Hinge cutting bedding areas

[NWWI]

Those of you who have had success creating a bedding area through hinge cutting, how large of an area has it taken? I realize that there are many different variables to take into account. I have done a couple very small areas and one half acre piece with good success. I have also tried planting spruce and shrubs in the tree tops.

 

[j-bird]

I have found bigger is better, but it is much more dependent on location in my opinion. Especially if your trying to get bucks to bed in it. Does will bed almost anywhere, but we seem to have the most luck in places where the deer have an advantage of some sort. My deer seem to like an elevation advantage where they can have the wind coming at their back and they can see downwind of them. They also seem to like south facing slopes on my place when it gets colder. I tend to hinge a perimeter screen so to speak and then hinge clusters inside of that where I can. I also tend to look for beds and then simply improve where they are already bedding - they like the location for some reason, I just try to make it even better.

 

[NWWI]

We have success, and limited success in different areas. In Missouri we can hinge everything and a lot of the deer still bed next door at the neighbors because they have a lot of Red Cedars. Then when it is late season and the deer crave the food we plant, there can be 150 deer in a 10 acre patch of our hinge cutting next to the food source.

In MN we can hinge 60 acres and still have only 3 deer in the hinging all year.

But the reason I hinge tornado style is to keep the bucks coming through thinking there MAY be a hot doe in our hinging. Do not want them to look through it, we make them travel through it. They will cruise the hinging on a regular basis on the thought there may be one hot doe in there!

After you get done hinging tornado style do you go back in and create travel corridors?

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

After you get done hinging tornado style do you go back in and create travel corridors?

Great question. I have a natural tornodo zone in the back/middle of my land. We dont hunt it but work the edges. I was wondering exactly this on saturday.
Should I create some travel lanes through it leading to my stands? I can see areas in my 3 acres tornado zone that a deer would have to be crazy to take the time to crawl into. Its kinda wasted space from being too thick if you can believe that.

 

[j-bird]

I will only speak for myself, but I think access to and thru these area for DEER is important. If you simply make a huge tangled pile the deer may see it more of a risk and difficult to escape and move thru. This defeats the purpose. You want a deer path not an ATV path - in my opinion.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

J Bird that is along the lines of what I was thinking.
Its like buying a house and then filling it up with so much tangled junk that no one can get into 3 or 4 rooms. It might be a 5 bedroom but only 1 room gets used. I think I could make the area much more usabe to the deer with a couple of 30 inch slots cut in some of these tipped over logs. I might have to share some pics as it was pretty eye opening how little activity there was in some areas of that 3 acre box. It was just too much work to get to some of those areas. Even if it was sporadic this area could house alot of deer for bedding.
Even better if we can funnel them to a stand from that area. I got some work to do.

 

[j-bird]

Mo may have a different perspective - I don't know. The other thing that makes a BIG difference is if the trees are hinged high or low. High hinges are easier for the deer to move thru. I essentially like to look at it from a deer's perspective - this is going to sound stupid but at times I even squat down to get a better line of sight from a deer's perspective - deer are not 6' tall! I then consider how much work it will be to get thru an area and what the deer will see. You want visual blocking, but relative ease of movement. We do dumb "if I was a deer" things like this all the time. it is funny how much a change of just a foot or so in height can change the way you see the world.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Thats funny i took a knee while I was in there and that 2 feet makes a big different from there perspective.

 

[NWWI]

Have you guys tried establishing shrubs or conifers in your hinge cutting areas? After a while I imagine you have to rehinge or eventually loose a few trees. I would guess if you can get that many deer in an area they have to be browsing heavily. Plus if you get the spruce going it would benefit from being even more of a visual and sound barrier.

 

[McLovin]

Mo, you sound like an expert. Perhaps you'd like to swing over to KS and show me and my brother how it's done?

 

[bat man]

MO's been there and seen it work and not work. Does not always work. Wont work if you don't do it. When it works sometimes, the bucks will check it. Even if the does only bed there occasionally the bucks have to check it with their nose if they cant see it. Thats how they roll.

Put it where they have to check it and you can access it w/o them knowing.

 

[bat man]

Had a buddy send me this after we joked there should be a nationwide domino hinge cut contest.

 

[McLovin]

An Expert?......Bahahahahahaha! You Funny!

I will say this, if I get these last 3 farms sold up here and I move to Missouri, I may come over and help Then!
I will come down and help my buddy Jordan as well!

Admittedly I was just looking for free labor but we'd enjoy the company regardless. It's 45 minutes from Cameron to our mobile, not sure how far you are from Cameron. We're going down around the 12th to do some damage.

 

[dipper]

Had a buddy send me this after we joked there should be a nationwide domino hinge cut contest.

I see logs flopping around, and not many sticking together. They have to fall a lot slower than this to hinge. It's good for firewood though

 

[j-bird]

I also like to hinge one large tree as the support structure and then hinge smaller tree across it if I can. I do as Mo states as well. I lack the cover to hold bucks - especially mature ones. However if you can hold various doe groups the bucks will come in time. It's like a bar.....If you can get the ladies to come, the boys will follow. Do everything you can to get and keep the ladies happy and the more boys you will have hanging around when the time comes. I try to hold off on harvesting does until after my rut has passed if I can. It doesn't always work that way, but it is a goal. we also don't hunt early season to keep pressure off the deer - I think in my case I did more educating deer in low reward times and hurting my long term season. In my area rut will be full bore in the last 2 weeks of November - just the way it is. We only start hunting around Halloween when we will start to see the early stages of the rut taking place. Keep the girls happy - cover and food, the boys will come.

 

[Greta&Gus]

I also like to hinge one large tree as the support structure and then hinge smaller tree across it if I can. I do as Mo states as well. I lack the cover to hold bucks - especially mature ones. However if you can hold various doe groups the bucks will come in time. It's like a bar.....If you can get the ladies to come, the boys will follow. Do everything you can to get and keep the ladies happy and the more boys you will have hanging around when the time comes. I try to hold off on harvesting does until after my rut has passed if I can. It doesn't always work that way, but it is a goal. we also don't hunt early season to keep pressure off the deer - I think in my case I did more educating deer in low reward times and hurting my long term season. In my area rut will be full bore in the last 2 weeks of November - just the way it is. We only start hunting around Halloween when we will start to see the early stages of the rut taking place. Keep the girls happy - cover and food, the boys will come.

I would not say our hinning has been a success yet in terms of killing a buck, but like j-bird we are holding the does. The last day of the season I had 6 does and fawns come to and from my hinging to my food plot with a young buck to follow. some of the best action all year.

We took an area we knew does bed and just made it thicker. I suggest doing the same.

 

[sandbur]

I would not say our hinning has been a success yet in terms of killing a buck, but like j-bird we are holding the does. The last day of the season I had 6 does and fawns come to and from my hinging to my food plot with a young buck to follow. some of the best action all year.

We took an area we knew does bed and just made it thicker. I suggest doing the same.

That sounds like success to me. Do you have any pictures? What species did you hinge?

 

[McLovin]

Our home place is 90 miles from St Joseph. I am not sure from Cameron. I don't know if I will be down that week to work or not. How far are you from st jo?

15 -20 minutes past St Joes

 

[bat man]

I see logs flopping around, and not many sticking together. They have to fall a lot slower than this to hinge. It's good for firewood though

City park they are just clearing it out for something.

 

[dipper]

Yup, sometimes you have to play dominos with trees to overpower hang ups. Note the speed these trees are falling, and the weight; that's why mature trees are impossible to hinge if not done properly.
Trees need to fall slowly to successfully hinge. That's why my less than half cut technique is the only way to do it. Wind is needed to move the tree, and adequately connected wood is needed to keep the tree intact.