Your most impactful habitat improvement

Chipdasqrrl

Chipdasqrrl

Active Member
What is the one thing you’ve done/continue to do that you believe had the most significant impact on your deer herd?
Also feel free to share something that negatively impacted your herd... something you wish you never did
 
Must have at least five points on one side before any buck can be considered for harvest. Every year we develop a “hit list” targeting specific bucks and we do not deviate from this list.

Only taking mature does early in the season before rut.

Feeding high protein corn\soybean mix in self serve feeders all year.

Planting hard mast (Chestnuts, oaks, etc.)


Regrets.... Wish I had gotten started on all this when I was 20 years younger!



Matt



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
mattpatt said:
Must have at least five points on one side before any buck can be considered for harvest. Every year we develop a “hit list” targeting specific bucks and we do not deviate from this list.

Only taking mature does early in the season before rut.

Feeding high protein corn\soybean mix in self serve feeders all year.

Planting hard mast (Chestnuts, oaks, etc.)


Regrets.... Wish I had gotten started on all this when I was 20 years younger!



Matt



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I bet you guys have some monster 8 pointers running around that will never be anything but 8’s...
 
OkieKubota said:
I bet you guys have some monster 8 pointers running around that will never be anything but 8’s...
Click to expand...

Not really. There are enough hunters around on adjacent properties that something like that would never make it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Most impactful/best...low fence around the property. Waterhole, hinge cuts.

Wish I hadn’t done...N Plot due to poor access and benefits neighbors more than myself...it is going back to nature...gradually...
 
for habitat management best thing ever was/is hinge cutting for immediate browse but also the letting of light to forest floor for new growth

for hunting management best thing ever is screening of plots and stand entrances/exits
 
Best-getting my soil ph right

Next best-TSI, made a few dollars to put back into the place and made lots of low browse


Worst-TSI at the wrong time of year, but it couldn't be helped because my place was wet natured and I had to cut it when it was dry (a couple months before season). It pushed the bucks out of one of their best scraping areas and they didn't come back that year.

No matter though, just sold that place......
 
57 acres of tall NWSGs and my 12 acre tree planting that borders it has made awesome changes here. We were a cattle farm before this, so big turn around.

Cool season plots benefit me a lot, because no one else near me is doing it. I think over the winter the plots draw in new deer and gets them used to using the place. It also helps hold does at the right time of the year.

Several things I could have done better, but no big regrets so far.
 
Probably best thing is absorbing everything shared on here and then applying it to my needs if it fit.
Specifically hinge cutting developing my theory of random clusters for browse and edge.
Perennial plots of clover alfalfa and chicory with a few annuals thrown in of brassica each fall.
The value of grains.
Learning to leave no bare dirt in fall or spring and the advantages of no tillage.
Forcing myself to accept an ugly plot by magazine standards and allowing weeds and grasses to serve their purposes allowing less effort and money from me for fertilizers and lime.
And always just enjoying the hunt and taking what I choose, when I choose, if I choose.

Mistakes... trying to force the land to accept plantings of plots or trees it is not willing to accept. Observe and she will teach you her ways.
 
Native Hunter said:
Cool season plots benefit me a lot, because no one else near me is doing it. I think over the winter the plots draw in new deer and gets them used to using the place. It also helps hold does at the right time of the year.
Click to expand...
I’m able to pull in bucks during the Fall/Winter but I haven’t been able to get them to call my place home during the growing season. Guess I don’t have enough summer food... so that’s my current goal




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Native Hunter said:
If they are there when you are hunting, that's what matters.
Click to expand...

That’s true, but I enjoy the whole management thing equally as much, if not more than the hunting. I’d feel better if I had pictures of nice bucks eating my clover plots during the summer, ya know? I’m able to send them into winter on a belly full of carbohydrates, but if they’re not around during the summer I can’t provide them with a belly full of protein
 
Chipdasqrrl said:
That’s true, but I enjoy the whole management thing equally as much, if not more than the hunting. I’d feel better if I had pictures of nice bucks eating my clover plots during the summer, ya know? I’m able to send them into winter on a belly full of carbohydrates, but if they’re not around during the summer I can’t provide them with a belly full of protein
Click to expand...

I understand and agree!
 
Chipdasqrrl said:
That’s true, but I enjoy the whole management thing equally as much, if not more than the hunting. I’d feel better if I had pictures of nice bucks eating my clover plots during the summer, ya know? I’m able to send them into winter on a belly full of carbohydrates, but if they’re not around during the summer I can’t provide them with a belly full of protein
Click to expand...

I like the way you think ! Fortunately for me, I have no trouble attracting them in spring/summer, but some of the better bucks I see in my summer crops must be coming for the groceries because when they peel that velvet, they're GONE !:(

On another (leased) place we see them summer and fall, and I think it's because nobody around us, at least from what I see on Google Earth, grows any plots at all, summer or winter.
 
Drycreek said:
I like the way you think ! Fortunately for me, I have no trouble attracting them in spring/summer, but some of the better bucks I see in my summer crops must be coming for the groceries because when they peel that velvet, they're GONE !:(

On another (leased) place we see them summer and fall, and I think it's because nobody around us, at least from what I see on Google Earth, grows any plots at all, summer or winter.
Click to expand...

I certainly realize that I’m lucky it’s not the other way around for me, which is why I’ll never be complaining about it. I do think it’s pretty odd though. It’ll get to be mid to late September and I’ll have no bucks on camera for the past few weeks and I’ll start to get worried. Then like clockwork, I’ll get 10 new bucks showing up to my turnip plot within a span of a week. Still trying to figure out what this pattern is all about...
 
MarkDarvin said:
Okie, can you expand on that? What kind of fence, height? What changes did it produce for you?
Click to expand...
4 strands barbed wire, 4 ft tall. Before I built it the neighbors livestock roamed all over it and the neighbors acted like they had the run of it since there was no clearly defined boundary. Now someone would have to forcefully want to be on the property to be on it and no livestock eating all the acorns and plots...
 
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