New Hunting Land Do's and Dont's

Hey Folks,

New member and new hunting land owner. Was hoping to get some good Do’s and Dont's of what to do on this hunting land to aid in successful November hunts?

-Property is 40 Acres (90%+ high ground)
-Clear Cut 25 Years ago, good mix of hardwoods and brush have come back since then
-Has a bunch of trails from the clear cut that were kept up, most that come to a point in the back with one existing deer stand
-Property surrounded by corn fields and more woods
-Many signs of buck activity (scrapes and such)
-Previous owner got his buck on opening day this year

This spring or early summer we are going to be adding another stand or 2 to the property but we don’t plan on doing any further building. We also plan on clearing some of the trails that have some down trees and such across them. We don’t think we need to cover any of our scents while doing this as human scents generally only last a few days right? What does everyone think about doing some target practice in the spring/summer on the property, not a ton but sighting in new guns and the occasional summer trip with a box of shells?

Thanks All

Welcome.
It sounds like you have a Mecca there. While corn is an attractant when it gets harvested it will be good hunting only a couple days afterward. If you plant small plots of forage such as clover, alfalfa and chicory you will have something to attract the deer to your place.
Deer like to eat but I find them to be opportunists. If their normal food disappears they will move on to another food source as long as they don't feel pressured. This is where you must learn self control. While we want to be out there in a stand, there are times you'd be better off staying home. Going to and from the stand is the issue. Plant your plots away from travel corridors. Pay attention to wind direction.
While 40 acres seems like a lot of acreage to you today you will soon find it shrinks rapidly as you start to improve it.
With the small acreage you might get away with some target shooting but you might make the deer feel uncomfortable. Working on the land sounds and feels more normal to the deer given you have farm fields nearby with equipment running while the tasks of running a farm are completed.

I would recommend walking the entire property this winter to see how deer used it. This helped me tremendously when I started bowhunting the farm. You’ll be able to see the sign from this years’ rut and trails should be obvious. I’d also suggest hunting it a year before you make any major changes.

Don’t worry about scent as you work, but be very mindful of it as the season gets closer.

Move all access trails to perimeter and x2 on hunting a season or two and figure out how deer use the property. Much easier to make effective improvements when it aligns with current deer usage. Deer usage and movement will vary some year to year hence getting a few years of data.

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I have observed that target shooting pushes deer away. You now have land that you can enjoy, you just have to decide whether great deer hunting is more important to you than shooting guns. You will have the best deer hunting if you totally stay out other than doing trail work and habitat improvements. Congratulations on your new purchase and I hope that you have many rewarding hunts there.

I agree with the idea of doing "NOTHING" for the first couple seasons. I cringe every time I think about the time and money we spent the first couple years that eventually proved to be wasted. It's hard because we want to really get involved with it. Walk the property as often as you can, get topo maps of the area, outline it on Google Earth and mark everything and anything you find on those maps. It will amaze you that things will eventually begin to make sense. Then, of course, the deer decided to change their patterns right after you move all those stands to just the right spot.

snowracerh said:

Move all access trails to perimeter and x2 on hunting a season or two and figure out how deer use the property. Much easier to make effective improvements when it aligns with current deer usage. Deer usage and movement will vary some year to year hence getting a few years of data.

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Completely agree on putting your work and access trails on the perimeter. I would hold off building any blinds until you're sure that's where you want them. Things will make you wish you'd waited, like natural deer movement through your property wasn't where you expected, or food plot expansions that suddenly put you too close to the plot and now you can't get in without spooking deer.

I would also make my first effort installing those trails. Every project in the woods is easier if you can walk or drive easily to where you're working. Use a mini-excavator if you can rent one. I've made trails by hand, and I've plowed them down with a skid steer. Hand obviously takes a ton of time. The skid steer was quick, but left a ton of trash and stumps that needed to be cleaned up. It made it very loud and clutsy to access my stands due to all the crap on the trail. An excavator will allow you to pluck whole trees (w/stump) and throw them out of the way. It also gives you a scoop to fill holes and a blade to smooth it out. Better to move slowly and methodically, but leave a clean smooth trail behind you as you go.

If you don't want to wait to put in deer blinds, but aren't sure if you will need to move them later, you can consider a deer blind on skids that you can move later.

ibblitzed said:

Hey Folks,

New member and new hunting land owner. Was hoping to get some good Do’s and Dont's of what to do on this hunting land to aid in successful November hunts?

-Property is 40 Acres (90%+ high ground)
-Clear Cut 25 Years ago, good mix of hardwoods and brush have come back since then
-Has a bunch of trails from the clear cut that were kept up, most that come to a point in the back with one existing deer stand
-Property surrounded by corn fields and more woods
-Many signs of buck activity (scrapes and such)
-Previous owner got his buck on opening day this year

This spring or early summer we are going to be adding another stand or 2 to the property but we don’t plan on doing any further building. We also plan on clearing some of the trails that have some down trees and such across them. We don’t think we need to cover any of our scents while doing this as human scents generally only last a few days right? What does everyone think about doing some target practice in the spring/summer on the property, not a ton but sighting in new guns and the occasional summer trip with a box of shells?

