Dec. 2, during New York’s gun-deer season: At 3 p.m., I climbed into one of the most productive stands on my family’s farm. We call the stand’s location the “mother of all funnels” because it’s situated in a 125-yard-wide spruce plantation that connects two big ravines. On either side of the 400-yard-long stretch of spruce trees were two Whitetail Oats Plus food plots, which helped to make the setup an incredible travel corridor for deer. We call the stand’s location the “mother of all funnels” because it’s situated in a 125-yard-wide spruce plantation that connects two big ravines. On either side of the 400-yard long stretch of spruce trees were two Whitetail Oats Plus food plots, which helped to make the setup an incredible travel corridor for deer.
Within minutes after I settled into the stand, a doe, her twin fawns and a 2½-year-old 8-pointer began feeding in one of the plots 125 yards away. During the next hour, six more does and fawns joined them, and by 4:15 p.m., 10 deer were gorging themselves on the tender oat shoots. With a half-hour of shooting light left, I felt good about my chances of seeing more deer.
As I glassed a doe in
