PatinPA
5 year old buck +
I've been wanting to do one of these since I joined. I bought my property in 2017. It is just shy of 12 acres in Juniata County, PA, about 40 minutes north of Harrisburg. It was a hunting camp owned by a family in southern PA that had owned/part owned it since the 70's. They left the camp as it was and it came with a sweet jeep that I eventually want to try and get to run again. I believe they did more drinking than hunting as the owner's son said his father never killed a buck in all the time they owned it and I've found quite a few beer cans littered throughout the woods and camp. We had plans to build a house there but it just wasn't to be at this point in time.
The property starts on top of a ridge and slopes north into a small bottom. There is a creek located to the north west. It was primarily hemlock (about 75%) and the other 25% white oak, chestnut oak, poplar, beech, and black birch. I had a forester friend look over everything after I bought it and he explained to me the wooly adelgid and explained that is why none of the hemlocks have branches on the bottom 30 feet. He had a connection with a local paper mill and set myself and my neighbor to the west to remove the hemlock before they all died and became a tangled mess. My only regret to this was they used one of those machines that strips the branches right at the tree. It left piles of branches that covered the ground. There are still a lot of areas the deer avoid because of this. I thought about prescribed fire but I don't want to tackle it with no experience and I don't know anyone that has experience with it.
Luckily it's nestled up against about 100 acres to the north/east and 100 acres to the south that are owned by a doctor and his wife that don't hunt or allow hunting. My neighbor to the west doesn't hunt but allows a guy and his daughter to hunt and allows my dad to slide over onto his property in rifle season so we can spread out. My dad killed the biggest buck he's ever gotten there in 2018. There is a farm to the northwest. I've never met them but have pictures of them trespassing. They are what I call lazy hunters. Drive a car to the field edge and sit in it overlooking the field. They own the bottom and up the other side from me and from what I have seen that is probably the best stand location in the area. In 4 years I've seen a guy sit there for about a total of 30 minutes in rifle season one year. The best part is it was while there was a big buck laying with a doe on their property that I could see but he couldn't. I later missed that buck when he finally got up and came up on my property but I'd rather not talk about that part.
For a small property and especially in the area I'm in, I get a lot of large buck on camera and have seen in person. The largest buck seem to mostly be pass throughs at night but usually one of the nicer ones stick around. As far as I know I've never been able to hold the same buck from year to year. I'm hoping with my improvements that will someday be a possibility. In the past few years, I've gotten quite a few different buck every year. I'd say 10-15 different buck every year. I thought that's pretty good for a small area like mine. Now most are small but usually anywhere from 3-5 of what I would consider shooters every year. A shooter for me is 100". I know I can't be too picky. But in 4 year I killed/opportunity to kill one that big every year. Unfortunately I can't shoot straight with a rifle and I have yet to get a shooter in bow range.
Light green is existing food plot. Darker green is future food plot. Orange oval at the camp is a future plot. Orange squares are stand locations stand locations. Red lined areas are the non hunting neighbored owned properties.
Red is known/suspected bedding. yellow circles are places I've seen big bucks bed.
My biggest problem is access. It's a really tough place to hunt. The deer bed everywhere and there are crops on all four sides of me. My only access is really from the south. I could access through my neighbors to the west but then I run the risk of kicking out the deer there that may come my direction. The best wind direction is out of the north but it seems when the wind is out of the north the deer get up and head north. My small plot is just not enough to attract them into coming my way. So I try to hunt the wind the best I can but sometimes I just have to dive in. I try to limit hunting to 2 days a week or less so as to not burn it up. I have a few other places to go so it's not too bad.
My jeep. From what I could gather it's a 73 CJ-5 V8. Couldn't tell you the last time it ran. A few homemade modifications include steel plating sides and roof complete with bullet dents.
The property starts on top of a ridge and slopes north into a small bottom. There is a creek located to the north west. It was primarily hemlock (about 75%) and the other 25% white oak, chestnut oak, poplar, beech, and black birch. I had a forester friend look over everything after I bought it and he explained to me the wooly adelgid and explained that is why none of the hemlocks have branches on the bottom 30 feet. He had a connection with a local paper mill and set myself and my neighbor to the west to remove the hemlock before they all died and became a tangled mess. My only regret to this was they used one of those machines that strips the branches right at the tree. It left piles of branches that covered the ground. There are still a lot of areas the deer avoid because of this. I thought about prescribed fire but I don't want to tackle it with no experience and I don't know anyone that has experience with it.
Luckily it's nestled up against about 100 acres to the north/east and 100 acres to the south that are owned by a doctor and his wife that don't hunt or allow hunting. My neighbor to the west doesn't hunt but allows a guy and his daughter to hunt and allows my dad to slide over onto his property in rifle season so we can spread out. My dad killed the biggest buck he's ever gotten there in 2018. There is a farm to the northwest. I've never met them but have pictures of them trespassing. They are what I call lazy hunters. Drive a car to the field edge and sit in it overlooking the field. They own the bottom and up the other side from me and from what I have seen that is probably the best stand location in the area. In 4 years I've seen a guy sit there for about a total of 30 minutes in rifle season one year. The best part is it was while there was a big buck laying with a doe on their property that I could see but he couldn't. I later missed that buck when he finally got up and came up on my property but I'd rather not talk about that part.
For a small property and especially in the area I'm in, I get a lot of large buck on camera and have seen in person. The largest buck seem to mostly be pass throughs at night but usually one of the nicer ones stick around. As far as I know I've never been able to hold the same buck from year to year. I'm hoping with my improvements that will someday be a possibility. In the past few years, I've gotten quite a few different buck every year. I'd say 10-15 different buck every year. I thought that's pretty good for a small area like mine. Now most are small but usually anywhere from 3-5 of what I would consider shooters every year. A shooter for me is 100". I know I can't be too picky. But in 4 year I killed/opportunity to kill one that big every year. Unfortunately I can't shoot straight with a rifle and I have yet to get a shooter in bow range.
Light green is existing food plot. Darker green is future food plot. Orange oval at the camp is a future plot. Orange squares are stand locations stand locations. Red lined areas are the non hunting neighbored owned properties.
Red is known/suspected bedding. yellow circles are places I've seen big bucks bed.
My biggest problem is access. It's a really tough place to hunt. The deer bed everywhere and there are crops on all four sides of me. My only access is really from the south. I could access through my neighbors to the west but then I run the risk of kicking out the deer there that may come my direction. The best wind direction is out of the north but it seems when the wind is out of the north the deer get up and head north. My small plot is just not enough to attract them into coming my way. So I try to hunt the wind the best I can but sometimes I just have to dive in. I try to limit hunting to 2 days a week or less so as to not burn it up. I have a few other places to go so it's not too bad.
My jeep. From what I could gather it's a 73 CJ-5 V8. Couldn't tell you the last time it ran. A few homemade modifications include steel plating sides and roof complete with bullet dents.