Stand Out In The Crowd

[j-bird]

When I bought my land 3 years ago, I closed mid october and hung one stand. It was my best season hunting ever. Since all the work and improvements to the land, hunting is still sub par from the first year. I think your postbis spot on.

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The biggest struggle I have had....has been myself! I suffered and struggled thru a few lean years because of bullheadedness, fear and NOT thinking for myself.

Fear - I was fearful of making significant changes to improve my habitat. What if I screw it up? What if I destroy my habitat? This hampered my install of buffer strips and use of switchgrass....and a timber harvest. Neither of which I regret now and have been the biggest and best improvements I have made to date....because it addresses my lowest habitat hole (cover).

Not thinking for myself - I was focusing on providing deer with a year round food source just like all the print and TV shows said you need to do.....Ummm, you IDIOT! Your surrounded by 100's and 100's of acres of active soy bean and corn fields. Yet I was focused on them plots....plant it and BOOM I will have deer and monster deer at that over night! Like I said....What an IDIOT! I now focus on fall and winter foods by planting annuals and have some perennial clover plots as well as some hard and soft mast planting. I could care less where the deer eat in the summertime now....go eat the neighbors beans for all I care!

My own bullheadedness - For a few years when I struggled I thought I needed to hunt more to see and kill more deer. I would hunt every chance I got...daily after work, every day every weekend. I would hunt at least 2 hours for roughly 60 days...all on the same 150 acres. Then for some reason it hit me...why am a hunting in October when the deer I really want are not here then? All I am doing is stinking the place up and educating the does who live here that I need to use as bait to draw the bucks I am after to me in November! So I swallowed my pride and tried to re-think and re-plan as best as I could. I now only hunt from Halloween thru the end of November in most cases. I also think more about stand access. Why only roughly a month? Because in doing so....now I see more deer and kill those deer and am finished before we even enter December in most years now. Sometimes....Less is more!

Like I said...I blame myself. But places like the forums has been a great resource for different opinions, support and even a good kick in the pants from time to time to try something new. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is take a honest step back and take a hard critical look at what your doing. We simply hate to be wrong....but sometimes you have to admit that before you can really move forward.

 

[Drycreek]

It's funny how what works for one doesn't work for another. For instance, I am not surrounded by ag, unless you count pine trees. So, spring/summer food plots make good sense in my case. Being the only plots in a sea of pines is a good way to keep those deer traveling through. Of course I plant fall plots too, feed protein, and install mineral sites.

I hunt with the start of bow season until the end of gun season, but I have three different properties to hunt, so I don't overhunt any of them. If conditions aren't perfect, rainy, wind wrong, etc. I just don't hunt. I can do that because I'm retired. I usually use the early season to kill a couple does for the freezer, but if a buck I like shows, then........

 

[Chainsaw]

Retired is wonderful. We wake up, check the weather, the wind directions and then decide what we would like to do for the day. All of those years that worked I loved it and retirement seemed like who would want it. Boy was I wrong!
We have all day every day to figure out how to stand out in our area. And the more our property stands out from surrounding properties the more daytime deer activity it enjoys.

 

[George]

My place is in an area of the county that hasn't historically been known for producing big deer.

but between you and this guy it is now.



G

 

[Native Hunter]

but between you and this guy it is now.

View attachment 14803

G

Nothing feels better than making a positive difference!

 

[Triple C]

