Teeder
5 year old buck +
I would consider planting some shrubs / brush / grasses / evergreens for a bedding area in the new 12.
Discussion: What have been some habitat projects that you believe have had the greatest impact on herd quality and quantity?
- Thread starter greekfreak
- Start date
BenAllgood
5 year old buck +
Buy it and convert to early successional plants providing bedding and food. You're doubling your property and perhaps getting better access. I just did the same by buying 6 acres to my west.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
Multiple thermal cover with pockets of 25-50 spruces. Road screening ... 3 rows of spruces (long term) and MG screening inside (short term).
Two fields of switch grass ... 1 at 15 acres and 1 at 18 acres. Provides great cover but also rebuilding soil OM on sandy loam former crop fields.
I have now added about 150 apple trees though out the property, high hopes, but still early to see any real fruit production. Adding another 60 next spring.
#1 best improvement was to dedicate areas as sanctuary. You can doing everything you want to encourage deer to enter your property, but they won't stay if they don't find protective cover.
Two fields of switch grass ... 1 at 15 acres and 1 at 18 acres. Provides great cover but also rebuilding soil OM on sandy loam former crop fields.
I have now added about 150 apple trees though out the property, high hopes, but still early to see any real fruit production. Adding another 60 next spring.
#1 best improvement was to dedicate areas as sanctuary. You can doing everything you want to encourage deer to enter your property, but they won't stay if they don't find protective cover.
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
If it's good ground, cash rent it to a local farmer. You'll make a return on your purchase and he'll pay you to plant it.
Another upside is this adds another access point to the property, if needed. Walk in / out with your scent blowing out into the big open field.
Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
I am still patiently awaiting the invention of the "hover stand", I am not holding my breath but still hopeful :)Any ways to create better access? Screens? Ditches? A day of Forestry Mulcher rental? Different time of day? AM vs PM sits?
We need a plan of action here Mort
I once considered putting in a zipline, they are not as expensive as you would think, but I would imagine they would create more noise than wanted unless you went reallllllllllly slow or reallllllllly high up. Deer might not see you as a threat in this form so it might work better than expected? Maybe even hunt your way there?
I have also considered digging a trench and burying a 6' diameter drainage/culvert pipe all the way up to the top of my land as an underground walkway for stealthy access. I even priced the pipe about 10 years ago which is reasonable if I were only richer lol I forget the number but I think it was around $6,000 for the pipe. But MAANNNNN what a perfect treestand access, no scent and no visual!!
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
First, with a tiny property, the best you can hope to do is to improve hunting a bit. If the guy is bailing it, it is probably just hay. My guess is that if the lady next door is timbering, much will depend on what she timbers. Is it pines or Hardwoods? You don't mention what is on your 12 acres currently. Presuming the lady next door clear cuts, in a few years you will have nice bedding cover there. If that is the case, putting attractive food on the other side of your 12 acres would generally mean deer would travel from the bedding to the food through your 12 acres provided it isn't wide open. When they will travel, daytime or at night will depend on how much pressure you put on them. You don't need much equipment to make great food plots. Read the Crimson and Camo Throw and Mow thread for examples. Wind will play a role and stand placement and how you access the stands is important.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
BrushyPines
5 year old buck +
williams111
5 year old buck +
For you guys doing TSI/creating thick bedding areas are you maintaining/mowing trails in and around these areas? The reason I ask is I have done this to about 5 acres and now the deer tend to avoid the area. They seem to go around it when moving through the area. I am thinking I need to cut and maintain some trails throughout the thick stuff.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
Did you hinge cut or actually do TSI? In my experience, hinge cut areas don't really offer much bedding within them. TSI does however as they can move around better within the area..
hunts_with_stick
5 year old buck +
It is hardwords that is being timbered. There are no pines around. I have planted about 12-14 apples and pears and am planting some late dropping persimmons this spring. My current property is about 7 acres woods and 5 acres field. I planted fruit trees in full sun near the woods in the back of the field. Then about 50 or so yards from the fruit trees I started planting 100 oak trees from there to the road as well as somewhere near 100 EO acorns that started sprouting. I also picked up about 100 viable acorns from various species as well as some (10) hickory nuts and 30-40 beech nuts that are in stratification right now. The farmer to my left has 100 acres but it is all ag, no trees. Not sure if all he plants is hay or if he occasionally plants crop. I did find an old well on the property that the farmer told me he will look at with me to see if there is anything I can do to get it operational. I like the idea of doubling my acreage, my worry is how much work will it take to convert the other piece (if I buy it) to something that will help hold deer.
