Stand Out In The Crowd

Stand Out In The Crowd is an article written by Don Higgins that appeared in the spring issue 2019 of North American Whitetail magazine. It is a short article, a factual article that might go unnoticed by most of us save for the exposure most of us had to Don thru the old forum. In his article titled "Stand Out In The Crowd" Don shares THE proverbial key to the kingdom for "managing a parcel for success". That key is nothing new to anyone on this forum but it is an excellent reminder of where it's at.

What are some of the ways your properties are set up to "Stand Out From The Crowd"?

If anyone finds a link to it, could you please post it? Came up empty on my attempts. Thanks

What makes my property stand out in the crowded hunting community in my area is our ability to stay the course. Everyone knows we have good years and bad years but what we do on those bad years is what sets us apart. Low pressure is part of my plan as well. Soil tests would be the next. I can't tell you how many people look at me with that blank stare when I ask them what's their soil PH when they are complaining about their plots not growing or the deer not utilizing them. The standard 2 bags of fertilizer and if they can find it 2 bags of lime doesn't always apply to every situation.

Went onto to the North American Whitetail site Big Eight but while they have lots of their articles on line that one wasn't there. If no one sees a link I'll recap the article later this morning.

Recap of article- Some of the points made in the article were- You don't need the help of any neighbors to have better hunting, in fact one managed property sitting among heavily hunted un-managed properties gives one a better advantage than anyone property owner would have among a bunch of managed properties even. And if all properties are the same even if "perfect" then the chances of the big buck choosing your property to bed on is random; Further Don pointed out that if the buck is not bedded on your property your chance of encountering him goes down to 10% or less. To stand out a property must have the right cover, and all of the right ingredients to stand out in the buck's eyes so that is where he will spend his daylight hours. And if your property does stand out then even if other property owners do not let young bucks walk you can still be successful in getting bucks to an older age.(I can vouch for that last statement working here at least).

This was just a quick overview and if and when the article becomes available on-line I'll be sure to post its' link. I catch one of Don's articles every now and then in North American Whitetails and while there are many great articles there from time to time I subscribe to it learning much from Don's articles alone. Highly recommended.

Honestly, the 2 ways that I immediately think of for us..
1) TSI / Bedding thickets.
2) No more fescue
We are in cattle country / big hardwoods here in southern Missouri. All the properties around us are cattle farms with un-managed hardwood lots. We didn't have any food plots this past season, and it was our best year yet. We just need to keep building upon the foundation, and hopefully it will continue to get better.

Standing out in a sea of sameness is one thing.... But first you have to at least meet that requirement of the sea of sameness. Many times I think our management efforts do more harm than good in the means of security of the property as it relates to our hunting. I may have plots when all my neighbors do not...but if I do it in a manner when the deer feel more threatened and disrupted than on the neighbors properties....what good does it really do? Checking cams, freshening feeder or mineral sites, scouting deer sign, hanging stands, mowing and spraying, pruning, planting, TSI and those sorts of activities thru the year and that additional activity level can make it difficult for us to achieve that "sameness" from a security perspective vs a neighbors place that is never touched until deer season.

I may be well above the "sameness" regarding food, and even quality/amount of cover, or some particular mast availability....however, if I fall well below that "sameness" as far as security is concerned...is it worth it? Where is the tipping point?

not trying to contradict the basis of the article...just a little food for thought.

You are absolutely right J-Bird and included in Don's article in making a property stand out was the feeling of security. The bucks must feel secure on the property, they must not feel that they are being hunted. It is difficult that the article is not yet available online that we can find as my recap does not of course capture the entire article. That is a great point though for sure J-Bird regarding our efforts to improve do actually cause a perception of less security at times. I know in the past at times I have been guilty of trying to do too much to the property at once. I like the tone in Ryan and Pinesap posts; it sounds like they are taking it slow and steady so as to keep their perceived pressure low.

Good stuff Ryan and Pinesap. On my property, the apple trees released gives this property the most amount of apples in good and bad years, the most amount of apple tree browse and a high amount of natural browse and cover due to the sunlight coming thru due to cutting the trees that were competing with apple trees. The property also stands out with cover and browse caused by intensive logging. And not finally but probably most importantly when combined with a lot of cover the property stands out as safer than those around us because of low impact very careful hunting efforts.

Another thing I want to point out from my recap is that the article did say that one could succeed even without the neighbors letting little bucks walk but it did not infer that it would be a bad thing if everyone was letting little bucks walk. The article did say though that if all neighboring properties were hunting sloppily, wrong winds, tromping everywhere, over hunting etc. that a single property with great cover that did not put that kind of pressure would hold the more mature deer during the daytime and enjoy more daytime movement as well. And regarding the 10% chance at a buck if not bedded on your property was specifically described as 10% chance at getting that buck that bedded off the property compared to if he was bedding on the property. I hope I have not butchered up any of the points in the article too bad; Would have just copied it and posted it but it is not mine to do so with and also it is not legal to do that and it should not be.

