My family owns 200 acres which is split up between the 4 siblings equally. It is pretty much all timber and hardwoods with lot of ridges. My uncle just had A guy bulldozer trails throughout his part. I am now thinking about having same guy do a main trail through my dads 50 acres with some trails coming off of it along with at least one 1 acre clearing for a food plot next year. Figured too late this year. Guy said he could do it for $1500. I love to hunt and never felt like had lot of lame or access to land we had. Still learning,ha. Thought this could really be a big plus in creating a place to build a year in and out honey hole for deer. Also connects to 50 government acres to hunt. SO MY QUESTION IS , DO YOU THINK IT WOULD BE WORTH DOING THE CLEARING? Any other suggestions to invpcrease potential? Thanks!
Well first off do you own a 4wheeler? If so grab a chain saw and make your own trail/s. I did this and some of the trails I made get used, but for the most part they just cross over my trails. The fact that we observed was some deer started rerouting old trails to avoid the our trails. We opened a large section inside the middle of the woods to plant a good plot. Unfortunately what we did was ruin a great spot. We've actually stopped hunting this spot because we never see deer there anymore. Perhaps now that time has passed it could be good again, but I'll need camera proof
If you have the 1500 it is definitely worth doing the clearing. you will easily have that plus more invested if you do it yourself. I woul try to minimize cutting down mature oak and other mast trees if possible. Also while the dozer is there might want to do a few watering holes if none are nearby. Any habitat improvement ups your odds of attracting and holding deer. Good luck. If you do it soon might still be able to hunt lanes and get a spring plot in.
Did the same thing on our farm land wood lots. It has taken a couple of years for the deer to accept the changes but they are now using the trails and the food plot is being hit heavily. If you can afford it, go for it. I have almost as much fun planting and planning my hunts as I do hunting and it is lots of fun to just watch the deer and other animals that are using the food plot.
I'm not a fan of clearing in the woods. I like to keep it feeling natural. Finding spots that open up a little naturally, with good choices for stand locations. Remove underbrush to create good shooting lanes, spray and prep the soil and plant around the natural trees, rocks, stumps. Select cut 2 or 3 trees to open the canopy to allow the sunlight for planting. As the stumps rot, you can turn them into mineral stumps to me the deer seem more calm because they are still in the woods and not a clearing.
I was thinking of the road mainly to get easier access to different locations throughout the land, then walk to stand locations within the woods. As for the food plot itself, I was wanting to do it to help bring in deer from the rest of the area. We own 200 acres, however we are on the edge of the daniel boone which is acres upon acres. There is also a motorcross park about 100 acres away. So with that much woods I figured food plot(s) would help. Any other suggestions to pull deer to our acreage out of the deep woodlands? I am trying to figure out what the best way to go about this would be. Thanks for all the replies and input.
Okay, so after getting down to land and see what my uncle has already been done on his land I decided to hold off on doing my dads part. I did decide to have him create me a half acre food lot on my uncles land. He told me he would skim the top and leave most of the top soil. So is there anything I could spread for this winter or too late? He will have it finished tomorrow.
Dozer work I hired a guy this summer for 1.5 days. 1 day with his big dozer with 10 foot blade that cleared a perfect boundary trail around my 80 acres. I can now enter any stand around the trail without going anywhere near the middle (sanctuary) of my property and while keeping my scent out of my property (south wind I walk on north side to north stands). On the second day he used a "mini" to make 6-8 foot trails from the boundaries to my blinds that are all 30-50 yards in towards the center facing in towards the sanctuary. Again...quiet and easy access to my hunting spots. He also extended food plots so I have fps that have shape to them. Now they are L shaped which creates more of a cover feel for the deer. From the trail cam pictures it is clear the more mature deer hang in the small side of the L closer to the woods. Finally he dug a water hole. I already had a pond and two other places for them to get water. But, like humans the deer are lazy. So, they are killing this water hole that is between the bedding and ag versus walking to the others. Summary...worth every penny. I love working outside with the chainsaw and tractor, but this would of taken me 3-4 weeks (every day) and not nearly be as clean and perfect. I actually wish I had him do more. Well worth it.
I was lucky in the fact the property I hunt was logged out many years ago and I was able to clear the logging road fairly easy. It's a major factor in getting in and out
