From The Woods To The Skillet!
Donald Duck (my long time bowhunting buddy Don Beckwith) came down early to work on some last minute hunting chores ahead of the upcoming opening day. His first project was to check on his two food plots. One is at a bowhunting haunt that I call “Telephone Pole Alley.” It is a narrow 100 yard cut through the thick woods that leads to a weather worn, wooden, out of use, telephone pole. And, the thing that years ago attracted me to this telephone pole place, is the scrapes that always show up every year along the edges of the trees.
Here is a pic of the food plot growing in the narrow opening that leads to the pole. The open area is less than 15 yards wide.
If you’re like most of the people I have conversations with about food plots, one glance at that picture and you say, “that won’t bring in any deer. Food Plots are much larger.”
It’s certainly true that most food plots cover a lot of ground. But in my experience big plots are a waste of this bowhunters time. And I’ll come back to that very soon. Right now we’re talking about the Duck, his get ready for the hunt, and the start of the season.
He set up a ground blind, it’s an old one he was given on a hunt with Keith Beam and that blind has been through some rough treatment. Don cobbled it back together from poles, hubs and other parts we have accumulated. And located the blind by a cross trail at the food plot.
The next morning he hunted at the Telephone Pole place for the first time.At the start of the day’s hunt he saw a doe, a spike and young 8-point buck. An hour later he heard something coming his way through the thick cedars directly in front of him.
As he watched, a very large wild boar took shape through the trees and the Duck got in position for a shot if the hog obliged. When it stepped in a clear spot 22 yards away and paused Don put the top red-dot pin on the big hogs vitals and took his shot with his crossbow.
The hog charged into the cedars and immediately crashed down. The Duck walked to the hog, only 20 yards from where he made the shot.
That night The Duck fried up a backstrap (that’s pork chops), made wild hog gravy, and baked 3 big potatoes for himself, me and Robbie Cramer. It was sure some good eatin’.
