Pep talk!

[Football Hunter]

You can make a BIG difference on your local deer hear by getting in some hard work.After talking to my neighbors several times this year,and them all saying they arent seeing many deer,zeroing out even on a weekend,I was amazed.

Im covered in deer.The 500 acres south and east of me is a timber co lease,all hardwood draws and ridges,the 275 aces north of me is pretty much the same,but has been select cut several years ago.No food plots on either one,little bedding cover.

My place is in the middle I created 2 bedding areas,one about 2 acres,one about 4 acres,just by cutting all the junk trees,they really got thick,and full of browse.Also worked hard to get my Ph right on my 6 food plots,and they really use em.

I may be wrong,but I feel like Ive just made my place the place to be,and feeling confident Im gonna see deer on every hunt is a great feeling.

So get out there and put out the welcome mat!

 

[PickettSFHunter]

If you build it, they will come.

 

[AllOutdoors]

Good post. You are right! And congradulations on your hard work.

 

[BSK]

If you build it, they will come.

I agree.

 

[Blount County Hunter]

Sounds good, we have been slowly doing the same on our land, planted lots of persimmons, crabapples, and a few others, also got a 3 acre food plot, but keep it up, I have noticed a surge in deer in my area over the years too

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

i am working on the same things you did,i am also planting fruit trees

 

[Football Hunter]

i am working on the same things you did,i am also planting fruit trees

Oh yeah,Ive done that too,but a chainsaw makes a big difference overnight,I cant wait to see some fruit production.

 

[ttf909]

wonder if you can be sued for ruining your neighbors deer hunting?lol
good job! hard work pays off

 

[Jarred525]

Good post FH. Hard work does pay off. I have seen that in my property and it motivates me to work even harder to make it better. Just wish I had more time and $!

 

[TS_13]

Just wish I had more time and $!

x2! I second that.

 

[BowGuy84]

I agree as well. We saw more deer this year than last and more last than the year before. It sometimes seems to come slowly, but it all makes a difference.

 

[deerchaser007]

I really wish i could say the same,.. but after 10 years,..all the money and work,... my observations and pics are not showing a sustained result. I enjoy plotting and inprovements,.. but when you get down to the nitty gritty,.. you want results,. either thru camera census or on the ground. We was more successful before improvements, both cam census and harvests and stand observations. I've got to were i don't even enjoy hunting my own property for deer any longer.

 

[Buckhunter72]

I agree that habitat improvements are key, but although they make your place better for holding deer, it also makes the need for hunting skills that much more important. We have a 200+ acre farm that has some of the best cover, food plots, bedding areas around us. We have the deer, but it also makes hunting those big boys tuff. When deer movement is low, and over abundent mass production, like this year, even though you have the deer, they are sometimes hard to hunt.

We have had to become much better hunters, since we have made our habitat improvements, but we are getting the hang of it. 4 mature bucks this year with 6 hunters on two properties that make up 330 acres of hills and hollows. We just added another 87 acres this week. More deer to figure out. It is a problem I love having.

 

[primos32]

Good post! I hope to have success as well!

 

[BSK]

I agree that habitat improvements are key, but although they make your place better for holding deer, it also makes the need for hunting skills that much more important. We have a 200+ acre farm that has some of the best cover, food plots, bedding areas around us. We have the deer, but it also makes hunting those big boys tuff. When deer movement is low, and over abundent mass production, like this year, even though you have the deer, they are sometimes hard to hunt.

We have had to become much better hunters, since we have made our habitat improvements, but we are getting the hang of it. 4 mature bucks this year with 6 hunters on two properties that make up 330 acres of hills and hollows. We just added another 87 acres this week. More deer to figure out. It is a problem I love having.

Excellent post.

Just because a property supports/attracts mature bucks doesn't mean those mature bucks are that much easier to hunt. You still have to seriously upgrade your hunting skills to kill mature bucks regularly.

The one big advantage of major habitat improvements is how they are arranged. If you think/plan ahead, habitat alterations can be done to produce more predicatable deer movement patterns.

 

[deerchaser007]

I agree buckhunter,.. fully agree!! BUT,.. it just has not worked for us on my property. We are having much better success at observations, cam census, and harvests on our northern property than on my property,.. and thats were i spend my money the most. The northern property is 60% hillside pasture in 10 to 15 year regrowth. Its a absolute jungle that you can't walk thru in spots. VERY hard hunting,. but we have a more positive result.

