"Must Do's" when taking over a new property?????

Bushape

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In recent years I have hunted exclusively on a TN lease. Decided to take a walk on my mother's 40 acre home place in Alabama yesterday and it's got me wanting to try my hand at creating my own deer paradise.
I'd say the surrounding 1000 acres is hilly land with various stages of plantation pine with your standard rye/oat/clover mix .10 acre food plots. This place has gone pretty well unhunted for years except for the slight possibility that an adjoining lease may have taken a few liberties around unmarked property lines.
Has been logged over a few times so no timber of great value but cutover has now grown so that you can see 75-100 yards in any direction. Some oaks that I'll spare but thinking of clearcutting every acre of ground that's tillable and going back with plantation pine. I should have the luxury of providing low pressure cover as well as food plots as large as I'd like.
Any other advice would be appreciated.
 

Boll Weevil

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My first must-do items would be 1) Post it and 2) find out who your neighbors are and exchange contact info and 3) shutdown the trespassing.

One thing to consider is if everything else around you is planted pine, the fact that you're hardwood may be a key differentiator. I think you're spot-on focusing on food but not just plots; encourage lots of natural browse too.
 

younggun308

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May not be the first thing, but on a small plot of only 40 acres, considering access routes is important. Can you get to, say 3 different general areas of the tract (where topography, oaks, etc. tell you there should be deer) without busting up another?
 

Bushape

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May not be the first thing, but on a small plot of only 40 acres, considering access routes is important. Can you get to, say 3 different general areas of the tract (where topography, oaks, etc. tell you there should be deer) without busting up another?
Yeah this is a big issue for me. My access is all from the North and the lowest point of the property so I'll be traveling uphill to pretty much all stand locations. I'm not a fan of trying to get up hills to hunt deer from a strategy standpoint.
 

Bushape

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My first must-do items would be 1) Post it and 2) find out who your neighbors are and exchange contact info and 3) shutdown the trespassing.

One thing to consider is if everything else around you is planted pine, the fact that you're hardwood may be a key differentiator. I think you're spot-on focusing on food but not just plots; encourage lots of natural browse too.
By hedge cutting/daylighting?? Cutover stands are a good deal of hickory, pine, cherry, etc.
 

Boll Weevil

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1) Majority hickory, pine, and cherry isn't really going to help much in the deer food department so you might want to consider interplanting some other hard mast species. A few years ago I interplanted poplar, mulberry, red, and cherrybark oak into a 20ac stand of mature hardwood where some storm timber had been removed. Because of the big holes in the canopy allowing lots of sunlight, the new saplings have absolutely thrived.

2) Daylighting will certainly work for encouraging native browse along roads or edges. Greenbriar, poke, blackberry, honeysuckle, ragweed, etc will all help feed deer during the growing season. If you have access, lightly disk as much edge as you can and let Ma'nature do the rest.

3) A timber stand improvement (TSI) project might be in your future to reduce stem density and improve species mix. One outcome I totally stumbled on through TSI projects is stump sprouting = deer food with most of those stump sprouts being literally browsed to death.
 
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younggun308

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Consider bottom stand location facing up hill. Low ground should hunt well in the evenings as the thermals will pull your scent downhill.

Good luck!

AND right at first light.

Could consider a two-stage setup. Stand facing uphill at LST, gradually transitioning to a stand higher up, pointed yet further uphill/ across the top/down the other side (if applicable). Or just clear a great path and hunt different stands at different times of day.
 

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