# Deer hunting Food Plots



## 70t351w (Sep 13, 2007)

I will be hunting SE Kansas this year at my dads. As far as food plots go there none. My dad is leasing his property to a local farmer who plants winter wheat. By late Nov. the wheat should be 4 inches tall. Would the young wheat provide a good food source? And does anyone know if it would be legal in Kansas to put out Deer feeders?


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## Cut4fun (Sep 13, 2007)

IMO, yes. I have gutted many full of fresh wheat, just dont ask how I know. :hmm3grin2orange: 
I even watched them graze in the wheat fields before getting my bow shot when they entered the woods. Gun hunting the wheat would even be easier for you.


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## ShoerFast (Sep 13, 2007)

There is a catch-22 with food plots and deer, if your hunting bucks, hunt the rut. Deer need more roughage in there diet then anything, and they get that most anywhere, but once there belly is full, they sit and ruminate, if there belly is full in an hour, they will spend allmost 23 hours thinking about it,,,, on there duff. Mature Whitetail bucks are the hardest thing there is to stalk, tree-stands will out bag nearly any other hunting method. 

Figuring out where the big bucks travel to and from there food source is key to stand placement, but touching it again, if the going is good, they don't spend a lot of time eating, eat mostly at night, and can eat most anywhere, they do develop favorites, but once surprised, can jump a fence at the drop of a hat. 

Not concentrating on just food sources, wheat fields, oak/acorns, or a good tasty stand of alffalfa, find where they bed, they feel safe in those spots, and will often return to them if other hunters press them. Beds are easy to find, the grass leaves and snow pack and show where they lied down, they make a bed a day, Make sure you leave the area alone a good week before the hunt, Whitetail live and die close to where they were born, give or take, but once they find 'home' thats where they want to be, because they know it like the back of there hoof. 

Find the trials, find the beds, figure out what there eating, and plan there daily rituals. Hunt the rut, place your stands down wind of activity areas and transition areas, get there early, stay late, and hour before a football game is a good time to keep your eyes open for pressured Bucks, sneaking around to avoid football fan/hunters. 

Whitetails are the true 'Gray Ghost' of the woods, more then a worthy opponent!


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## PLAYINWOOD (Sep 13, 2007)

Cut4fun said:


> IMO, yes. I have gutted many full of fresh wheat, just dont ask how I know. :hmm3grin2orange:
> I even watched them graze in the wheat fields before getting my bow shot when they entered the woods. Gun hunting the wheat would even be easier for you.


X 2!!!
Soybeans only after its combined and corn sometimes...its hard to judge.
When everything is brown and the winter wheat looks like a golf course..good place to hang around.
If you have any other cereal grains where the spillage seeds turns green in the windrows,they are also productive.
Good luck..


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## 70t351w (Sep 13, 2007)

I grew up hunting in Missouri but to be honest last year was the first on Deer hunting. Since my dad owns property in Kansas he can transfer one and only one buck tag to me. I dont have to do the ol application/lottery drawing thing. I have seen several big bucks around his property (only out of season). I need to get up there and do a survey of the area. Last year I got snowed out right at the begging of firearm season/rut.
I have a stand set up on the south side of the woods. The woods run east and west half a mile and they are about 100 to 200 yards wide. Last year I spent the first two days on the north side in a peacan tree. Nothing! The end of the second day as I was leaving, looking across the south side of the field as I drove down the road I saw deer leaving the woods running down the fence line. The next day I walked to the same spot just to find an old rotted stand (years old) in a hedge tree. Everything was iced over so getting into the tree was impossble. Anyway I decided to stand in a cedar until I got covered in snow. Eventually a herd of deer appeared out of the blinding snow. I was not ready for that. They saw me first. I could not have shot any way, my trigger froze. Anyway that same tree is where I put a stand for this year.


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## ShoerFast (Sep 13, 2007)

70t351w said:


> I grew up hunting in Missouri but to be honest last year was the first on Deer hunting. Since my dad owns property in Kansas he can transfer one and only one buck tag to me. I dont have to do the ol application/lottery drawing thing. I have seen several big bucks around his property (only out of season). I need to get up there and do a survey of the area. Last year I got snowed out right at the begging of firearm season/rut.
> I have a stand set up on the south side of the woods. The woods run east and west half a mile and they are about 100 to 200 yards wide. Last year I spent the first two days on the north side in a peacan tree. Nothing! The end of the second day as I was leaving, looking across the south side of the field as I drove down the road I saw deer leaving the woods running down the fence line. The next day I walked to the same spot just to find an old rotted stand (years old) in a hedge tree. Everything was iced over so getting into the tree was impossble. Anyway I decided to stand in a cedar until I got covered in snow. Eventually a herd of deer appeared out of the blinding snow. I was not ready for that. They saw me first. I could not have shot any way, my trigger froze. Anyway that same tree is where I put a stand for this year.



Sounds like your zeroing in on the jest of things. 

Now what makes a better hunt is to get into the stand a couple of weeks, week before the latest , and place a bright florescent hat, hankie, anything that you will be able to see from your weapons effective distance. Before you get out of the stand, look into the gnarliest cove there is, and plan a few sight trials. Having someone to help with this with 2-ways is twice faster. It takes a lot of time, but well spent, clear sight trials into the cover, from the air, they would look like spokes on an old wagon wheel, but you only need to thin out the cover that would deflect a shot. Stooping down as you go, deer shot placement is about waist high, give or take. Having this work done seems moot to some, but cover everything with a dust of snow, frost or freezing rain, a toothpick twig is as big as as your finger. Remembering that snow settles browse, thin anything that will hang in the way. 

Take some of the browse and add some camo to brake your silo, deer can tell if your getting anything if your picking your nose, from over 500 yards. 

Plan a couple places for attractor, 'Tinks' was the best on the market when I went to guide school, but real doe-n-heat would trick most of us if we were bucks. Most bucks work there way to lure from the down wind, so don't place it right up wind, it could real them to close, this year you want to see them first. 

When the gray ghost move in and out of your sight trials, there will be a happy gut pile in one of them if it all comes together!


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## ropensaddle (Sep 13, 2007)

If I were to hunt Kansas I would focus on drainage ditches
creek bottoms and changes in terrain buck are magnetized to
these for cover. I plant food plots to keep them comming
back but rarely hunt on them so I don't spook them.
I also don't try to get too close to bedding areas until
late season a mature whitetail knows every stick in his
core area and once he knows you are there forget hunting
him and move on! If you stay along edge cover leading to
food and a little farther off the bed he will move more as he has 
not smelled , seen on heard anyone in his living room. 
I have scouted all the areas I will hunt for fall in spring turkey
season and marked them on gps so I know in October I will
be on live bucks and with there previous sheds have an idea
what I am hunting for.


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## Timberhauler (Sep 14, 2007)

I hunt the trails on the way to food plots,and try not to disturb the area where the feed is planted.


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