Newish Hunter looking for advice

[Squiggles]

Hey All, I am getting back into hunting after a few long yrs. I was just given access to 78 acres and when I went to scout & set up some cams, I seen there was activity but the vegetation is really grown up (almost as tall as the deer on cam).

My question is, with the season just getting started this past weekend is it to late to clean up the area where the activity is (weed eat and make a clearing)? I would also like to throw down some no till seed for a plot to get more deer activity if it is not to late.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[yoderjac]

Honestly, I would not touch anything! I know all of us, once we get a property, want to jump in with both feet. I would do NOTHING but hunt it for the next few years. "Clean" is what humans like, not deer. It is very easy to really screw-up something in the name of improvement. Over the next few years, hunt from stands in multiple locations. Keep using game cameras. Learn how deer are currently relating to your property.

The next step is assessment of the general area. Folks don't like to hear this because it doesn't deer dirt under their fingernails. 78 acres is a small tract in terms of deer. Other surrounding properties and what is going on there will have a significant impact on deer that use your land. I like to draw 2 concentric circles on a map centered in the middle of your property. The first circle encompasses about 1,000 acres, a typical home range in average habitat. This is the area that will impact you most. The second circle is about 3 miles.

Try to learn this area in general and figure out what resources it has and how deer use them. Are there things missing? Make sure you understand your objectives for the property as part of this process. Do you want to kill big bucks? Do you want to harvest deer for food? Do you want to use it to introduce kids or other new hunters to hunting? Do you want to do QDM? Are neighbors cooperating with your objectives? Are there other recreational activities you plan to do on this tract? Very few folks have a single objective. Most of us have some combination of objectives and most of us will need to compromise some of them. Be sure to ask yourself if your objectives are reasonable. For example, if you plan to improve overall heard health (QDM) and you only have 78 acres and no cooperating neighbors, it is not going to happen. On the other hand, even very small properties and be managed to maximize hunting objectives, but the smaller the property, the more critical each step.

Once you have a handle on how deer are using your property and and assessment with objectives, you'll be ready to develop a plan to move forward.

I've known guys who leased some "honey hole" tiny properties where they killed mature bucks year after year. The property was sold, they lost access, and the new owner came in to "improve" it for deer hunting. Few if any mature bucks used the property after the "improvement". If shooting mature bucks was not the objective of the owner, then perhaps from their perspective the improvements were a success. Especially since they didn't know what they lost.

The best advice I can give is to slow down! I do know no one wants to hear that.

 

[Squiggles]

Very much appreciated.

 

[Drycreek]

Yeah, that’s all crap !

Just kidding Jack ! I agree with hunting it at least the first year. Looking back, I wish I had put more thought into that on my home place (80 acres), as well as another place I owned for ten years (217 acres). Prior planning prevents piss poor performance ! As it is, “my” deer at home have more or less adapted to my one 3/4 acre food plot near the middle of my place, but as it’s laid out a N or NW wind is necessary to access the stand and hunt it. We have plenty of winds during the fall with an S component and on those days I have to hunt somewhere else.

The neighboring area cannot be overlooked either. And it can change radically. A yearly look at Google Earth is a good reminder of that. OTOH, if the neighbors have no crops or food plots, you need one, just not this year. I am in that situation here at home. No food plots around me, and any deer I see probably bed on the neighbors places. That’s ok, as long as they come here to eat.