Bermuda Triangle

Time to start another tour. My name is Lee and I bought this property in Oct. 2015. The day we purchased the land, my wife help me hang stands and she was 2 days from her due date! Two days later we had our first kid and I snuck out for a hunt after we got back from the hospital. Shot a good buck the first night out and several more since. Here is an aerial photo of the property. It is triangular and and a good funnel, hence the name of "Bermuda Triangle!" 30 acres total.

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More property highlights- the White pines were planted about 12 yrs ago thru the CRP program. They are starting to close up the canopy now. Also in the pine planting are sporadic white and red oaks, which I have released. There were rows of oaks, but most didnt survive browsing. East of the pines is a brushy swamp area with a small stream.

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The NW hardwoods area is more mature with nice rolling topography. There are pockets of aspen that are under contract for clear cuts. Also quite a bit of sugar maple with damaged tops that will get cut. We are basically cutting anything that isnt oak or a future valuable timber tree.

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Here are some pictures of a clearing we made in the center of the property on a small bench, where we then planted apple trees. Deer naturally browsed in this area because it held green vegetation long after other areas were brown in the fall. Also there are a few large oak trees next to the clearing. Debating on putting clover around the apple trees or letting it go and just managing as a natural clearing.

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Other property pics "as purchased"

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These are Swamp Burr Oaks planted last spring from Kelly Tree Farms. The best of the trees look like this. These blue x tubes pretty much suck, but i got them for free from my parents, who used them for establishing a vineyard. Planted 120 trees in a low land area.

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Nice looking place.....need to work on the pic orientation!

Roughly what area are you in? You have a wider shot of an aerial view? Sometimes this helps us understand how deer use the area in general as well as location to larger water or food sources.

Nice looking place.....the mix of pines and hardwoods is real interesting.

What sort of projects or goals do you have for the place?

Nice looking place! What state are you in? You can update your profile to show location like j-bird and I show in ours...

I agree, looks very nice though I'm certain that one picture must be in Australia!

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Looks like beautiful country side. But you planted those trees horizontal!

Im in Dunn county, WI. Not sure why some pics upload sideways. Currently i am working on an NRCS contract to cut cottonwoods that were taking over the pine/oak planting. I am having the logger put logging roads in specific locations to create a large loop system. Deer seem to more or less cross nw to se. With some food plot trails and heavier cover, hopefully there will be less pass thru movement. There isnt alot of late season food, so the hunting is best mid october thru early november (basically the rut). I am applying alot of the tactics from Jeff Sturgis. Here is a zoomed out pic of the surrounding properties

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Some of the better bucks in the area. Most were only seen several times at most

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Currently i live an hour away so a bit of a drive. Currently all my habitat tools are whatever i can carry in or pull in with a sled. I am hoping to get a 4 wheeler or small tractor in the next couple years to help out with improvements. Leaning towards a 4 wheeler, so I can transport on a small trailer or back of the truck

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j-bird said:

Nice looking place.....need to work on the pic orientation!

Roughly what area are you in? You have a wider shot of an aerial view? Sometimes this helps us understand how deer use the area in general as well as location to larger water or food sources.

Nice looking place.....the mix of pines and hardwoods is real interesting.

What sort of projects or goals do you have for the place?

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Glad to see some Engineers on here. I2m a quality engineer at an injection molding company.

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snowracerh said:

Glad to see some Engineers on here. I2m a quality engineer at an injection molding company.

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Looks like you got a nice area in general and obviously some nice bucks as well. Looks like you have a good mix of cover types and food in the general area and being in a good area to start with is 1/2 the struggle. Having that good mix means the deer in general have everything they need - now you just have to give them a reason to like your place a little bit more than the others. What sort of farm crops do you have around?

I give my buddy crap all the time about how "Quality Engineers" don't necessarily mean "Quality" "Engineers"..... He is a Quality Engineer as well. He got even one day and took a picture of me standing out in my cut corn field - captioned it "An Engineer outstanding in his field.....I mean out standing in his field". I am essentially a Product Engineer in the automotive exhaust industry. Everything from motorcycles to cars and trucks to semi-trucks to tractors and heavy equipment.

