New years resolution

[Chainsaw]

One goal this year other than to plant what I have ordered. I will be hinging a 20 acre sanctuary. I want the thickest cover within miles.

Chummer, Twenty acres of hinge cut in your area will surely be unique and a huge draw as well. I am interested as to which of the many options of laying out the hinge cutting you chose. I couldn't help guessing at how the twenty acres of hinge cuts would be laid out. ie; would they be forty hinge cut areas 1/2 acre each all connected by Steve's buck sidewalks, or maybe one large twenty acre hinge cut area with food plots on the corners, or two ten acre hinge cuts with open woods between them for ambush or would you be setting it up along the practice of encouraging more bucks to be on the property at the same time by dividing the property into 5 pieces and then setting up each piece with all a deer wants, ie;the food plots, water, 4 acres of hinge cuts, sidewalks connecting all of the parts to each other and the different pieces to each other or would you simply be cutting two ten acre diamond shaped hinge cut areas with the points touching or with a food plot in between? Or do you have something entirely different in mind?

On the Andy Hayes Indiana land tour Jim Ward described how he hinge cut 600 trees a day. Jim said he cut a bunch of trees in a line leaving them standing and then dropped one across them causing them all to fall over. I have never tried it but it sounded a lot quicker and maybe even safer to me than doing them one at a time. It might be worth a try learning with smaller ones of course as twenty acres is a huge amount of trees. In case you hadn't watched it, here is the link to the you tube of the land tour done by DR. Jim. It used to be on the old QDMA forum https://extremedeerhabitat.com/whitetail-wisdom-with-jim-ward/

 

[Triple C]

Great thread Chainsaw! First...I want to be more like dogghr too! That's a lofty resolution right there.

As for property resolutions, I've been thinking about that. I don't see anything huge on the agenda compared to 2016 when we completed a major logging / thinning project. Not necessarily resolutions but a few goals:

• Learn to graft. (Got The LLC coming in March to show us how)
• Build a lean-to equipment / implement shed. (Seems we can never have enough structures. Need and want my implements dry)
• Lay out tree plantings in a way that make's sense. With all the areas opened up for logging we want to be strategic in planting trees and take into account the next thinning operation. Don't want to lose any more planted trees to logging equipment.
• Lime, lime, lime.
• Plant Eagle beans for the 1st time in largest plot.
• Improve my efficiency with the recurve in 2017. (Got to get the 0 for 5 in 2016 out of my system)

I really appreciate all you guys! I love this forum. It's the 1st thing I normally do when I get home each day is check the forum. What a great group of folks that hang out here!

May 2017 bring you prosperity, good health and contentment in all walks of life!!!

 

[Chummer]

Chummer, Twenty acres of hinge cut in your area will surely be unique and a huge draw as well. I am interested as to which of the many options of laying out the hinge cutting you chose. I couldn't help guessing at how the twenty acres of hinge cuts would be laid out. ie; would they be forty hinge cut areas 1/2 acre each all connected by Steve's buck sidewalks, or maybe one large twenty acre hinge cut area with food plots on the corners, or two ten acre hinge cuts with open woods between them for ambush or would you be setting it up along the practice of encouraging more bucks to be on the property at the same time by dividing the property into 5 pieces and then setting up each piece with all a deer wants, ie;the food plots, water, 4 acres of hinge cuts, sidewalks connecting all of the parts to each other and the different pieces to each other or would you simply be cutting two ten acre diamond shaped hinge cut areas with the points touching or with a food plot in between? Or do you have something entirely different in mind?

On the Andy Hayes Indiana land tour Jim Ward described how he hinge cut 600 trees a day. Jim said he cut a bunch of trees in a line leaving them standing and then dropped one across them causing them all to fall over. I have never tried it but it sounded a lot quicker and maybe even safer to me than doing them one at a time. It might be worth a try learning with smaller ones of course as twenty acres is a huge amount of trees. In case you hadn't watched it, here is the link to the you tube of the land tour done by DR. Jim. It used to be on the old QDMA forum https://extremedeerhabitat.com/whitetail-wisdom-with-jim-ward/

Where to start? Last year I hinged can't miss point. Then I hinged a large area on the south border. This spot has the closest access to the main food plot but is a long ways from any public access and has the beaver pond and meadow as a buffer on the private land owner side. This will be the prime bedding on the property. Nothing could get the drop on the deer in there and they could escape in three directions. This year I plan to hinge the entire north side of the ravine. I put bridges in so I have access all the way around the perimeter to the way back clearing that was going to be a food plot. The entire north side will become a sanctuary. Any trespassers will only push the deer deeper into my property. There are multiple ridges and plateaus on that 20 acres so I think it could potentially hold a few different family groups or bucks. What was going to be a plot bordering the ravine has been changed. I am going to be filling that space with apples, dogwood, ninebark, and crabapple shrubs. My plan is an apple thicket with other shrubs filling the gaps until the apples take over. The 20 acres starts wide and narrows down to this thicket, almost like a triangle. Then I will hinge a massive screen from that thicket across the ravine to the main plot on the south side. The goal being this will concentrate most movement on the property to that one ravine crossing. This plan gives me 5-6 awesome stand spots without ever crossing the ravine. I could even hunt the apple thicket from the south side during riffle season. I will work on starting a land tour thread tonight. Google just updated so it is pretty cool to see the plots in.

