Jon
Active Member
Last year I had the fortunate opportunity of buying my first track of land. I am located in Central New York and my property lies just south of Syracuse. The property is 50 acres, with a 3 acre field (originally) and the rest is mostly hardwoods, with some softwoods intermixed. The property is only a mile down the road from my house, and with a young family this really is the key to being able to enjoy it.
As of this point the property has undergone a fairly large transformation. In hopes of generating young forest in pockets some areas were cut heavier (through logging and myself), as I stated the property consists mostly of hardwoods and at the top of the list is hard maple, which is by far one of the most prevalent species in my neck of the woods. Of course we have many other species (beech, hophornbeam, basswood, ash, cherry, etc.).
The property includes new openings placed in the most logical (as I determined) which are likely to transform from a supplemental food source in the interim to an additional pocket of cover within 3-5 years (at least this is my plan today). The 3 openings are approximately .25 acres, 1.1 acres and .52 acres (at least how I measured them). These openings are all link to each other through a trail system. Most of the property is difficult to access without being overly intrusive, mostly due to topography, which provides me a basis to eliminate over 80% of the property for hunting, unless my data tells me I need to jump in a kill something deeper. Most would cringe at that thought, but I see it as a major advantage. My friends think I'm crazy but the property has about 6-7 high value sits throughout the season as it lays out currently, which is completely fine and each sit hopefully produces. As with properties in NY and the related pressure, any form of intrusion has the tendency to be negative (even if its intended to be positive
)
North of my land there are many areas of limited hunting, which should make an opportunity for some older deer. The deer ratios are out of balance through the 2-5 mile area around me, but funny enough in my little parcel I have quite the opposite, mostly because of the isolation. This past season I only hunted the property once and passed a nice buck and pushing around 2 does. It was a different experience seeing deer on my own land doing what they naturally want to do. I ran a bunch of cameras, and although they only give me a small snidbit of information, many different bucks revealed themselves, with very few doe. Regardless, that is soon to change with the advent of young forest, supplemental food and generally more cover. I will try and start to post pictures of the property, my equipment, family and this adventure that is my own. At some point, Id love to have a habitat day on my land, as I see some people around here are near CNY. Its nice to make relationship through these types of interest.
thanks
Jon
As of this point the property has undergone a fairly large transformation. In hopes of generating young forest in pockets some areas were cut heavier (through logging and myself), as I stated the property consists mostly of hardwoods and at the top of the list is hard maple, which is by far one of the most prevalent species in my neck of the woods. Of course we have many other species (beech, hophornbeam, basswood, ash, cherry, etc.).
The property includes new openings placed in the most logical (as I determined) which are likely to transform from a supplemental food source in the interim to an additional pocket of cover within 3-5 years (at least this is my plan today). The 3 openings are approximately .25 acres, 1.1 acres and .52 acres (at least how I measured them). These openings are all link to each other through a trail system. Most of the property is difficult to access without being overly intrusive, mostly due to topography, which provides me a basis to eliminate over 80% of the property for hunting, unless my data tells me I need to jump in a kill something deeper. Most would cringe at that thought, but I see it as a major advantage. My friends think I'm crazy but the property has about 6-7 high value sits throughout the season as it lays out currently, which is completely fine and each sit hopefully produces. As with properties in NY and the related pressure, any form of intrusion has the tendency to be negative (even if its intended to be positive
North of my land there are many areas of limited hunting, which should make an opportunity for some older deer. The deer ratios are out of balance through the 2-5 mile area around me, but funny enough in my little parcel I have quite the opposite, mostly because of the isolation. This past season I only hunted the property once and passed a nice buck and pushing around 2 does. It was a different experience seeing deer on my own land doing what they naturally want to do. I ran a bunch of cameras, and although they only give me a small snidbit of information, many different bucks revealed themselves, with very few doe. Regardless, that is soon to change with the advent of young forest, supplemental food and generally more cover. I will try and start to post pictures of the property, my equipment, family and this adventure that is my own. At some point, Id love to have a habitat day on my land, as I see some people around here are near CNY. Its nice to make relationship through these types of interest.
thanks
Jon