Hunting Articles by Blood Brothers Outdoors

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Last December I was bowhunting my property during a cold spell which I'd figured would have the deer on a feeding frenzy during daylight hours. I was hunting close to a cut-over cornfield that showed some fresh tracks in the snow but the sign was mostly old, probably because the cornfield was already pretty much picked clean by the deer. As I shivered in the 6 below zero conditions, without seeing any sign of life, I realized that I needed a better food source to attract and hold the deer on my property. I knew my neighbors had planted food plots and I figured that was were the feeding frenzy must be taking place.

I don't have any farming experience, or a tractor, or any of the implements necessary to plant my own crops so this spring I contacted a food plot specialist to see if they could help me. Reed & Hoppe's Wildlife Food Plots, located in the Wausau, Wisconsin area, were recommended to me so I called Brian Hoppe to find out if they would be able to travel the two hours to my farm to do my food plots. Brian said that they plant food plots all over the state and surrounding states, so we scheduled a meeting during the Wisconsin Deer and Turkey Expo in Madison where they had a booth displaying their food plotting business. I met both Brian and Jim Reed at their booth and we talked the perils of food plotting and how to avoid common mistakes so that you would have food plots that would attract deer 9 months out of the year. We planned to start the plots in late summer or early fall of this year and put in a variety of crops based on factors that would be determined once they visited my property. Since the areas where I wanted the food plots located hadn't been planted in at least 14 years, these guys would have their work cut out for them to get a crop to grow.

Brian came to my property to gather soil samples, so that he could determine what type of fertilizers were needed and how much lime would be required to prepare the soil for planting. He suggested proper locations for planting based on creating a successful crop and being able to hunt it effectively. We also discussed which types of plants would attract and hold deer best year-round. He also took into consideration what the local farmers were planting and based on that we decided to offer something different than the usual corn, beans and alfalfa that were so prevalent in the neighboring farm fields. We agreed that a variety of something nutritious that was not now available to the local deer would work best to pull them in. Brian came up with oats, rape, winter wheat, and rye. He explained how these crops would mature at different times, offering something the deer would need nutritionally during the course of their year. Brian and Jim are avid deer hunters as well as encyclopedias on food plotting, and they know what crop is attractive and necessary to deer at the different stages of the season. Brian suggested we plant oats, rape, winter wheat and rye. He would plant them around Labor Day to enable the plots to produce the young sprouts of oats that deer prefer for the bow opener in mid-September.

Reed & Hoppe's Wildlife Food Plots, a food plotting service provider in Wisconsin, planted this gorgeous plot of oats late this summer. We're already seeing great improvements with our hunting.

Then after the oats matured to the point where they weren't such a magnet, by early October, the rape and winter wheat would have come up to the point where they would be a great fall and early winter food source that will provide a crop hardy enough to last well into December. The rye will sprout the following spring and act as a natural herbicide to help control weeds and also a fertilizer after being plowed under to plant the new crop later.

The 2006 bow season opened September 16th and the oats were coming in real well in my food plots. Deer tracks were everywhere in the food plots and I wonder if the oats will be able to grow faster than they are being eaten. It looks like I'll have to stand guard over them to "protect" them from all those hungry deer. That's a problem I hope will continue until the bow season closes in early January. Our hunting group saw more deer and bigger bucks this past opening weekend than we have in many years.

Jarrod Erdody with slob buck taken as it worked towards a food plot of oats planted in late summer by Reed & Hoppe's Wildife Food Plots.

These food plots may just pan out as well as I was hoping. I'll be monitoring them closely and hopefully they will make this year a banner one for hunting, maybe even make it worthwhile to hunt in a December cold spell.

Anyone wishing to learn more about food plotting or to contact Reed & Hoppe's Wildlife Food Plots, visit their website, www.foodplotting.com.

# posted by Jarrod Erdody @ 11:55 AM

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

It all started on a cold February day when a hunting buddy, Jamie Martin, and I were on a scouting mission in Waukesha County Wisconsin. While looking at a buck bedding area on the top of a thick ridge, Jamie found a nice 5 point shed. It was pretty obvious that the buck was spending a lot of time bedding there, at least late in the season. We took the time to study that bedding area inside and out. I looked at exactly how that buck was traveling in and out and where he was staging.

Later that summer, I glassed and shined the nearby fields watching for the buck. I also watched other areas where I had access to hunt and located several good bucks including a monster 9 pointer. By the end of August I had the 9 pointer patterned real well and felt confident I could get him, if I waited for a day when the wind was perfect.

Shortly after the season started in September, Andrae D'Acquisto, good friend, and owner of the Lone Wolf treestand company, called me to tell me he had glassed a wide 10 point in one of the areas I was hunting. He told me where he saw it and said, now go git er done.

I went and glassed the area a few times and finally saw the deer. He was very wide, one of the widest, I had ever seen. I set up on him a couple times while I waited for the right wind to go after the monster 9 point. Either buck would make an awesome trophy, but the 9 pointer's massive size haunted my dreams. So the hunt for the wide buck took a backseat. I wished I could take them both.

Finally, one day in late October after glassing the 9 point in a bedding area a couple days in a row, I got a break with a wind change and was able to arrow the beast. (See article: The 400 Pound Slob)
My bow season was done.

When opening morning of gun season arrived, I hung my Lone Wolf stand on the edge of the bedding area where Jamie had found the shed antler. About a 1/2 hour before legal shooting light a deer came slowly crunching through the leaves heading to the ridge to bed down. When he got right underneath me I could make out his wide rack, but it was just too dark to shoot. A couple hours later, two hunters walked right through the middle of the bedding area. Now my chances of tagging this buck, this year were dwindling. I moved around trying the other bedding areas, sitting in new spots each sit, but was unable to find the wide buck.

Towards the end of our 9 day gun season, Andrae called again. He said, listen, I seen that buck in the field again in legal shooting light. You either get your butt over there and whack that thing, Or when bow season opens back up, I will (Andrae only bowhunts). I said, "Yes Sir!"

My Wide Buck has 15 scorable points and a spread of just over twenty-four inches.

The next morning I hung a stand in the darkness on the edge of a bedding area near that field and sat until 11:00am... nothing but a little guy. I got in the truck and headed home. As I passed the field where Andrae kept telling me he was seeing the wide buck I stared out into the field. Suddenly movement caught my eye. I hit the brakes, and grabbed my binoculars. There he was standing in a treeline browsing in the middle of the day. I quickly drove past so as not to spook the buck. I got about a 1/2 mile past him and turned around. I drove right back past glancing over for just a second making sure he was still there. I went back to my parking spot, got my shotgun and headed out.

I hurried until I got close then started sneaking up to the field. I crawled through some trees to a fence line that was on the edge of the overgrown field that held the buck. As I got to the fence, I wondered if he would still be there. I slowly eased up into a shooting position using a tree to steady myself. There he was staring at me 50 yards away broadside. I knew he was going to bolt at any minute, some how he had sensed my approach and was at full alert. I struggled for a moment to get the wobble out of the crosshairs. Then they seemed to just lock in behind his shoulder and the 12 gauge fired. The buck wheeled and ran for the thick cover, but he didn't make it.

The buck has a basic 10 frame, however he has lots of stickers, 17 points that you can hang a ring on. 15 scorable. He has an inside spread of more than 24 inches. What a season, two true slob bucks within a few weeks.

Here is the slob 9 pointer I shot with my bow a couple weeks before killing my wide buck. Read my story of this 400lb. Slob.

# posted by Jarrod Erdody @ 2:45 PM