Farmhunter's Deer Management and Property Improvements

[Chummer]

Congrats. Nothing better than when one you are looking for shows up.

 

[Chainsaw]

Now that's a accomplishment to be excited about. It's nice to see yet another NY property rise above the old norms. That is a wonderful and well deserved buck and a great harvest picture as well. Congratulations Farmhunter.

 

[farmhunter]

so as I eluded - Bustersboy our #1 goal buck the last two years - fell to a neighbor's hunting party. Where he was shot - he just shouldn't have been... surely he had access to a prime sanctuary to live this long - but fell he did.

I was sent this picture - enough for me to confirm his demise -

Sure its a little disappointing - but as a group we can look at what's possible when we let the young ones walk. We lead by example and hope some of it rubs off. I know this hunting party never knew about or expected to see a buck of this caliber on their property -

 

[HB_Hunter]

Very nice buck! Congrats!

Glad to see Busterboy fell to another hunter and not a car or a bad winter.


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[Triple C]

Congrats to your neighbor on a fine specimen of a buck. Enjoy catching up on your thread.

 

[CTM1]

Congrats on the buck

Fisher pics are amazing

 

[farmhunter]

After the deer season - starting to think about next year, what I'd do different, what I liked and didn't like.
Made a quick trip up to swap out some camera cards. Got pictures of 6 different 1.5 year old bucks - but no older ones.

The most obvious issue I have right now is the Turkeys eating everything, They are literally like rats. they hardly even move off the feild when I approach. Decided to move my main cameras off the food and back into deer staging areas - had 100s of pictures of turkeys.

I've had a lot of deer in the fields at night - but a dozen deer don't compare to 100+ hungry turkeys - they are there all day long.
Look at what they did to this bean plot in 1 week or so -

Nice to know the food wont go to waste -but sad it''l be gone before long.

 

[lakngolf]

Looks like a field of black birds. Never have I seen so many.

 

[Chainsaw]

Turkeys are a real nuisance here as well when it comes to soybean fields and or corn fields. A huge flock eating all day as you witnessed and documented puts a hurting on field crops intended for deer. It would be nice if there was an open season on the turkeys during the time they eat the soybeans but that is not the case. I wonder if running them outta there with a four wheeler a few days in row might send them elsewhere. It works with geese in the wheat fields; might work with turkeys also.

 

[farmhunter]

was a strange fall - very few around until November 1 - we were genuinely concerned that there were so few. We'd see a group of 7 or 8 hens and young - but then, every night more would come to the Ridge roost - by the end gun season - 5 or 6 distinct groups were coming in to roost at night. One group was 12+ Toms. I counted more than 100 turkeys the last afternoon I hunted - I shooed them off the field to get in my tower box - but they were back in 30 minutes. Entertaining to watch right under the box.

Shooed off:

here's the group of Toms coiming in

and a closer look at a couple

Here's a look back at the box - a couple days ago - can see the beans are already almost all gone. The corn is the same - almost gone here.

I can't be at the farm to do anything about it now - the neighbor logged 100s of ash trees - so with the way winter is looking - I know where I'll be looking for my shed antlers - around those tops.

 

[Elkaddict]

Farmhunter, sounds like ourseasons were similar. 3 of our 4 best deer were killed on surrounding properties. We found the acorn crop was heavy enough (and the snows light enough) the more mature deer hit the plots only late at night. Still, I did count 27 does and young bucks in one sit. We too are overrun with turkeys. They’ve been really hard on the corn beans. Counted over 60 in one flock. I have to heavily plant corn/beans knowing a significant number of shoots will be plucked out to get to the seed.

 

[DrDirtNap]

Glad to see your turkey populations in NY seem to be doing well. Down South our populations are down in a lot of areas. Way down in some areas. If you folks up north need any help reducing your turkey population let me know.


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[weekender21]

Wow, those are great looking winter flocks! Congrats on a nice buck this season.


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[farmhunter]

Glad to see your turkey populations in NY seem to be doing well. Down South our populations are down in a lot of areas. Way down in some areas. If you folks up north need any help reducing your turkey population let me know.


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Actually in NY last year the state pulled back the bag limits in most areas. Even this year in October - we were wondering where all the turkeys were - we'd seen so few. This year was a little different in that they seemed to "show up" in late fall. We ended up with as many as ever going into winter - but we'd been wondering if our growing fisher population or the 200"+ snowfalls had taken a toll. Its not uncommon for our flocks to move around a bit especially in bad winters.

