Successful Deer Management Starts With Large Healthy Fawns: Management Implications By John J Ozoga   The general health status of fawns during autumn can reveal a great deal concerning the nutritional and social well-being of a deer population. For example, the frequent occurrence of pregnant doe fawns and/or “infant” antlered buck fawns are good indicators of a nutritionally and socially well-balanced deer herd. Conversely, poor annual recruitment rates and small,…

Bedding Area in a Bag Over the past decade or so I have experimented with a variety of warm season grass plantings. All of them worked great as whitetail bedding areas in the fall months but once the brutal winter weather with its snow and high winds took over, some plantings did not fare so well. They would simply get flattened to the ground where they would remain until spring…

Native Warm Season Grasses: The Forgotten Piece of the Habitat Puzzle By Don Higgins   The early October wind was from the perfect direction for me to hunt a new stand that I had placed the summer before. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this new location but sitting in a tree and watching Mother Nature’s show was always worthwhile. Back in May I had planted 15 acres of…

Frost seeding food plots Frost Seeding The act of frost seeding is to broadcast seeds on top of exposed soil in late winter or early spring, when temps are dropping below freezing at night and thawing during the day. With each freeze, the ground expands, only to contract when it thaws. The processes of expanding and contracting soil draws the seed into the earth, creating good seed to soil contact.…

Creating Cover Through Logging Don Higgins   As much as I enjoy the warm season grass fields on my property, I also like diversity in bedding cover just as I like diversity amongst my food plots. Thick woody vegetation makes a tremendous bedding area and I try to have plenty of it on my property and always suggest creating it when offering advice to others. Most wooded cover can be…

Successful Deer Management Starts With Large Healthy Fawns: Importance of Birth Timing and Health of Mother By John J Ozoga   Any successful deer management programs starts with large healthy fawns; stunted fawns reflect management failure. Small weak fawns are more likely to die soon after birth due to malnutrition or abandonment, are more likely to succumb to predators and disease, and are indicative of poor habitat and/or faulty deer…

Successful Deer Management Starts With Large Healthy Fawns: Importance of Birth Timing and Health of Mother By John J Ozoga   [caption id="attachment_1596" align="alignleft" width="300"] Whitetail food plot[/caption] Any successful deer management programs starts with large healthy fawns; stunted fawns reflect management failure. Small weak fawns are more likely to die soon after birth due to malnutrition or abandonment, are more likely to succumb to predators and disease, and are…

Setting goals for your deer hunting land By Steve Bartylla   By now, most every serious hunter at least has a decent idea of what benefits can be derived from habitat improvement and managing the population dynamics of a deer herd. The trick is figuring out how to pull it off. That begins with setting a goal. Most specifically, what is it that you hope to achieve from your management…

Overhunting a good stand Overhunting a good stand is a very common problem.  Every stand has a different detection level.  The more deer that know you were there, the higher risk stand it is.  Sometimes the best spot on your place has the worst access, and if you hunt it 2 or 3 times per year it blows the whole property. Overhunting a good stand [caption id="attachment_1578" align="alignleft" width="300"] Whitetail…

Nocturnal deer Kick the dog enough times he wont come around any more.  Deer are the same way.  Every time we bump a deer it learns something.  Give it enough lessons and it wont let you spook it anymore.   Nocturnal deer Steve talks on turning deer nocturnal and how to avoid it.