Originally Posted By: 2Dogs
Originally Posted By: jlccoffee
Originally Posted By: 2Dogs
If you had yo mind made up,why'd you ask? Looks like several of us are believers^^^, that is if ya wanta get mature bucks out there. I 'll tell you for sure , up in the hardwood moutains, you hunt a plot alot and bang every doe sticks it's head out, won't be long you won't see many does and you can forget bout seeing a mature buck with any regularity. That's a fact Jack.


I too have shot a deer in a plot several times when the other deer in the plot never left, or left and came right back out. I think if you hunt a plot like you describe, it won't be long until you won't see any does on the plot because you shot them.
My son and I used to shoot a lot of does in our big plot, several times we'd shoot one and I drag it up to the shootin' house then 15 min later shoot another one. There's 50 shell casings in there over 7 years, that's 40-45 does,3 bucks and a couple yotes. Bout 2 years ago I made the call to not shoot a doe after 1st week of gun season on the big plots. 2 of those bucks were shot this year, both mature deer. I think pressure, blooding the place, leaving scent, talking will effect them. Also deer that are used to more open land probably more likely to tolerate more around a plot/field. A plot surrounded by hundreds to thousands of acres of thick timber,is different. Even though I killed a dandy out of a plot this year, I know my best chance to kill one in the future is not on our plots.


great post...our deer don't really "need" to go to foodplots until very late in the year when acorns are gone/ germinated or rotten. Even then they could live happily for years without a foodplot...(my neighbor saw a spike eat moss off a rock this year while walking down a gully). Our deer prefer plots sometimes over browse, but it's want not a necessity. If I got hit in the gut every time I went to the desert bar I'd quit going...on the other hand in unmanaged pine plantations they have no choice but to come to the plots...kind of like Jackson Co. after a deep freeze in April/May.