shawnv
5 year old buck +
You have to factor in the last couple of seasons have been downers for WI so a great property might have just be good, a good marginal and a marginal one poor so I think your place can only get better if things improve in WI. I know you want to capitalize on your property but maybe making short-term sacrifices by making sancturaries and not hunting it gun season will give you more long-term benefits by letting the little guys learn that this is a "safe" place. By what you say, hunting public ground would not be any worse while you give refuge to your future buck crop.
OkieKubota
5 year old buck +
I think I can handle the $65 per year taxes on our 80 acres...
B
BJE80
Guest
Funny part is that my taxes are still wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more. :eek:
OkieKubota
5 year old buck +
Did I mention I can do whatever I want on it ;)
M
MoBuckChaser
Guest
I just looked at a Missouri 40 i bought in 2012. Taxes in 2013 were $78 for the year. Tax valuation was $1,046 for the forty in 2013. :D
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I've said this before on here, but maybe its worth repeating...
I don't have grand visions of multiple P&Y bucks. My true dream is to have the "destination" 40 in our area. I want to have on my 40, the forage and cover options the deer don't get anywhere else in our woods.
I don't have grand visions of multiple P&Y bucks. My true dream is to have the "destination" 40 in our area. I want to have on my 40, the forage and cover options the deer don't get anywhere else in our woods.
B
bat man
Guest
I have a friend who is loaded that said he can pay you $2,000 cash for that 40, if you can do it on a CD at 2% for 30 years with $16 down. $55 per acre would be too much but he can go up to $50. o_O:rolleyes::oops:
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I no longer want to hunt in that way. I have not used the cameras for three years and the enjoyment of the hunt is much greater.
I just want to enjoy each day that I hunt and eventually shoot a deer that I am satisfied with.
bwoods11
5 year old buck +
Ouch I could never give up my cameras. To me that is a great part of owning land, cameras up/stands up, food plots in...Preparation for the hunt. Cameras allow me to judge the ratios and what is out there. Great enjoyment to see the animals using the land. I don't think cameras give you any extreme hunting advantage. Most of the time the bucks win anyway.
Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
I agree with bwoods. I get very much enjoyment out of the cams and would never consider giving them up. I dont get to hunt nearly as often as I would like and when I do I want to set my sefl up for success(which may just mean a sighting). Cams help a hunter determine what the deer are up too. Some call it MRI (most resent information). It gives a hunter confidence that he is in the right place. It doesn't require high end recoynx cams to do either. Almost all my cams cost right around $100 and do pretty well especially the bushnell trophy and M880.
Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
The more I think about it I think whats happening with your farm is that you have what some refer to as "the nursery". A friend of mine Tom Rizzo (gateway QDMA rep) was telling me about this happening at one of his farms. He said the doe's will literally take over (usually happens when they far out number the bucks) Bucks simply dont want to be around a bunch of hyper fawns and crabby territorial doe's. You may want to consider taking out some doe's on top of habitat improvements. How are your doe numbers?? This especially makes sense to me if you say your neighbors are harvesting an getting pics of great bucks. Im no expert just a bowhunter that learns as he goes. Take it for what its worth
B
BJE80
Guest
I have one full time resident doe/fawn family. And one other resident doe/fawn family that come around about twice a week or so. And then one bachelor group of a spike and a four pointer and a very small 6. I would not call it overrun. But they are definitely there.
You make an interesting point. I need to think about this more.
Steve Bartylla
5 year old buck +
I'll be honest. I'm struggling a little on how to respond to the whole TV, mag, next Steve B stuff. On the one hand, I do think a lot more people can have the "history" aspect of growing deer than believe. Often, the reasons they don't are because they aren't sure how to pull it off (nope, not brain surgery, but anything can seem like brain surgery until you understand how to do it), they destroy their place with human pressure or they aren't willing to do the work. I mean, check out the pics in the 3rd to last post on this page
http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/sample-plan.355/page-6
I've got history on all of them. They came from an 80 and a 120, not in areas known to produce great bucks and the land is good, but nothing out of this world. It's typical WI farm ground. They never had history with anything before.
On the flip side, not every property works for growing deer. My younger brother is a teacher and owns just 40 acres up north. Everything else he hunts is local farm ground he knocks on doors to get hunting permission or public grounds. His 40 won't grow bucks, period, but he's setup to suck them in. Between his 40 and the other ground he's worked to get on, he arrows a good buck in NW WI dang near every year.
