Month: May 2014

Creating buck beds

Creating buck beds I've purposefully saved creating buck beds for towards the end, as I believe making buck beds is generally one of the least beneficial things we can do and an overall low priority. Still, they may make a small difference in further encouraging a buck to bed where he would have wanted to, anyway. That is the key, in my experience. It would take someone far more skilled than I…

Selective thickening

Selective thickening Selective Thickening is nothing more than hinge cutting the smaller trees to provide the appearance, security and advantages of a "thicker" woods. Simply by hinging all the small trees, one does get a slight boost in browse production. Though not as effective as creating the doe bedding, you'll also often get increased bedding activity within. However, the primary benefits can be found in making bucks feel more secure…

Hinge cuts for doe bedding

Hinge cuts for doe bedding When it comes to creating doe bedding areas, height matters. In this case, I'm cutting about at chest level. I'm also trying to lay the trees over each other to create a false ceiling. That's not always possible and isn't an issue when it can't occur, as cutting higher still allows the deer to walk easily underneath. The size of these varies, but I typically…

Should I hire a habitat consultant?

The time to determine if a consultant's general approach is right for you/you are comfortable following through with the principles of their plan is before you pay for a plan, not after. No, one will likely not know all the details they'll be given, but you should know the foundation type principles. Granted, Jeff's first book doesn't make it clear that he doesn't want to offer much for overwinter nutrition…

Building deer numbers

If maximizing doe production is important, don't ignore a property's amount and quality of fawning grounds. You need fairly decent size areas of nasty thick cover to maximize fawn survival rates. By decent sized, I mean an acre or more, though, for fawn production, 5 acre pieces are better, with 10 being better still and 20 still better and so on. Again, it's a balance between providing the best hunting…

Deer sidewalks and sneak trails

Deer sidewalks or sneak trails Those "sidewalks" are most often created by a combo of hinging all the trees safe to hinge, cutting those that tend to snap and girdling those that the chainsaw operator isn't comfortable with. If timber value is a major concern, you can leave high value trees, but leaving too many will impact the regrowth [caption id="attachment_1981" align="alignleft" width="300"] sidewalks and sneak trails[/caption] Deer sidewalks or…

Finding the perfect fit

Finding the Perfect Fit By Steve Bartylla   It was one of the easiest 60 acre properties I’d ever worked on. This Wisconsin property offered great access from three sides. Creating food plots along the edges would provide easy, very low impact access to stand sites. With the 40 being entirely wooded, the plot areas would need to be dozed in, but that provided the advantage of shaping them to…

Website on Food Plots

Website on Food Plots Thanks for checking out our new website! Our goal is simple. We want to provide you with the most informative, detailed oriented, step by step guide to managing your hunting land and deer population available. In fact, we don’t even want to make it close. Taking it further, we also want to fill he massive void of doing this all in a way that dictates movement…

Turkey food plots for deer

Turkey food plots for deer Nothing like an in your face turkey hunt in you food plots for deer to get the spring bloood pumping.                   Turkey food plots for deer   Last years corn fields are excellent Turkey food plots for deer. Turkey food plots for deer They like a fine looking jake decoy.