Where you are - what do you think is holding back your turkey populations? wet springs, predators, Dry summers?

 

[farmhunter]

Wow, those are great looking winter flocks! Congrats on a nice buck this season.


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Thank you! I'm really as proud of this buck as any I've ever taken. I've taken some bigger bucks, but this one I knew, and he was my #2 goal buck, so to get him so late in the season, and passing so many young bucks, really made it a fulfillment I've not experienced in hunting before.

I Just finished up his euro mount - and I found a shed antler in my collection with a G2 close enough to represent - so here he is, repaired and on display.

This was him the 1st time I saw him on 7-12-17 - by the old cemetery on the way in to camp.

He was a great Buck!

 

[DrDirtNap]

Actually in NY last year the state pulled back the bag limits in most areas. Even this year in October - we were wondering where all the turkeys were - we'd seen so few. This year was a little different in that they seemed to "show up" in late fall. We ended up with as many as ever going into winter - but we'd been wondering if our growing fisher population or the 200"+ snowfalls had taken a toll. Its not uncommon for our flocks to move around a bit especially in bad winters.

Where you are - what do you think is holding back your turkey populations? wet springs, predators, Dry summers?

Nobody really seems to know for sure why our populations have declined. The NWTF biologists are basically saying that when our populations were higher they were abnormally high and what we are seeing now is closer to “normal”. I’m not buying that. Most recently there have been some studies that show some hens in our populations never even try to nest. That’s really scary. Nobody seems to understand that. Think about it. If the hens stop trying to nest that spells extinction.

I really try to take care of my turkeys. More so than Deer.


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[DrDirtNap]

Thank you! I'm really as proud of this buck as any I've ever taken. I've taken some bigger bucks, but this one I knew, and he was my #2 goal buck, so to get him so late in the season, and passing so many young bucks, really made it a fulfillment I've not experienced in hunting before. I Just finished up his euro mount - and I found a shed antler in my collection with a G2 close enough to represent - so here he is, repaired and on display.

This was him the 1st time I saw him on 7-12-17 - by the old cemetery on the way in to camp.

He was a great Buck!

That’s a really good looking Deer and a fine mount as well.


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[farmhunter]

Too cold for Property Management - and the snow is too deep to get in to camp - so I hike in today to set winter cams up that I can hike to easier. But was a nice sunny day up to 12 degrees - (was -17 here in the morning - brrr too cold for me!)

here's a few pics. My beans are ALL GONE - and the corn the turkeys were infatuated with is all gone. SO -my 1 acre corn plot at the north tower is the main draw now. Its right on the local snowmobile trial so the deer leave it till last most years.

here's the North Tower

form North Tower view corn

looking down North Tower corn row

South Tower corn - is all gone. The deer and turkeys are still getting some turnips here on the ends of rows - but thats it -

My Norways have really grown - they trap a lot of snow.

the secondary succession poplar are catching up quickly to the spruce and larch

and a quick look at the back cabin. If I don't have time to spend - I don't go in - because I don't like the snowmobilers to see the tracks going in and out - I have no reason to think they would hang out - but if they saw tracks - maybe they'd think others use it, etc. so I walk around. Starting to drift in pretty good. I could see where fisher were hunting rabbits living under it in the snow -

those are turkey tracks by the cabin - they are really wandering now.

Might be a while before I get up again.

 

[farmhunter]

View attachment 10746 Farmhunter, sounds like ourseasons were similar. 3 of our 4 best deer were killed on surrounding properties. We found the acorn crop was heavy enough (and the snows light enough) the more mature deer hit the plots only late at night. Still, I did count 27 does and young bucks in one sit. We too are overrun with turkeys. They’ve been really hard on the corn beans. Counted over 60 in one flock. I have to heavily plant corn/beans knowing a significant number of shoots will be plucked out to get to the seed.

Great looking plot there - and I've seen that line of turkeys many a time!!

I wish we had acorns- 12 miles away there are oak and hickory - but not here - no where around me has them. We do have Beech - that's the only hard mast we have. I've planted 6 oaks near the cabin that I maintain and now I add 1-2 a year. The couple white oaks here are 10-12 years old now - and a couple White Swamp oak and Pin Oak. I'll add some Red and Burr Oak - hoping that my grand kids will have a stand in the norways I planted overlooking the oak flat someday,

 

[Chainsaw]

Nice to see the deer on your property are still active. That's a good sign that is nice to see.