Bo’s Hideway. Central Va

chbarnha

5 year old buck +
Well I’m new here but figured I’d start with a intro and the beginning of a property tour. I’m 34 years old and have been hunting my whole life. I work in a papermill on a paper machine and I also work as one of the on-site EMTS. Prior to this job I worked in an emergency room as a medic for 10 years. Anyway In 2020 I purchased 34 acres just outside of West Point, va. As stated I have hunted my whole life but the excitement and possibilities of owning land of my own is all new to me. I purchased this land in May of 2020.

This property is adjacent to two pieces that I already hunt with the hunt club which also gave me some prior knowledge of deer movement. To say that this property was neglected would be an understatement.
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The property is the two chunks in the middle of the picture.
This property is mostly an 8-10 year old clearcut that has regenerated although I do have some white oaks as well as red oaks on the fringes and in the point that sticks out into the cutover.
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I started by clearing an entrance into the property as even that was neglected. I also got a forestry mulcher to come in and open up approximately an acre in the front and 20 -25 yards wide around the point to attempt my first food plots.IMG_5114.jpg
After the front got cleared.


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A view of the opening placed around the point in the cutover. This idea would be short lived as after one season I decided I wanted more of a foodplot centrally in the property.


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I kinda jumped in head first on wanting to get things done but with working swing shift and our annual outage right after I bought it the first year my parents did a lot of the work. I knew I wanted to get a jumpstart on planting hard and soft mast trees. I ordered a bunch of trees, probably too many for the first year but up to today I still have about a 70-75% survival rate. In the front new opening I planted all Dunstan chestnuts with the opening around the point getting fruit trees (persimmon, wild deer pear, and crabapples) from nativ nursery. The following pictures are just to document my parents getting these trees in the ground while I was stuck working. It’s good to have help from time to time.IMG_5979.jpg
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The wildlife immediately started using these openings. A lot of these pics were prior to the trees being placed but for the first time in that general area there were turkeys... keep in mind I hunted 300 acres on multiple sides of this parcel for years and never heard a bird gobble there in the spring. I have since killed three in the spring in my piece as well as a prolific fall flock. Amazing what some wildlife openings will do.
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All of these pics were taken shortly after purchasing the property.


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So the first hunting season came and me and dad had three stands up to bow hunt. One was in the tip of the point around the new “food plot”. The first year involved a lot of learning, but I ended up harvesting two does the same morning with the bow in the point stand. I had several good bucks on camera but never laid eyes on of them. One of these bucks I’ve been familiar with for going on the 5th year as of now. I’ll share the pics of some of those bucks, “the tall one is the old one”, as well as my first successful hunt on my new piece of ground. IMG_5556.jpg
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The last two pics were how the stand was setup in the point that first year and those pics were taken the morning of that first successful hunt on my hideaway.


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So I also decided during hunting season last year that I wanted to add more trees... kinda haphazard. But I did say I just kinda jumped in feet first. I ended up adding 12 hybrid oaks from Nativ Nurseries In November. It ended up being 4 of their Totten oaks, 4 of their RainMaker oaks, and 4 of their ShuxWillow oaks. I don’t have many pics of that but I did plant three in this little dead spot where I cross a small drainage.IMG_6504.jpg
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Well after that first year I made the decision that the plot opening was not quite what I wanted so I elected to call the forestry mulcher back in for 8 more hours of work. I started by having him open up my “road” going in to access the point and then got him to expand the food plot on the left side of the point. This would effectively give me a 1 acre food plot back in the middle in between two of the bow stands. These pictures will show some of the work in progress and then final views as of now from the stand. I had pretty virgin ground this year so I threw some radishes and winter rye to it and called it good for the first year. I’m planning on planting this plot in clover and chicory this coming spring. I have ordered most of what I need and I just need to lime and fertilize and get it in the ground while we are still getting some freezing.
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Well the opening morning of bow season came for the 2021 season and being on the annual outage I had to work something out to get off in time to be in a tree. Dad met me at the gate and in we went. I told dad to pick his poison and he elected to go to the dam stand. I took the point. We could all
But see each other across the plot. About 830 I hear something and think he may have shot so I text him. He said he had but was unsure of the shot. He explained that he had 4 big does come down the path to him and one finally gave him a shot after a standoff. After sitting a little longer I got down and made my way over to him. I found blood and the deer before he could get out of the tree. She got behind a cedar 30 yards from him and fell. He couldn’t see her for the cedar. Dad would end up killing another doe out of the dam stand a week or so later. IMG_8242.jpg
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I keep telling him I’m going to call the game warden on the trespasser that doesn’t know how to avoid my camera... haha.


