Basket Racks to Rocking Chairs

A Wake County hunter’s pampered food plot produces 2005’s No. 1 non-typical muzzle-loader buck.

Some white-tailed deer hunters like to place their stands atop ridges; some prefer hardwood slopes with dropping acorns; and some set up close to scrapes or where they’ve discovered big rub trees. Other hunters, especially in eastern North Carolina, choose stands inside bedding-area cutovers, at the edges of large bean or corn fields, or use dogs to chase deer.

Because baiting is legal in North Carolina, many stand hunters buy a few hundred pounds of corn to spill on the ground, pick a tree 30 to 50 yards away, cut a shooting lane, then wait for deer to appear.

But each season some of N.C.’s biggest bucks are sent to deer heaven with their mouths full of tender green veggies planted by enterprising hunters who know whitetails regularly visit well-tended food plots.

Neil Alford, who downed 2005’s best typical-rack buck by a N.C. muzzle-loader hunter, has several reasons for using a “grow-your-own” system for producing better-quality whitetails.

Food plots have one main advantage that continues to attract deer when the quick fixes of corn, acorns or agricultural crops have lost their allure — they endure.

When deer find a corn pile, acorn-dropping oaks or crop fields, they’ll flock to them and, depending upon the number of deer (and other critters) in the area, that food supply may disappear within a few days. But food plots, particularly those planted late in the summer or during early fall, produce tasty plants that pull in deer for months.

A 36-year-old, self-employed Garner landscaper, Alford has, in addition to hunting areas at two piedmont counties, a few acres of land in southern Wake County. And he tends a food plot there exclusively for whitetails, harrowing, disking, then planting clover and other deer-attracting plants.

Alford’s said food plots not only maintain the health of deer, but if a hunter tends them fastidiously, they can concentrate whitetails for months — and produce quality animals.

“I think the protein (in seed crops specifically created for deer) really helps with antler growth,” he said.

Although developing a good food plot takes time, Alford said benefits accrue in the long run vs. quick-fix deer attractants.

“I think food plots are a lot more economical and time-saving, if you do the math, than (putting out) corn,” he said. “By the time you buy corn, pay for gasoline and trips (to put out more corn), it adds up.

“But with a food plot, you’ve got a continuous source of food for deer.”

During September 2005, Alford added a commercial mixture (Tecamate) of alfalfa, chicory and clover to his half-acre field that previously had been planted only with clover.

He also has deer-hunting leases in Chatham and Granville County, including a place at Virgilina (near the Virginia/North Carolina border in northern Granville).

“We also have food plots at the Granville County land,” he said. “We plant cowpeas in the spring up there, which is good for bow hunting, and clover. We also have some corn and soybeans. We cut the corn in strips (after it’s matured and hardened), knocking it down for visibility (shooting lanes). Sometimes you can have deer in a corn field and never see ’em unless you have some shooting lanes. Deer and raccoons also knock down some of the corn around the field edges.”

His Chatham deer hunting area is mostly hardwood forests containing no abandoned logging roads or sizeable clearings for food plots.

A local farmer tends part of the 100-acre Wake County farm, planting sweet potatoes and corn, which also draws deer to the property. Once those crops are harvested, the deer move to Alford’s food plot.

After an initial planting of clover three years ago at the half-acre field, Alford said he bush hogs twice yearly, once in the spring to take care of weeds and later when clover seed heads begin to appear.

“We put 20 to 40 pounds of (nitrogen) fertilizer on the (half-acre of) clover, depending on what it looks like, in the fall,” he said. “In the late winter, we add 0-20-20 phosphorous and potash for root development..

“Just before bow season last September, I added the Tecamate alfalfa and chicory mix.”

Alford said the alfalfa and chicory attract whitetails when the clover has been “burned down” by frosty weather.

“I also get more deer visiting with different types of plantings (the Tecamate) than by growing only clover,” he said.

Alford said he’s been able to watch deer (or get photos of them) eating at his intensely tended food plot every month of the year for several years.

“I set up my trail camera and check the pictures,” he said. “They visit (the food plot) even in January and February when it’s really cold.”

Alford also avoids the temptation, he said, to pull the trigger on small bucks.

“I’ve taken two bucks off this (Wake County) land during the last seven or eight years,” he said. “The other was a 125-inch eight-pointer that came from the same area about four or five years ago.”

His consistence food plot work paid off in spades, so to speak, during October 2005.

“(The food plot) also is near a creek bottom,” he said.

As most hunters know, creek bottoms are natural deer funnels because they provide good cover for travel routes between bedding areas and food sources.

His stand, constructed by hand several years ago, is a self-built 20-footer that’s completely-enclosed with a roof. Alford likes to bring his two sons with him during cold days or when it’s raining.

“The stand is at the edge of the food plot, so I can see into the field and also back into the woods at the creek bottom,” Alford said.

He said he’s carrying on a family tradition that started when his dad began taking Alford deer hunting when he was 10 years old.

“I guess I’ve killed probably 30 to 35 deer,” he said. “But I’ve started to become more selective about pulling the trigger. The last few years I haven’t filled my tag (with six deer). I probably average taking one or two deer per year.”

Last October he was alone in the stand at the southern Wake farm, expecting to see deer but not certain he’d get a chance at a trophy.

“It was Monday, October 10, two days after muzzle-loader season had started (in the eastern zone) last year,” he said.

“I’d been watching the weather forecasts on television, and (Oct. 10) was going to be a perfect day.”

It rained sporadically Saturday during opening day of Eastern Zone muzzle-loader season when Alford looked at more than a dozen whitetails, none of them impressive enough to tempt his trigger finger.

