600 grain arrow rolls a doe over from 9 yards away on the ground

StrategicHabitat.com - Habitat Plans and Hunting Setups
Randy VanderVeen
616-560-7488
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For landowners who primarily hunt their own property and work to improve their deer habitat for attracting and holding older bucks, I usually suggest creating an area on their property where they can slip in and slip out for the opportunity to hunt does without boogering up their whole property.
That’s what I did a while back on a property near home I’ve hunted for several years. It’s very thick with some swamp, cattails, and a lot of autumn olives. It’s almost all bedding.
This past Spring I expanded a small micro food plot from .08 acres to a whopping .15 acres.
The soil isn’t very good yet and has a good amount of clay so after mowing and killing of the vegetation in the Summer, it had to be broken up with a rototiller since you can’t get an ATV back there. I cut an access trail about 50 yards long thru tall cattails to an old overgrown crab apple tree on the east side that was covered in grape vines. I carved out 3 port holes with a hand pruner. The 2 outside holes are visual holes for me to see them coming so I can draw my bow before they get to the middle hole.
I actually place my stool behind the trunk of the tree for more concealment because these deer are real close when they’re in the plot. There are a few big poplar trees I could sit in, but there is no way you could ever get in and get out without blowing out every deer every time.
Being on the edge of the cattails on the downwind side of the plot almost guarantees I won’t have deer down wind of me with our predominantly SW winds.
After a heavy dose of Brad Harper’s liquid lime and fertilizer, in late August I broadcast a heavy dose of cereal rye grain, oats, crimson clover and a little tillage radish just as it started to rain.
Got real good growth but since it’s right on the edge of a huge bedding area, the deer were keeping it browsed down pretty well.
In October one day I only had a couple hours to hunt so I decided to sit that spot to shoot a doe. You would think my cameras would pick up a mature buck once in a while, but in 2 yrs I’ve never seen anything over 2.5 years old. That’s Kent Co MI for ya.
I’ve passed a few 2.5 yr old bucks just begging to get shot, but this spot is for shooting does.
So with only an hour and a half of daylight left, I made my way thru the cattails to the crab apple tree. Just for grins, I decided to place a Browning Dark Ops in 2 min video mode on the far side of the plot at the base of an autumn olive to hopefully capture an arrow passing thru.
Within an hour a lone doe came in from the far side. She stopped to sniff my camera which I sprayed with scent killer. After feeding in my direction for a few minutes, she ended up right in front of my shooting port hole 9 yards away and looked at me standing there at full draw with my leafy ASAT camo jacket and hood.
Whack.
Ever since I went to shooting heavy arrows and single bevel broadheads, I always get a complete passthrough even if I hit the shoulder. But on this doe, the 200 gr broadhead deflected off the shoulder and went up into the spine which literally pushed and rolled her over.
Even with an arrow weight of 600 grains and a 20% FOC, this is the first time I didn’t get a complete pass through. It took a 2nd arrow to finish the job.
With a few days left in October and into early November, it’s time to move off the food plots and get into the cover near pinch points and funnels to catch mature bucks cruising midday for receptive does.
Good hunting out there and we’ll see you on the next video.

[@decaturridgebees8761]

I switched to high foc last year with 200 g single bevel. Very devastating setup. Nice hunt!

[@BoysInTheWoodsofPA]

I build out of the way plots like that for hunting doe with my kids but your ground blind is awesome. Great video!

[@George-ro6bw]

I really enjoyed watching this cool video. Neat ground blind. That’s a great blend for a new plot. A lot of radishes are planted around here both in plots and for ag cover crops. Maybe the big bucks shuffled down to Hillsdale county.

[@BackyardBroadheads]

Nice work work work

[@Mike-nt1to]

Thanks for sharing

[@rickyvandawater5152]

great shot and footage 👍

[@JayN4GO]

Nice job

[@stevedenoyer5956]

This in the industrial park area?

[@SeeMoreBucks]

A different one from back in the day

[@jake22-1]

Steve

[@headwatersfarm175]

Are there mature bucks around? Are they just staying away from your kill plot?

[@justinkelley4984]

How much draw weight are you pulling? And length

[@SeeMoreBucks]

55 lbs 29.5"

[@austinphillips9966]

Deflection 🤔🤔 ranch fairy said that’s impossible