Trees and Bushes Bowhunters Can Plant to Increase
Their Success
Trees and Bushes for Bowhunters
 To
make accurate shots, many bowhunters must position themselves
within 30 yards of the bucks they’re targeting.
Too, hunters need concentrated food sources to hunt
on rather than large fields because fruit and nut trees
and shrubs close to tree stand sites provide much-more-effective
bowhunting areas than large green fields do. Bowhunters
of yesteryear knew this secret of getting deer in close
and keeping them there until they got off shots with
their bows. I learned this secret more than 30-years
ago from a 78-year-old man. His weather-worn face beamed
with pride as he held up a red fox he’d taken
with a bow and arrow he’d handcrafted.
“Our hunting club has a rule that the only weapons
you can use for hunting are the ones you’ve made
yourself,” the elderly hunter told me. “When
our members get together for a weekend at our hunting
club, the only food we eat is what we can catch or kill.
Our club is trying to preserve the old way of the sport
of hunting.”
As I questioned him further, he began telling me about
the state of hunting prior to the Great Depression of
the 1930s. “In the old days before the Great  Depression,
the woods were full of fruits and nuts. You could pick
apples and pears off the trees, pick up pecans and walnuts
from the ground and enjoy a feast as you hunted. One
of the rules of our hunting club always was and still
is that every man who hunts on our lease must plant
at least three fruit or nut trees every year for the
wildlife on our club’s lands. We’ve always
made sure the game on our lease had plenty to eat. These
trees also provide productive places where we can bag
deer and turkeys with our bows. However, during the
Depression, city folks came into the forests to take
the fruits and nuts from the trees we’d planted
there. They weren’t being mean- they just were
hungry. The  forest
had food, and they didn’t. But the city folks
left gates open, broke down fences and littered the
land. Many landowners went into the forests and cut
down the nut and fruit trees to protect their properties
and to guard against trespassers. Today, our hunting
lease has returned to the old ways. We once again require
our members to plant the fruit and nut trees like we
did years ago. Today, there’s plenty of food for
the game on our hunting property and numbers of places
where we can hunt the game.”
The wisdom of the old way still works today to provide
food for deer, turkey, and other wildlife as well as
great bowhunting sites. If you’re hunting on your
land or leased land that doesn’t practice this
philosophy, then consider the wisdom of planting fruit
and nut trees every year-a practice good for wildlife
years ago and good for wildlife today.
Check out this information:
http://www.nighthawkpublications.com/freetips/charts/deerfeed.htm
http://www.nighthawkpublications.com/freetips/charts/zonemap.htm
Tomorrow: The Advantage of
Planting Permanent Food Plots
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