Badgerfowl's habitat projects

[Bowsnbucks]

Badger - I hunt dark to dark too. Don't blame you for wanting to be comfortable. I'm just old-school ( spell that bull-headed !! ). I've used the tree umbrellas on rainy days and thought THAT was luxury !! Where I usually hunt in rifle season, I can't put up an enclosed stand anyway. Bow season - I'm always in the open air in a tree.

Had to bust your chops on the hotel, though !! I hope it's the ticket for good hunting for you.

 

[badgerfowl]

I don't know about good hunting, but at least comfortable hunting!

 

[badgerfowl]

Picked up a chainsaw today. Hoping to do some hinging tomorrow w/ it before we get dumped on again next week and then likely won't be out there til it melts.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

What saw did you get ???

 

[John-W-WI]

How much moisture, if any, got into yours John?

(sorry, missed this somehow).

Zero moisture got into our blind. Did some get in yours?

-John

 

[badgerfowl]

What saw did you get ???

Stihl ms 193 CE. Put a couple tanks through it on Saturday. Nice little saw. Not the most powerful but I don't plan on tackling anything big with it. Worked great for what I did. Cut some shooting lanes and did some hinging.

 

[badgerfowl]

(sorry, missed this somehow).

Zero moisture got into our blind. Did some get in yours?

-John

Mine is still in the garage. I was just curious if you had any moisture get in yours. Mine will go out this spring or summer.

 

[badgerfowl]

Here's a few pics from saturday at our place. Cut a few shooting lanes around one of our gun stands. Nothing to crazy. Some still need a little cleaning up w/ the pole saw and a little help from the wind.

 

[badgerfowl]

Also hinged a few off the NE corner of our field to hopefully provide some blocking and force them into the corner even more.

 

[badgerfowl]

Little bit of green left in the brassica patch.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

What kind of trees are the hinged ones ?? Are they birch of some type ?? ( in post #419 ) Cottonwood ??
The area around the stand looks good.

 

[badgerfowl]

Yes we mainly took down some kinds of birch. Took down 4 oaks I think. Probably a handful of maple too. Majority were some type of birch though I believe. Lot of thorny bastards too. Not sure what they are exactly. Understory tree/shrub.

 

[bueller]

Looks good. One of these days I have to find some time to clear shooting lanes on my bow setups.

 

[badgerfowl]

Looks good. One of these days I have to find some time to clear shooting lanes on my bow setups.

We mainly worked on one gun stand saturday but we did cut a quick one for a bow stand off the corner of the field through a pine patch. Now that my dad has a crossbow have to cut them longer than before.

 

[badgerfowl]

We did some hinging and shooting lane work this weekend. Hinged this mess to hopefully funnel the deer even more just inside the field on an old logging road.

Standing between the hinges and the field.



From the other side looking towards the field.



Can kind of see the difference in being able to see the field in the hinged vs unhinged area.

 

[bueller]

Was it common for the deer to skirt that field just inside the wood line? Is it your goal to push their runaways further into the woods or out to the edge of the field?

 

[badgerfowl]

They skirt the field edge now so I'm trying to enhance that. For gun it doesn't matter, but for bow hunting it should help.

 

[bueller]

I just started bow hunting a couple years ago and quickly learned that my best gun setups were not very ideal for bow hunting. I imagine your plan will work. I had concerns that after the cutting you did that the deer would adapt by moving their route closer to the field instead of deeper into the woods, but that's what you are aiming for so no worries.

 

[badgerfowl]

You can see a ladder stand in the last pic we use for bow hunting. They really like the corner of that field, left in the last picture, behind the hinge cuts. Bucks will skirt the field edge when cruising or they'll enter/exit in that corner and head into the interior of our property.

 

[badgerfowl]

Here's an aerial of the area. Property line is straight line on top. Square is rough hinge area. Squiggly lines are deer travel routes. You can kind of see the old oxbows in this aerial. Basically dead zones w/ limited to no cover other than mature trees. No brush or even grass really since they hold water for a while after spring.