trampledbyturtles
5 year old buck +
The work and journey is what makes it worth it.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
NOTHING you do will hold deer on that amount of ground. If the lady next door does a clear-cut or a heavy thinning, that will help provide cover and bedding. The BEST your can hope for with such small acreage is to improve the hunting. If you plan to buy land on the other side from the farmer, that is where i would put your food. On your current 12 acres I would create cover paths across that 5 acres and keep it open without food. Deer will generally bed in the lady's property that is not hunted. Putting quality food on the farmer's land could may your current property a transition zone. You need to figure out exactly where to put stands on your current property and how to create cover paths across the open 5 acres relative to stand locations. Consider the prevailing wind when placing stands and make sure you can get to them. Once your current property has the cover paths across it, I'd try to stay off of it as much as possible. Spend your time planting food on the farmers land.
There are a number of ways to create cover paths across your open land. One is to simply mow everywhere except where you want the paths and let nature take over those sections. It is inexpensive. Mowing your open ground once a year should be enough to keep it open except the cover paths. Deer will often travel along the cover paths rather than in them.
I have a lot more acreage and we have a pipeline bisecting our pine farm. We planted bicolor lespedeza patches that cross the pipeline and deer regularly cross along those patches. Like always, when I mention bicolor lespedeza, it comes with a warning that it can be invasive in some situations. It has never done that for me, but you need to understand it and how and when it can become invasive before you decide to use it.
Thanks,
Jack
I have 120ft of NWSG around every field and food plot but the 60 acre ag field and you can tell it as the deer will come out in the fields with strips and feed alot more.I always said that I would buy ag ground if it got cheaper than cover again because in 2 years I can have deer living in it.In my area I would plant sandhill plum patches something like 100 yards wide and 10 ft between rows and then 100 yards of switch.You want to keep it wide enough that predators can't hunt the strips.Add land when you can and look around you to find the lowest hole in the bucket.I too have alot of pear and apple but they are about gone for the year and alot of fruit is eaten by coyotes and coons.
williams111
5 year old buck +
It is a combination of hinge cuts, hack and squirt and just dropping the trees. The trees are all still there either on the ground or standing dead/dying. I treated most of the trees that I read the deer didn’t really browse to heavy and left a few of the preferred species. I attempted to create pockets of tops so there would be areas to move throughout area. The more open areas really took off with new growth. All this was done 2 years ago. The deer really don’t utilize my property during the summer so I feel the lack of pressure on the undergrowth really allows it to take off. Then around September/October they begin moving back in once the crops start coming out.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I would create a secure staging area between the timber area, and the open fields. Think thick’s shrubs, and bedding area surrounding a small food plot of soy beans. Take a figure 8 shaped food plot, with each area being about an acre of soy beans, fenced in, with a heavy thick mess surrounding it. The deer won’t stay on your land, but they will feel secure stopping on your land for a quick bite to eat at dusk and dawn while traveling between the timber, and the fields.
I heard of a guy who actually did bury some pipe, but think he had to crawl through it. It emerged under his elevated stand, which was enclosed underneath and he climbed up on a ladder which came out at the center of the raised blind. Never heard how successful he was!. Hope he had the entrance well sealed off, cause I can't imagine what it would be like encountering Mr. Boar or Mr. Coyote while crawling in one fine morning!
Ed Brodt
5 year old buck +
We have done it all. Food plots, water troughs, mineral licks. However, the one thing that has made the biggest difference was doing a select cut of our hardwood timber stand. Before that we would not see any decent bucks on our trail cameras until October, and not really good ones even then. Since doing the select cut we hold bucks year round and that includes several nice shooters. The forester told us this would happen and it sure did, plus made enough money to buy a new tractor.
Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
The concept was just to get me to up there, not necessarily to a specific stand. I only own 30 acres and the house sits on 8 so I wouldn't have that problem budWhat happens when you move your stand
Bassattackr
5 year old buck +
Score!
