Farmhunter's Deer Management and Property Improvements

[farmhunter]

Photobucket charging to post pics - has lead me to starting my Property Tour over again. So I'm going to try to not re-post everything.

This is me - I'll be 50 this year and have been plots for about 1/2 my life.

Nice to see everyone here - I'll have fun catching up with many and getting some posts in.
I'm going to grab a few pics from my old thread - but will spend most of my time posting new information.

Property: 180 acres - family land - been in family since 1829.
Upstate NY, Snowbelt SE of Syracuse -

Lodging - 2 hunting cabins.


My Camp was started in 1990 - this is how it looks now -

And my cousin's camp - we built the pole barn with camp addition in the early 2000s.

We are lucky that both our fathers still hunt with us. This was part of their family farm - and though the original building are long gone - Lots of family time here -

 

[farmhunter]

Here's a look at our two "towers" for late season and for the older guys to really enjoy their hunt. ( I like them too!!) Great for scouting and taking pictures too -

The North Tower

and

The south Tower

They will show up in my plot pics quite a bit! They are awesome scouting platforms and we plant corn to help us in and out.

 

[CTM1]

So I'll post out plot progress this year and some projects over the last couple years that I can think of - will update as time goes by as long as long as Postimage.org holds up
gWinter 2017 was punctuated with 3 heavy snow storms - and normal otherwise - We had between 150" and 175" of snow for the year. Two storms were over 30" each.

Then we had flooding rains -and we had a good deal of washouts - like I've not seen before in my 50 years. It did affect our plots - but at least we had planted - because it would have been 2 more weeks before we could have planted.

I see you are no stranger to rock farming.

 

[Keith Nehrke]

We're just West of Rochester...I think that Syracuse won the snow competition this year, but we're matching you in rain. Never seen it this wet and I'm turning 50 this year, too.

 

[Elkaddict]

Looks like you rock production matches my own. My condolences!

 

[farmhunter]

yep sure is rocky - we do the best we can with it. Its a nice heavy loam so tough to raise pH very quickly - but holds moisture well. Clovers can do well here - not everywhere but most places that we work. This is a fall planted last year clover plot\

8/30/16 planted with oats nurse crop

- and how it looks now (8/617) (mowed twice so far) - we only mow for weed control.

 

[farmhunter]

We work with two tractors - these are pics from this year -
Sometimes we curse them - but they do get the job done for us

an IH 504 rowcrop tractor

we just added an IH 444 too -

and we have a couple 40's/50's vintage WDs that we keep in working order

so nothing very big - but all affordable and they get the job done.

 

[farmhunter]

We've always been blessed with a good wildlife population - there are signs that deer management is going through a grass roots change in NY - as more and more of us pass younger bucks, especially on private land. My personal goal is that a buck has to be at least 2.5 years old and I have to be happy with it. Pretty reasonable goal - but Its not uncommon for me to just take does instead. The others I hunt with have similar goals - though ours aren't all the same. Same goes for my neighbors - I do see that this has made a difference in the numbers of bucks we see - and their quality. I'll post some "goal buck" pics here as the season gets close -

I've also found that our deer are sometimes older than we think they are. And that even 3.5 and 4.5 year old bucks in our area may not break 100" score. Its just the way it is. Every year we have a buck or two that will break 120" - and we don't always kill them. In fact we find that as they get older - they get harder to kill. frustratingly so actually. But more and more are making it past 1.5 years old - and we see this as a very positive thing.

Our cabin has in it over 60 antler racks taken here over the last 30 years. The "better" racks usually go home with the hunter - but we always celebrated even the smallest buck taken and given it a place on our walls. Each with a story written on the back. We don't want to lose that spiroit of the hunt, the fun of taking a buck! - but a lot less of these young bucks are going up, some of us have been leading by example for years now - and its worn off quite a bit. We celebrate a little less often - but we see a lot more bucks.

Here is our Piebald Doe - Patches. She's been off limits since she was a fawn in 2008 - she was 9.5 years old in 2017 (and as of Dec 7 2018- she's still around)

She teaches a lot about camera placement and hunting pressure -

we first saw her as a fawn in 2008

She was in her prime in 2014 (we have a million pictures of her over the years)

shes still looking good!! She looks a lot different in summer vs winter
2018

we love having her around.

 

[farmhunter]

We're just West of Rochester...I think that Syracuse won the snow competition this year, but we're matching you in rain. Never seen it this wet and I'm turning 50 this year, too.

50's the new 40 I hear!

Yep - this recent dry patch has been helpful!!!!

 

[Triple C]

Great looking camps you guys have. Place looks great!