No doubt, Mags, TV and even me, myself to a greater extent than I should, take the very best situations and make it seem like everyone can have them. That can be a very damaging thing in many ways. That said, there are a handful of people that don't have great land to hunt, many don't have any private land to hunt, and they kill good deer every single year, while the vast majority of their hunting buddies at work don't. Sure, part of that is skill, but I truly believe more than anything it's a drive to do so and attention to detail.
Look at how many people make excuses for why they don't hunt public grounds or why they can't kill good bucks there. As I type, 4 public land bucks are looking down at me and I have another couple on the walls down stairs. Sorry for sounding like a jerk, as I know I have unfair advantages even on the public grounds than most (time is a big advantage...No, not hours in the trees, but time to scout and the flexibility to be able to hunt when the conditions are ripe).
Sorry if I offend anyone with this, but the parts I'm torn on is that I think on the one hand people are generally far too willing to make excuses for why they aren't killing 3.5 yr olds (racks mean nothing, age is key in my book...that 2.5 yr old 130 sure isn't a better buck than the 110 4.5 yr old), when the mirror often holds the real answer. At the same time, there are areas where it's a ton harder (see the MN guys' plight, as an example) and shooting a 3.5+ isn't and shouldn't be the priority for everyone. Some just want to grow deer more than anything else, and, though I'm confident that more ground can than can't, not all ground can grow bucks. There's a fine line between making excuses and having realistic expectations. When I'm hunting WI public ground, I don't care what the rack looks like, I find a 3.5 and I'm killing it without hesitation. The C MN ground, I just want to kill a 4.5 there this year (big chunk of ground), but it's rack likely won't be pretty. The 80 or 120 WI ground I manage, a "nice" 3.5 is fine. IL, I have my sights set on a 5.5 & a 6.5. If I don't kill one with the bow and the other with a gun, I'll actually be disappointed, and I should be. Both are killable deer, the property is now officially setup stupid easy to hunt and I can spend as much time there as I want (within self imposed family limitation, of course).
The one area I've dropped the ball this year is on public ground and not getting myself setup already in WI and MN. I haven't made the time. I could sell the excuse that I've been sooooooo busy and just couldn't, but it's on me. I simply didn't make the time, and that's OK, but the answer to why is still looking at me in the mirror. because of that, I'm likely to have a down season (compared to typical seasons) and I'm the one to blame, no one or anything else. I worked harder than ever this past year, but didn't work anywhere close as hard on setting myself up as normal.
No doubt this incoherent rambling comes off offensive to some and makes me look like a horrifically spoiled baby. It was not meant to do either. Like it or not, most of you guys are my friends. I know it's weird, since most of us have never met. On the one hand, I don't want to see you have unrealistic expectations. On the other, I think it's a shame and waste when people make excuses or compare themselves to other hunters that don't kill. Few are as driven as those here (and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with either side of that). Don't allow them to set the bar for you. You can do a heck of a lot better, IF you really want too.
Last comment and I'll shut up, if you read this and believe it is aimed at "you", it's not. None of this is written with anyone in mind...Just incoherent, free flow of thoughts that I doubt help anyone, but hopefully does help someone.
http://habitat-talk.com/index.php?threads/sample-plan.355/page-6
I've got history on all of them. They came from an 80 and a 120, not in areas known to produce great bucks and the land is good, but nothing out of this world. It's typical WI farm ground. They never had history with anything before.
On the flip side, not every property works for growing deer. My younger brother is a teacher and owns just 40 acres up north. Everything else he hunts is local farm ground he knocks on doors to get hunting permission or public grounds. His 40 won't grow bucks, period, but he's setup to suck them in. Between his 40 and the other ground he's worked to get on, he arrows a good buck in NW WI dang near every year.
No doubt, Mags, TV and even me, myself to a greater extent than I should, take the very best situations and make it seem like everyone can have them. That can be a very damaging thing in many ways. That said, there are a handful of people that don't have great land to hunt, many don't have any private land to hunt, and they kill good deer every single year, while the vast majority of their hunting buddies at work don't. Sure, part of that is skill, but I truly believe more than anything it's a drive to do so and attention to detail.
Look at how many people make excuses for why they don't hunt public grounds or why they can't kill good bucks there. As I type, 4 public land bucks are looking down at me and I have another couple on the walls down stairs. Sorry for sounding like a jerk, as I know I have unfair advantages even on the public grounds than most (time is a big advantage...No, not hours in the trees, but time to scout and the flexibility to be able to hunt when the conditions are ripe).
