Native Hunter - Property #2 - The Creek Bluff

[Native Hunter]

I'm going to start another habitat thread on the property I acquired a couple of years ago. This is three pieces of land that totals roughly 21 acres. I may also have the opportunity to add more to the north and west someday, however, I can already hunt that land too. Here are a few facts:

• The adjoining land to the east is hunted reasonably hard. But I only see one ladder stand about 60 yards off my property line.
• I have access to lots of family land to the north and west that is not hunted.
• I've been turkey hunting here for years but never deer hunted here. It is loaded with both turkey and deer. Some big deer have come from the area in the past.
• I'm building a tower blind at the moment. It will be a hybrid blind that I designed that will serve as both a hunting blind and cabin. It will be 12. x 12. with a 4' deck on three sides on the top level. There will be three levels with a poured floor. Foot height on the top level will be 16+'. It will have a shed roof.
• The edge of the little inset where the blind is being built is on a pinch point. From the edge of the field you have about 50 yards into the woods and then it drops off steeply to a creek below.
• When I cut shooting lanes today, it was a mess of deer manure, beds and rubs on the points.
• Even though there is a bluff directly behind the blind, I have one spot that gradually slops to the creek and an old road bed. With some dozer work a guy could drive to the creek. However, I likely won't do that. But it is an easy walk.
• The fields are in soybeans ever year.
• This property is very different than my other place. There are no sweetgums.. I have no place for an orchard - unless I do it in the farming fields - and I won't do that.

Field view:

Down the bluff - taken from the ground about 50 yards behind the blind.

One of three shooting lanes cut today. Many more to come.

More to come soon. I cut trees for 9 hours today, so need a rest.

 

[wbpdeer]

You do a great job of telling the story with photos supported with clear explanation. I would say your experience shows very well.

To new habitat people that have the bug, watch how this man sets up the hunting situation by shaping his land. He is designing a great hunting situation. I remember the first time I saw one of the Drury brothers explain how they used a dozier to create long brushpiles in the woods to set up a bow stand.

Great job Native - I am looking forward to riding along.

Wayne

 

[Native Hunter]

You do a great job of telling the story with photos supported with clear explanation. I would say your experience shows very well.

To new habitat people that have the bug, watch how this man sets up the hunting situation by shaping his land. He is designing a great hunting situation. I remember the first time I saw one of the Drury brothers explain how they used a dozier to create long brushpiles in the woods to set up a bow stand.

Great job Native - I am looking forward to riding along.

Wayne

Thanks so much Wayne. My current plans are:

• Make some long winding trails that move the deer through the woods to places I want them to travel.
• These long winding roads will have places that turn toward the blind and serve as shooting lanes.
• I'm going to strongly encourage travel at the top of the bluff through hinge cutting and trail building, I will be sure to have sighting lines from the rear deck to take advantage of that natural pinch point. However, when I turkey hunt here it is very common to just see deer crossing the field randomly about anywhere.
• As you can see from the pictures, I started one mineral lick yesterday and will put in a few more.
• This property has some excellent large trees of low timber value that will be nice for hinge cutting. I will take advantage of that in order to encourage even more bedding on the points. However, per the beds and manure I saw yesterday, we already have lots of that going on.
• The weakness of this property is getting in at daylight and getting out at dark without spooking deer. Part of the reason for the hybrid blind / tower type build is so that a man will have enough room to just covertly stay in the blind overnight or even a few days if desired. With the good height above ground, scent should not be a problem. From what I saw yesterday, deer will probably be bedding within 100 yards of the blind, and if a guy waits until late morning on a day when the prevailing wind is right - he can just walk right out through the middle of the field without being detected. The only wind that can mess you up here is from the "east northeast" and "west northwest." Both of those are uncommon at this spot.

Thanks for sharing the journey. We may get to find out if a Stihl saw can be worn out before this is over....

 

[pinetag]

During all that 9 hours working you couldn't find time to take a single pic of any of the rubs or beds? I'm disappointed! I think this will be a great spot and your tower blind looks incredible! That bluff reminds me of a place I used to hunt. It dropped off sharply to the river below and the crest of that ridge had a lot of activity too. Biggest buck I ever got on camera was working a scrape less than 75 yards from the bluff. Good luck and I look forward to following along on your new tour!

 

[Native Hunter]

During all that 9 hours working you couldn't find time to take a single pic of any of the rubs or beds? I'm disappointed! I think this will be a great spot and your tower blind looks incredible! That bluff reminds me of a place I used to hunt. It dropped off sharply to the river below and the crest of that ridge had a lot of activity too. Biggest buck I ever got on camera was working a scrape less than 75 yards from the bluff. Good luck and I look forward to following along on your new tour!

