For those of you who own the land that they hunt on, and have the ability to make their land in ways that they want it. Have you done any extra work on your land that you wouldn't normally have done to try and improve your land and attract more bucks? Reason being is, i just read Field and Streams, The Total Deer Hunter Manual, and they talk about making beds for bucks, and having a sanctuary on your land that you stay out of during the season and right before. My goal is grow and hold, and eventually harvest big bucks. They talk about going in and knocking over a few trees together, and then scraping the leaves away so that the bucks will bed there. Then basically you just hunt the trails that they take to the sanctuary. So basically Im going into my second year of managing my land. The first 3 years were all does. This year we have 2-3 8-9 pointers and 1 big 10. This is after we put a food plot in and its getting established with using BB2, and Monster Raxx (i should get an advertising bonus for that plug) and corn feeders year round. All of this just to ask for advice on what people have done.
I'm in the process of transforming my land...this is kind of a running journal I've been keeping. link: http://forums.bowhunting.com/food-plots-habitat-improvement/48301-permanent-cover-questions.html
Yep, hinge cutting trees has been the biggest improvement on my property. I leave half my property a sanctuary and within that sanctuary I am hinge cutting bedding areas that the deer use to feel safe and free of human scent. Within bedding area I make it look like a maze where deer can get in and out easy and move around. I hinge my trees at chin height inside a bedding area. Scoot
Even though I don't have any land to manage it is something I am interested in and that I've begun looking into. I am in the middle of reading Hunting Mature Whitetails The Lakoskey Way and so far I am very impressed. They have some good information on "low impact" hunting that I find to be very intriguing. It follows along the same lines of your sanctuary idea but takes it a step further than that. Even if your goals aren't to grow dear to 5.5 years or older I believe all the principals are the same. I picked up my copy for about $15 bucks and the read is well worth it if you ask me.
Hinging is the #1 way to create bedding, sight line blocking, cover, food and travel control on a property! Throughout 2014 I will be offering extensive videos and more content on hinge cut examples on Small Acre Hunting (new site launching Saturday)....but honestly look up hinge cutting and you'll get some good and some bad hinging information...sift through it all.
You can ask a hundred different people this question and get a thousand different answers and people arguing back and forth about this way and that....it's about like asking how to best care for your pickup and what products to use. IMHO, the best thing you can do is define your goals, decide how realistic those goals are and plan around that. No one else is managing land under your exact circumstances. There are some techniques and tools that most of us commonly use but don't always work in every situation or don't fit in well under certain circumstances and or don't work well for others but may be exactly what will work for you. Define your goals. Read a lot of research material. Ask opinions on specific practices Make a long term plan that you can realistically implement in time, labor and money. Have fun...don't make it so complicated that it takes the fun out of it. On the last point, that is very easy to do with all the products on the market, people screaming this has to be done or don't do this or that....it's all noise. Keep it simple and work your way into it. Do a lot of research and don't over think it. Deer need food, water and bedding...the thrive with predator control and low pressure areas. Like cattle, best way to keep them fat is to provide those elements so they don't have to travel a lot to meet their requirements. They get run down from the rut, the faster you can get them to recover post-rut...the more effective your management will be and the faster your deer will gain in quality.
I don't always agree with Covey but lots of good points. The number one thing that has to be answered is what do you personally want, primary goal? The answer to that will dictate a lot of the following questions. Each property, even two side by side, could have vast differences in what could/should be done to them to elevate the hunting to what you desire. Ultimately the decision is your's, but also don't be afraid to look around at others, join some of the cheaper sites about habitat and get ideas....while I do property visits I think financial someone can learn over time just as much and save the $200, $300 or even up into the $1000 range for a consulting trip by joining a few sites...now if you have the money to have a person come to you directly....it can be a very very valuable thing to do. I cannot believe what I learn every time I have a fellow hunter walk my properties...a new set of knowledgeable eyes can be worth a lot.
Our land in Ohio we have been trying to do a few things over the years to improve things. It was bought on a land contract from a family member who put a few stipulations in it so we have been limited for a while to do a lot of the stuff we really want. The first thing we have done is create a sanctuary. The thought was good but for the first several years the majority of that sanctuary only held a few deer. This past year we more than doubled the size of it which now includes some plantings of switch grass and allowing other portions to grow up instead of being mowed every year. When we can we intend on planting many white pine in that area too. The last two years we have successfully started planting food plots. This was accomplished by my buddy purchasing a tractor that has a tiller attachment. We tried to half-a$$ it in years past by mowing and raking up the ground but it never amounted to much if anything. That is the one thing I think is a must to have for a land manager. This past year too we finally were able to get access from another property for our farmer to be able to get in to two of our big hay/grass fields to actually plant a crop. The road in from our property was too steep and had a couple sharp turns that would not allow him to bring in a combine, only a tractor, mower and baler. Minerals IMO has been the one thing that we have had the most success with until now for helping the deer get to their potential. At first I tried some off named brands, a few Trophy Rock's, trace mineral salt from TSC and even some home made concoctions but this past year we tried Monster RAXX. After a few years of seeing people using it through trail camera pictures and the results they were having I had to give it a try. To say I was satisfied would be an understatement and the results to me proved it was one of the best decisions we have made for down there. The only problem I have now is determining the age of deer as the deer I shot this year I thought was a 3 1/2 year old and ended up being aged at 2 1/2.
I agree with you, but I also feel the principles are the same. Provide adequate food and security for the deer and you'll hopefully be able to hold them on your property. Providing the security for the deer involves more than just creating bedding areas though, it's keeping the pressure off the deer so they feel secure in your property. For example, getting your scouting done extremely early and staying off the majority of your property year round. I agree wholeheartedly with you that the results should and will likely be better on larger parcels of land, but with the same tactics you can make almost any size property better. To me it's all about food and security.
Oh for sure...I mean you're talking to a guy whose website's tag line is "Doing BIG things on a small time scale". Anything can be done to scale, on any property
I have a lot of respect for Lee Lakosky, never met the guy but I'm impressed with his knowledge every time I hear him discuss management. Yes, they have a lot of land now but it wasn't always the case, I suspect he would be just as successful managing on smallish properties as large ones. It's hard to argue against his success and logic for the most part. Much like Tynimiller pointed out, we don't always completely agree with each other on every point as managers but there's usually a certain amount of respect for proven success. I think we generally realize everyone's operation is different and there's no "set" right or wrong way to manage deer under every circumstance across the nation. No one person has all the answers for everyone and it doesn't matter how many letters they have after their name in print either.
A-M-E-N! If you ever come across someone who claims to know it all or everything be very leery of them! Those that have success, are willing to share/teach, and yet know and acknowledge they are still seeking, researching, studying and learning themselves are the ones you want to listen to, invest in or have communication with!
Just one more thing I want to add. One of the biggest things I took from reading the book was that it's more important to have quality acreage versus just sheer size. The right 40 or 50 acres can be very productive if managed correctly. I will definitely check out your information on hunting small acreage! Thanks for your insight!
For sure! I am currently possibly going to hopefully purchase 20 acres.....but the 20 acres are worth 10x if not 100x more than nearly any 100acre chunks in my county I live/hunt in. So so true!
My family has roughly 100 acres that are exclusive to us. Seems like alot, but 30 of it is feild. We do what we can to improve the terrain, but what your neighbors do has just as much influence.
