I've been hunting this block of woods for 7 years. When we first moved here I shot a decent 8 pointer my first sit. Second sit I passed a nice 10 pointer (wanted my son to get a chance). Every year we were seeing less and less deer on the property. I grew up hunting around AG fields and found them pretty easy to hunt compared to this property.
After seeing the decline in deer sightings I started researching some and realized that I was hunting the property wrong. I was blowing out most of the property on the way in and out of stands and thermals were also getting me winded on sits when deer were actually on the property.
I have permission from the land owner this year to make some small improvements on the front half of the property and I now own the back half. I ;have been in touch with the food-plots-for-deer guys and am considering hiring them for help but I started to realize that I should be able to do this myself and put the money towards improvements. The nearest AG fields are over a mile away and are usually off around mid November. There are no oaks, apples or any other source of food other than browse on the property. I know I need to get some food in and also increase side cover along the south road. I work a full time job and also own a pest control company so I need to get at this asap as this is the only time of year that I have some spare time. My thoughts are to get a destination plot on the West side of the property and maybe a trail plot along the East side that turns West to keep the deer moving inside the property lines. Here are a few pics of what I'm working with. Property is just shy of 100 acres. Please be patient with me I am very new to this.
PS the guy across the swamp hunts a bit and his stand is right in the middle of the bedding area that I used to get my bucks coming from.
After seeing the decline in deer sightings I started researching some and realized that I was hunting the property wrong. I was blowing out most of the property on the way in and out of stands and thermals were also getting me winded on sits when deer were actually on the property.
I have permission from the land owner this year to make some small improvements on the front half of the property and I now own the back half. I ;have been in touch with the food-plots-for-deer guys and am considering hiring them for help but I started to realize that I should be able to do this myself and put the money towards improvements. The nearest AG fields are over a mile away and are usually off around mid November. There are no oaks, apples or any other source of food other than browse on the property. I know I need to get some food in and also increase side cover along the south road. I work a full time job and also own a pest control company so I need to get at this asap as this is the only time of year that I have some spare time. My thoughts are to get a destination plot on the West side of the property and maybe a trail plot along the East side that turns West to keep the deer moving inside the property lines. Here are a few pics of what I'm working with. Property is just shy of 100 acres. Please be patient with me I am very new to this.
PS the guy across the swamp hunts a bit and his stand is right in the middle of the bedding area that I used to get my bucks coming from.