Did you do anything that paid off this year? What are you going to do differently before next year? As far as me: Right-I left a soft edge on a plot and killed a buck standing in it. He may have came in anyway, but I'm counting it as a good move. Before next year-more property management and try to find a new piece of property or club.

Best thing I did was being patient and not pressuring my property any until the rut. I hunted three afternoons at the start of bow season and did not hunt again until Jan 20.

Moving forward. I need to work on getting the PH correct on my patches, finish trimming interior trails, move stands to better wind locations, and establish mineral sites.

Booner, that's essentially what I did on a small piece I have. Kept them fed and rarely hunted it. Had good daylight deer movement right up until the end and missed an opportunity on a good one one morning.

All of the other items you listed are on my agenda before next year.

I found a classic pinch point in a hardwood bottom area, where 2 small drainages come down into the main creek. On the other side of the creek is a 20 year old 15 year old pine plantation that's thick as can be and there are creek crossing from the plantation into the hardwoods in two locations that I set up to see both. I found the area late, but it was very productive with deer sightings in the late season, I want do anything to it, no feeder or anything, just pick the right time to hunt it in the late season and definitely during the rut, was able to harvest a half rack buck on 2/09, would have been a decent 8 pt if he wasn't broken up.....

I didn’t do anything different but I killed my best buck and my 3rd best buck of my career on my family land that I’ve only killed 3 bucks on in 25 years. Some times it just be like that

I've had my land for 5 years now. I only knew the "Hunting Club Way" as my farmer friend told me = 1. Till 2. Fertilize 3. Throw seed 4. Pray for rain.
He taught me how to do maintenance on my implements, properly use them, how to use my tractor and service it and get my plots looking healthy.

1. Soil test on 3 plots and used it as a gauge for the rest of them.
2. Bottom plowed
3. Limed / pellet : Due to cost of pellet lime I did what I could afford and will do the others this coming year. (Cant get a truck back to my plots)
4. Tilled
5. Fertilizer
6. Seed
7. Used a cultipacker instead of dragging a heavy fence type material

My plots looked VERY healthy. Cameras showed more deer than ever. Was a lot more work but paid off this year.
Between me, my friend and the guests we invited, we killed 5 good 8 points and every guest killed a deer their first day.

Our deer usually fall off the face of the planet by January 5th in Winston county. If anyone kept up with the weather the entire month of December was hot and rainy. That’s when our rut is. Terrible season for me but the lease as a whole still had 3 decent bucks taken off of it

I had several good deer in the daytime, but I didn’t have the time away from work this year to hunt often enough. It was a very good I’d say little above average year for us.

Saw 14 different bucks in the last 3 days. Come on October 15th.

I sat in a wood box alot and a tree a few times. I saw alot of deer and killed a couple of deer. Pretty standard stuff.

What I did that paid off was a continuation of what I have been doing for the past 4 years. Hunting pressure, trigger control and feed

Slow year for me. Observed less bucks in daylight hours. Less deer seen overall. Alot more pressure than usual the last two seasons has made a big difference. Gonna be lookin for some new areas before next season.

This will probably sound stupid - but I cut My camera off around late Oct in Wilcox county field and left it off - killed my most mature deer on any of my properties out of that field - watched him long time before kill in field - he always hated the camera.

Lov the idea of leaving a shoulder or high grass - been wanting to do that and kind of did at back of my Camden field

Thinking about planting AL magnet next year cause it provides food in stages and goes thru summer and some clover

Just put out minerals today and traps

Plan to add extra field for N wind in Clarke and not hunt it till Jan and not feed that field - just stay out of that area

I build a trough feeder today to put ony lease ground. Should hold about 300 lbs hope to get it set Monday and fill my other one and put mineral out and go a lil burning to do at our home place

While I had the most success I've had in a a couple of years, I killed one great buck (public) and one solid 3 yo buck, I saw very little horn action this year. The property I've managed now for a decade I've always had a policy of not shooting does. Well this year I think that policy came to a head because while I saw dozens of deer, the only one I saw with horns on its head I ended up shooting. Probably sat or stalk hunted ten or so other times and just does. Had a friend hunt with me a couple of times, just does. Freaking does everywhere. I also did not feed any corn this year hoping keeping my scent out of the food plots would help me see more bucks and that didn't seem to help. I see these posts about people saying "young buck in the field when I got in" or "young seven point just passed through" and I am getting jealous. In years past I have passed on dozens of younger bucks so it's not like my trigger finger is the issue.

I know it's easy to blame neighbors in this situation, and I am trying not to go that route, but I simply can't figure out why I didn't see any bucks while hunting, and why I didn't get any on my camera that I let sit all year in the same location. That same camera over the past couple of years would at least pick up a decent buck or two passing through, this year the best buck I have on it is a 2 year old forky, and this is a camera that stays out for months at a time watching a landing. So not sure what my strategy is going forward, need to do a little post season survey action first.

^^^^^
A lot of people on here hav said stay out of feeding all the time. Here is what I hav seen and do see and I probably fed corn more than most anybody in this site cause I hunted Arky and FL for years and those states fed. But - everybody’s land is different

I feed 1-2 times a week and it has never hurt me. This year - I finally had my shooters out in daylight in late January and Feb at my buck field - that seems to happen every year and that the best deer I got on camera. At my big field - had some of my best shooters out in daylight several times. And in Wilcox county at my other spot I sometimes feed 3 times a week around lunch time. I killed a deer there this year that 7-8 - never thought I would see him in daylight

One key though - I always do it in middle of the day and the deer on me hav never laid up close to my plots

If I had deer laying up around my plots I might change my strategy

Hunting pressure is the key and I don’t really scout in deer season much - I stay out

Sounds like u did pretty good though Dirkdaddy- just did not see as much horn

I enjoyed hunting some new places this season. Had a blast with friends and family and killed some very nice deer. One thing I don’t recall ever doing until this year was not stepping foot in the woods in AL once from January 9th until it closed. That’s the longest stretch I’ve ever had without hunting since I started.

Probably had the slowest year i can remember in turns of buck sightings (still learning our new property). The group was able to kill a couple nice bucks off the new piece and a few does. At our farm i was able to connect on a mature buck, the heaviest deer i have personally ever shot. Got a good looking group of probably 5 or 6 different 2-3 year old bucks up there. Cant wait to see what the feed does to them. Overall slow year but we had a really good time in January shooting ducks with family and friends.. Oh and all of our bucks were killed from Jan 3rd til end of season.

I fished all season.

My son and I killed 5 of the 6 Bucks we targeted this year. #6 is alive and well. Had a pic last night. That makes 5 seasons in a row that we have killed 4+ of our shooters. Based on cameras and what we've seen from the stands. Next year should be great as well. We are blessed with great neighbors as well. We moved to our farm 6 yrs ago this coming June. We have killed 44 deer. 21 of which were targeted bucks. Some were culls. 27 out of the same tree.