Hunt or habitat?

[Telemark]

Hunting.

I like habitat work, but i do it with hunting as the main goal. I wouldn't go out and intentionally improve the woods for raccoons and skunks. I want deer, bear, and birds, so that's what I will try to attract.

I always try to eat as much wild food as reasonably possible. If I'm not hunting, I'm fishing. If I'm not fishing, I'm picking mushrooms, or ramps, or whatever.

Now, would I give up hunting, fishing, and foraging in order to use all that time on habitat work if someone else could provide me a steady stream of fresh wild food? Probably.

 

[pinetag14]

Like many of you, I've gone through a transition where it used to be all about the hunting but now I really enjoy the habitat work. This is only my second year owning land but I have been looking at properties and thinking about habitat work for the last few years and the more I do it/think about it the more important it becomes. I would say I'm at 50% hunting/50% habitat but with each habitat project I take on, the pendulum inches ever closer to habitat taking priority.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have deer hunted since I was a young lad, approximately 40 years or so. I just started habitating about 5 years ago, I still do habitat work to improve deer hunting, but it is more for others to benefit, then myself. I could go years without filling a tag, but I want others to leave with satisfaction. I started off habitating because I would hunt, and not see much for deer, yet the neighbors are always shooting, and talking about all the deer they see. I know I am doing something right, when the neighbors stop over and look at my deer hanging, and tell me they havent seen anything. Yet I would see many deer a day. That was my gratifying moment that showed me my work was paying off. Prior to any habitat work, my land was just a travel corridor from big woods, to the only ag field. Now it seems they are hanging out on my land more, and not venturing onto the other neighbors as much.

If I had to choose, it would still be hunting, beause I like venison, and the thrill of the hunt and tranquility of quitness sitting in my deer stand, as apposed to hard labor, sweat, and sometimes more money then I can afford to spend on trees and dirt for habitat improvement, but as others have said, luckily I dont have to choose!

 

[j-bird]

Ha...that's easy....Habitat....because HUNTING is a form of habitat management!

 

[ToddG]

Habitat so my kids can have a great place to hunt like I wished for when I was young.

 

[pinetag14]

Ha...that's easy....Habitat....because HUNTING is a form of habitat management!

Good answer!

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[jsasker007]

Hunting for me----habitat is something I like to do and helps to improve my hunting opportunities. If I didn't do habitat work I would probably be divorced by now---she starts in and I go out.

 

[roymunson]

I'd still say hunting. But I'll admit that I'm completely enamored with the THOUGHT of a big buck using the terrain in a way I envisioned, more than lucking into a big buck by accident.

 

[NEBUCKS]

When I bought my land I was all about hunting. It's been 5 years now and I don't shoot anything on my own place. I love giving every critter a place to live!

 

[blueKYstream]

For me, I would say hunting. Seeing creatures use the habitat improvements I made during a hunt or while scouting is the satisfaction I get from habitat work.

 

[Big Snow Man]

Habitat for me. I have more invested in that than hunting equipment. My problem is when I’m out hunting I keep thinking how I could improve this area instead of just sitting here.

 

[g squared 23]

If I had to choose, it of course would be hunting. I like the habitat work, it’s very enjoyable and since I have a tiny farm, I spend far more time managing it than hunting; but the purpose is always to improve the property...for hunting.

Now I have picked up a separate love of planting apple trees, even when they’re not for the deer. I plan to have a small orchard separate from the hunting ground some day. But that’s not habitat management, that’s just growing stuff to eat. Basically gardening. So if I had to own a property where I would just plant stuff for deer and bunnies that I never intended to hunt, or plant an orchard on open ground for ME and my kids to enjoy, I’m picking the latter all day. I don’t hate AO and JBH enough to go through the trouble of killing it without thinking it might increase my odds to kill bambi as well.

 

[indiana boy]

At this point on the property I own it is all about habitat and improving it for my wife and kids to be able to have good hunts. It’s only 13 acres so hunting is done minimally anyway. The farms I spend my time on is mostly about growing plots and killing good bucks.

 

[willy]

Habitat, I get more satisfaction out of others taking a deer or turkey from the habitat manipulation and continuous upgrading in animal quality as the years go by. I love to see stuff grow.

 

[TreeDaddy]

^^^^^^^^^this

bill