Making a wildlife Food Plot

[kmcconaughey]

Several new deer have showed up near the food plot, most are small "basket rack" 6 and 8 points. Here's the best two new bucks.

UNDER EDIT: Hmmmm, I think that buck in the lowest photo (date/time stamp of 2009/10/19 22:42:36) MIGHT be the 8 point I posted photos of on Oct. 9th.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Here's a couple smaller bucks doing some sparring.

And Kendell's friend visited again.

 

[kide]

I see the skunk's got them "demon" eyes, too...scary!!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, yep!

 

[rmclements]

Hey, there are actually these critters here in Michigan also!!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Robert, looks like a nice 10 point.

Which model Stealth Cam is that? I've been thinking of getting their Sniper Pro 8mp model I see them available for ~ $150 or so depending on if they include a memory card. Some of my old Racktracker brand cameras are giving me fits,they are fairly low resolution and they have a slow trigger speed. I still like the old Cuddeback that my father had bought back in 2004 but it's only 1.3mp, it does however have a quick trigger.

 

[rmclements]

Kraig, It is a model i230ir. It's only a 2 mb but it seems to do ok. The battery life is very good. I have been able to take a ton of pictures before changing them.

 

[rmclements]

On October 18th, I made a mock scrape to see what may come in. I loaded it with Tinks 69 and Tinks Doe Pee. I also put some gel on a couple branches. I think that I got the camera clock off by 12 hours. Dang military time anyway!! LOL

And then the boys had to see what was going on!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Robert, neat photos.

 

[aaytay]

I need to get one of those trail-cams...

 

[kmcconaughey]

Art, I have 5 or 6 of them and want more... The 4 or 5 cheap-o RackTracker brand with rechargeable batteries are OK but the batteries no longer hold as good of a charge. Even with the solar panels, of course cloudy days don't help. I've had to bring each of them in for a recharge several times. Meanwhile, the one Cuddeback camera that I have has had the same set of 4 D size batteries in it since August and is still working fine. To bad Cuddeback no longer makes this model. RackTracker cameras are NLA, they do work OK, even if they are slow to trigger. I'm leaning towards the Stealth Cam, Sniper Pro 8mp model as a replacement for the RackTrackers with the worst battery. I could just replace the batteries and might but the thought of 8mp photos is hard to resist.

 

[kide]

Ryan Wilke's warning to me about dumping apples from my yard got me to thinking. If it's plausibly illegal to intentionally feed deer in lower Michigan, I wonder what our DNR's stance would be on the food plots, or even worse, the standing plots of corn that are being put up for the deer..

BTW - although I personally don't hunt (for food - lookout woodchucks, though), I believe it's a great sport. I was pleased to see others help my son when he was of age to hunt ( I took him to hunter safety courses, but with no experience, it was close friends who showed him the finer points, like gutting that first buck out....

 

[rpalmer]

Kendell Ide,
This is only personal experience. If they want you for any reason, they will come and get you. Kind of hard to just feed them when they are not in season. Especially in your case since you would need to pick up and store the fallen fruit and then "feed" it to them in what January or February?

 

[kide]

I'm starting to think about suing the state DNR for allowing their deer to run on my property....Private owners can't let cattle run loose. Oh - wait, the lawsuit expert doesn't hang around here anymore...

 

[rpalmer]

Kendell Ide,
IIRC in Ohio if you own the land you do not need to buy a tag. You just make one. I can't recall if the land/home owner still needs a small game license to take a few. I stopped hunting about 25 years ago.. after opening my first deer. I will roll woodchucks all day though if given the chance.

 

[kmcconaughey]

I stopped by the farm on my way home and checked on my food plot, I found a decent shed antler about 25 yards out of the food plot, went looking for it's mate and bumped a hen turkey out of the pines. Not sure if she's starting a nest or what,

seems early for nesting, but she sure was hanging tight to that location, I walked to within 15 yards of her, that's when she spooked and I first noticed her. I had my eyes to the ground looking for antlers. She was setting in next to a dead fall. After she walked off calmly, I did the same but in the other direction. Never did find that other antler...

It might just be from this deer, certain details appear to match.

 

[kide]

Note my comments of a couple of months ago about food plots in Michigan possibly getting you in trouble....This "almost" up to date story regarding the MI DNRE's ticketing a guy for purportedly using bird feeders (8 foot off the ground, no less) to attract deer to his webcam....

The up to date (actually in the comments of the provided link) is that the judge pitched the case..not sure of reason (it was argued that the law is broad and vague)...As a former state employee, I gotta tell ya, there's better things for state employees to be doing.....the whole CWD / Bovine TB thing was blown out of proportion (1 deer in a private hunting preserve..). The crazy thing is the DNRE "bunny dicks (as in detectives)" can determine that this guy was feeding deer from a bird feeder "intentionally", but can't seem to figure out all those big bags of sugar beets, carrots and other produce that pop up every fall in huge pile at filling stations and convenience stores

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, yikes!

I have deer visit my bird feeders, they have to rear up on their hind legs to reach them, they don't eat much or spend much time trying, they also visit my flowering crab apple tree, my various flower beds, my lawn, my vegetable garden and various other plants on my property. I guess I'm deliberately feeding them by growing stuff. I better get a few thousand gallons of Round Up to stop them from eating on my property.

Wisconsin's rules on feeding appear to be reasonable to me. Food plots are covered under this statement:

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Natural Vegetation and Plantings: Feed that is deposited by natural vegetation or found solely as a result of normal agricultural or gardening practices, as well as standing crops planted and left standing as wildlife food plots that may be used by wild animals, is not considered feeding for the purposes of these regulations and is allowed statewide<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

 

[kide]

Ouch, hit my head...

 

[kide]

Actually, the DNRE (they were the DNR but the Department of Environmental Quality was just folded back in to the DNR again) allows food plots.. "Food plots, naturally occurring foods, standing agricultural crops, or food that is in place as part of normal farming practices are not considered baiting or feeding.". I guess if you get a herd in a food plot, they don't swap bodily fluids as they evidently do at a bird feeder... (The guy's Snowman Cam, which among other things monitored a melting snowman must have been an x-rated site, viewable only by adult deer..)