On the morning of July 25 my food plot was rocking.
It was like an internet cafe, a place to grab a bite and to hang out. All was well when I went to sleep that night. I have a BuckEye Cam wireless game camera observing the plot and after I made coffee and instant oatmeal I checked my laptop that receives the wireless pictures. I opened the first one, a picture of a buck, and scrolled along , until…
OMG, wild hogs were in my food plot last night.
Plenty of wild hogs had visited last night. Over a hundred pictures wirelessed in of the rotten rooters. This was not good. Actually, on July 24 I had a few pics of wild hogs and afterward noticed they had rooted up a little dirt on the edge of the plot. So I was already worried that they might return.
After seeing all the hog pics a sick feeling hit me in the gut. I jumped up and hurried outside to look at the food plot. What I saw was what I dreaded.
Last night willd hogs rooted all through my lush food plot. This morning it had a doughnut shape dug out in it, a dirt doughnut. The deer I saw there the next morning looked almost as disappointed as I was.
On the 28 as I was ready to leave and hunt wild hogs at the Hammer Hole I spotted a group of wild hogs coming to my food plot. And I got lucky and slipped up on one. See Hogs In My Food Plot.
It’s not my first “hogs in the food plot” rodeo. In the past, shooting a couple stopped their visits. So maybe this would slow down my wild hog problem. And it did help, some still came at night, but not enough to do any more damage.
I left for the Ontario Bear bowhunt in early August and then did the Florida Alligator bowhunt.
A few days ago I got back from Florida and checked my food plot. While I was gone we had a lot of rain and wonder of wonders, the food plot was 95% filled in with green Heartland Wildlife deer loving forage.
My game cameras showed that there were lots of deer coming to the food plot at night and at the morning and evening deer thirty. This morning I took pictures of some nice bucks and put them up for you to see.
This Saturday October 2nd our bow season begins. I have several areas I can hunt and haven’t decided which one to start out at. That said, starting at the food plot blind sounds like a good way to see what bucks are in my area.
My seed mixes of choice this year are Hi Pro Forage from Heartland Wildlife Institute, a mixture that produces a lot of high protein biomass that is great for areas with lots of deer, which is our area. Also I am using Heartland’s Rack Maker a perennial alfalfa based mix perfect for sandy soils. Very high in protein for bigger antlers and healthier deer. This mix is heat tolerant as well as winter hardy and will grow almost everywhere in the U.S.
