3 years ago an elderly man I go to church with bought 40 acres about 5 minutes from where I live. He has hunted our property for years and was anxious to return the favor by allowing me hunt his. We struck a deal, I keep an eye on and take care of the place for and get to hunt it as I please.
The first year I killed two deer there, one was a pretty good one and I quickly realized this place had a lot of potential. So year #2 rolls around and I put up two more stands and I was able to put in a small food plot at the last minute. The property owner was very happy and told me to treat the places as my own. He said do whatever you think will help the deer and let me know how much I owe you for it.
This year I got an even earlier start and decided to enlarge last years food plot and put another one farther down in the woods.
Now for some pics:
This is a small plot down in the woods surrounded by some really good bedding area
It's already been productive and made my time worth it as it produced my first bow kill last weekend
I planted it with a throw and grow mix but the deer seem to like it.
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The other plots are on a power line and are a mix of wheat, sugar beets, and clover.
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I don't have a picture of them since they've started coming up but they look pretty decent. I put out plenty of lime and fertilizer. Next year I'm going to do a soil sample and try to really hone them in.
Deer pics
I've got 3 different 8pts on camera, a wide 6, and plenty of does and smaller bucks as well.
This one I plan to pass on unless he offers me a shot with the bow.
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The other three I'll shoot in a heartbeat
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I've named this one Brutus, because in my opinion he's a brute of a deer.
I think he is the same deer I've had on camera the past two seasons but he seems to have put on more weight this year. I had my chance at him and I missed. I don't plan to let that happen again
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We don't have any rules as to what we shoot, we just enjoy the time spent and have fun. The only bad part to this is that the property owner had yet to kill a deer off his own property. He's 80 and doesn't see as well as he once did, he doesn't like to drive at dark so he either gets to the stand late or leaves early. Part of the reason i did more with food plots this year was to make it easier for him to kill a deer at his own place.
Hopefully we both end up with a decent one, there is definitely the potential for it to happen
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