Whats everyone doing?

[PickettSFHunter]

Jamestown, TN is having that much problems with bears?

Lord yes. I know one year we had a higher harvest during the archery season than anywhere in the state. It's not unusual for me to have 8-10 bears on the property that most of my fruit trees are on. You'll have more bear around anymore than you do bucks. Our habitat is much better for bears than the Smokies. If you care about deer, it's a terrible thing.

 

[buckaroo]

Lord yes. I know one year we had a higher harvest during the archery season than anywhere in the state. It's not unusual for me to have 8-10 bears on the property that most of my fruit trees are on. You'll have more bear around anymore than you do bucks. Our habitat is much better for bears than the Smokies. If you care about deer, it's a terrible thing.

Is there anything to prevent bears from destroying trees?

 

[Tn_Va_Hunter]

Is there anything to prevent bears from destroying trees?

SSS? i wonder if you could get a permit to take a few ?

 

[PickettSFHunter]

Is there anything to prevent bears from destroying trees?

I have gotten a permit before. There are so many you can't shoot them out though unless you spend 24/7 watching your trees. Some folks use stout electric fences with some decent results. My orchards are all out spread out though, so it just isn't practical. Local people are getting tired of the bears and starting to shoot them on sight due to all the issues they cause. My only real hope is that they get drastically reduced but it's just not feasible. They were stocked on public land, but the public land is the worst habitat in the area so they have really gotten the most dense on private land that's better habitat. Just not something you want when managing for deer. If I ever sell out here, I will buy where there are no bears within 200 miles lol It's way better to have hogs than bears honestly.

 

[buckaroo]

I have gotten a permit before. There are so many you can't shoot them out though unless you spend 24/7 watching your trees. Some folks use stout electric fences with some decent results. My orchards are all out spread out though, so it just isn't practical. Local people are getting tired of the bears and starting to shoot them on sight due to all the issues they cause. My only real hope is that they get drastically reduced but it's just not feasible. They were stocked on public land, but the public land is the worst habitat in the area so they have really gotten the most dense on private land that's better habitat. Just not something you want when managing for deer. If I ever sell out here, I will buy where there are no bears within 200 miles lol It's way better to have hogs than bears honestly.

I have had a few bears but only couple a year come thru on camera, Im sure I will have some issues

 

[Deck78]

We are entering our 4th year owning our new farm in Hickman and it is roughly 640 acres consisting of mainly 20 year old pines. We have some great topography and there are some 10 - 15 year old hardwoods trying to emerge along with some pockets of mature hardwoods. Our primary focus for the first few years was to reduce to locals attitudes towards trespassing, get to know the property boundaries and existing roads, establish the necessary infrastructure for future homesites and learn who we could work with as neighbors vs those that have no interest in being neighbors. This property has a long history of being part of a larger hunting lease that was apparently the wild west back in the day so that takes a while to undue those sins . There were some legacy foodplots that are in dire need of work and we have a long list of chores to get them back online.

Our long range goal is to create a multigenerational property where my parents as well as my brother and I can each have a house and enjoy the property for many generations to come. We have almost completed our parent's house and have built a shop, a 3sided equipment shed and have a 10x12 walk in cooler and butcher shop almost completed. Our primary goals this year are trying to create a plan for reducing the pines by at least 75% and implementing that plan if something can come together. We are continuing to work on bringing back existing food plots and opening up a few areas for ladder stands. Due to the density of the pines, we are unable to hunt a high percentage of the farm due to lack of sight line but we do have a long run of TVA lines and see some great opportunity to hunt using that as an advantage so that is getting a lot of our attention this season. It's going to be a long journey so just biting off what we can handle and trying to enjoy the journey!

 

[DoubleRidge]

We are entering our 4th year owning our new farm in Hickman and it is roughly 640 acres consisting of mainly 20 year old pines. We have some great topography and there are some 10 - 15 year old hardwoods trying to emerge along with some pockets of mature hardwoods. Our primary focus for the first few years was to reduce to locals attitudes towards trespassing, get to know the property boundaries and existing roads, establish the necessary infrastructure for future homesites and learn who we could work with as neighbors vs those that have no interest in being neighbors. This property has a long history of being part of a larger hunting lease that was apparently the wild west back in the day so that takes a while to undue those sins . There were some legacy foodplots that are in dire need of work and we have a long list of chores to get them back online.