From what I have learned, Jan, Feb, and March are primo months for TSI and bedding thickets. This opens the canopy and lets sunlight hit the floor, plus it also puts woody browse down onto the ground during winter months when nutrition is needed most. So, I essentially believe that even if you are putting some pressure on your property during these months (especially Jan and Feb), deer "get over it" because you are feeding them.

Now, during these 3 months, we do only average a few days working at the farm too. So, we kind of go in and really put a couple of hard days worth of work in, then let it rest again. Essentially, minimizing our impact once we've kicked the deer out. I wonder if they're shocked why we're in there?!

If one looked at our property, they would probably hate the access (as we did a bit at first). However, we've learned that our neighbor to the west of us only takes a deer from behind his house every year for the meat. Then, he likes to drive the property lines to make sure no one is on him. The disturbance from the west, with a west wind, allows us to cut them off if he starts pushing them off him, or we can set up on the east side of the bedding thicket and allow his scent to push right on through the thicket, and they walk away from that direction down to us.

I know I have certainly at times...and maybe even still, do too much throughout the course of the year. it's fun and all to be able to do the work we do, but sometimes...I think we do it to our own detriment. I think this holds particularly true on small properties or those properties with not a lot of cover. Mature bucks do not like disturbance...not from other deer and certainly not from people.

Sometimes....less IS more!

Not wanting to hijack this thread. But a question to everyone. Is one kind of pressure worse than another? Meaning loud noises sporadically (Ex. chainsaws, tractors, side x side) apposed to quiet pressure (hunting, scouting, walking the woods, etc.) I find on my farm the deer, even the mature bucks are more forgiving of a loud intrusion so they can get out of the perceived threat in plenty of time opposed to being jumped or spooked by something silent they would identify as a predator. Here in the south I don't have to worry about winter kills. The bucks may be worn down after the season but they are never too far from a planted wheat, oat, rye or clover field. I try to get all of my major projects done right after deer season. Leaving the spring and summer to the deer to be deer. Only checking cameras every 3-4 weeks when I fill feeders. The only other intrusive behavior is when I plant summer plots. Does anyone else follow this strategy or see holes in my plan?

Certainly Ryan most would agree that Jan thru March are the lowest impact; for us it is a rare day during that period that we can safely work in the woods but we do when we can. And while the article cited the benefit of having a few smaller parcels versus one larger one it also pointed out that it was more difficult to keep pressure low on smaller properties and any mistakes have a larger impact on smaller properties. note; Jbird,I'm arbitrarily categorizing your parcel as smaller at least after the corn is off and before the next years corn reaches waist high plus.

Chainsaw said:

Certainly Ryan most would agree that Jan thru March are the lowest impact; for us it is a rare day during that period that we can safely work in the woods but we do when we can. And while the article cited the benefit of having a few smaller parcels versus one larger one it also pointed out that it was more difficult to keep pressure low on smaller properties and any mistakes have a larger impact on smaller properties. note; Jbird,I'm arbitrarily categorizing your parcel as smaller at least after the corn is off and before the next years corn reaches waist high plus.

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I hunt my place like 3 smaller parcels....with my limited cover I have to think that way! I may actually own 150 acres....but when only 50 of it is cover and it's spread out it really changes the effectiveness and value of that cover. I think my biggest stretch of cover is actually like 15 acres. This is part of some of the thinking I have had to adopt over time...and once I started thinking that way AND realize that my property is not an island things changed and improved. This is where you have to think for yourself.... I have no issue with my place being a "small parcel"....it just hunts that way and is one of the limitations I face on my place. I certainly have much more to learn and relate to the "small parcel" mentality.

Quiet pressure can I think alert deer more...but the cam checking and the scouting also tend to be in areas where people are not "supposed" to be. The plots and orchards and the like the deer know people are going and have shown to be active there. Loud noises seem to alert them less as long as they are somewhat familiar and routine, when and where expected. This is just my experience in farm country. I can be mowing away on a tractor and the deer just watch... You walk out to that same plot with the wind in your face and the deer see you....you get a different reaction. I think either activity still impacts more wary and mature deer more so than the younger ones in my opinion.

My place is in an area of the county that hasn't historically been known for producing big deer. IMHO there is too much open country and cleared land versus timber and cover. However, we have seen our habitat work pay big dividends and taken some nice bucks.

