Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Larger field planting tricks for Bowhunting

Snail3496

Active Member
I have several 2-5ac plots that I plant beans in every year to get the deer through the fall and winter. Most I will top dress with some fall grains/greens just to add more food but thats it. I have set up extremely bulletproof hunting access to all. All are mostly rectangular simply to maximize acreage and ease of farming, which leads to my question. I havent really dug into how I could manipulate my field plantings to funnel more deer through bow range, which is 99% of the hunting I do. I know some guys will till and fall plant "spokes" through fields to their setup. Some swear by small plantings of radishes around their blind, scrape trees, etc. etc.

I really want to hear from the bowhunting guys with real life do's and dont's from over the years. I'd love to try a few things with this fall's plantings or for next year's planning. Appreciate hearing any experiences you guys have with it!
 
I have several 2-5ac plots that I plant beans in every year to get the deer through the fall and winter. Most I will top dress with some fall grains/greens just to add more food but thats it. I have set up extremely bulletproof hunting access to all. All are mostly rectangular simply to maximize acreage and ease of farming, which leads to my question. I havent really dug into how I could manipulate my field plantings to funnel more deer through bow range, which is 99% of the hunting I do. I know some guys will till and fall plant "spokes" through fields to their setup. Some swear by small plantings of radishes around their blind, scrape trees, etc. etc.

I really want to hear from the bowhunting guys with real life do's and dont's from over the years. I'd love to try a few things with this fall's plantings or for next year's planning. Appreciate hearing any experiences you guys have with it!
Here’s 2 random examples of mine with chicken scratch drawing. Blue is where blow wind. Red is stand. Yellow is a grain field. Green is greens. Rub post in greens. Gets most deer to 15-20 yards. Most. The other obvious way is to shape your fields with pinch point or narrow part of plot near stand. But beyond shape - I think I the green plots & rub posts will accomplish most of goals if we keep it simple.
IMG_4324.jpeg

IMG_4325.jpeg
 
Our farm has a 5.5 ac rectangular field on it. On a typical hunt, I will have deer within bow range from my stands.

My trick is to swing out early successional edges on the far side, out toward where my stand is, pinching down the deer into bow range of my stands. That's it.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom