Hinge cutting.... first try

[scott44]

The first part of April this year I tried my first hinge cutting, I had 2 objectives in doing this hinge cutting, first was to create bedding and browse and second try to funnel the deer towards one entrance to the food plot.

I really don't have a good before pic but here's one that shows kinda where I hinged, the woods behind the rye is what I hinged and I am trying to funnel the deer towards the big oak right center of the pic.



Before



After





Took this pic Easter and the deer were already getting funneled where I want them.



Some regrowth, most of the trees I hinged were ash, the Emerald ash borer has killed almost all the Ash trees in my area so I didn't expect much regrowth. If nothing else it was going to open up the canopy.

 

[bueller]

Looks good to me

 

[huntall]

nice!

 

[Deer Kar]

Really thickened things up for ya!

 

[outdoorstom]

Great results.....nice job!

 

[tooln]

Looks good. It's really something just letting the sun hit the gorund.

 

[scott44]

Here's another area I hinged this spring but it wasn't for bedding, it was to screen the neighbors. I hinged the trees at different heigths to kinda create a wall. All these trees I hinged were Ash so I'm not sure how long they'll live but it opened up and briars and blackberrys exploded.

Most of the trees were 2-6", the fenceline is about 50yds behind those trees.








Behind me when I took the pics is a 5-6 acre swtich grass field. Also not sure what this will look like when the leaves come off but it wasn't much before.

 

[tooln]

Looks good.