It can. Yes hinging on an attractive bedding slope stacks even more in your favor than doing it on a flat terrain, but think of it this way that flat park like woods terrain is only attractive to your dumb deer if any. You throw in hinging and you can totally transform the outlook of the woods and provide the deer food, sight blockings and security all with a little chainsaw grease and elbow grease.
I'm located in Southwestern Wisconsin. When we cut I would say it was around freezing when we did them. This area is about an acre in size and mostly consist of hickory trees. They aren't the best hinging trees but you could literally see 100+ yards in this area and now you are lucky if you see 40 yards. It should really grow up thick in the next few years.
Dan, I have no pictures of my hinge cuts. I hinge cut on almost all Maples and a few Elm. Elms have a ton of surface roots which makes them good for hinge cutting. The maples work great as well. I'm waiting until spring to hinge cut some more because I've found that the Maples are brittle and might snap if your not real careful.
Thanks once more Ty. I think the plan is going to be to hinge cut 2-4 spots about an acre in size purely for bedding. Once we start on it, I'll be able to design it how I like. Greg, that's my concern is the Maples breaking. If its a problem, I'll stop and wait for it to warm up a bit more.
Once I get a new phone I'll take more pictures. I hate carrying a camera with me while I'm trying to work.
Hinging is a great habitat tool. However, its a quick way to get hurt real bad if not done properly. If it's new to you, I highly suggest a helper. Find some threads on doing it the right way. Its awesome cover. Be safe with it.
Absolutely. Safety first. Even though I haven't done any hinge cutting specifically, I have done plenty of work with a chainsaw and know how dangerous cutting trees down can be.
I'll take a shot of an area when I get back up there. Wasn't really sure how it was gonna do but it really helped provide more cover. After hinging a bunch of maple this summer we had Picts of my 9 point this year and another buck using it regularly.
I hinge cut a bunch of trees a few weeks ago. It is simple and effective. This was also my first time hinge cutting so I wasn't sure what to expect. Turns out, it is super easy to do. We did both patch cuts and selective cutting thru a bedding area. We basically selected any trees that were crooked or slanted and a lot of maples..basically garbage trees. We left all oaks except for a few large dying ones that were doing more damage (taking up canopy space) than good (old seed trees). We cut roughly 200 trees ranging from 1" in diameter to 2 feet in diameter. We made our cuts on 45 degree angles towards the direction we wanted them to fall. We then took a wedge and wedged the bigger trees and pushed over the littler ones. The one important thing here is you must cut all the little trees in the area where you are planing on dropping bigger ones so they don't get caught up in the canopy. Widow makers can be a scary thing to deal with. I will be heading back down to the cabin soon to do alot more cutting and I will snap some pictures. Just do a little research, check out some youtube videos and you will have a blast creating new habitat.
Here's one link to a video a year ago of our northern border hinging for blockading purposes. The hinges don't appear until just before 3:00ish so just fast forward. Click HERE for it. We actually weren't satisfied fully with the border and have already cut more trees in there to thicken it up even more!!
Another benefits of cutting this time of year is the buds that are developing, some maples bud out sooner than others, but most soft maples around here (NW PA) are starting to show. So not only are you providing future bedding areas, you are providing some great feed for the deer at one of their hardest time of year. After years of this cutting the quality of your timber should be far superior to an unattended woods.
AMEN! Honestly, it's one of the best approaches to providing food for the deer as it's cheap (chainsaw gas or hand saw for smaller ones) and as long as that tree stays a live it will provide fresh buds and shoots yearly.
I never have to hinge. I have a lowland area with hazelnut bushes. They are "self-hinging". If you have a lowland area you want good beeding in, plant some of these. The outside branches grow out at 30-45 degrees, grass grows along them and make real nice bedding areas.
Just wanted to let you guys know I have a video posted now on my latest site posting with some hinging we did just this past Saturday. I discuss and show you some areas where even in our winter dead woods hinging has provided sight blocking and food for the deer herd...not to mention everything that will happen come spring green up.
What is the key to safety hinge larger trees and get them to fall where you want? I'm guessing its tough since you can't wedge it like you do when you cut a tree down. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This is true...the bigger trees it seems you don't want to cut too far and the hinge get too thin...instead we've used a wedge to fall the tree the remaining way. This allows a better thicker cambium layer to survive usually=success!