Pictured above is by far my best food plot. I picked this location based on deer patterns thru stand observations and camera census. This ridgetop plot is adjacent to a lowgap funnel that consistently produced multiple deer sightings at every sitting, several harvest before the plot was implemented, and great cam census from a mineral lick in the bottom of the lowgap.Also, a finger ridge out behind it that deer always scraped and rubbed. From all the literature i had read,. this was a perfect set up for a food plot. We don't hunt the food plot,. we hunt the other side of the lowgap trying to catch them funneling thru,.. but since this food plot was implemented we have not harvested a buck, i have not photoed a mature buck,. and have observed very few 2.5+ bucks in that funnel. Prior to the food plot being implemented,. we harvested 4 bucks from that funnel, photoed bucks every summer census,.. and always had good observations. This from a 5 year survey from that area. I simply cannot put my finger on what happened,. was it the food plot,.. was it the logging that was done in 05(mostly hard maple in that gap),what changed??
In this spot i have considered some different sratigies trying to get the deer to feel safe again in this area. 1. eliminate the food plot,.. let it grow up every year in natural browse and bush hog in the spring. 2. let the plot go and put back in either fruit trees or stomp some acorns in the ground,. 3. keep the food plot,.. and clearcut the lowgap all the way thru and let it grow back up into a jungle(mostly hard maple left in the lowgap with sumac undergrowth, lowgap is 200 yards long and around 80 yards wide.)4. do nothing and observe a few more years

I really hate to let this plot go,.. the deer sightings have dropped dramatically, but my turkey hunting has improved dramatically in this area. I love my turkey hunting,.. but would like to find a compromise!!

 

[TS_13]

That is a really good looking plot....

 

[PickettSFHunter]

That is a great looking plot, you know what I say though, it needs some apple trees

Hard for me to imagine not getting older bucks on cam in a food plot.

 

[Jarred525]

Great looking plot. As much work as you have put in it, would hate to not keep it going. I would vote number 3 and add a few fruit trees. Might also consider a band of corn or something high growing around the edges if the soil is good and it gets enough sun?

 

[deerchaser007]

Thanks guys,.. its a great plot,. and i thought a perfect location. As you can see from the pic above,. if you look right of the plot out the ridge is the finger ridge that was a constant for many rubs and scrapes,.. that finger ridge runs for several hundred yards out past that plot to the point,.. and of course below me in the pic is the head of the lowgap on the plot side,.. you can see the maples and the sumac undergrowth in the pic. The past 3 to 4 years have really fallen off in this area for buck sightings and camera census.

This pic is of my lick in the bottom of the lowgap running a flat along the bottom side of the gap.About 60 yards down from the plot. Every year my summer census was strong on this lick. That mature buck was the last one photoed in that gap on summer census, in 07. Since then,. i may just catch an occasional walk thru in the plot during my oct census. I never catch mature bucks feeding in the plot,.. only walking thru at night.

I'm in serious believe that my property has become a major doe sink the past few years. AND,.. i believe my plots is the leading factor in this happening. I'm the only one who plots around my farm,. and no agriculture in the ridge and holler area i'm in. One of my neighbors leases a farm that use to be hillside goat pasture. Its in 5 to 10 year regrowth with a large ridgetop field on top he keeps bush hogged. He kills some mature bucks every year,.. but i can't find a way to compete with that regrowth cover. I've got some serious looking to do on my farm if i'm gonna stay in the game as far as cover,.. but maybe i should eliminate the plots and let them become cover also. I'm still undecided on my plan of action at this time.

 

[Jarred525]

Do you have a good spot in the middle of your property to have a good cover area? That is usually my approach if feasible. Good cover in the center with plots around the edges.

 

[deerchaser007]

Great looking plot. As much work as you have put in it, would hate to not keep it going. I would vote number 3 and add a few fruit trees. Might also consider a band of corn or something high growing around the edges if the soil is good and it gets enough sun?

Soil ph is 6.6 and the plot gets full sun all day except a small portion along the lefthand side that gets shaded by afternoon sun from the trees. That pic is a few years old,. all along the edges now are grown up in brambles and pokeweed,.. also honeysuckle in brushpiles you see. The plot itself is now in perennial clover and chicory.
I really like option 3 also,. but we question how we would hunt this funnel if its in regrowth. Basically,.. if i did option 3 the lowgap would be like a powerline running thru the gap to the plot,.. i think i might be able to set up stand higher on the opposite side of the low gap at the point and stil see thru,. but that would only be for a few years of the regrowth. Do i really want to let my funnel go up in regrowth?

 

[deerchaser007]

Do you have a good spot in the middle of your property to have a good cover area? That is usually my approach if feasible. Good cover in the center with plots around the edges.

Not really at this time. There is a 5 acre track of the old homeplace that i need badly to promote the cover in the center. Hoping to buy when it sells.


Football hunter,... sorry for taking over your thread!!

