PRIVATE PROPERTY
You already should know that a good food source is the best place to take a mature buck in the late season. The true key is not just the food plot, but also its proximity to an unmolested bedding area. In the case of the Newtons, their soybean plot was less than 200 yards from bedded does and about 400 yards from thicker cover where bucks spent the day. Thus, landowners and those who lease hunting rights on private property have best control over their success.

Deer movement becomes very tough after the rut, especially when weather turns brutal. Studies have shown that bucks and does rarely move out of a 50-acre area during the year. Their main food source will be within that small perimeter. The exception, of course, is where the area around their food source is severely pressured by hunters or other predators. In this situation, smart hunters need to connect the dots. More on that later.

Planning a late-season assault on private property starts in the spring by assessing potential food-plot locations. It's always best to situate plots near the core of a property in close proximity to thick bedding. Otherwise, a neighbor could benefit from the fruits of your labor.

If there is a high density of whitetails where you hunt, small soybean or corn plots are often destroyed before they can attract deer in the late season. If this is the case, plant milo or grain sorghum. These Old World cereal grasses are less attractive to deer before cold weather. Milo and sorghum can be over-sown with clover, alfalfa or one of the many legume mixes. The waist-high cereal grain plant will protect legumes from early frost. This combination is a double-barreled magnet for attracting deer early and late in the season.

Herbicides like Aatrex and Atrazine for killing weeds and grasses cannot be used on cereal grains if over-sown with a legume. Instead, burn off the area with Roundup before planting. Have the soil PH-tested and fertilize accordingly for whatever you plant, or your efforts will be wasted.

Another hard-grain double whammy for small plots is sunflowers over-sown with cow peas. The sunflower canopy stagnates cow pea growth until late summer when the sunflowers mature and die. Cow pea growth will then explode, providing green forage until frost occurs. Deer devour the protein-rich pods and peas. Sunflowers also provide oil-rich seeds for deer and game birds.

If there isn't a suitable bedding area near the property's core, it's an easy task to create one. Most timbers with mature trees or ones that have been grazed by cattle rarely offer dense winter bedding. A landowner can eliminate a thick forest canopy by select logging. Those who lease property should contact the landowner about dropping or ringing unwanted trees of no value. This greatly benefits the remaining hardwoods and the landowner's future timber value. Sunlight reaching the forest floor will start instant growth of saplings, forest bushes and other ground forages for deer food and for bedding.

You've set the stage with food plots near a good bedding area, and now the season is drawing to a close. Now what?

Late season is a time to slow down, be less aggressive and more tactical. Pressuring deer only makes them nocturnal, and bucks become more reclusive. It only takes one after-hours exit from the close proximity of a food plot to wise up deer to your presence.