DANIEL: This past weekend, a big cold front was moving across a portion of the whitetails’
range.
Daytime temperatures went from the 90s down to the low 70s and high 60s.
Deer were on their feet.
DANIEL: The entire GrowingDeer Team was out in the woods, hunting hard, trying to put
venison in the freezer.
DANIEL: Pro Staffer Bradley Lueckenhoff and Danny Naugle had been waiting for hunting
conditions like these for several weeks.
DANIEL: Danny and Bradley do a lot of hunting in southwest Missouri, and one of the properties
that they have permission to hunt is a block of timber surrounded by cattle pasture.
DANIEL: Because of the habitats, cattle pasture and hardwood timber, there's not a lot of
quality forage for deer to consume.
DANIEL: Bradley and Danny believed that if they cleared an area in the timber and planted
a little hidey hole food plot that food source would be a deer magnet.
The guys didn’t just throw a dart at the map and say, “We're planting a hidey hole
here.”
They strategically designed the area for a great hunting location.
DANIEL: It's open cattle pasture just to the north of this property line, but there are
several hardwood fingers that run and connect to larger chunks of timber to the north.
DANIEL: Based on their past hunting observations, Bradley and Danny knew the northern portion
of this property was an incredible travel corridor as deer traveled along the northern
fence line and then went up into those hardwood fingers going into another chunk of timber.
DANIEL: There's an old logging road that runs along the northern portion of the property.
And then it takes a small bend, forks, and goes down into the interior.
This logging road is a path of least resistance, and deer love to travel that old logging road
there on the north end of the property.
DANIEL: This interior logging road, well, it had been opened up a little.
So there was some sunlight hitting the ground, so they decided to convert it from an old
logging road into a small hidey hole food plot.
DANIEL: This not only created a great destination for deer as they traveled through the timber,
but it also created a great bottleneck.
DANNY: We've got this little open area right here where I come in backpack spray it, kill
it off, come back and burn ’em and spread seed.
This is just designed to get a deer to just come through this area, slow down a little
bit, and just give us a shot real quick.
That's all we're asking for.
It's not a supplemental food; it's not going to keep ‘em here for months.
Just to slow ‘em down.
DANIEL: The plan was to allow the vegetation to dry up a little bit and then come in and
burn.
They terminated the weeds, but a few days later the landowner came in and bush-hogged
the area, but that didn't stop ‘em.
On the 29th of August they came back and they burned what they could.
DANIEL: Burning this area got the duff off the ground real quick, and it also allowed
those nutrients to break down very quickly and be available for the seed that they planted.
Rain was forecast, so Bradley and Danny grabbed their over-the-shoulder seeders and began
broadcasting.
DANIEL: They got great seed-to-soil contact and within just a few days after the rain,
seed was germinating.
DANIEL: Right before Missouri's archery season opened, which is September 15th, Danny and
Bradley went in and hung a Summit stand on the southwest corner of their new hidey hole
food plot.
DANIEL: They wisely put the stands back in the timber several yards from the hidey hole
food plot.
This gave them the opportunity to hunt the old logging road that was still the travel
corridor and the hidey hole food plot.
DANIEL: It wasn't long before Bradley and Danny were getting lots of pictures of does
cutting through the area.
When the cold front hit, it brought a northeast wind, which was perfect for Bradley and Danny
to slip in and hunt their new hidey hole food plot.
DANIEL: They were able to approach from the southwest with the wind hitting ’em in the
face, not alerting deer to the north or the east.
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BRADLEY: (Whispering) Well, it is October 7th.
We have just climbed up into a Summit.
We're overlooking a food plot that Danny and I planted earlier this summer.
We came in - this property is 80 acres of timber.
We came in and tried to find a little bit of sunlight coming through.
Found this spot here.
BRADLEY: (Whispering) We came in with backpack sprayers, sprayed everything and killed it
and came back in and burned it, waited a couple of weeks for a good rain, broadcast our seed
and got a pretty nice food plot coming in.
BRADLEY: (Whispering) There's a lot of oaks that are surrounding this plot and a few that
actually run right through the middle of it.
Acorns are falling heavy and there's been a group of does in here every single night.
We've got a few doe tags, so we're hoping that maybe tonight we can tag a couple.
DANIEL: They had just got settled in the stand when a buck stepped out.
This buck was moving at a pretty good clip, but he was browsing on the green forage and
working his way towards Bradley and Danny.
DANIEL: Sure enough, when he left the plot, he was walking that logging road down through
the timber.
DANIEL: The guys hoped a hit list buck or a doe would follow the same pattern.
DANIEL: Acorns were raining down in the timber. And that can make hunting difficult in hardwoods.
However, Bradley and Danny knew that they had acorns, they were hunting a great travel
corridor and they had a tasty food plot out in front of ’em.
They knew they were in the game.
DANIEL: The sun was setting when Bradley spotted a doe walking up the road and headed for the
hidey hole.
UNKNOWN: (Whispering) Are you on her?
BRADLEY: (Whispering) She crashed.
BRADLEY: (Whispering) Well, we have about 30 minutes until shooting light was, was over.
Just happened to look up, and this doe came in, and she was about 20 yards when she first
came in but went out to about 30.
I think I might've hit her a little high, but it sounded like she crashed not too far
along.
The plan worked out perfect.
BRADLEY: (Whispering) We planted this food plot not necessarily to hold deer but to just
kind of funnel ‘em in here, hoping that maybe they'd go in, grab a bite to eat, and
give us enough time to be able to draw back and get a shot on one.
The plan worked out perfect.
BRADLEY: (Whispering) We're gonna sit a little bit, re-watch the footage, make sure
we've got a good shot before we start trailing.
BRADLEY: Well, we have climbed down, recovered the arrow.
As you can see, it's covered in blood.
That Blood Ring is looking good.
The shot was a little high, but we do think we got some lungs.
We're going to pick up the trail.
BRADLEY: We heard her crash not too far from here, so hopefully we can find her here before
too long.
BRADLEY: As you can see, the shot is a little high.
If you look on the backside though it's a little lower; and it's actually through that
front shoulder.
BRADLEY: The Deadmeat definitely did its job.
She only ran 50 or 60 yards probably.
Not the biggest doe but definitely a mature one.
That food plot worked perfect.
Like I said earlier, that plot was not made to hold deer but rather funnel them through
that area, hopefully slow them down, allow us a shot.
DANIEL: I wish to take a moment to review the shot.
The doe was only standing 24 yards away, and, in real-time, it looked like Bradley had aimed
and hit high.
DANIEL: However, if we slow the footage down frame by frame, we once again see that this
doe had reacted to the shot and the arrow hit her high.
DANIEL: Bradley's Bloodsport is flying about 270 feet per second and at 24 yards this doe
reacts and drops several inches.
This is a great example of what many hunters see in real-time.
DANIEL: As the deer runs off, they realize that the shot was high or a little left or
right.
But they don't realize that the deer actually reacted to the shot.
DANIEL: Bradley and Danny did an excellent job executing a plan.
They created a hidey hole food plot giving the property a limiting resource, created
an incredible bottleneck and brought home venison for the freezer.
DANIEL: If you enjoy the hunting tips and strategies we share on GrowingDeer,
I encourage you to check out our Deer Hunting playlist,
subscribe to our channel and give us a thumbs up.
DANIEL: Putting together an effective hunting plan, well, it takes time and some strategy.
The same is true for our lives.
I hope you slow down this week and enjoy Creation.
But more importantly I hope you slow down, listen to what the Creator is saying to you,
and the plan He has for your life.
DANIEL: Thanks for watching GrowingDeer.