“Sunday I watched the weather forecast,” he said. “Monday was going to be a foggy morning, a good day for deer to be moving. And the weatherman said the pressure would be dropping, another good sign.”

Being in the woods the day before a front arrives is a time-honored tactic that usually allows hunters to see a lot of deer. The animals apparently have an internal barometer that tells them to eat before the weather gets nasty.

Alford also took advantage of modern technology, using a digital trail camera to capture images of deer. When a camera at one of his leases shows a big deer, that’s where he concentrates his hunting effort. And that’s what drew him to his southern Wake food plot.

“I’d seen this buck’s picture taken by my digital camera picture,” Alford said. “It took his picture September 12.”

Other good buck signs included a “bunch of big scrapes and rubs” on trees, he said.

The rural area has plenty of other fields, some hardwoods and a nearby bedding area.

“I felt like (the big buck) was in there, and I wanted to be waiting on him that morning,” Alford said.

When he awoke in the predawn darkness and looked out the windows of his home, Alford said he was almost certain he would see deer at his southern Wake stand.

“It was wet, drizzling rain, cloudy and foggy, a perfect time for deer to be moving,” he said.

After dressing in camouflage clothing he washes in scent-cover to reduce human odor, Alford made the short drive to the farm, climbed the steps and entered the stand just before daylight.

It didn’t take long for deer to start moving out of the surrounding woods, appearing like ghosts in the field.

“Every time I go to this area I see eight or nine deer,” Alford said.

This morning was even better as more deer than normal starting appearing in the food plot.

First, does began moving slowly into the field, noses down, eating slowly, then jerking their heads up to see if danger was approaching.

“Seven does came into the field,” Alford said.

Then the bucks started appearing.

First, one, then two, then a couple more deer with headgear filtered between the trees and walked into the plot. However, none of these bucks had antlers that could tempt Alford to push the muzzle of his gun, a .50-caliber Thompson Center Omega in-line rifle with a Nikon scope set at 3X power, out the window of his stand.

The dozen whitetails fed quietly, moving from one spot in the field to another. Because it was early October, the mating hormones weren’t yet racing through the bucks’ veins. When they became bored with grazing, they playfully spared with one another, especially the younger males.

Then all the heads in the field went up at once, and the dozen whitetails looked at the woods beside Alford’s stand. A big deer stepped into the field, making the hunter’s heart skip a beat.

Alford knew he was looking at the wall-hanger whose image his trail camera had captured nearly a month earlier.

“I’d never seen him before in daylight,” he said, “but I knew this was the same buck.”

One identifying mark was a webbed left main beam extending from the G2 to the G4 tine, almost as thick as a man’s wrist.

Alford waited until the wide-racked deer stepped into the field, then the hunter eased the muzzle-loader out the window and centered the scope’s crosshairs just behind the buck’s right shoulder. Then he squeezed the trigger.

The buck reacted by bolting out of the field into the woods — but it didn’t go far. Alford said the saboted round hit the deer at “60 or 70 yards, right where I needed to hit him.”

“He ran out of the field into the woods, probably about 45 yards in all,” he said. “I heard him crash about 30 yards from me.”

Alford looked at his wristwatch. The time was 7 a.m.

When he walked to the deer and viewed its impressive headgear, Alford said he was exhilarated and satisfied.

“I was amazed and excited, but I knew this was the one I wanted to shoot,” he said. “I knew it was the one on the (trail) camera Sept. 12.”

The deer’s wide-beamed rack, measured by a Boone-and-Crockett scorer at the Dixie Deer Classic in Raleigh during March, outranked all other muzzle-loader non-typical bucks taken during 2005.

The right side main beam totaled 25 inches in length with a G1 of 8 inches, a G2 of 11 1/2 inches, a G3 of 10 1/2 inches and a G4 of 4 1/2 inches.

“It also had one sticker point an inch long off the right beam,” Alford said.

The four circumference measurements (around the main beam) on the right side totaled 4, 4, 4 and 3 1/2 inches, respectively.

The left main beam stretched the tape to 24 inches with a G1 of 5 1/2, G2 of 12, G3 of 6 and G4 of 4 1/2 inches, respectively.

The circumference (“H” measurements) on the left side totaled 4 1/2, 4 1/8, 5 5/8 and 3 1/2 inches, respectively.

The inside spread was 22 inches.

“It’s a main-frame 10-pointer with a sticker off the back of the left G2 and another short sticker; it’s a 13-point non-typical,” Alford said.

For anyone who has access to land where a food plot can be planted and wants to spend the time, Alford believes sweat, time, and the will to allow smaller deer to walk can produce better quality bucks.

“I think food plots are a lot better for deer’s body fat and add to their protein level,” he said. “And it’s just better for them than corn. None of the deer at that land shows any signs of malnutrition.

“Most people who use corn do so as an attractant, but corn doesn’t add anything to deer. A healthier deer will grow more inches of antler on its head by eating nutrients, especially the protein in food plots. My buck weighed 200 pounds, according to the taxidermist.

‘Corn won’t make antlers grow. ”

Alford said food plots won’t yield immediate results. In fact, improving deer quality may take years, so patience is a requirement.

“When I started (the Wake food plot) 10 years ago, I didn’t see much but little basket racks (on bucks),” he said. “But this year (2006) I’ve seen pictures (from trail cameras) that show two eight-pointers and a nine-pointer that’ll score in the 140s.

“I’m starting to see a big difference in the bucks that come to this food plot.”