 

[Bullwinkle]

Where to start? Last year I hinged can't miss point. Then I hinged a large area on the east border. This spot has the closest access to the main food plot but is a long ways from any public access and has the beaver pond and meadow as a buffer on the private land owner side. This will be the prime bedding on the property. Nothing could get the drop on the deer in there and they could escape in three directions. This year I plan to hinge the entire north side of the ravine. I put bridges in so I have access all the way around the perimeter to the way back clearing that was going to be a food plot. The entire north side will become a sanctuary. Any trespassers will only push the deer deeper into my property. There are multiple ridges and plateaus on that 20 acres so I think it could potentially hold a few different family groups or bucks. What was going to be a plot bordering the ravine has been changed. I am going to be filling that space with apples, dogwood, ninebark, and crabapple shrubs. My plan is an apple thicket with other shrubs filling the gaps until the apples take over. The 20 acres starts wide and narrows down to this thicket, almost like a triangle. Then I will hinge a massive screen from that thicket across the ravine to the main plot on the south side. The goal being this will concentrate most movement on the property to that one ravine crossing. This plan gives me 5-6 awesome stand spots without ever crossing the ravine. I could even hunt the apple thicket from the south side during riffle season. I will work on starting a land tour thread tonight. Google just updated so it is pretty cool to see the plots in.

I like the idea a lot. I hope to do 30-40 acres as well. It's a flat parcel with little features. Hard to hunt but the deer bed there. I have logging plans in '18. Right after I want to hinge all witch hazel and iron wood making it thick and nasty I hope. I'll hunt the trails leaving this 40 and give it to the deer by never entering it. It may take me a few years but it will be good exercise. Hope it helps in regen too?

 

[Chummer]

I like the idea a lot. I hope to do 30-40 acres as well. It's a flat parcel with little features. Hard to hunt but the deer bed there. I have logging plans in '18. Right after I want to hinge all witch hazel and iron wood making it thick and nasty I hope. I'll hunt the trails leaving this 40 and give it to the deer by never entering it. It may take me a few years but it will be good exercise. Hope it helps in regen too?

Regen is my big concern and why I want to get this done this year. We have such a short growing I need to get the project done. I have seen very little growth since the logging in '15. The seedlings are there but they only grew a few inches this year. Hopefully that had more to do with the drought.

 

[Chainsaw]

Absolutely Chummer; few plant species around here could grow in the dust piles we had. This is shaping up to a great water winter so far--slow thaws and unfrozen ground is letting a lot of snow melt in. The ground water is still hurting but it is on the rebuild.

 

[Chummer]

Absolutely Chummer; few plant species around here could grow in the dust piles we had. This is shaping up to a great water winter so far--slow thaws and unfrozen ground is letting a lot of snow melt in. The ground water is still hurting but it is on the rebuild.

Ground water is about to get 4' of white help.

 

[Chainsaw]

I like the idea a lot. I hope to do 30-40 acres as well. It's a flat parcel with little features. Hard to hunt but the deer bed there. I have logging plans in '18. Right after I want to hinge all witch hazel and iron wood making it thick and nasty I hope. I'll hunt the trails leaving this 40 and give it to the deer by never entering it. It may take me a few years but it will be good exercise. Hope it helps in regen too?

I think you will like your hinge cut Bull. There is a 14.5 acre cutting on my property that is loaded with apple trees, briars, buckthorn, a few poplar stands unhinged, a few unhinged hickory and general brush. I measured it today on an aerial and it was larger than I had thought (was thinking 6 acres). Walking thru it in the late summer/fall one often cannot see their feet except for if walking on some of the deer trails. All saw timber has been removed. All trees impacting the apple trees have been hinged or dropped. Visibility is up to twenty yards. There are more deer trails coming out of it than any piece on the property. I have a Redneck off one corner of the 14.5 acres where the deer also walk around a food plot and a main deer sidewalk also goes by it as it intersects a logging road which will be planted to clover,peas and oats this fall.


I plan to hinge cut another six acres to the right(south) parallel to 14.5 acres leaving a thirty yard wide strip between the existing cut and the planned cut. The planned six acres has been logged and is ready for hinge cutting. Apple, hickory and poplar will be spared in the planned six acre hinge cut. The parallel strip to be between the two hinge cut areas has been logged and will grow in but it will be open enough to shoot down into. The poplar is being saved to be cut for re-sprouting for winter food when it becomes needed.

This area wasn't planned to be hinge cut so much;it was just a byproduct of releasing apple trees. And am I glad it happened! A little luck went a long way in creating this spot.

