8 Rules for a Successful Hunting Plot

Food plots are a common means of attracting and holding deer on a property, yet what happens when you decide to hunt there? If done incorrectly, all that time and effort may be wasted, as deer will only feed at night. Growing deer groceries is one thing, but hunting over them is another. This QDMA post examines the huntability of your plot in detail and points out eight specific details you must not overlook.

Beautiful fields of green dot the landscape, evidence of hunters attempting to attract deer. Many of these food plots are intended not just for nutrition but for hunting, and they are often called “hunting plots” or “kill plots.” In my experience, as the level of attraction increases, so does the level of risk when hunting these sites. When you provide a high-quality food source that attracts deer to your area, it is critical that you hunt the food source in a way that doesn’t send the deer scattering in the opposite direction again. When this happens, your food source is doing more harm than good, especially if you hunt a small property.

I am a strong advocate of using food sources to define and strengthen deer movements, but if I can’t meet eight important rules at a site, I won’t hunt that food source. In fact, very few food plots I plant meet these rules. On Wisconsin’s 2012 archery opener, my 10-year-old son Jake and I hunted one of the very few food sources I have planted that I would define as a “kill plot.” Refer to the diagram above to see our “fencerow” stand. The stand in the brushy fencerow near the small, narrow food plot capitalizes on deer movements from a bedding area into thick “old field” cover of native grasses and forbs and eventually to a large nutrition plot. Refer to the diagram as you read and you will see that the fencerow stand meets all eight of the following rules for a successful hunting plot.

1. Spook-Free Access

It’s often a risky move to attempt to go to a kill plot during the morning hours, as deer may be in the plot before daylight.

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Photo: ATV Source