Planting food plots or a plant or two for deer ...
For the serious deer hunters who do not own their own land ... have you planted clover or anything to help bring/hold deer in the area where you are hunting? [?]
For the last four years I've been hunting the same area in a 500 acre woods that is essentially public land. The hunting pressure is really quite low, but there are the occasional dog walker of jogger who goes through on a path. (I ride my Mountain Bike through pretty regularly.)
I've got a pretty good idea of where the deer are traveling and drinking water and finding acorns, but I'm wondering if I can just throw down some clover seed and get a little food crop going where I would like to bring deer to my stand(s).
Are there other plants that I could stick here and there to attract deer. It is NOT legal to bait deer in Massachusetts, but I don't think that it would be illegal to put some plants in strategic places. I suppose I could just move some of the stuff I do see them eating.
Does this whole idea sound a little crazy? [;)] [:p]
For the last four years I've been hunting the same area in a 500 acre woods that is essentially public land. The hunting pressure is really quite low, but there are the occasional dog walker of jogger who goes through on a path. (I ride my Mountain Bike through pretty regularly.)
I've got a pretty good idea of where the deer are traveling and drinking water and finding acorns, but I'm wondering if I can just throw down some clover seed and get a little food crop going where I would like to bring deer to my stand(s).
Are there other plants that I could stick here and there to attract deer. It is NOT legal to bait deer in Massachusetts, but I don't think that it would be illegal to put some plants in strategic places. I suppose I could just move some of the stuff I do see them eating.
Does this whole idea sound a little crazy? [;)] [:p]
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Not realy crazy, crazy is where you continue to plant a veg. garden every year only to have deer eat everything. That would be me ! 0 -
I believe most states have laws against baiting on public lands.
I know with all the greenies DOW officers running around here I would not want to be caught planting anything.0 -
It being public land, I don't know legalities of food plots or planting a food source. My advice is to contact the local "possum police", aka, Game and Fish, and ask. If it's ok, try this stuff called "Throw and Grow". No land or soil prep, just throw the seed mix on the ground and watch it grow. I've used it on a small 60 acre tract in middle Georgia and the deer love it. 0 -
This stuff called "Throw and Grow" sounds exactly like what I have in mind. I'll have to check out the legalities. 0 -
I don't know about other states, but in GA, growing a plant that deer might eat is NOT baiting, and is perfectly legal. Throwing a non-living plant (such as corn, acorns, nuts, etc.) IS illegal, and considered baiting.
Alive = OK
harvested = illegal (baiting)0 -
quote:Originally posted by callktulu
I don't know about other states, but in GA, growing a plant that deer might eat is NOT baiting, and is perfectly legal. Throwing a non-living plant (such as corn, acorns, nuts, etc.) IS illegal, and considered baiting.
Alive = OK
harvested = illegal (baiting)
Same in Iowa and Minnesota0 -
Now that sounds more like it! 0 -
I say go for it![;)] Its illegal in Pa to Bait, but 2 years ago they decided to allow a few counties that had high deer counts to bait.[:0][V] The rest of us that see a few deer a year are not allowed to![B)] BS... we all buy a hunting tag in the same state, if they can do it so can I![}:)] Whats next different bag limits for buck in different counties? 0 -
"Whats next different bag limits in different counties?"
You mean you don't already have that in PA? Wisconsin is divided into dozens of Deer Management Units so that game biologists can recommend harvest quotas to maintain desirable deer population levels in different parts of the state. In overpopulated units, hunters can buy extra tags for antlerless deer. In recent years, some units have had so many deer that hunters are required to shoot an antlerless deer first, to earn the right to shoot a buck. Frustrating for hunters who see a buck first and have to hold their fire, but there's logic behind the rule.
In my home state of Arkansas, years ago, it was legal in the southeastern counties to hunt deer with dogs. In the northwest, not legal. This actually had less to do with conservation, more with cultural patterns. Down in the flatlands people hunted like southern gentry; we hillbillies in the Ozarks hunted like--well, hillbillies.
Game departments need to consider many factors in setting seasons and limits, and it seems reasonable to count social and ecological conditions at the local level among those factors.0 -
quote:we all buy a hunting tag in the same state, if they can do it so can I! Whats next different bag limits in different counties?
New Mexico also has managment areas with differing numbers of permits deawn for different areas depending upon size and deer populations. That is the same as different bag limits for different counties and (if it works) is sound management. You have no reasonable expectation that regulations will be the same in all areas, because the managed resource is not the same in all areas. You can however hunt in those areas that allow baiting.0 -
quote:Originally posted by FWAddit
"Whats next different bag limits in different counties?"
You mean you don't already have that in PA? Wisconsin is divided into dozens of Deer Management Units so that game biologists can recommend harvest quotas to maintain desirable deer population levels in different parts of the state. In overpopulated units, hunters can buy extra tags for antlerless deer. In recent years, some units have had so many deer that hunters are required to shoot an antlerless deer first, to earn the right to shoot a buck. Frustrating for hunters who see a buck first and have to hold their fire, but there's logic behind the rule.
In my home state of Arkansas, years ago, it was legal in the southeastern counties to hunt deer with dogs. In the northwest, not legal. This actually had less to do with conservation, more with cultural patterns. Down in the flatlands people hunted like southern gentry; we hillbillies in the Ozarks hunted like--well, hillbillies.
Game departments need to consider many factors in setting seasons and limits, and it seems reasonable to count social and ecological conditions at the local level among those factors.
Yes we have the same thing with doe tags and different units. We don't have the earn a buck program0 -
How about if I just move a weed to the right spot? [:p] 0 -
My view of baiting is that liquid stuff that makes deer come to it, and the "deer crack" or whatever, acorns, corn, etc.
If you just wanna feed their little tummies closer to your stand, so be it [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]0 -
How about feeding their big tummies! 0
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