 

[Bullwinkle]

I think you will like your hinge cut Bull. There is a 14.5 acre cutting on my property that is loaded with apple trees, briars, buckthorn, a few poplar stands unhinged, a few unhinged hickory and general brush. I measured it today on an aerial and it was larger than I had thought (was thinking 6 acres). Walking thru it in the late summer/fall one often cannot see their feet except for if walking on some of the deer trails. All saw timber has been removed. All trees impacting the apple trees have been hinged or dropped. Visibility is up to twenty yards. There are more deer trails coming out of it than any piece on the property. I have a Redneck off one corner of the 14.5 acres where the deer also walk around a food plot and a main deer sidewalk also goes by it as it intersects a logging road which will be planted to clover,peas and oats this fall.
View attachment 5398

I plan to hinge cut another six acres to the right(south) parallel to 14.5 acres leaving a thirty yard wide strip between the existing cut and the planned cut. The planned six acres has been logged and is ready for hinge cutting. Apple, hickory and poplar will be spared in the planned six acre hinge cut. The parallel strip to be between the two hinge cut areas has been logged and will grow in but it will be open enough to shoot down into. The poplar is being saved to be cut for re-sprouting for winter food when it becomes needed.

This area wasn't planned to be hinge cut so much;it was just a byproduct of releasing apple trees. And am I glad it happened! A little luck went a long way in creating this spot.

Looks and sounds great Chainsaw

 

[ditty22]

For 2017 I have a lot of irons in the fire but hope to pull some of them out.

1. Get our barndominium to the point we can stay in it for Wisconsin rifle season.

2. Erected my other octagon blind stand I have sitting in my dads pole barn.

3. Build some small water holes.

4. Build 2 bow/rifle octagon stands this winter in the off season and get at least one of them put up.

5. Clear the north west corner of my land in front of my new 8x8 fence line stand for a 1/2 food plot/ water hole.

6. Install a buck pole on my land.

I could go on and on but these are the ones we will be working hard to make happen for 2017.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chummer]

Chummer, Twenty acres of hinge cut in your area will surely be unique and a huge draw as well. I am interested as to which of the many options of laying out the hinge cutting you chose. I couldn't help guessing at how the twenty acres of hinge cuts would be laid out. ie; would they be forty hinge cut areas 1/2 acre each all connected by Steve's buck sidewalks, or maybe one large twenty acre hinge cut area with food plots on the corners, or two ten acre hinge cuts with open woods between them for ambush or would you be setting it up along the practice of encouraging more bucks to be on the property at the same time by dividing the property into 5 pieces and then setting up each piece with all a deer wants, ie;the food plots, water, 4 acres of hinge cuts, sidewalks connecting all of the parts to each other and the different pieces to each other or would you simply be cutting two ten acre diamond shaped hinge cut areas with the points touching or with a food plot in between? Or do you have something entirely different in mind?

On the Andy Hayes Indiana land tour Jim Ward described how he hinge cut 600 trees a day. Jim said he cut a bunch of trees in a line leaving them standing and then dropped one across them causing them all to fall over. I have never tried it but it sounded a lot quicker and maybe even safer to me than doing them one at a time. It might be worth a try learning with smaller ones of course as twenty acres is a huge amount of trees. In case you hadn't watched it, here is the link to the you tube of the land tour done by DR. Jim. It used to be on the old QDMA forum https://extremedeerhabitat.com/whitetail-wisdom-with-jim-ward/

Thanks for posting that link Dave. Just watched, very good info.

 

[MattJK]

I want to hunt with two of my kids and have my son get his first deer.

This drives the rest of my goals.

Hunt public land.
Find at least one new property to hunt, and hunt a new county (with less EHD impact).
Hunt hogs out of state.
Plant food plots! Took a year off in 2016 as the family plan was to get back into livestock. So I've been reading dgallow's threads carefully!

 

[Chainsaw]

Thanks for posting that link Dave. Just watched, very good info.

You are welcome buddy. It is a great land tour and we should reach out to Andy to join our group. He is a real sharer of information. I have never met him but am sure I would be proud to know him.

 

[Btaylor]

Not so much a resolution as it is following where I feel I am being led and that is to start an outdoor themed ministry at my church. I feel completly unqualified to take something like this on but think it is a calling I have to answer.

 

[lakngolf]

Not so much a resolution as it is following where I feel I am being led and that is to start an outdoor themed ministry at my church. I feel completly unqualified to take something like this on but think it is a calling I have to answer.

Tell us more. Guided hunts with a message? Kids and youth? God surely has placed some wonderful beauty before us!

 

[Btaylor]

Adult and youth. Not sure about doing any hunts at this point. Would have to see how much participation there is for this and then figure out the logistics. The same would apply for fishing. Trying to conceptually wrap my head around the whole thing and how to get it moving. I do want to have a daily message or devotion as well and have been working on that.

 

[dogghr]

Not so much a resolution as it is following where I feel I am being led and that is to start an outdoor themed ministry at my church. I feel completly unqualified to take something like this on but think it is a calling I have to answer.

Many of the biblical greats felt the same unqualified way. I think that is what can make one successful. Go for it and good luck.