My wife and I went out two weeks ago and bush hogged the two big plots that we have at the hunting club. We also threw out 400lbs of lime mixed with some fert(13-13-13).

Today we went out and cut the plots even lower and sprayed the parts that we will plant with HDX. This is Home Depot's version of Round-Up. Exact same ingredients at about 2/3rds the cost. Works the same as Round-Up also.

We will till it up and plant it in about 2-3 weeks. (We do not bow hunt.) This year we will plant the normal 5-way mix and mix in some extra clover,rape,iron clay peas,and purple top turnips. We have a dry corn slinger on each plot and also put out cob corn,peanuts,and sweet potato's.

I did not get to hunt last deer season so this one will be even sweeter. Gonna spend some nights out in the shooting houses looking for hogs also. Will go out late afternoon with my 300BLK with thermal on top looking for deer during that "magic" time between 15 minutes before deer hunting ends and the legal end (1/2 hour after sunset) Stay that night looking for hogs,then thermal again at 1/2 hour before sunrise. Another time that I have seen tons of deer but just could not seem to ID them good enough for a shot with even a scope with good glass.

How many of ya'll belong to a club and how do you prep for the season ?? --- SAWMAN

no club, private land.....not much into food plots, we hunt swamp bottoms and oak groves. with a taste of power-line...:yo:

Cut the plots last weekend and sprayed HDX(Round Up) on them. Went out this AM to check them and mostly all dead and brown.

Will till and plant tomorrow AM. Then ........... do a rain dance or two. ---SAWMAN

Considering the weather coming our way I would say you chose the right time.

Finished up my plots at the hunting club today. Rained a little last night and the ground was perfect to plant. Actually came out with too much seed so we put it on fairly thick. Should be able to see it popping up after about 5 days.

There were deer prints in the new turned soil from yesterday. Not hunting the deer season last year makes me even more anxuious for this coming year.

Good Huntin' to all. --- SAWMAN

Never hunted anything bigger than a rabbit animal wise. I'll have to go deer hunting one of these days. When I have a freezer big enough.

Yeah, and all the bucks you didn't take last season due to your surgery will be even bigger this season! Good luck/skill.

So far, the 9 point my brother wanted me to take last season at his Georgia farm has not shown up, only 3 and 4 pointers that are too small to take.

In Maine the deer move around quite a bit. On the huge property where I guided we got pics of deer in late Oct thru early Nov that would move between plots that were 5+ miles apart. This was not uncommon. There are quite a few things that will make the deer (some but not all) move around this much.

Down here in NW Fla I do not believe that the deer will move that far although our club members do have pics of deer that moved almost 2 miles over the period of 3 days. There are a lot of hunters that believe that deer tend to stay in one place if they have the basics. Food,water,shelter,and does in estrus. I have talked to deer biologists that tend to feel that deer are "wanderers". This,in that,if a deer gets food every night for 3 or 4 nights and NOTHING runs him off from the area,he simply might just leave thinkin' that "the grass could be a little greener over yonder".

I have had as many as 5 game cameras up in my areas(150A~) of the hunting club at the same time. For weeks they never captured a pic of a certain deer until one night he suddenly shows up. WHY ??

The huge deer that my wife killed at the club several years back had not been seen on anybody's game camera for two months before my wife killed him. There were probably 10-15 cameras out within an area of 2 miles square. Not one pic until he was hanging on the game pole in Feb. --- SAWMAN

no matter who you are or what you have accomplished in life, even if you think you might be right......
you can never estimate a whitetail and there thoughts. my wife will quickly turn you off on that subject.
she is an accredited phd biologist in this region and will be the first to tell someone there piss'n up a rope.....
study the books and still your wrong..........just ask your local wildlife biologist.

The above is simply my opinion. It is also my opinion that if NOBODY knows deer ..... well ..... fire all the PhD biologists. My tax money could be better spent. --- SAWMAN

your in luck !!!! she does not get paid by your tax dollars, so spend it elsewhere.
plus I was not pointing at you I was agreeing with you about your
question....(WHY ?)...........:yo:

I have learned from: #1. Old Maine Master Guides. Guys that have been guiding,hunting,trapping,etc. for some 50+ years. Back in the "hard" years. The years before ATV's/UTV's. They could not afford boats with motors. They used canoes to get around. They learned the ways of the woods and animal behavior by being "out there". Living "out there". They passed on to me what they learned first hand,not from college or a computer. I highly respect this.
#2. Maine,New Hampshire,Florida,Alabama,and Georgia state biologists. This,thru talking directly to them or attending the seminars put on by them. (Some were PhD's also) Were they full of shit ..... ??? Don't know,but like the ol' sayin' goes ..."you gotta believe somebody,pick somebody". I chose them also.
#3. Fellow guides with first hand experience. Most younger than me but had more guiding experience than me. I got lucky. I liked to learn,they liked to teach.

All of the above were apparently giving me their opinion. However they were entitled to do so. I simply chose to believe them. I also will say that deer,hogs,coyotes,black bear,moose,and other creatures will do whatever they feel suits them. Whatever you learn about animal behavior is subject to change. The only thing is,if you watch deer do a certain thing 57 times pretty much the same way,what are the chances that he will do that for the 58th time. I'd say,pretty damned great.

I do not or will not ever know it all. However the more I learn about animal behavior,the better chance I will have at hunting.

AND ---> the above is just another opinion. --- SAWMAN

that's real good and i'm happy for you. I'm sorry you took my opinion differently than what it was intended for.

so it don't matter to me what you have learned or done, I was just agreeing with you.

sorry that you didn't understand.

you do and say what you want and I will never again comment on your posts.