Don't want to tell you what to do - but I will suggest you stopping by the "introduce yourself" thread and tell folks about yourself. I see you figured out how to share some info with your profile as well. I think you will find you will get more help/support on your threads if folks feel they know you a little better.....just a suggestion.

j-bird said:

Looks like you got a nice area in general and obviously some nice bucks as well. Looks like you have a good mix of cover types and food in the general area and being in a good area to start with is 1/2 the struggle. Having that good mix means the deer in general have everything they need - now you just have to give them a reason to like your place a little bit more than the others. What sort of farm crops do you have around?

I give my buddy crap all the time about how "Quality Engineers" don't necessarily mean "Quality" "Engineers"..... He is a Quality Engineer as well. He got even one day and took a picture of me standing out in my cut corn field - captioned it "An Engineer outstanding in his field.....I mean out standing in his field". I am essentially a Product Engineer in the automotive exhaust industry. Everything from motorcycles to cars and trucks to semi-trucks to tractors and heavy equipment.

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The bordering field to the North has always been beans. I think corn would help along the north border. Other fields across the road are alfalfa. The deer I shot last year in early Nov. was full of corn, which is a few parcels away. The only down fall is roads, houses and beans on all but one side, so the deer cross the neighbord woods in the NW corner. He of course sits with a rifle and picks them off as they are crossing into my property. That turns into him wanting to walk thru my sanctuary to recover deer every gun opener, which sucks. I definetly dont look forwarf to gun season as much.

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Neighbors, roads and the like are issues many of us face and deal with. You are not alone in that battle. I have had issues as well. Some things you can reduce with screens and the like while others (like fence sitting or brown is down neighboring hunters) can be far more difficult to contend with. My property is situated where neighbors get a crack at the deer typically before I do as well. Most don't hunt right on top of me, but the bigger blocks of cover are beyond my property line and as such I get the deer as they pass thru and I know some of those deer cover several miles in my area in that process so lord knows how many hunters they have to get passed. As much as I would love to control more and more ground - we still end up with neighbors. So I try to focus on what I can control and try to be ready to take advantage when the opportunity comes, because it may not come again.

j-bird said:

Neighbors, roads and the like are issues many of us face and deal with. You are not alone in that battle. I have had issues as well. Some things you can reduce with screens and the like while others (like fence sitting or brown is down neighboring hunters) can be far more difficult to contend with. My property is situated where neighbors get a crack at the deer typically before I do as well. Most don't hunt right on top of me, but the bigger blocks of cover are beyond my property line and as such I get the deer as they pass thru and I know some of those deer cover several miles in my area in that process so lord knows how many hunters they have to get passed. As much as I would love to control more and more ground - we still end up with neighbors. So I try to focus on what I can control and try to be ready to take advantage when the opportunity comes, because it may not come again.

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I agree 100%.

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This is the property layout. Only some of this stuff is implemented. I am doing a little each year and tweaking the plan as I learn more about the property each year hunting & through these forums. With the multi stage approach, I can better learn what is and is not helping.
Key:
Green dashed lines = access trails
Yellow dashed lines = travel corridors
yellow = future food plots & existing apple plot.
blue circles = stands
red boxes - future screening (i.e spruce trees) /edge feathering.
The East stand has a steep drop behind it and marshy ground at the bottom.

I want to position the food plots near the road and the long food plot trail along the powerline easement to help reinforce doe bedding in the pines. It would make better use of the pines and the does aren't as reclusive as mature bucks, obviously. That allows the bucks to bed in the NW hardwoods area, "behind" the does. (See Jeff S. "Depth of Cover concepts"). Also the NW area is a large bowl, so its visually hidden from stands on the west side. My west access trail along the property line is separated by a small north to south ridge, so access is well hidden. The neighbors to the west have pasture and a house adjacent to my access, so I don't jump any deer during access.