I did make a picture of this one massive solitary bed at the military crest of one ridge. I will try to get some rub pics in the near future.

Maybe this one bed and poop picture will tide you over until I can do better.... You may also like the pic of a petrified deer track I found in a rock on the bluff. I thought that was a good omen.

 

[Native Hunter]

During all that 9 hours working you couldn't find time to take a single pic of any of the rubs or beds? I'm disappointed! I think this will be a great spot and your tower blind looks incredible! That bluff reminds me of a place I used to hunt. It dropped off sharply to the river below and the crest of that ridge had a lot of activity too. Biggest buck I ever got on camera was working a scrape less than 75 yards from the bluff. Good luck and I look forward to following along on your new tour!

I was back at it today pinetag and got you some of what you wanted to see.

Grounds is worn out with bedding on this secondary shelf

This is the trail that comes off the flat land at the creek up to the blind

Lane to the break of the bluff

Other miscellaneous from today

I'm worn out. I climbed down the steep part of the bluff to the creek for marking a line of sight to the sandbar. Going down was the easy part - can you guess the hard part..........

 

[Mennoniteman]

Now you've done gone and gave me the urge to go build another shooting house! I can see rubs anywhere. More pics of the shootin house please? This will be a good example of what can be done with a small acreage. You had better re-evaluate on the trees, there's got to be room for at least a few grafted female persimmons or it just won't be you.

 

[Chainsaw]

Your energy and productivity is a great thing; nine hours of tree cutting in one day really transforms an area to your wishes quickly. And making a combo blind and camp is a very neat idea. The deer sign looks promising and it's location on the aerial map looks perfect. I can't wait to hear of some wonderful hunts from the new camp/blind on the bluff. What ill it be called? A blind-camp combo of that stature needs a very special name.

 

[Native Hunter]

Now you've done gone and gave me the urge to go build another shooting house! I can see rubs anywhere. More pics of the shootin house please? This will be a good example of what can be done with a small acreage. You had better re-evaluate on the trees, there's got to be room for at least a few grafted female persimmons or it just won't be you.

Yes, Once we get the blind built, I will give a good pictorial tour.

You know me pretty well - I'm struggling with having no persimmons. I noticed today that I have one long ridge that is almost flat. I hate to mess with it much, but the idea of clearing out more and planing persimmons there did cross my mind.

 

[Native Hunter]

Your energy and productivity is a great thing; nine hours of tree cutting in one day really transforms an area to your wishes quickly. And making a combo blind and camp is a very neat idea. The deer sign looks promising and it's location on the aerial map looks perfect. I can't wait to hear of some wonderful hunts from the new camp/blind on the bluff. What ill it be called? A blind-camp combo of that stature needs a very special name.

Thank you Dave. I took vacation again today and did more lane cutting. I cleared out the existing deer trail that comes from the creek up the center of the ridge where deer cross the creek below. I only have two more lanes to cut, and then I will start road building between lanes.

I'm not sure what the best name for it would be. Maybe some of the forum guys can make some suggestions. Maybe a "hunting condo" would work.

 

[Chainsaw]

What ever name you decide on Steve could end up being a new norm like Dogghrs' "Theory of Random Clusters". A Google search of Random Clusters already has Dogghr on page one at number five. It is only a matter of time before the writers pick up on it and it will be showing up as the number one hit on that Google search.

Hunting Condo is a good possibility. Huntable Home, Sleepable Deer Blind, Huntin and livin High, are three other possibilities.

 

[Native Hunter]

What ever name you decide on Steve could end up being a new norm like Dogghrs' "Theory of Random Clusters". A Google search of Random Clusters already has Dogghr on page one at number five. It is only a matter of time before the writers pick up on it and it will be showing up as the number one hit on that Google search.

Hunting Condo is a good possibility. Huntable Home, Sleepable Deer Blind, Huntin and livin High, are three other possibilities.

We all know that dogghr deserves to be at the top of the page for sure. When he gets the math part down, there will be no limit to him....

 

[pinetag]

I was back at it today pinetag and got you some of what you wanted to see.

Grounds is worn out with bedding on this secondary shelf

This is the trail that comes off the flat land at the creek up to the blind

Lane to the break of the bluff

Other miscellaneous from today

I'm worn out. I climbed down the steep part of the bluff to the creek for marking a line of sight to the sandbar. Going down was the easy part - can you guess the hard part..........