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I didn’t have anywhere to store the tractor so during the general firearms season I ordered a carport from Behr Buildings, they informed me it would be a 3-4 week turnaround. They called me 5 days later and asked if I was available to have it installed that day. Quick turnarounds are good!IMG_8590.jpg
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Well that brings me almost up to current with most major events so from here out it will be new happenings around the hideaway. I did add 6 crabapples about a week ago as nativ nursery had them on sale for 34 for 6. Some of these went in the front and the other three went back on the edges of the point food plot. I’m ready for spring to watch some of these trees hopefully take off in their second growing season. I ordered most all of my clover and chicory seed last night and I ordered 25 more tree tubes to replace the ones that need it. I acquired some of my originals from a swamp a friend planted 15-20 years ago. They are a little rough but they worked for the first year.


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Welcome, Good to have you! Looks like a great chunk you have there. Great photos, i'm looking forward to seeing more of what you put together. Thanks for sharing!
 
Welcome to HT!

It sounds like you are on the right track, keep us posted on your progress bud.
 
Welcome!
Nice property, that tall six or seven is crazy! Opening that cover up really seems to have changed the property for the better.
 
Welcome!
Nice property, that tall six or seven is crazy! Opening that cover up really seems to have changed the property for the better.

He’s actually on the downhill, the first year I got pictures of him he was a big 10, let me see if I can find a pic of him from that year. IMG_7685.png
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But yes adding the foodplot has been very beneficial even in its first year. It should only get better. IM actually going to work at the land some today. I have planted about 70 trees and I’m starting to forget what is what. I got some impresso tags in yesterday, gonna go label today. May go get a pallet of lime and spread that today as well.


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Well I have been watching a lot of grant woods videos on what he is calling the release process. I just placed an order for the seed for the two acre food plots. Has anybody else here tried these style food plots? I am going to start but putting the summer release blend down and then about the first week of September I will broadcast the fall release into them. I guess we will see what happens. I’m going to stick with a clover/chicory plot up tight to the point and on the edge by the dam.


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Well today before my 3-11 shift I decided to go start putting these tags on some of the trees I have planted. Not sure how well they will hold up but I had to do something so I remember what’s where. The different species isn’t bad but the hybrid oaks I get all mixed up. So far I have 4 different varieties of hybrids planted. All from Nativ Nursery. I have the shuwaters, the rainmakers, the tottens, and the shuwillows. They all seemed to grow pretty well for their first year in the ground. Anybody else plant some of the hybrids?


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Well I had a little bit of a long night at work and didn’t get off until almost 3am, but I woke up early enough before my 3-11 shift to go get some more work done. I finished labeling all of my existing seedlings as well as frost seeded some.

Looking at the 5 day forecast it is supposed to rain the next three days and be near the 60s. After that it’s supposed to get back cold so I decided to seed a couple spots with the clover and chicory mixes I bought to try to get a jump on things. I ended up purchasing three different blends and planted each in a different location to see which fared the best. These three were imperial whitetail clover and fusion, Stratton seed revival, and Domain Outdoors Hot Chic. All are blends of clover and chicory, but the revival has alfalfa as well. Anybody ever used these blends or seeds from the last two companies? Interested to see which blend fares the best.
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Very nice place I see many years of enjoyment in your future.
 
Here are the seed labels from the hot chic and the Stratton seed revival. I threw away the whitetail institute bags.
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I get most of my work done at the land the week I am on 3-11 shift. Most of the guys I work with go home sit up have a few beers or whatever. I go home on 3-11 shower and go straight to sleep so I can be productive before I go back to work the next morning. Today was no different, I talked dad into loading up the trailer and going and picking up a ton of pelletized lime and meeting me at the hideaway. We were initially going to spread it with the solo spreader and a push spreader but then I remembered a buddy of mine told me he had a 3 point spreader I could use. So I ran and picked that up and met dad at the land. We spread a ton of lime, and 500 lbs of fertilizer on the food plot today before I had to be at work. One more thing checked off the list!

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Also starting to get some of the deer back that I haven’t seen since October or so. Maybe the food plot improvements will hold a few of them from time to time this year. Two of the up and comers are back anyway. I think the screwy racked one is the deer my girlfriend missed with the muzzleloader.
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