The things we do and/or have that are not commonly seen on neighboring properties are:

• A fruit and nut jungle at two different locations - dropping loads of different kinds of food.
• 57+ acres of tall NWSGs that provide great travel cover and fall bedding cover.
• 30 or so acres of woods that have been logged in recent years - but leaving many, many big mast producing oaks.
• Well defined property lines - with low barbed wire fences and signs at lots of places. And, letting people know you are serious about it.
• Small food plots, mineral licks and other features distributed around the place to create lines of movement. This includes doing other features to create lines of movement.
• Strategically placed blinds / stands to see deer at places they are likely to be moving and to be able to hunt the wind.
• Turning waste land (like ditch areas with sycamore, maples, etc) into deer magnets with shrubs and forbs for food and cover.
• A non-invasive plan for placing and checking trail cameras. Large sanctuary areas but still plenty of places that are not off limit so that we can enjoy our land.
• Doing most habitat work in winter and early spring.
• Trapping and hunting coyotes in the late winter and spring before fawning.

These are the things that come to mind right off hand. I might think of more later.

Great post Native, thank you for sharing. I'm curious about the barbed wire like how many strands, distance apart and total height. And has there been any mishaps with animals getting tangled in it. How far apart can the poles or trees used as poles be? My best recollection is that Okie has Barbed wire on his property lines also. I think he said his highest wire was four feet high. Okie, please add to this discussion about your perimeter wire as well and correct me if I'm wrong on that. And did either of you have any neighbor confrontations about the perimeter fencing?

• "Turning waste land (like ditch areas with sycamore, maples, etc) into deer magnets with shrubs and forbs for food and cover." that you did must be a great stand out from the crowd habitat improvement. I have a lot of acres here of such wasteland that could stand transformation into deer magnets. In my case some of it is good land but it borders the road and needs immediate screening at the very least. Also some of my ditches are rather narrow almost fence row like and really could be "improved" by reclaiming some of the cropland that they run through. I did have a wasteland ditch bordered by mature poplar with an extremely thick grass bordering it as well on one side. There was usually a bed or two in it. Had the poplars clear cut two or three years ago and poplar saplings from root sprouts by the thousands resulted. The deer of course found the poplar to be a favorite browse spot as hoped for and a huge bonus surprise was the grass section of it is now riddled with bed after bed after bed. And actually my this years buck was actually bedding there early in the season.

I have printed your post out to keep handy as a reminder of more steps to keep on making my property stand out.

Pinesap, I think regarding noises is that they are all intrusions and thus they all disturb deer in some manner. I have seen as many as twenty-five deer practically flying across my fields running from across the street where a couple of four wheelers were ripping thru there; Conversely I've seen where another neighbor drives his slow and steady like a tractor and no deer are seen running for parts unknown. Doing all property work as early in the year as possible as you are doing is an excellent strategy. And then keeping trespassers out and hunting low impact yourself is also on of the mandatory strategies if daytime deer activity is to be realized. Checking cameras monthly or so is good and if checked during hunting season doing it in the evening after dark may be a lower impact thing as well. Checking in the evening after dark would give any disturbed deer time to get back to the perceived safety of your property before daylight and legal hunting hours.

Also, as you have probably noticed, Native's property is one of the most successful on the forum; Following the strategies he has used is a no brainer for this guy. All properties are different but except that mineral licks are not legal here all of what he listed applies here for sure and possibly most anywhere.

Chainsaw said:

Great post Native, thank you for sharing. I'm curious about the barbed wire like how many strands, distance apart and total height. And has there been any mishaps with animals getting tangled in it. How far apart can the poles or trees used as poles be? My best recollection is that Okie has Barbed wire on his property lines also. I think he said his highest wire was four feet high. Okie, please add to this discussion about your perimeter wire as well and correct me if I'm wrong on that. And did either of you have any neighbor confrontations about the perimeter fencing?

• "Turning waste land (like ditch areas with sycamore, maples, etc) into deer magnets with shrubs and forbs for food and cover." that you did must be a great stand out from the crowd habitat improvement. I have a lot of acres here of such wasteland that could stand transformation into deer magnets. In my case some of it is good land but it borders the road and needs immediate screening at the very least. Also some of my ditches are rather narrow almost fence row like and really could be "improved" by reclaiming some of the cropland that they run through. I did have a wasteland ditch bordered by mature poplar with an extremely thick grass bordering it as well on one side. There was usually a bed or two in it. Had the poplars clear cut two or three years ago and poplar saplings from root sprouts by the thousands resulted. The deer of course found the poplar to be a favorite browse spot as hoped for and a huge bonus surprise was the grass section of it is now riddled with bed after bed after bed. And actually my this years buck was actually bedding there early in the season.

I have printed your post out to keep handy as a reminder of more steps to keep on making my property stand out.

