Deer are hitting the brassicas hard

[tcook8296]

I planted this brassica mix from Merit seed back on Aug 1. With this snow and frigid temps, the deer are tearing it up.

Seed mix was deer max and ultra max.

https://meritseed.com/wildlife-food-plot-store/

 

[tcook8296]

[Rusty]

Looking good.    

[rocky]

Pretty cool. Hopefully you will get rewarded for all of your hard work.

[tcook8296]

Even though those leaves look brown and wilted, the deer will inhale all of it

[LPJR]

That is awesome. Work paying off nicely....  

[tcook8296]

Pretty cool. Hopefully you will get rewarded for all of your hard work.

Im not feeling it, Ive been patient all season long waiting. I can not believe not one buck all season that I would shoot. I think this will be the 1st year in 38 years of hunting Nj I dont kill a deer.

[Thunderchicken]

Well you definitely put the work in Tom, but I think factors out of your control are hampering your efforts!

[Zipper]

Beautiful brassicas! Best of luck!

[Live to Hunt]

Yea good luck

[stratocaster]

Good way to help pull them through the winter in addition to natural feed. 

[Bowhunter2004]

Everything looks great Tom, I’m sure you did everything right...you know NJ sucks for trying to grow big Deer. Nothing works here. Hinge cuttting, food plots, row crops, supplemental feeding, watering holes, bait piles! I’ve been looking for that perfect neighborhood to buy into for a few years now, it just does not exist! Even if you had a few hundred acres it would be tough. You’ll grow a decent one, someone else would jack it at night or trespass on you to kill it out of one of your stands, or a few drunk jerkoffs would drive it out one day when your not patrolling it. However, with that all being said, I still think if you do everything right, you still might get lucky every few years and have a decent one slip through the cracks and survive... at least that’s what I keep telling myself while I keep looking for the right piece of ground.

[tcook8296]

Everything looks great Tom, I’m sure you did everything right...you know NJ sucks for trying to grow big Deer. Nothing works here. Hinge cuttting, food plots, row crops, supplemental feeding, watering holes, bait piles! I’ve been looking for that perfect neighborhood to buy into for a few years now, it just does not exist! Even if you had a few hundred acres it would be tough. You’ll grow a decent one, someone else would jack it at night or trespass on you to kill it out of one of your stands, or a few drunk jerkoffs would drive it out one day when your not patrolling it. However, with that all being said, I still think if you do everything right, you still might get lucky every few years and have a decent one slip through the cracks and survive... at least that’s what I keep telling myself while I keep looking for the right piece of ground.

I have to disagree. Everything works. I can attract deer easily with everything Ive done. The problem is some of our fellow hunters and the states management and bag limits. We get so many buck tags its insane. There is nothing protecting bucks. Everyone wants to kill a buck, if we could get the state to cut back on tags, it may improve. Give out a doe and a buck tag with your license. After that you buy them. Make a doe tag cheap to keep the meat hunters shooting does. Make the additional buck tags much more expensive.

If guys pay are paying a higher cost, they will become more selective.

When the buck quality improves, revenue will increase also. Guys that say they will quit hunting because of a cut back in buck tags is nonsense. Those guys will still get a buck tag or two, will still be shooting does. Trophy hunters only need one or two buck tags as it takes time on stand to pursue the more mature deer.

Edited January 7, 2018 by tcook8296

[hammer4reel]

Everything looks great Tom, I’m sure you did everything right...you know NJ sucks for trying to grow big Deer. Nothing works here. Hinge cuttting, food plots, row crops, supplemental feeding, watering holes, bait piles! I’ve been looking for that perfect neighborhood to buy into for a few years now, it just does not exist! Even if you had a few hundred acres it would be tough. You’ll grow a decent one, someone else would jack it at night or trespass on you to kill it out of one of your stands, or a few drunk jerkoffs would drive it out one day when your not patrolling it. However, with that all being said, I still think if you do everything right, you still might get lucky every few years and have a decent one slip through the cracks and survive... at least that’s what I keep telling myself while I keep looking for the right piece of ground.

 

 

Don't you live in Readington ?

​great bucks shot all around that area every season. and sure while many guys are killing every 2 year old they see the 4 year olds don't get seen as easily and are still around.

the difference is you need to work harder to find them, its just not easy to get a shot at those bigger deer.

 

Hunterdon County has some of the best available deer habitat around. just need to put in extra time to find the one that holds good bucks yearly

 

All the crying about how much easier it is to get a better buck out west is just that. Your shooting bucks out there that the local don't want shot  either,

you shooting 150"  deer out there when they wanna shoot 170" bucks is no different than guys here shooting a 115" buck.

They are probably just as pissed.

 

I watched guys out there at the Bushnell deer locker cringe that guys shot 150" bucks instead of waiting for a  "good " one.

[Bowhunter2004]

I have to disagree. Everything works. I can attract deer easily with everything Ive done. The problem is some of our fellow hunters and the states management and bag limits. We get so many buck tags its insane. There is nothing protecting bucks. Everyone wants to kill a buck, if we could get the state to cut back on tags, it may improve. Give out a doe and a buck tag with your license. After that you buy them. Make a doe tag cheap to keep the meat hunters shooting does. Make the additional buck tags much more expensive.

If guys pay are paying a higher cost, they will become more selective.

When the buck quality improves, revenue will increase also. Guys that say they will quit hunting because of a cut back in buck tags is nonsense. Those guys will still get a buck tag or two, will still be shooting does. Trophy hunters only need one or two buck tags as it takes time on stand to pursue the more mature deer.

I hear what your saying, attracting Deer is the easy part, keeping them out of harms way long enough to reach maturity is the hard part.

I like the cutting back on tags and cheaper doe tags idea, the more expensive buck tag is also fine with me, it couldn’t hurt.