 

[Brushpile]

Thanks for the pics of the piebald, that's super cool; not just because she is Piebald, but because she's 10 years old!!!

 

[Triple C]

Enjoying the ride along farmhunter. How long have those tractors been in the family?

 

[farmhunter]

Thanks for the pics of the piebald, that's super cool; not just because she is Piebald, but because she's 10 years old!!!

Thanks - We never could have expected to have her around for so long. She's been passed up several times you can imagine - but not as often as one would think - she can disappear at will - and still show up on the trail cams - other times shes GONE. Most summer nights - I know what corner of the field she likes to be in. Some hunting seasons - no one lays an eye on her in person. But she MUST stay right on our little corner of the world - or she'd be long gone - most of my neighbors would take her gladly.

I liked this picture of her getting her but kicked a couple winters ago - shes a lover not a fighter!

 

[CTM1]

Amazing that the piebald made is for some many years, very cool.

 

[Chummer]

Thanks for updating. I am sure I have probably hunted near you at some point in my 30 years of hunting. It is so funny spots like ours the bucks just don't grow antlers but you go one town over and they do. I do love hunting in the hills like yours.

 

[farmhunter]

Enjoying the ride along farmhunter. How long have those tractors been in the family?

Sorry didn't see this question initially - My Grandfather had two Allis Chalmers in the 40's/50s that he bought new. One was a WC and the other a WD. The Narrow front end WD is an original - my uncle covets it only he works it. The wide front end Allis is a combination of several tractors - some of it is from one of my Grandfather's tractors - but most is from a neighbor that rolled hius while cutting wood, We kind of made that one - and its our general worker tractor.

The 504 IH my dad bought in the 1980s with a bucket, It wasn't one of our farm tractors back in the day - but it does the majority of the work now - we like the power steering - but hate the brakes,

 

[MarkDarvin]

As the summer winds down - I've been able to see most of the bucks in the area - My #1 last year that I KNOW made it through hunting season is MIA - so I'm still hopeful for him to show!

Anyhow here's 5 years of passing 1.5 year old bucks - Wont do much for a lot of you - BUT this type of "hit list" was unheard of for us 10-25 years ago. This is the "velvet presentation" - will be looking to update with hard antler pics later on.

This guy showed a week after I made that collage -

Hoping some of the bucks that pass through in the rut will show as well - but so far- I'm pretty happy with this -
Our goal as I've stated many times is 2.5 year or better for now - and a lot of does! Several of these bucks will weigh over 150 lbs dressed - some might push 180.

This deer too is on the property - we call him the "bully 4 point" - he pushes all the the other bucks around - he's aggressive and he's going to be heavy. One time we had a 180 lb 5 point -and another time a 160 lb 4 point - dressed - so its not uncommon - but still!! I'm not a culler - but he'll meet our minimum criteria - we'll see if anyone wants to burn a tag on him.

That's nothing to sneeze at. I'm stuck at that perennial spike buck pool. There is no trigger restraint for the most part where I hunt. Our own camp has been very good at letting does and spikes walk, but we've got guys next door and across the road will take a square mile's worth of deer off their 40's for the sake of killing. There's 6 in our group that cover 90 acres + public, but the neighbors will bring in legions of kids and buddies to shoot the hell out of their own properties.

Nobody can understand why there hasn't been a 100"+ deer taken in years. I'm really proud of our extended hunting party, but haven't had any luck with the locals.

 

[Chummer]

I think we have the same gene pools. That four is a heck of a trophy.

 

[farmhunter]

That's nothing to sneeze at. I'm stuck at that perennial spike buck pool. There is no trigger restraint for the most part where I hunt. Our own camp has been very good at letting does and spikes walk, but we've got guys next door and across the road will take a square mile's worth of deer off their 40's for the sake of killing. There's 6 in our group that cover 90 acres + public, but the neighbors will bring in legions of kids and buddies to shoot the hell out of their own properties.

Nobody can understand why there hasn't been a 100"+ deer taken in years. I'm really proud of our extended hunting party, but haven't had any luck with the locals.

I can relate! It was that way here for many years - finally in the last 5 years - we've seen a change in mindset - not everywhere mind you - but more and more. Lots of guys here though expect all the bucks to be 120" 8 points at 3.5 years old - and while some are - just as many are not! So hopefully they won't lose faith.

 

[farmhunter]

I think we have the same gene pools. That four is a heck of a trophy.

will be interesting to see how heavy he gets - pretty sure he's 3.5 years old.

As far as the Genes - I think its all the snow Chummer - and the marginal soil. It just takes its toll I think.