Dave - Great thread! Earlier today, I had 3.5 hours to kill at the airport in Harrisburg, PA and took the time to catch up on a number of threads including this one. I actually prepared a detailed reply but when I hit "Post Reply" the wi-fi from the airport timed out and I lost it! So, I'm gonna be brief with this reply. Number one thing that is the "Stand Out In The Crowd" factor for us is year-round food and plenty of it. I'm bordered on all 4 sides by large landowners - 1400 acre high fence to the east so no competing factors from him, 1,000 acre pine plantation to the south with low to moderate hunting pressure, cattle farmer to west with mostly pasture and 420ish acres to the north of private property that is leased to a hunting club with very little in the way of food plots. I've got plenty of cover and bedding, large natural sanctuary on the south end of property in the form of bottom land hardwoods and wetlands, and more native browse than the deer can eat due to thinned pines. I believe the key to the increase in the deer that use our property on a year-round basis is the amount of year round food. Perennial clover stands that I continue to increase in size a little each year and during the fall, plantings of grains and brassicas. I no longer plant summer plots since I have no competing ag in the area. We've taken 9 bucks since 2012. With the exception of my grandson's first buck - all have been 3.5 and one 4.5 yr old buck. Considering we have an almost 3 month firearms season, that's pretty good results for our area. For me, clover has become the backbone of our food plotting since 2014. With no beans or corn anywhere close to us, I can get by without having to compete with either, thus I see no reason to spend the money to add those to my food plotting program.

I knew nothing about food plotting prior to purchasing my land in 2011. And I was just plain lucky in the sense that I knew the day Brooks and I walked the property it was the one I was going to try and buy. I didn't realize at the time, how fortunate I was to have acquired a property with 4 relatively large landowners bordering me with only one having extreme hunting pressure but very little in the way of planted food sources. We've planted plenty of fruit trees and as we do more timber harvests will continue to add those. But having a food source that brings the deer to the same plots day in and day out seems to be a game changer on our place.

 

[Chainsaw]

Thank you 3C. Sorry you got timed out; that can be a real bummer. I hope you don't mind 3C but I would like to correct you on one point; taking eight bucks 3 1/2 and up on 287 acres in six years is not pretty good results; it is extraordinary at any measurement! It is especially extraordinary though for a property that is managed for the enjoyment of all of the family as yours is. Thank you for sharing your strategies with us on this thread and thru your property tours. Your thread and posts are among the greatest jewels of this forum. It is our good fortune that you get stuck in airports now and then and thus get time to catch up on all of the forum threads.

 

[wbpdeer]

Triple C - your plots are the dinner table.

It is what for dinner to every deer in the area. We are going to add food plots this year. We have never gotten serious but my son has made a serious commitment.

Wayne

 

[Triple C]

Thanks for the kind words Dave! We have an electronic harvest reporting system in place in GA. No paper tags anymore. Our DNR is top notch in GA with a few of the key DNR biologists participating regularly on our local GON forum. Just download the app to your phone and you can report your harvests and view county by county results.

My farm is located in Oglethorpe County. It ranks among the highest deer harvest counties in the state. Look at the map below and Oglethorpe is the western county of the 3 counties touching each other in dark blue in NE GA. Great wildlife habitat throughout this part of the state. A lot of deer are killed every year and hunting pressure is pretty heavy.


Chart below shows the specific harvests of Oglethorpe County. Pretty cool to be able to track harvests as the season progresses and then measure against previous year’s results which are available on the app.


Interesting enough, only 13 deer harvested on public land in our county as we don’t have but a couple of areas of public land to hunt. Bottom line...lots of deer killed but lots of deer to kill. Mostly private or timber company property with lots of hunting leases and pretty much the same habitat - pine / hardwood mix with a lot of the pine in planted plantations. All of em got great cover. In my neck of the woods, it’s food plots that makes the difference in bringing them in and keeping them here. Biggest challenge and frustration with such a long firearms season is watching so many of the 2.5 yr old bucks each summer disappear as the season progresses. But...we do get a few to 3.5 and older.

As for the contribution to the forum, I often wonder if much of anything I post really adds much value. I bet a lot of guys feel the same way. In the end...I’m basically a novice at this stuff that learned about everything I’ve learned from the old forum and now this forum. I do my best to adapt the thinigs I learn if I think they apply to my property.

 

[George]

AC/TC we were all novices at some point and I don't think that any of us will claim to be an expert, keep up the good work.

G

 

[Drycreek]

I agree with George, and I'm still a novice ! I think value is somewhat subjective, that is, someone posts something that may not be applicable to my locale or conditions, but if it gets me to thinking, that's value !