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Dave, my place was a cattle farm at one time, and that is the main reason the fences were there. However, it is common for many properties in this area to be fenced. We have a 4 strand barbed wire fence and the highest wire is about 4 feet high. I don't keep this fence in perfect repair, but I do keep it up if it goes completely down. Its main purpose now is marking the property line in a manner that can't be overlooked. Since I'm not trying to hold cattle, the fence can be much less than perfect. I just do a few repairs as needed - like when a tree falls over it.

I see some hair on the fence at places but have never had an animal hung. Here is something lots of people don't know - the type of fence that deer and other animals get caught in the most is a woven wire fence with one stand of barbed wire a few inches above the woven wire. This is a common type of fence. When a animal jumps the fence, a hind leg can go between the top of the woven wire and the single barbed wire strand. As the animal goes over it twists around the leg and leaves them hanging. Many, many deer and hunting dogs have befallen these types of fences.

Transforming a useless ditch to a deer magnet is not a hard job. Just drive by once a year in the pickup truck and start spraying / cutting the undesirable climax type trees. Let them fall in the ditch. Soon you will be getting blackberry, elderberry, vining honeysuckle, hazelnuts, etc.... A pole saw is a great tool to have for this. Reach right into the ditch and start whacking without confronting the ticks and snakes. A 25 gallon sprayer in the back of the pickup is a must too for this work.

Food is where my property stands out. Bedding cover is a dime a dozen on adjacent properties. I cant compete - unless I clearcut my whole place. Immediately touching my property is an 80 acre, four year old clear cut, a 120 acre, two year old clearcut, a 160 acre impenetrable lowland swamp, and cedar thickets aplenty on everyone's land - including my own. BUT, nobody plants food for deer anywhere near me. I plant nine plots - about 30 acres - some with summer and winter foods combined. High quality foods - beans and clovers. Our DNR estimates about a deer per 30 acres in the general area. I would say I am much closer to a deer per five acres using my property - not living here full time - but consistently visiting and staying awhile. I had close to thirty different buck pictures on my property last fall - 320 acres. I have more does than bucks. More food than anyone else - except during big acorn crops - makes my property their year round kitchen. More does than anyone else - brings bucks to me. Easy, quality, year round food sources keep does on my place while fawning - imprinting fawns to my place.

However, surrounding hunting pressure is intense. Nearby public land, and numerous ten and twenty acre hunting landowers with no incentive to pass deer - makes growing or killing big deer difficult. Our average 4.5/5.5 yr old buck will score 115/120. We get a few freaks that may make 130-150 - but they are few and far between. We will have three or four mature deer using the place every year - and we will have a 130 or larger every two or three years. My problem is every neighbor with twenty acres of land and a corn or rice bran pile. As high quality as my food plots are, those deer still like to get a bite of corn or rice bran. We had four mature deer using the place this year. I killed one, another neighbor killed one on a nut grub pile 200 yards from my property, another neighbor killed one 800 yards from my property on a corn feeder, and another neighbor killed one 600 yards away on public ground.

None of the mature bucks made it through hunting season this year. One out of five made it last year. I don't put out bait for deer. But I am going to start. It is the only way I can see to increase the odds of killing the bigger deer - as opposed to growing them for everyone else. And kill them early - with a bow or muzzle loader before the modern gun season opens.

Standout in the crowd, similar to or the same concept as the limiting factor on your property. For my area, this is pressure and this has proven to be the hardest balancing act yet. I know the biggest key to my property holding mature deer is pressure, and I also know that I’m never going to say no to my nephew when he wants to go squirrel hunting.


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j-bird said:

Standing out in a sea of sameness is one thing.... But first you have to at least meet that requirement of the sea of sameness. Many times I think our management efforts do more harm than good in the means of security of the property as it relates to our hunting. I may have plots when all my neighbors do not...but if I do it in a manner when the deer feel more threatened and disrupted than on the neighbors properties....what good does it really do? Checking cams, freshening feeder or mineral sites, scouting deer sign, hanging stands, mowing and spraying, pruning, planting, TSI and those sorts of activities thru the year and that additional activity level can make it difficult for us to achieve that "sameness" from a security perspective vs a neighbors place that is never touched until deer season.

I may be well above the "sameness" regarding food, and even quality/amount of cover, or some particular mast availability....however, if I fall well below that "sameness" as far as security is concerned...is it worth it? Where is the tipping point?

not trying to contradict the basis of the article...just a little food for thought.

Click to expand...

When I bought my land 3 years ago, I closed mid october and hung one stand. It was my best season hunting ever. Since all the work and improvements to the land, hunting is still sub par from the first year. I think your postbis spot on.

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