October 28, 2009

This is the first year that I tried sweet spot for my food plots and its been unreal, actual case this weekend my son killed a 140" deer chasing a doe in the rut but crossed a plot and stopped to grab a snack! Now I'm interested in sowing in my pasture as well.

David Jordan (son Evan)
Middle Tennessee

October 24, 2009

I just inspected the 3/4 acre plot in the back part of the property that we planted in the Southern Sweet Spot mixture this year. It looks like a page out of a food plot magazine. It started slow, I am assuming due to the incredible amount of rain and lack of sunshine we had in September, but has come on STRONG the past two weeks. There are quite a number of deer tracks on the road leading to the plot. It was just too wet to get out in it, but I could see sign of deer usage along the edge--especially on the radishes. Deer usage of them is fairly obvious. I put 133 lb/ac of 19-19-19 on it last weekend and that has really intensified the "green". So far it is very impressive.

Tommy Hunter
Madison County, GA

October 24, 2009

"Ryegrass is something I have always been vehemently against but this High Sugar Grass Perennial ryegrass mix has been very different.  Based on what I have seen so far I would not put them in the same category.  I moved my camera a little to get better pics of deer feeding on the Sweet Spot mix.  It's a fairly small test plot in a tree planting sandwiched between switchgrass and shrubs, and right next to all kinds of other food sources.  I was surprised to get dozens of pics of deer standing there feeding, including a buck who stood there eating for 15 minutes!  It takes a lot to impress me, but so far I'm kinda liking this mix."

Paul Knox, IowaWhitetail.com Moderator, QDMA Contributor, Independent Food Plot Evaluator

aka Dbltree, aka Lick Creek

Birmingham, IA

My family and I hunt in the big woods of northern Michigan, we have always had trouble finding a seed mix that would grow in sandy soil and tolerate the shade in a wooded environment.  This spring we planted Sweet Spot in several of our hunting plots and boy, did it grow!  The picture is a 1/4 mile long food plot we planted on an old road that winds through our property.  This picture was taken 4 weeks after planting and it looks even better now.  The trail cam we set up over this plot showed deer and bear using the plot on a regular basis, the plot is so lush now you can see the path the deer take while feeding.  I can't wait until November!

Arthur L - MI

September 26, 2009

Just went to a client's property this morning outside Rome, GA who had some incredible looking Sweet Spot plots after just 3 weeks. I didn't expect it to look so good after only 3 weeks. Interestingly the deer are already eating on the radishes in the mix. Those radishes really appear to be a great tasting forage for the deer. They are of course hammering the High Sugar Grasses in the mix. This is the best small plot mix that I've come across.

Don Willis - DBWOutdoors LLC

"I've had some good growth this spring with the Sweet Spot I planted last fall, despite some soil deficiencies. I'm enjoying the diversity of wildlife using the plot as you can see in the pics from the trailcam." - Dan K, Southern Oregon

RIO GRAND TURKEYS - BLACK TAIL DEER - ROOSEVELT ELK

 May 12, 2009

This is the second year that I have planted Sweet Spot food plots. Last year I planted 1.5 acres in the fall and I now have a nice stand of clover, turnips and rye this spring. I planted additional plots this spring for a total of 2.5 acres. The plot in the pictures was planted on March 23 and the turkeys and deer are already using them. I am looking forward to bow season already!!

Alan S Williamson
Bedford County, Virginia

 April 15, 2009

While some folks were out protesting their taxes, Pro Staffer Brent Parrish was droppin' the hammer on this Southeast Iowa Long Beard.  "The turkeys were in the Sweet Spot last Fall during deer season and they were still there this Spring." says Parrish.  "The first group of turkeys I watched coming in off the roost ran off when a group of does feeding in the Sweet Spot Plot busted me in my blind.  About an hour later this 2 year old bird wasn't as lucky."

He weighed in at 27.2 lbs and had a 10 1/8" beard and 7/8 spurs. 

It was the last day of muzzle loader season and my last chance to shoot a buck this year. We picked up an inch of fresh snow overnight and there was a brisk wind out of the Northwest. I had been watching a bachelor group of 6 bucks who had been bedding in a thick finger of timber next to a field of picked corn and my Sweet Spot food plot. The deer had been hammering this plot all fall but had really hit the turnips hard in recent weeks. I knew the wind was going to make this challenging and had to make a big circle around their bedding area to get down wind of them. I slipped into place and waited for them to make a move. The long hike paid off as the crosshairs on my 50 cal. Muzzle Loader found this nice Southern Iowa Whitetail.

Danny Beasley
Sweet Spot Pro Staff

November 15, 2008 by Pro Staff Hunter Brent Parrish

After filling my Iowa resident archery buck tag I decide to travel to Illinois to fill my Illinois archery buck tag. The deer in Illinois were not as co-operative as the Iowa deer and I don't have any Sweet Spot plots planted there yet so I was presented with very few shot opportunities and did not spot a single mature buck. Frustration set in and I decided to go back to Iowa and my Sweet Spot plots to fill some doe tags.

After my second hunt in Iowa I decided I was either crazy or just plain stupid. In only 7 hours on stand I had seen 14 bucks, 3 of them were mature shooters and had passed within 30 yards of my stand. I was seeing 2 bucks to every one doe, the rut was in full swing, and I was having to pass up mature bucks. In Iowa you can only get one landowner buck tag, and it can be for any season. In the years past I would purchase the shotgun landowner buck tag because it was the only way you could hunt both shotgun seasons and have a buck tag in your possession. This year I couldn't take it any longer so I broke down and purchased a landowner archery buck tag.

I couldn't wait to get into my stand to have a crack at one of the bucks I had been teased by just days before. The winds had calmed, the air was crisp and cool, and I just had that feeling it was going to be a good hunt. Since I had been seeing so many bucks during my doe hunts I decided to leave the rattling antlers in the truck. I quietly sat in my stand motionless hoping to have the same luck I had been having during my doe hunt. Not 10 minutes into my hunt I spotted movement in the field and could tell I had a mature buck just 80 yards away. He crossed the fence onto my neighbor's property and my heart sank.

Knowing the deer movement in the area, I told myself to stay calm and focused. If he didn't want to cross a steep creek bank with deep water, the path he was taking would eventually bring him past me again. Not even 5 minutes had gone by when I spotted movement in front of me and could tell it was the buck I had earlier see walk out of sight. He wasn't just out for a Sunday stroll, he had his nose to the ground and was wasting no time moving through the timber looking for a hot doe. The trail he took led him to a scrape 10 yards to the left of my stand. As he cruised up to the scrape he immediately smelled the scrape, stuck his head up to sniff the overhanging licking branch and I let an arrow fly. The very large bodied mature whitetail busted through some of the thickest brush before coming to a stop approximately 90 yards up the hill behind me. He went down within sight and is a true trophy at measuring 162" and aged at 5.5 years old.

- Brent Parrish