Our long range goal is to create a multigenerational property where my parents as well as my brother and I can each have a house and enjoy the property for many generations to come. We have almost completed our parent's house and have built a shop, a 3sided equipment shed and have a 10x12 walk in cooler and butcher shop almost completed. Our primary goals this year are trying to create a plan for reducing the pines by at least 75% and implementing that plan if something can come together. We are continuing to work on bringing back existing food plots and opening up a few areas for ladder stands. Due to the density of the pines, we are unable to hunt a high percentage of the farm due to lack of sight line but we do have a long run of TVA lines and see some great opportunity to hunt using that as an advantage so that is getting a lot of our attention this season. It's going to be a long journey so just biting off what we can handle and trying to enjoy the journey!

Sounds like a good plan.....agree that the TVA powerline offers a great opportunity to create cultivated food plots as well as bush hogging natural vegetation to create new growth....ladder stands and shooting houses both are nice sitting on a powerline.... enjoy the journey!!

 

[BSK]

Our long range goal is to create a multigenerational property where my parents as well as my brother and I can each have a house and enjoy the property for many generations to come. We have almost completed our parent's house and have built a shop, a 3sided equipment shed and have a 10x12 walk in cooler and butcher shop almost completed.

I'm by NO MEANS a skilled builder, but we're slowly finishing an addition on our cabin. I don't even want to think about how many tongue-and-groove floor and wall boards I've cut.

 

[Deck78]

I'm by NO MEANS a skilled builder, but we're slowly finishing an addition on our cabin. I don't even want to think about how many tongue-and-groove floor and wall boards I've cut.

Love it! you can't beat that set up. What are you using to finish all that wood, an oil or a poly seal?

 

[BSK]

Love it! you can't beat that set up. What are you using to finish all that wood, an oil or a poly seal?

Every board has been polyurethaned and sanded twice. All 350+ of them...

 

[BigAl]

Every board has been polyurethaned and sanded twice. All 350+ of them...

I'd rather cut wood than sand/seal/paint any day.

 

[BSK]

I'd rather cut wood than sand/seal/paint any day.

Luckily, my brother-in-law polyed all of them in his garage. I just had to cut them all and both of us nailed them up. I had forgotten what a pain it is to get LONG tongue-and-groove boards to go together! Lots of wood blocks, hammers and prying to get them to seat properly.

 

[Kirk]

Luckily, my brother-in-law polyed all of them in his garage. I just had to cut them all and both of us nailed them up. I had forgotten what a pain it is to get LONG tongue-and-groove boards to go together! Lots of wood blocks, hammers and prying to get them to seat properly.

The results look awesome. I would say it was well worth the effort judging from the pictures.

 

[BSK]

The results look awesome. I would say it was well worth the effort judging from the pictures.

We are very pleased, but still have a few walls to go. Waiting on plumber to finish bathroom plumbing. Then comes all the boring trim work.

The trick with the interior walls was designing them to handle any settling of the exterior log walls as they dry and shrink. All of the interior walls had to have a 2-inch gap at the top for the roof to settle down onto. They are held in place by bolts run up through the walls into the ceiling. That gap is covered by wide trim boards fixed only to the roof. As the roof settles, the trim boards slide down both sides of the walls. Where interior stick walls meet exterior log walls, slots had to be cut in 2x4s where they meet the logs, so the bolts that fix them to the exterior logs could slide downwards as the walls settle.

 

[DeerCamp]

I'm sending off soil samples tomorrow to the Whitetail Laboratories in Memphis.

Will do some fertilizer and liming in the coming weeks, and plan to do maybe 1/2 acre of hinge cutting.

I don't think I'm going to plant anything extra this spring. I expect the clover and Cereal Rye will grow pretty well, with the rye providing a week prevention effort. In late summer I'll seed into it and then mow it down.

 

[Tom Collins]

I started with several hundred. We didn't have bears everywhere at the time. Now we have bears everywhere. Bears don't let the fruit get ripe. They tend to rip all of the limbs off and break the trees down as early as June. A deer doesn't have a prayer of getting an apple or pear or persimmon or anything here.

Bears are gonna keep pushing towards middle and up from the south. 20-30 years from now I'd say half the Tennessee counties will have bear populations.