New Project Ideas

[nolanls43]

I am venturing out on a leg in the near future. My buddy and I were planning on Building a shooting house in a field that is frequently traveled by all TN critters. I would like the shooting house to be at least 8-10 feet off the ground as the field is overgrown with thickets and populars. IF anyone has any recommendations and/or preferably blueprints for this project I would greatly appreciate some help.

In addition to the shooting house in the overgrown field I plan on clearing a large portion in the field to insert some type of forage. keep in mind the field is currently overgrown with brier bushes and small pop trees. anyone have a suggestion to what to plant or broadcast in this freshly cleared opening?

I know this is a HUGE project but I am always up to the task. Any advice and tips from the TNDEER Community would be greatly accepted!

THANK YOU
-Nolan

 

[Football Hunter]

Lots of shooting house threads on here in different forums,but I just thought it up and built one.If deer are already using the field pretty heavy,are you sure you wanna change anything?

 

[treefarmer]

If the field is large enough consider laying out the planted portion of the field such that you could have a controlled burn on 1/2 of the non-planted brush area each year. You would need a strip around the burn area you can disc to contain the burn. With a burn after deer season you get new growth of food each year, low maintenance, low cost, and cover for the deer. Another option if you have a bush hog is to plant mast trees in the non-planted area and bush hog some every year.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I like treefarmers idea regarding bush hogging every year to keep new growth coming back. You might do like some people I know and bush hog half of it in strips each year and cut the other half the next year. This way you always have young trees and weeds to give cover and lots of new growth close to the ground where deer can reach. If you don't do something, your nice thicket will quickly turn into mature woods that offer little to the deer and they'll spend a lot less time in there.

When I built my shooting house, I just put 4 6"x6" posts up, tied them together at the tops with 2'x10's, added 2"x6" floor joists and put a plywood floor on top. Then i framed it like a house with 2"x4"s and used 2"x4" rafters with a cheapo tin top. I built mine with the floor 10 feet off the ground as you said you wanted and wished I hadn't as it made it a lot morre trouble to work on, especially on the downhill side and I sure didn't need the height to see in the area I am in. Oh yeah, I made my floor 5'x6' thinking I would make it very comfortable for 2 people. It meets that for sure but the negative is that you have to move around to be able to see over the window sill if a deer approaches too close on that side. Not a big deal but movement makes noise.