Hard To Hunt Food Plot Locations Solved With Hunting Blinds

If you’re a deer hunter the anxiety is probably about to overtake you. Rain and sunshine are on its way, and you can’t help but get excited about putting in new food plots for deer season. Fresh turned over dirt, the tractor firing up, and a lush green mat gets even the season hunters and food plotters fired up, but hold keep a grip on that excitement for a little longer. Planning before you plant is more important than planting itself. We just recently went over the planning you should do before putting in a new food plot, touching on the importance of incorporating the plot into your hunting strategy. While this advice is key and true for installing new food plots, you shouldn’t overthink it. One of the most common reasons great food plot locations do not get planted, is there is not always a clear way to hunt it. We beg to differ, here are 3 key food plot locations that most food plotters miss, but with our help, can be great hunting locations for you.

Food Plot Architecture: Where to Place Your New Food Plot | Drury Outdoors

(Video) – DOD TV: food plots are vital to holding and killing whitetails, here are three tips for establishing new food plots.

 

Food Plot Location 1: Adjacent to a Bedding Area

Perhaps the best, most often missed food plot location that is not taken advantage of, are food plots adjacent to bedding areas. A small feeding plot within 50 -100 yards of a bedding area will be a perfect spot to ambush in a kill plot or staging area scenario. Why are these not planted?

Hunting opportunity and pressure are of big concern on these food plots. Finding and hunting a tree stand close enough to get a shot would be hard to get into and out of without busting deer. However, placing a ground blind or hunting blind just out of sight, or an elevated box blind distant form the plot, with the food plot still in sight, gives you a completely different scenario.

Food Plot Location 2: Adjacent To a Water Source

This may seem lame to you and your probably thinking “there is water sources next to food sources everywhere…”, and you would be right in saying that, but more often than not that water source is placed in or next to the food plot, not the other way around. Not very often do you see food plots strategically placed right on or next to a small creek, edge of a river, lake, or existing pond. Why are these not planted?

More often than not these plots are nightmares for hunting. A “blocking in” or “trapped” scenario presents itself. With a food plot next to a significant water source, the benefits of food and water together are clear, but they can also be a hotspot for deer. A significant water source like a river, big enough creek, or lake cuts off multiple routes, meaning you are more likely to run into and bump a lot of deer entering or exiting the food plot. In this situation a significant plot screen, or visual barrier to the plot, with hunting blinds in the form of a ground blind or elevated box blind on the opposite side of the water source, far enough to stay out of the way of approaching deer, gives you a 2-in-1 punch of food and water and the ability to hunt it. The same can work if a tree is available for a tree stand, but an elevated box blind gives you freedom of location to ensure you are putting it in the smartest spot for access.

Food Plot Location 3: Travel Corridors

These are your hidey-hole food plot locations. These are commonly small staging plots before larger food plots, clearings in woods, or just simple a ridge top or bottom field where deer travel frequently. Why are these not planted?

While you might think travel corridors are a loose term that food plotters do plant…its hunting these small plots that become the issue…Why? Shade and bumping deer. Often these small plots are shaded out on the edge of woods, or in the woods. The shade and size of the plot significantly reduces the variety of food plot species to choose from. White clover, in a food plot that is prepared and maintained right can attract deer for a quick snack, but can survive intense browsing pressure if needed. The second most common reason these food plots are not taken advantage of is hunting pressure and bumping deer. These food plots can be hard to hunt from a tree stand. With a small plot, the more the deer can be stressed. The tiniest movement, every visit, and any scent in the plot can quickly kill the effectiveness of that travel corridor as well as the food plot. Hunting blinds, specifically a well brushed in ground blind can effectively let you hunt these plots. Better scent control, less chance a deer seeing movement, and as a result less pressure meaning this food plot and be taken full advantage of and a very successful kill plot.

These food plot locations are often not planted because a hunter cannot get around the thought of hunting it properly without busting deer. However if you consider more hunting possibilities with hunting blinds, ground blinds, and elevated box blinds, these food plots become not only great locations to plant but an essential part of a successful hunting strategy.