Creating benches

[shawnv]

Below is the Eastern slope just down from my hinge cuts on the West side of my ridge. My iphone tends to make everything a little more narrow and you lose the slop perspective because it's steeper than it appears here.

Anyways, I would like to see if I can give the deer more bedding options where they could bed on the slope (this slope is future clear cut) so I was wondering if anyone has had any success making benches on a spot like this getting use out of them. I'm not referring to making a specific bed per se.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

How are you going to make it? With a dozer?

When I think of benches, they are pretty obvious and usuially extent for 50+ yards along a ridge (paralell)......you would have to push a pretty big chunk out of there, but if you are cutting it all the equipment should be there to use I would think.

I don't see why it wouldn't work...I know deer will prefer the flat spots over a steep hillside when it comes to bedding.

 

[shawnv]

Well when it gets clear cut I have considered asking them to doze it. Otherwise I could take shovel in hand and and cut out several small ones but I'm not sure if that is worth the manual labor.

 

[wiscwhip]

I have seen them cut into the hillside with both a dozer(worked awesome) and a tractor with a rear blade(kind of scary to watch), but they were for access roads going up along the hillside, not deer bedding.

 

[CAS_HNTR]

take shovel in hand and and cut out several small ones

You're a "manlier" man than me if you are gonna hand dig them!

 

[shawnv]

A buffalo county farm I used to hunt had an old logging road cut parallel to the top that was all grown up around it where the deer would bed quite frequently so I thought why not here explore it here.

 

[shawnv]

You're a "manlier" man than me if you are gonna hand dig them!

Yea, I would stress small cuts and flat spots if I did anything by hand.

 

[wiscwhip]

The deer bed on those old roads in and around the Hixton Forest Nature Preserve and on the Blufflands Conservancy lands here in La Crosse all the time. Great bedding areas for deer. Brave men that were driving that equipment! :eek:

 

[j-bird]

I have a steep bank that runs mainly east/west and faces south on my place and in one spot there is a small bench - the thing is the deer don't bed on that bench - they bed on a few knolls near the bench - I think they do it because they can see better. On the knolls they can see along the entire bank as well as below them. Other than that location they bed at the very top or at the base of the steep slope - access for them and escape for them is much better in those locations. My bank is fairly steep and the soil is rather lose as well.

 

[shawnv]

The deer bed on those old roads in and around the Hixton Forest Nature Preserve and on the Blufflands Conservancy lands here in La Crosse all the time. Great bedding areas for deer. Brave men that were driving that equipment! :eek:

Yea, you won't see me driving anything on a slope.

 

[sandbur]

I'm a flatlander so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Out west, I have seen deer bedding where a conifer grows on a slope and there is a small flat spot just above the stump.

If you are talking a small, flat bedding area and not a lengthy bench........

what if you took a shovel to a spot above on of the stumps from a big tree that was logged. Maybe plant a spruce next to the stump and level out a small area on the top side of the stump.

 

[phil@thesidehill]

i'm pretty sure if you had them "cut" a logging road into that slope parallel to the ridge top, about 2/3's the way up the slope you could get them to bed there. How tall is the opposing slope across the ravine/hollow? I know that when i'm out shed hunting not all south facing slopes are created equal. if a hollow has a south facing slope and the opposing north facing slope is taller or as tall as the south side it really cuts down on the amount and duration of sunlight exposure. south facing slopes that dont have opposing north facing slopes get more sun earlier in the AM....and i tend to see more deer activity on those south slopes.

 

[shawnv]

i'm pretty sure if you had them "cut" a logging road into that slope parallel to the ridge top, about 2/3's the way up the slope you could get them to bed there. How tall is the opposing slope across the ravine/hollow? I know that when i'm out shed hunting not all south facing slopes are created equal. if a hollow has a south facing slope and the opposing north facing slope is taller or as tall as the south side it really cuts down on the amount and duration of sunlight exposure. south facing slopes that dont have opposing north facing slopes get more sun earlier in the AM....and i tend to see more deer activity on those south slopes.

Neither is South facing, My woods is North Facing and the ridge runs West to East with the fingers going North to South. If I had my neighbor's South facing slope where he has Horses I would be very joyful, it receives a lot of Sun.

 

[wiscwhip]

Neither is South facing, My woods is North Facing and the ridge runs West to East with the fingers going North to South. If I had my neighbor's South facing slope where he has Horses I would be very joyful, it receives a lot of Sun.

?:confused:

 

[Steve Bartylla]

I'm not going to pretend that I've ever purposefully had loggers cut benches into hill/ridge sides to create bedding flats. That said, I love the idea. I've seen it done by accident a bunch of times (neglected logging and farming roads), but it never crossed my mind to make them on purpose. Since you'll have the loggers in there anyway, assuming offering bedding with a good view in that location doesn't have a down side for hunting, I'd suggest going for it. As others mentioned, all else being equal, I'd want it somewhere on the upper 1/3-1/4 of the slope. I'd also have them make a few "humps" and "overlooks" (flat areas jutting out), to provide ideal viewing.

 

[shawnv]

?:confused:

Did I confuse you? I was just trying to explain that my woods is a an exaggerated horseshoe and as you go out from it to the North it levels off so there is no South facing slope looking back at my North slope as Phil was commenting. There is a South facing slope on the other side of the ridge. Not sure if that clears it up or not.

 

[shawnv]

I have a lot going on in this photo but on the West side the off white line is where I was thinking about having a bench made and planting a few pines on the high side per sandbur's comment. The brown is where I have hinged and will expand the cutting. The purple line is where I'll have logged and is less than what I was going to have before I decided to expand the hinge cuts. Not that it matters for this topic but the dark green is Norways planting, green is food plots and light green is my garlic fields which on an off year will be a cover crop. Red dots are my apple trees and blue dot my water hole.

 

[dipper]

If you start playing God like this you will be opening the situation up to severe erosion problems. You will also be removing all your fertile top soil that new plants need to regenerate, again-more of an erosion threat. I'm also assuming those hill are full of massive rocks that you will need even bigger more expensive equipment. I thought u said ure not making any $ on your logging. It takes big money to bring in the tools needed, and you are opening yourself up to major erosion and regeneration issues.
Hinge those trees to save yourself the trouble and it will be awesome habitat. A lot of those trees look to be the perfect size to hinge

 

[shawnv]

I know someone that can doze for not too much and one logger can as well. It's really just an idea that popped into my head today so to say I fully have thought it through would be no, sort of why I made the post was to think about it. I guess I've seen some new logging roads in big hill country where erosion wasn't an issue and being this is a small cut I'm not sure if that would be a concern or not. Again I'm not expert and you might be right.

 

[sandbur]

Are there natural deer trails along the upper 1/3 of that hillside?