I took off a day of from work Friday so I could head up to the cabin this weekend and get a ton of stuff done. Instead there is over a foot of snow on the ground yet. Even the ATV's could still not get through. We did head to one area of hinge cutting but is was a PITA getting there on foot. Some steps you could walk on top of the snow and then others you break through. It was more work walking there to the location than it was to do the actual hinge cut. Were we able to get this one area cut. Good and thick. Tasty Treat. We had to hinge some bigger trees to eliminate the canopy. Some didn't work so well. Still alot of snow on the ground
Sweet, are you trying to create bedding or a funnel? I always loose trees when I'm hinging larger trees, but at least they're out of the canopy.
Hinging larger trees is truly an art form, we have gotten progressively better at it. The use of a wedge is a great tool for larger trees as they allow you to cut a little less and strengthen the hinge. The fall of the tree is huge as well. We have done a domino style with decent success which is when you cut maybe 2 or 3 trees almost to the point of falling and drop one behind them into them knocking all of them down and creating more cushion for all falling. Not something I'd do without two guys minimum, one to watch the trees the other to do the cutting (obviously never be cutting infront of one already cut almost to point of falling). I hope to have more hinging videos up on my site and will be sure to post more soon. Hinging is the #1 tool for us as land manipulators!
Looks good Brad. I'll be doing more of that shortly. I'll be cutting mostly maples. What kind of trees are you cutting? Almost looks like walnut?
Too little too late Dean! LOL I'm glad to hear it is melting but that would of been nice a week ago. I can't make it back up for at least a couple of weeks and maybe not even for a month. Oh well................
Um...if you head to my website/blog in my sig I've talked, written and video'd about it a lot. Put basically it's a way to accomplish many things all at once. *IMO it's the #1 tool habitat manipulators have at enhancing their properties for both the deer and the deer hunter. It always does 3 things: Lightens up the canopy cover allowing better understory/food plot growth. It always provides fresh browse for the deer food wise now with the tree horizontal. It always provides sight blocking in an otherwise open forest floor. Hinging can be used to create bedding areas, blocking "fences", steering "walls" or just pockets of natural browse. If I was to guess I'd bet on just our 10 acres worth at our homestead we've hinged over 250 trees in the last 3 years...some wrist thickness all the way up to 2 and 3 feet across.
nicely done! I have some hinging to do as well! I was thinking of waiting till the leaves come in......not sure if it would provide more browse or not.....