 

[Buckhunter72]

Deerchaser, that is a great looking plot. It is amazing how you can have a plot that looks so good, in a high traffic area and not have mature deer in it, even if only at night. But it happens. We have a 2 acre field that has been planted for several years. It is on a ridge top, just like you describe. It used to be just a grown up field, and the deer, mature deer, used to wear it out as a travel route. Put a food plot there several years ago, and the mature bucks seem to stay away, does and young bucks now. We let the edges grow back into thick briar edges and seperated the plot in half with another briar thicket running through the middle of it. Helped out a bunch this year. Deer seemed to be much more at ease while in the field and actually had a daytime visit from a mature 9 pointer. Brother-in-law was waiting on him.

I can't tell exactly how big your field is, but maybe you can let the edges grow back up a little, and provide an edge for the deer. Maybe let some of it grow into a winter thicket and bush hog it back in the spring. If the deer are not using the plot, you wouldn't have to worry about overbrowsing, so decreasing the size of the plot shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Football Hunter]

Deerchaser007,no problem,any QDM talk is good in January

 

[yellowlabmann]

While I agree that having good looking, properly done food plots, thickets and other cover is important and helpful in seeing good deer, I think it just as important to stay out of the area as much as possible and not "ride around" during hunting season. Often times a neighbor with good food plots is all that is needed. Take the pics below for example. Minimal food plots on the property these were killed on and most of the area would be considered "thick," but bucks were seen all year and there were several does taken. There were also many sits with minimal deer activity. Two neighbors have abundant food plots the deer utilize at night and we catch them coming back to bed on our property.

Notice how thick the background is in the first photo. I would suggest that bigger deer prefer the "thick" stuff as opposed to the perfect deer woods in a hunters eyes, unless you view thick stuff as perfect like I'm starting too...

 

[Jarred525]

Good points. I have learned over the years that I would much rather have thick stuff over open area. Not as pretty, but man it produces the big bucks. You can do things to your property to promote the thick stuff yet still look good to the eye.

 

[BSK]

Yellowlabmann,

Your post is one of the concepts I keep trying to get across to people. I don't think I've picked up a client yet that didn't originally think their problem was associated with needing more or better food plots. As I say all the time, propoganda (advertising) works, and works amazingly well. Everyone has been sold--by TV hunting shows and magazine articles--on the idea food plots are THE key to hunting success. Although many consider it blashemous, I've been saying for a long time that food plots are HIGHLY over-rated. They can be a powerful deer management tool in some situations, but I've seen properties managed very well that don't have a single food plot.

Another major problem I have with promoting good habitat management principles is that GREAT deer habitat is often quite ugly. Most hunters that can afford a nice chunk of hunting land come from an environment where "clean and pretty" is the way they like their landscaping. Getting them to make "ugly" is like pulling teeth.

Lastly, and I say this over and over and have great data to prove my point (yet many hunters still disagree), is that hunting pressure is probably one of the most important keys to success in seeing/killing old bucks, especially in woodland habitat.

 

[yellowlabmann]

BSK,

I've seen you say that on here in many ways over the last few years and am just learning to like the ugly stuff and to keep hunting pressure to a minimum to see good deer. Through my experiences over the last two seasons, keeping pressure to a minimum is THE most important tool to seeing bucks or any deer for that matter.

A neighbor to the farm where the above deer were killed, likes to ride his four wheeler a lot during the season. To the stand, back from the stand and all around. One fella in particlular has been known to leave the stand around 8am on a regular basis on his four wheeler, just to return an hour or two later. I'm convinced the deer know the sound of him coming in and out and the deer have set up a pattern to leave his nice food plots and fruit trees before daylight. If this neighbor were to walk in to his stands, using the wind in his favor, I believe he would have greater success seeing bucks. To his credit, he does claim to be "covered up with does."

 

[Football Hunter]

BSK,

I've seen you say that on here in many ways over the last few years and am just learning to like the ugly stuff and to keep hunting pressure to a minimum to see good deer. Through my experiences over the last two seasons, keeping pressure to a minimum is THE most important tool to seeing bucks or any deer for that matter.

A neighbor to the farm where the above deer were killed, likes to ride his four wheeler a lot during the season. To the stand, back from the stand and all around. One fella in particlular has been known to leave the stand around 8am on a regular basis on his four wheeler, just to return an hour or two later. I'm convinced the deer know the sound of him coming in and out and the deer have set up a pattern to leave his nice food plots and fruit trees before daylight. If this neighbor were to walk in to his stands, using the wind in his favor, I believe he would have greater success seeing bucks. To his credit, he does claim to be "covered up with does."

I know the pics are from deer taken on Mrs Manns property,although I havent met you yet YLAB MAN.Who is it that does all that riding ,as Ive heard it too.Just in case you thought it was me,I havent left a stand at 8 am in all the time Ive had that land,unless it was to retrieve a deer,but most deer Ive killed there have been in the afternoon so far.I hear lots of riding right at or after daylight.