THE ISPERSAL EFFECT

It’s opening morning of bow season, and your anticipation grows with the beams of sunlight glowing on the horizon. As the view from your treestand changes from the black of night to the familiar grayness of dawn, the shape of a deer silently appears on the edge of your food plot. At first you strain to make out the shape, hoping it’s the buck you’ve been after for the past two years. He’s a really good buck, definitely mature, and your trail cameras have been letting you know that he’s been hitting this food plot hard over the past few weeks.

As the sun slowly rises you realize that it’s a spike, and your nerves relax as you watch the young buck feed out to the middle of the plot. A few minutes later, a doe appears just beyond where the spike emerged at the edge of the plot and starts feeding in your direction. With a doe tag in your pocket and a freezer that’s dangerously low on venison, you turn and reach for your bow, hanging on the tree next to you.

As you turn back to get ready for the shot, two fawns bound carelessly out from the tree line into the food plot. As one plays in the plot, the other starts to nurse, and you decide to pass on the doe, sacrificing the potential venison for the future of your herd. You hang your bow back up and watch the deer mill around. As the morning wears on, you watch a few young bucks enter and exit the plot, some of which you’ve never seen before, even