First Acreage Purchase-Wi

[Doohop65]

I recently closed on my first piece of hunting land. I have been looking for a while but prices here in wisconsin have been crazy.

I have wanted a place where I can try to get on some decent bucks and also test my children how to hunt and enjoy the outdoors. it is only 40 acres so there won’t be a great opportunity to manage the deer herd but it’s better than nothing.

Attached is an aerial of the property. The west side is mostly maple ridge with a few other things mixed in. The east side is an oak ridge with a black spruce/cedar through the middle and working down to mostly cedar to the south. There is a small creek that runs from north to south on the eastern third of the property.

Pretty excited to get started managing this for my family. I’m all ears on suggestions and will use this thread to follow my success and setbacks.

 

[PatinPA]

Congrats. Don't worry even the setbacks are fun. I'm going into year 5 and have loved every minute of it. Wish I would've found this website much earlier in the process. Would've saved a few of those headaches.

Are those ag fields to the north and south of your property? Are you planning on adding a food plot(s)?

The best thing I've learned so far is winter rye is a food plot saver.

 

[H20fwler]

Congrats on the purchase!

If yours is the center property.
First suggestion I would have if it were me would be to get a really good look at the deer trails through the property and start planning on making one or more large openings in those trees.
Get a good chainsaw and see if there is any way to get a small dozer in if that is practical at all for you and make an open spot of 3-5 acres or more.
After that you will have options for food plots, good shrubs, hard and soft mast trees or whatever else you would want to plan to plant in the future to try and draw more wildlife in.

 

[b116757]

I would inventory all the oaks on the property and release as many as possible without cutting/ killing any of oaks until you’ve had the property for a few years and can identify the better acorn producing trees. Then and only then would I consider thinning any of the oaks. Also it takes a couple three years for the released trees to really increase acorn production so be patient. If there is any marketable maple I would have that area select cut or even clear cut. If clear cut I’d leave some standing timber in strips across the clear cut creating edges unless it’s not a terribly large area. My personal preference would probably be clear cut the maple stand for wildlife but if your trying to balance wildlife management and timber production select cut would be better in most cases. Idk your zone but growing up in zone 3 Wis apples do very well up there and really with few disease problems in fact we have probably 20 wild apple trees on the old 80 acre home place. Maples aren’t really a high value wildlife tree at least for deer thats why I’m picking on them. Then you could even have a dozer push out stumps in an area of the timber harvest and plant a food plot in that area. Honestly sounds like a great piece of hunting property that you can make even better. Some guys will divide the property into blocks or wedges and every so many years clear cut one of them for wildlife this maybe a good fit for you it may not. For smaller scale canopy release hack and squirt is very effective and cheap. Looking at the limited photo of your surrounding properties is looks like there isn’t much open ground/fields in the area so creating some of that habitat would probably do you the most good. I would if had a timber harvest done probably replant some of that area in more oaks if oak ridge Is NRO I’d plant white oak or vice versa plant or create what you don’t have.

 

[scott44]

I recently closed on my first piece of hunting land. I have been looking for a while but prices here in wisconsin have been crazy.

I have wanted a place where I can try to get on some decent bucks and also test my children how to hunt and enjoy the outdoors. it is only 40 acres so there won’t be a great opportunity to manage the deer herd but it’s better than nothing.

Attached is an aerial of the property. The west side is mostly maple ridge with a few other things mixed in. The east side is an oak ridge with a black spruce/cedar through the middle and working down to mostly cedar to the south. There is a small creek that runs from north to south on the eastern third of the property.

Pretty excited to get started managing this for my family. I’m all ears on suggestions and will use this thread to follow my success and setbacks.

Congrats!

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That should be a lot of fun. I would recommend hunting it the first year just to see how things are right now. Sometimes "improvements" can actually hurt your hunting. It is good to know things that are specific to your new neighborhood - where do the deer currently bed, where do they feed, what kind of hunting pressure surrounds your property, etc. Once you have a decent idea of how the deer use your place then you can look at improvement opportunities.

What county is this land in? I own land in Rusk County.

 

[Doohop65]

Thank you for all of the replies.
I will try to answer all of the questions.

The 40 in the center is my new property.

The small field to the north is not ag. It is a field on the neighbors that is just grass. There is ag to the south but mostly woods to the north. It pretty much funnels through mine to the south ag.

there are cow paths all through the property. It is in shawano county which is a high deer density county.

I will try to get a better map out together when I have some time and you guys can give me your thoughts. Been busy with work and need to start planning.

 

[PatinPA]

Ag on one side is perfect. The deer should travel the same direction for the most part. I have ag on basically all 4 sides and it can be very frustrating. I agree with Ben. I'd hunt it a year without doing too much. Find the main bedding and travel corridors. Plan your access.

 

[cavey]

If you have a good tax person talk to them about the long term tax value of your land being timber cruised to establish a actual timber value, to offset taxes from income from any timber harvests in the future. I didnt... you might still have time to do that.

 

[Triple C]

Congrats! Enjoy the journey. I'm into my 11th year. Land ownership has been, and continues to be one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. It's like a blank canvas that once started, never gets completed. There's always something to improve.

 

[Chainsaw]

Congratulations on your purchase Doohop65. Take your time and enjoy the journey.

 

[Someday isle]

Congratulations. As a fellow small property owner I can tell you that you can make a huge difference in your hunting opportunities in just a few short years. My advice is to keep your goals realistic and just enjoy your land in whatever capacity suits you.

 

[g squared 23]

Other than planting food plots in established openings and cutting invasives, I would do very little other than observe bedding and travel routes. And then fire up the chainsaw to improve your bedding areas and direct deer traffic to where you can more effectively hunt them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rocksnstumps]

The wait and observe mode as advised is good especially on small tracts. You only have so much to work with. Besides the observe how deer relate to your parcel think as important is observing how the neighbors hunt theirs. I have leased land on three sides of me and a couple of group changes over the years have really impacted how deer travel thru my land. Have abandoned working a foodplot close to my boundary on east side of me as guy started bow hunting the line religiously in that spot and pressure from south of me during gun season is 4x higher. Another setup with a blind in that area has really gone dead the last 5 yrs.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Congrats on the new land.

 

[ProcraftMike]

I remember the excitement when obtaining our property back on late 2007. Congrats. The biggest issue I had was sitting still and observing the first year, vs. digging in and trying to improve it. It is a learning process. I have changed my mind on some of my initial changes. It is all part of the process of learning the property.

 

[bwoods11]

Congrats on your new property ! Enjoy it!