Annual Plot Screening: Security Cover & Exit Strategy


Have you had a great looking plot go completely nocturnal by mid season? On many occasions, food plotters focus solely on providing a great food source but lack proper access to their stand locations. Other factors include security from roads, breaking up food plots to create continuous buck movement, and less stress on does when feeding in the plot. Here are a few examples of ways you can use screens on your property to increase security and deer movement.

Entry/Exit Strategy

Tree stand entry and exit strategy is a huge part of slipping into your stand undetected from whitetails in your food plots. It only takes a handful of mistakes for a mature whitetail to figure out your food source is more like a mouse trap. Our Defender Screen was created for this exact purpose! Growing 10-14' in height, you can quietly access your stand without being detected. We also suggest the Defender to use around box blinds to provide easy access and to help create extra cover. 

Separating Plots

Have you witnessed a mature whitetail stand at the edge of the woods and scan the entire plot, only to walk back in? Many hunters miss opportunities at mature bucks because of this reason. If you think about a 10+ acre field that a buck scan the entire field before he enters, he has no reason to enter that field if there isn't something out there he wants. That's why we split up our plots using Upland & Antler Blend or Pods & Blooms. Growning 6-8' in height, these products providing great screening cover to allow continuous deer movement through plots and less stress for doe family groups.

Why Annual Screens

Almost all of the screens you see on our properties are annual screens, meaning they are planted every year. Why annual over perennial? It gives us the ability to change a food plot design or change stand locations. A perennial screen has its place along roadways or blocking structures, but in most cases we are constantly moving stand locations/blinds as deer tend to get used to our tendencies over time. Perennial screens are often expensive, so it would be very costly to terminate a screen after just a few seasons.

If you've never tried a food plot screen, I'd suggest implementing on this season and see how it changes the deer activity on your parcel!