Sorry if I offend anyone with this, but the parts I'm torn on is that I think on the one hand people are generally far too willing to make excuses for why they aren't killing 3.5 yr olds (racks mean nothing, age is key in my book...that 2.5 yr old 130 sure isn't a better buck than the 110 4.5 yr old), when the mirror often holds the real answer. At the same time, there are areas where it's a ton harder (see the MN guys' plight, as an example) and shooting a 3.5+ isn't and shouldn't be the priority for everyone. Some just want to grow deer more than anything else, and, though I'm confident that more ground can than can't, not all ground can grow bucks. There's a fine line between making excuses and having realistic expectations. When I'm hunting WI public ground, I don't care what the rack looks like, I find a 3.5 and I'm killing it without hesitation. The C MN ground, I just want to kill a 4.5 there this year (big chunk of ground), but it's rack likely won't be pretty. The 80 or 120 WI ground I manage, a "nice" 3.5 is fine. IL, I have my sights set on a 5.5 & a 6.5. If I don't kill one with the bow and the other with a gun, I'll actually be disappointed, and I should be. Both are killable deer, the property is now officially setup stupid easy to hunt and I can spend as much time there as I want (within self imposed family limitation, of course).
The one area I've dropped the ball this year is on public ground and not getting myself setup already in WI and MN. I haven't made the time. I could sell the excuse that I've been sooooooo busy and just couldn't, but it's on me. I simply didn't make the time, and that's OK, but the answer to why is still looking at me in the mirror. because of that, I'm likely to have a down season (compared to typical seasons) and I'm the one to blame, no one or anything else. I worked harder than ever this past year, but didn't work anywhere close as hard on setting myself up as normal.
No doubt this incoherent rambling comes off offensive to some and makes me look like a horrifically spoiled baby. It was not meant to do either. Like it or not, most of you guys are my friends. I know it's weird, since most of us have never met. On the one hand, I don't want to see you have unrealistic expectations. On the other, I think it's a shame and waste when people make excuses or compare themselves to other hunters that don't kill. Few are as driven as those here (and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with either side of that). Don't allow them to set the bar for you. You can do a heck of a lot better, IF you really want too.
Last comment and I'll shut up, if you read this and believe it is aimed at "you", it's not. None of this is written with anyone in mind...Just incoherent, free flow of thoughts that I doubt help anyone, but hopefully does help someone.
B
BJE80
Guest
1. Food Plots - Agreed. A destination food source would change my property I think.
2. Thermal Bedding - Somewhat agree. But I would need to have much more food to pull it off. Since the large Ag is far away I would still need to find a way to feed them. Otherwise having thermal bedding isn't going to help much IMO and complete.
3. Waterholes - I'm sorry but I laughed out loud. Waterholes in our area? There are probably 50 natural waterholes on my property during dry times and many many many more during wet times. And on all the othersurrounding properties as well. And I actually have a man made pond. Deer don't have to walk far to find a puddle of water. Water is not a problem in our area.
I give you an idea.
B
bat man
Guest
BJE
Is that trail on the border or through the middle of your 40?
Is that trail on the border or through the middle of your 40?
B
BJE80
Guest
Its an 80. I am going to post an aerial in a few min. The main trail goes down the center of the 80.
B
BJE80
Guest
I was going to start a new thread on this and still may.
My 80 is within the green. Existing logging trails are in orange. Existing plots are in Pink. The larger food plot in the center has 5 new apple trees on the north side. On the lower right hand corner in red on the inside corner I planted 5 more apple trees and will be be another small plot that will be doing by hand there by clearing the scrubs by hand and spraying.
The field to the bottom right is an open field that does not have anything planted in it and it does not get tall enough for deer to bed in it.
Here is a view zoomed out of the entire area.
My 80 is within the green. Existing logging trails are in orange. Existing plots are in Pink. The larger food plot in the center has 5 new apple trees on the north side. On the lower right hand corner in red on the inside corner I planted 5 more apple trees and will be be another small plot that will be doing by hand there by clearing the scrubs by hand and spraying.
The field to the bottom right is an open field that does not have anything planted in it and it does not get tall enough for deer to bed in it.
Here is a view zoomed out of the entire area.
B
BJE80
Guest
And here is the ever important topo.
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