Thanks All

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The land is probably a key bedding area so I would hunt it a year and see what comes of it. As for human scent I would not be concerned much for it deer get a lot of human scent these days I wouldnt tromp around a lot in the rut but I wouldn't worry about running them off the property with some trail clearing. I hunt an urban area and killed my buck while I was smelling someone cooking breakfast in the nearby homes

MarkDarvin said:

Completely agree on putting your work and access trails on the perimeter. I would hold off building any blinds until you're sure that's where you want them. Things will make you wish you'd waited, like natural deer movement through your property wasn't where you expected, or food plot expansions that suddenly put you too close to the plot and now you can't get in without spooking deer.

I would also make my first effort installing those trails. Every project in the woods is easier if you can walk or drive easily to where you're working. Use a mini-excavator if you can rent one. I've made trails by hand, and I've plowed them down with a skid steer. Hand obviously takes a ton of time. The skid steer was quick, but left a ton of trash and stumps that needed to be cleaned up. It made it very loud and clutsy to access my stands due to all the crap on the trail. An excavator will allow you to pluck whole trees (w/stump) and throw them out of the way. It also gives you a scoop to fill holes and a blade to smooth it out. Better to move slowly and methodically, but leave a clean smooth trail behind you as you go.

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My trails were made with a bulldozer. Very quiet trails to walk...

Mature bucks understand what gunshots mean - other deer probably not so much....just saying.....

Good luck.

Observe/learn.....plan....then act.

First you have to understand what you have. You have to learn food sources, bedding areas, pinch points, trails, all of that stuff. Then you can piece together how the deer use the property and why. Then you can try to figure out what is needed...if anything. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing! Just try to work WITH what you have vs trying to force some sort of improvement....forcing it typically results in less than stellar use by the deer. ALWAYS keep your hunting and hunting access in your mind. DON'T plant a plot and then try to figure out how you are going to hunt it. Plan your hunting location and access first and then try to maybe use a plot to enhance that location. The ONLY thing I would look into implementing right away would be a well established perimeter access. This serves 2 purposes. 1 - it facilitates the best hunting access without disturbing the core of your property which is key for holding deer. 2- it helps better define your property lines and provide a means for you to monitor them (not everybody stays on their side of the fence). It can also help you define where the deer are entering or leaving your property. Lastly....keep in mind your property is not an island. You will be sharing deer with your neighbors....so understanding how deer move thru the general area and why can be pretty important as well. Knowing what foods are available beyond your property and where and the like can help you build a little magnet that helps draw the deer to you. Sometimes that magnet is simply dense cover, sometimes its a particular food source, sometimes its just food in general during a particular time.

I started with 25 and then added 10 and 10 to reach 45. It is a family place that we use to shoot, sit by fire, let kids ride atv, but we keep that near the front. I get to enjoy more time hunting and managing at our "farm" by including the family and making it enjoyable for them. Biggest thing I regret is not walking the entire property the first 2 years. I walked the perimeter but 25 acres of briars, swamp, cane breaks, and young pines is tough walking. I am still finding scrape lines, bedding areas, new oak trees to release. Remember to think short and long term when planting, cutting or placing a stand. Year 4 and I feel like i have a general idea of the deer movement pre and post rut. During the rut is tough for me cause no acorns for the does. Best advice I received was to fill the lowest hole in the bucket, whether that is food, water or cover.

WOW!!! Thank you all for such amazing tips tricks and advice!!!! Based off your advice we now plan on walking it a several more times to map all the trails ourselves and also to clean up the trails that have some trees down across them from a late season storm last year. We are only going to be adding one more stand for dad (or me depends who wins the coin flip for the existing stand in the "honey-hole" where all the trails converge) and that will be located on the other side of the property where we saw some more scrapes. We also found a range that we didn't know about only about 30 minutes away so we are going to minimize the target shooting on the land. Going to look for more tracks and scapes now that season is over and i think I'll throw out a few trail cams and in a year or two might do a few small food plots. Hoping next year I'll be "forced" to invest in a larger freezer . Any more tips and tricks feel free to keep this going more message me directly. Thank you Again!!!!

dont neglect that 10% of land that is not high ground, we have 2 small creeks that bisect our property and of the 7 deer we have killed, only 1 was more than 20 yards from them.

Number 1 "do": Set your expectations really low.

Also read some books by Steve Bartylla, Jeff Sturgis, Jim Brauker, and others. Each have their opinions and strategies...take that all in and formulate your own plan and conclusions.

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Another little "trick" I learned from an older friend. Go out early after a nice snow. Find where the deer are feeding and backtrack them in the fresh snow to see where they came from. I used to work till midnight. Loved the nights it snowed while I was at work. Many times I didn't get home till daylight.

You are getting good advice, but IMO the best of it was the perimeter trails and the lag time before making big changes. I wish someone had given me that advice 12/13 years ago. I did the perimeter tails on my own, but the planning before acting, not so much.

If or rather when you get the itch to do habitat improvement after the perimeter road is in and before you really understand the way the deer use the property there are two things you can do and that is first--Release all wild fruit and nut trees by removing or killing competing trees/vegetation and secondly kill invasives such as Multi-Flora Rosa, Buckthorn, prickly ash and bush honeysuckle no matter how many or even how few there are. If competing trees have timber value or extreme tree stand value then hold off on those until you have time to take in the whole picture.