First Time Landowner ....Indiana

[hillHuntR]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I think the "take it slow advice" is best, just really hard to do.

I will try to answer some of the questions...

Jeff23--The deer are usually bedding high on ridges wherever they get excellent views of the valley (with a few exceptions seen in heavy cover), but
I do believe a limited amount of the bedding is on our land compared to the neighbors. Our neighbors to the east and north have what I am guessing to be preferred bedding areas....I can tell they are thicker than us and we see plenty of deer come from these areas. I believe we did a good job this year on providing quality food during October and November compared to any available in the area...I have never seen plots browsed as hard as ours were so we will definitely continue to do all we can on the plots. I will get a better neighborhood aerial with some of the major deer movement we have seen on as soon as I can

MNFish--I think we can do what you are suggesting about a waterhole in one spot we have found. The water does flow in the creek when high enough....we found a side wash that empties into maybe a 15ft long, 4ft wide, 3 to 4ft deep basin. It has always been dry, but a good rubber liner with a good lead in from the wash channel might work if we do it right

 

[hillHuntR]

Wiscwhip--I thought the same thing about making the valley the thick place to hold the deer with foodplots on the tops. What stopped this from happening was the lack of plantable acreage....I doubt I could hit 3/4 of an acre, and it may be low quality then. The open ridge has so much rock and lack of tractor access I don't think it could be done without a huge effort. The ridge we access on could be planted, but it is a small area that loses a lot from the old county road that is all rock down over a foot deep

 

[wiscwhip]

Understandable, in those situations, you plant where you must. You could still use those smaller areas for kill plots if they make sense.

 

[hillHuntR]

Not sure if I zoomed out enough to help. All cleared areas visible in the photos are either pasture or hay fields so far as I have been able to determine. The arrows show
the major fence crossings we have noted this year...once on our property the deer primarily follow any number of trails that follow the contour of the ridge slopes around. It seems like every hillside has 4 to 8 trails you will cross walking from top to bottom

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

that's a nice looking property. I agree with Stu - hunt it a year or two and see what you can learn. It would be helpful if you knew how the deer generally move through the neighborhood and use that to your advantage for any short term improvements you make. If you have rocky soil on the top of the ridges that won't be good for food plots, those could be decent places for a future apple orchard. It also might be worth having a state forester look at your property to see if you have any valuable timber there. I thought I could see some young walnuts in one of your pictures, so you might have some valuable trees on the property. Perhaps you could increase browse and make a few land payments with a timber harvest. Have fun.

 

[hillHuntR]

Thanks for all the compliments and help so far! I have got a lot of thinking to do.

There are some young walnuts in several areas. I have only found a couple that I consider "medium" sized though. May have been nice several years ago to harvest the ash prior to their infestation. I looked at several today that were likely around 24" dbh, but then again I don't know what ash trees bring in $.

I have been trying to put so much deer info in the post I forgot to tell about the tree types we have beyond northern red and chinquapin oaks. All of the evergreen visible in the aerial photographs is red cedar...some of which has matured too far (shaded out lower branches). Besides the oaks we mainly have maple, 2 types of hickory, red and american elm, ash (for now), sycamore, hackberry, and honey locust.

I need to do some control of Russian Olive (or autumn...can't remember which we have now) and multiflora rose that is just getting a start. We have a big garlic mustard infestation also, but I fear that is beyond my ability both fiscally and physically to stop.

 

[TMIL]

If you have what I have, its Autumn Olive. I only have a little of it, thankfully, but it will be a constant fight as the 60 north of me is pretty much covered in it. I'm actually getting rid of my big ones quite slowly. They make excellent cover, so I leave some until other plants fill up near them. I get rid of all the new ones I see immediately.

BTW, congrats on getting your land! Enjoy it!

 

[sandbur]

Welcome, and I agree with Stu to take it slow.

 

[MN Slick]

I agree with hunting/scouting/observing a few years before doing anything major other than plots. In my opinion locating where the deer are bedding if they are bedding on your ground is most important so you can plan your access and hunting strategy. As soon as the snow melts I'd walk along the military crest of the ridges, approximately 1/3 down from the top, looking for evidence of beds from last fall and really concetrate on points coming off the ridges where the older bucks prefer to bed. Bucks like to cruise the leeward side of ridges along the military crest during the rut and you appear to have some good looking cruising ridges so I'd spend some time scouting good stand locations along that line for rut hunting too if you haven't already.