hillHuntR
5 year old buck +
Hello all,
Long time reader of Habitat Talk and the QDMA forum, but first post ever. I have been reading all I can, and before I make any major moves on my new land I wanted to run it by folks here. I bought 60 acres in southern Indiana 9 months ago, and am glad for the change after 23 years of mostly hunting public land. The land is primarily but not exclusively for deer hunting...I doubt many educated hunters would have purchased this parcel, but I loved its character and would still be happy if I never took a deer off of the place. Feel free to criticize and please offer any advice you can.
We did little this year on the land other than plant 1.5 acres of foodplots....mainly clover,wheat, oats, and some brassicas. I did plant 5 Dunstan chestnuts on a minor slope we did not intend to plant in the open valley also. Other than that we just hunted to try and learn about the area before picking up a chainsaw based on advice I read several times (this was hard to do for me). For the first time in my life I am excited deer season is over and am ready to get to work.
Our only access is at the NW corner of the property, from which we can head south on an ancient roadbed that roughly parallels the west boundary or by following the north fence line to the east. At first the prevailing wind issue bothered me (and it still does a little) but the winds there change so frequently (once you leave the high ridge) that I am not sure how much it really hurts us. On most of my hunts I noted major wind directional swings mornings and evenings and very often.
Our only real option for foodplots is our valley and I think at best we can squeeze 2 acres out of that. Hunting pressure surrounding me seems high. The surrounding area is mainly forested with scattered pastures...no row cropping for at least several miles.
Despite everything I was amazed at our hunting season sightings and trail camera success. I saw deer on 8 out of about 10 sits, I believe, and would've never have dreamed that possible in September. The foodplots and pressure undoubtedly worked in our favor. All of our foodplots were hammered flat....especially our modified LC mix plot (we couldn't get all the seed together in time this year). Despite this better than expected year, our place is not deer friendly...we have way too little cover and I want advice on how others would shape these cuts...just long narrow cuts with trails through or larger blocks or both.
Here is an aerial photo showing the boundary in orange, the named food plots, and some general descriptions of the cover...hope it works as I have never posted a photo online before
Long time reader of Habitat Talk and the QDMA forum, but first post ever. I have been reading all I can, and before I make any major moves on my new land I wanted to run it by folks here. I bought 60 acres in southern Indiana 9 months ago, and am glad for the change after 23 years of mostly hunting public land. The land is primarily but not exclusively for deer hunting...I doubt many educated hunters would have purchased this parcel, but I loved its character and would still be happy if I never took a deer off of the place. Feel free to criticize and please offer any advice you can.
We did little this year on the land other than plant 1.5 acres of foodplots....mainly clover,wheat, oats, and some brassicas. I did plant 5 Dunstan chestnuts on a minor slope we did not intend to plant in the open valley also. Other than that we just hunted to try and learn about the area before picking up a chainsaw based on advice I read several times (this was hard to do for me). For the first time in my life I am excited deer season is over and am ready to get to work.
Our only access is at the NW corner of the property, from which we can head south on an ancient roadbed that roughly parallels the west boundary or by following the north fence line to the east. At first the prevailing wind issue bothered me (and it still does a little) but the winds there change so frequently (once you leave the high ridge) that I am not sure how much it really hurts us. On most of my hunts I noted major wind directional swings mornings and evenings and very often.
Our only real option for foodplots is our valley and I think at best we can squeeze 2 acres out of that. Hunting pressure surrounding me seems high. The surrounding area is mainly forested with scattered pastures...no row cropping for at least several miles.
Despite everything I was amazed at our hunting season sightings and trail camera success. I saw deer on 8 out of about 10 sits, I believe, and would've never have dreamed that possible in September. The foodplots and pressure undoubtedly worked in our favor. All of our foodplots were hammered flat....especially our modified LC mix plot (we couldn't get all the seed together in time this year). Despite this better than expected year, our place is not deer friendly...we have way too little cover and I want advice on how others would shape these cuts...just long narrow cuts with trails through or larger blocks or both.
Here is an aerial photo showing the boundary in orange, the named food plots, and some general descriptions of the cover...hope it works as I have never posted a photo online before