feeding in and out of the weeds. We have sawtooth oaks planted all around the field.

I always preferred a small narrow shooting lane planted in the middle of nowhere.

Nice!

V & L

We have a few unique shaped plots at our place. I like the horseshoe plots and the turkey foot plots. A “v” shaped plot seems like it would be nice as well. I like the idea of the turkey foot plots bc it seems like it would keep the fields from being cleared every time a deer gets frisky and takes off running, but in reality, my experience is that they don’t help in that regard. I think the “v” shape may be more beneficial in that regard or just make your turkey foot more spread out. I do like how deer can be feeding close to one another but not be able to see each other. There always seems to be that doe in every area that like to run others off. Same with those young bucks.

I’d plan it around wind and entry/exit routes keeping in mind the most likely bedding areas near the plot. http://s782.photobucket.com/user/ju...-A9BA-CE495A0F8094_zpswm6nwlmy.jpeg.html

Have had the best results with very long and narrow plots. My favorite is 460 yards by 30 yards. For some reason we see more mature bucks in that plot than the rest.

One of our best stands is in what was once a single, large, crescent shaped field that we let grow up in the middle. The stand sits in the middle and you can see both plots. It is amazing to me how few of the deer visit both plots in the same day. They rarely cross from one to the other. It is like you are hunting two deer groups. It is also interesting that some days one field will fill up while the other does not. Just shows that timing matters. I do think we see more mature bucks now that the once large field is two smaller ones.