 

[bigbluetruck]

Just kinda glanced at the replies so far, but if I understand the theory correct, its somewhat what Ive been trying to do with a bit of my plots. I'm surrounded by corn, beans, and alfalfa as well as lots of salt and mineral sites with cattle around so I try to put in plenty of things that aren't around, mainly small grains like Rye and Oats and Brassicas. I still have some corn and beans but I use those as "test plots" for our farming operation

 

[dogghr]

Thanks for the kind words Dave! We have an electronic harvest reporting system in place in GA. No paper tags anymore. Our DNR is top notch in GA with a few of the key DNR biologists participating regularly on our local GON forum. Just download the app to your phone and you can report your harvests and view county by county results.

My farm is located in Oglethorpe County. It ranks among the highest deer harvest counties in the state. Look at the map below and Oglethorpe is the western county of the 3 counties touching each other in dark blue in NE GA. Great wildlife habitat throughout this part of the state. A lot of deer are killed every year and hunting pressure is pretty heavy.
View attachment 14836

Chart below shows the specific harvests of Oglethorpe County. Pretty cool to be able to track harvests as the season progresses and then measure against previous year’s results which are available on the app.
View attachment 14837

Interesting enough, only 13 deer harvested on public land in our county as we don’t have but a couple of areas of public land to hunt. Bottom line...lots of deer killed but lots of deer to kill. Mostly private or timber company property with lots of hunting leases and pretty much the same habitat - pine / hardwood mix with a lot of the pine in planted plantations. All of em got great cover. In my neck of the woods, it’s food plots that makes the difference in bringing them in and keeping them here. Biggest challenge and frustration with such a long firearms season is watching so many of the 2.5 yr old bucks each summer disappear as the season progresses. But...we do get a few to 3.5 and older.

As for the contribution to the forum, I often wonder if much of anything I post really adds much value. I bet a lot of guys feel the same way. In the end...I’m basically a novice at this stuff that learned about everything I’ve learned from the old forum and now this forum. I do my best to adapt the thinigs I learn if I think they apply to my property.

Negatory on that last paragraph. I learn from everyone on here, even when I don't agree 100%. Even that one guy that P... me off, well I may have learned a thing from him too but I'll never admit it. Thats whats so great about these forums.

 

[Chainsaw]

TRipleC and dogghr, as you guys and many others on the forum know the more we put into the forum,the more we get out of it. This forum is the perfect example where one plus one equals three or more. When we combine our ideas we not only learn from each other but we also learn by what our minds come up with because of the new information. And this goes for hunters just starting out as well as those of us on the other end. And tripleC don't think you haven't affected this property. I'm still trying to improve the look of my own road entryways after seeing yours in your posts a few years ago. Your entry way just screams in a most pleasant way that there is someone that loves this place, takes care of it and watches it. It is the best image that I have ever seen that whispers in a nice way that this land is spoken for. I also am aiming for your entryway look here because it will give me great pleasure to have such a beautiful scene welcome me each time I drive thru our gates. I'm no where there yet but am making progress slowly but that is ok. And I'm sure the deer appreciate your no-shoot zones as well and that likely adds to your daytime deer movement. We have no shoot zones here also and it is one of the best things we have done to keep "our" deer relaxed..

 

[Triple C]

Ha!!! I remember that post on the old forum and thrilled to hear it inspired you on your entrance. Lots changed since then Dave. I'll take a pic the next time down. A dozen or so trees planted since then along the drive. Went back and found the pics I posted back when we added new entrance fence in 2014.

 

[Chainsaw]

Just kinda glanced at the replies so far, but if I understand the theory correct, its somewhat what Ive been trying to do with a bit of my plots. I'm surrounded by corn, beans, and alfalfa as well as lots of salt and mineral sites with cattle around so I try to put in plenty of things that aren't around, mainly small grains like Rye and Oats and Brassicas. I still have some corn and beans but I use those as "test plots" for our farming operation

You've got it right Big blue. The theory is just that simple, give them what they want,security, sex and great food better and more complete than anyone else around you and you end up with the best hunting in the area. And I dare say that while it is not based on science it is more of a fact than a theory.