Is all that sign on the bluff? If so that is gonna be a hot stand during the rut. The tower/condo blind is coming along fast! Your work ethic is inspiring!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Native Hunter]

Is all that sign on the bluff? If so that is gonna be a hot stand during the rut. The tower/condo blind is coming along fast! Your work ethic is inspiring!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Thanks pinetag. All that sign was basically on one point going east from the blind. That’s where I cleared lanes today. The pic of the muddy spot is at the base of that point where it hits the gravel bar at the creek. That is a shallow creek crossing where the deer come from about a 100 acre corn bottom on the neighbor across the creek.

I saw about 15 big Tom turkeys in the north part of my field when I drove out this afternoon.

 

[Native Hunter]

One more picture for tonight.

This is standing in the creek flats. On the right is my land with the bluff and the long point with all the sign above. On the other side of the creek is another neighbor's property with huge corn fields in creek bottoms. Right in front of the camera the creek gets shallow and can be crossed easily by the deer. This is the only good crossing spot for a long distance either way (up or down the creek).

 

[TheOldOak]

Question, that loose mineral on the log, I assume it's mineral, what type is it and how does it compare to trophy rock in terms of usage? Nice project, that is the taj mahal of tower blinds! I've built two tower blinds on my place. Both are 6x6, with whiteoak main beams that will last forever or close to it. Have to flip a coin for those on the cold days! Looks like there might be some lumber in that big whiteoak tree you dropped in one shooting lane.

 

[Native Hunter]

Question, that loose mineral on the log, I assume it's mineral, what type is it and how does it compare to trophy rock in terms of usage? Nice project, that is the taj mahal of tower blinds! I've built two tower blinds on my place. Both are 6x6, with whiteoak main beams that will last forever or close to it. Have to flip a coin for those on the cold days! Looks like there might be some lumber in that big whiteoak tree you dropped in one shooting lane.

Thanks OldOak.

This is how I did the mineral site. I put a brown trace mineral block at the base of that log on the ground. That block would be much like trophy rock - mostly salt, but with low quantities of trace minerals. Those blocks are very cheap. The stuff I sprinkled on the log was something I have not tried before. It is a cattle mineral and has higher concentrations of minerals like calcium, etc.... It is also fairly high in salt. My theory was that the loose mineral might get things to going faster but the block would last a lot longer. In the coming weeks I will get a camera on this and we can see how it works.

I hated to drop that big white oak, but it was leaning slightly toward the tower. It has a bad spot up about 1/3 of the way, so there would only be about a 15 foot log. To get someone to come haul it out would cost more than it is worth, so I will give it to my uncle for firewood.

There is another big white oak not far away that is really nice. I cannot figure out why it wasn't taken when the timber was cut. It looks flawless. Maybe it will put out a bunch of acorns and bring deer into bow range.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Thank you Dave. I took vacation again today and did more lane cutting. I cleared out the existing deer trail that comes from the creek up the center of the ridge where deer cross the creek below. I only have two more lanes to cut, and then I will start road building between lanes.

I'm not sure what the best name for it would be. Maybe some of the forum guys can make some suggestions. Maybe a "hunting condo" would work.

I say it's a "Native Palace"

 

[George]

Awesome project Steve. You do realize that you will need the health department out before they will turn the power on? Some people just can't relax. A nice collection of rubs. And it looks like a nice collection of red maples to fold. Do I see any sugar maples in the pic of the woods following the salt block. Have fun, I hope to get down for a visit in the not so far off future.

G

 

[Native Hunter]

Awesome project Steve. You do realize that you will need the health department out before they will turn the power on? Some people just can't relax. A nice collection of rubs. And it looks like a nice collection of red maples to fold. Do I see any sugar maples in the pic of the woods following the salt block. Have fun, I hope to get down for a visit in the not so far off future.

G

Thanks G. I think this will indeed be a fun project...especially when I get the sauna installed...…

Yes, you see some sugar maples and wild cherries. In fact, the woods has lots of wild cherry, but in time the taller climax trees will shade out many of them. One project will be some TSI via hinging. I started a little of that yesterday.

This is the cedar thicket on another family member that borders my north soybean field. I'm standing in my field looking north. I can hunt this as well. The sign in that thicket is crazy, and they cross the field here headed for my blind on the south side.

This is another spot the deer come up the creek bank onto my ridge. This is the east end of the property.

Progress

Keebler Elves used to live in this beech before one side fell off....