Walleyeguy13
Yearling... With promise
Posting with the hope that this will motivate me to post progress and ask more questions, and to provide a reference for those who take the time to respond.
This is our property in Northern MN (red bordered square). Light green is adjacent public land. Our access is the yellow line.
This year was our first year hunting and the plan was to just look and learn. There is no shortage of deer moving through the property:
The trick is obviously getting them to stick around throughout the firearms season.
This property has pretty much the whole gamut of habitat; alder-lined swamp, open woods, thick aspen from old cuttings, moderate ridges with north and east facing slopes, etc. It finally snowed, so we can make a trek out there to see exactly where deer are bedding, but there really is no shortage of bedding habitat with clear signs of buck activity.
We think the first order of business is to get some food plots established.
The green shaded areas are the most obvious right now simply because they are open and located on the outer edges.
The first will be the roughly half acre field in the NW:
It is basically just grass right now. Has great screening on N, W and S sides and there is a ridge between it and the cabin to the east. The rickety old stand will be coming down.
The picture below is looking east. You can see the conifer stand and alder swamp just south of the field. Good bedding area that could probably be improved. The entire south border (the right side of this pic) is loaded with prime bedding from east to west.
We also need to establish some trails around the perimeter of the property to provide stand access and also establish travel corridors between known bedding areas and food plots. I think we would consider it a good start to get food and trails off the list before next season.
Anyway, that's the nickel tour. Stay tuned!
This is our property in Northern MN (red bordered square). Light green is adjacent public land. Our access is the yellow line.
This year was our first year hunting and the plan was to just look and learn. There is no shortage of deer moving through the property:
The trick is obviously getting them to stick around throughout the firearms season.
This property has pretty much the whole gamut of habitat; alder-lined swamp, open woods, thick aspen from old cuttings, moderate ridges with north and east facing slopes, etc. It finally snowed, so we can make a trek out there to see exactly where deer are bedding, but there really is no shortage of bedding habitat with clear signs of buck activity.
We think the first order of business is to get some food plots established.
The green shaded areas are the most obvious right now simply because they are open and located on the outer edges.
The first will be the roughly half acre field in the NW:
It is basically just grass right now. Has great screening on N, W and S sides and there is a ridge between it and the cabin to the east. The rickety old stand will be coming down.
The picture below is looking east. You can see the conifer stand and alder swamp just south of the field. Good bedding area that could probably be improved. The entire south border (the right side of this pic) is loaded with prime bedding from east to west.
We also need to establish some trails around the perimeter of the property to provide stand access and also establish travel corridors between known bedding areas and food plots. I think we would consider it a good start to get food and trails off the list before next season.
Anyway, that's the nickel tour. Stay tuned!
