Ohio property setup

Mattyq2402

5 year old buck +
I'm in the beginning stages of managing my grandparents old family farm in SE Ohio. It's where I plan to build when I retire. I discovered a year ago it has some giants close by and on it. I'm out west so I have limited time and $ to get someone in to help me build it. Wondering if anyone on here with experience in setting up ground could take a look at it and give me some ideas. I'll have 15 to 20 pear and crab grafts along with 12 new bluehill and mwdeer trees to put in and I want to make sure they go in the right places. Also there's a lot of field ground for food. There's a pesky neighbor who has extreme thick bedding, pretty sure he is pretty careless in how he hunts... Anyway, I can drop a map if anyone has a few to take a look.
 
The property attaches to two different uncle's pieces as well which I have sole bow season hunting access to. All in all there's a good 200 acres and change. It's completely different than the ground I've been working on for years 20 minutes away so looking for ideas from guys with more tillage acreage..
 
You should post maps. You'll probably get a lot of advice. The better you can explain the property the better the advice you will get. Sounds like you have a great bow hunting property where deer move through your place from thick bedding to food.
 
Let me know if the onx links attach, if not what's best way to get maps on here?

The attached pic is the western side of the future house site. The pic was taken across the old highway from my other uncles, I can't improve it but can hunt it. It's nasty thick fyi.

The upper portions of the field in the pic is fair game for planting but not sure what needs to go where. The pic is looking east. Bedding likely is on the neighbors thick jungle on the upper right portion of the pic. The property line runs at the top of the hill, about 350 yards east of the field line in the pic.theres an interior field with a couple old pear trees, that field is straight back from the knob in center of pic. That field could be planted or turned old field and used for transition. I'm no expert....

2nd on x link is my uncles and it can be planted, it's under james king onx. It's a narrow chunk that runs west to east and has access from both directions

I'll have the following trees this spring g to put in the ground

Blue hill #5x2, Ed's crazy crab x 2, and October crabx2.

Nativnurs- 12 wild crabs

Multiple Advent pear from bluehill

Multiple grafted pear from my old farm pear in my folks yard.

Midwestdeertrees.com 2 wildazz crabs, 2 country road crabs, and 2 mailbox crabs.


I'm trying to locate the best orchard sites on the two linked properties as well as food plot locations.

Tools are tractor, side by side, tiller, disk, sprayers, cultipacker, bag spreader, hab hook, saws.
 
Currently I only have treestands and groundblinds. I'm in the market for boxblinds but can't afford at the moment.

Property goal continued is to pull some of the local giants to me. A 190s was killed a mile to the south and a 160 was killed a mile to the north. I had a 170ish and multiple other really solid ones on here last november.

I retire in 7 years and want to have this place rocking when I make my cross country move. In the mean time I hunt a week in November every year and would like to have the opportunity to chase good bucks.

One more thing, since it's Ohio I'd like to get the best corn feed locations based on the layout.
 
I wasn't able to access your maps. Your best bet is probably to screen's hot the map and post it as a photo.

The first advice you will probably get is to figure out how the deer move on the property before you go changing things. And it's solid advice. Have you hunted it a long time? Do you know where the bucks bed? How often are the big boys on the property?

You might want to start with some cameras to get an idea of movement.
 
From my cams the past two years Bucks show in mid October through mid November. The year the pears were in there were a lot of buck pics, the does concentrated on the food. The property has a lot of big open canopy, lots of old oaks which likely won't be coming down. The neighbor ground to southeast is where I imagine the bedding takes place.
I wasn't able to access your maps. Your best bet is probably to screen's hot the map and post it as a photo.

The first advice you will probably get is to figure out how the deer move on the property before you go changing things. And it's solid advice. Have you hunted it a long time? Do you know where the bucks bed? How often are the big boys on the property?

You might want to start with some cameras to get an idea of movement.
First pic is the main property under joy quinn. It attaches to my uncles James king in the northeast corner, ive attached james two sections which run west to east. The stand pin in the first pic is near the property line with extreme thick, that's where the established pear trees are. Neighbor has a corn feeder down in the middle of the thick stuff.

So far from cam observations it seems to pull bucks in for pre rut and rut. There's a lot of old oaks and not much cover. My guess is by the way the deer I've observed along with cams is the property directly east (Michelle wandling) has the bedding.
Do you see potential for food to pull from the bedding?
 

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This is the other uncle property which us west of the main joy quinn piece, I can't manipulate it, its crazy thick with lots of edge, water, fruit, and I've had pics of some good bucks on it too
 

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It looks like paradise. I do think you can control a bit of movement by adding some food, but I would take small steps for sure. You're lucky you have such a big area to hunt. I would focus on stand selection and access before starting with food plots.
 
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