The Right 15

[jvanhees]

Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[Triple C]

Jared...Congrats on your land purchase! And, good for you for getting started in the land management addiction at such a young age. Pics look fantastic. Some of your bottom land looks very similar to mine. The thing about smaller tracts of land is you get to concentrate you habitat efforts and plan for every single acre. I've followed Jim's stuff online. He's done quite a job with a smaller tract. Look forward to seeing how you develop this property. Thx for sharing!

 

[jvanhees]

Jared...Congrats on your land purchase! And, good for you for getting started in the land management addiction at such a young age. Pics look fantastic. Some of your bottom land looks very similar to mine. The thing about smaller tracts of land is you get to concentrate you habitat efforts and plan for every single acre. I've followed Jim's stuff online. He's done quite a job with a smaller tract. Look forward to seeing how you develop this property. Thx for sharing!

Thanks C for the kind words. Love your thread on both this and the old forums. Read it from the beginning! Your place is my "end game".



Went to the Cooperative meeting tonight. What a great deal! Met 2 of my neighbors who both live there.

My direct neighbor to the N on 36 acres and house is my age and has young kids as well. Hasn't been deer hunting much lately but has a couple on the wall. By the end of the night we were talking about food plotting together to benefit us both. The neighbor across the road has been there 2 years and harvested 3 good bucks on 38 acres. Bucks I would shoot. He invited me over and I Plan on stopping over there next time I'm down.

Also met the coop founder who helped me some whenever I had questions about land for sale In the area. Great guy. Great night!


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[lakngolf]

Glad you found some good neighbors. How many folks are in the cooperative?

 

[jvanhees]

Glad you found some good neighbors. How many folks are in the cooperative?

Me too! I am not sure on the total amount of members. There were 55-60 members who attended the meeting. My neighbors and I are considered "outliers" as we are out of the core area. Great guys running that thing! Cant wait to hang my Co-Op sign up.

I did my first card pull with nothing great. Couple does, a cat, coon, fox and some hillbilly.

My neighbor said the area gets better later in the year when all the crops(far away) are down. This makes me think late season food.

 

[jvanhees]

Thinking up a plan in my head and would like to know if anyone knows what this brush is. I am going to do small winding plot type food through this stuff. Need to keep as much cover as I can or I'll use screens.

Pickers/thorns everywhere!


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[Weasel]

Congrats J! Nothing like buying your first piece of property! I'm honored to be mentioned with TripleC and buckhunter as threads you enjoy. Looking forward to following along!

Lots of good advice already, especially Warners about observing deer movement before making a plan. Is the prevailing wind out of the west? That pinch between the ponds could be a knockout with easy access from the road.

-Weasel aka Stickbowcrafter

 

[Chainsaw]

Congratulations with your new property Jared. I think you will build it into a very exceptional hunting parcel. From your posts it is obvious that you have a good knowledge and understanding of property management tools so you are well armed already. My advice is to keep on learning as you are and wait until you have completed your overall property plan before making many changes with the exception of tree planting for screening. Screening along car roads, field/opening edges etc. are guaranteed to be needed. Spruce takes a long time maybe ten years but it makes an effective screen.

Back to waiting, we experienced less deer traffic on areas in the first year after they were logged. By the second year the traffic began to pick back up to pre-logged activity. So if you don't see a lot of serious activity the first year don't get too nervous about it.

I think its super what some of the Michigan guys have accomplished on small acres; They have proved it can be done. The DR. Jim and Jake E properties are simply amazing accomplishments.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Congrats on the land purchase. It looks like your property should have plenty of cover and good cover around it. I think if you add the right foods you should be able to draw deer in from all directions. Sometimes size doesn't matter. I used to own a little 10 acre farm that we lived on. It was 10 acres of cattle pasture that ran around the house. I had joked with my boys that I was going to kill a buck in the backyard. Mind you this 10 acre piece sat in the middle of thousands of acres of open ag ground. The closest tree off my property was about a mile away. I added a food plot for fun and threw a camera out on it. Started seeing some nice bucks immediately mainly at night. Gun season game around and I was running late so I just told boys that I was going behind the house. Of course they laughed at me and went on to their stands at our big woods. I was in the stand for 15 minutes when I shot a nice 10 pointer. Needless to say they don't make fun of the old man anymore. Add the food and they will come!

 

[jvanhees]

Hey everyone! Been busy planning and reading over here. I am having my buddy with a bobcat/skidsteer come out in 2 weeks to help me out. We are planning to make the logged sanctuary area a maze deer can travel through, and prep 1 or 2 food plot areas in the center/open area of the property. All my scouting says deer move east to west, but there is no food near me besides native browse. I need to get the brush downto plant access screens along with the plots. I will also be shaping the plots in either a broken up or winding fashion. Rough idea below. No sheds yet. Soil samples Friday.

 

[Triple C]

Enjoying your thread! And, it will be interesting to see you set this property up to hunt. We lived out in the country for more than 20 years on 13 acres when the boys were growing up and had many an afternoon sit hunting deer on that small tract. Seemed so much bigger than 13 acres. You can make it happen on a small tract.

 

[jvanhees]

Enjoying your thread! And, it will be interesting to see you set this property up to hunt. We lived out in the country for more than 20 years on 13 acres when the boys were growing up and had many an afternoon sit hunting deer on that small tract. Seemed so much bigger than 13 acres. You can make it happen on a small tract.

Thanks TC! Hearing things like that from people who have done it, really give me hope.

 

[lakngolf]

Glad you got friend with Bobcat coming to help. You can make a difference with those machines. My problem with bobcat was it seemed to me that someone adjusted the controls every time I got in one. What I thought was raise the bucket turned out to be go left real fast. I am sure your buddy is a champ with his.
As the Beatles would say go with the "Long and Winding" food plot.

 

[Weasel]

You are off to a good start. Great idea to have a plan in place to avoid bouncing all over the place. I scanned back through the thread so if this was already mentioned I apologize but it's worth repeating: Plant and protect as many apple, pear and chestnuts as you can as soon as possible. I waited two years before I planted my first fruit tree and trust me, those two years of growth would have made a huge difference. Same goes for switchgrass if you plan on adding any. It takes a few years for that to get established also so the sooner you plant it the better. Also scout the place for any feral apple or plum trees. If you find them, open them up and get them producing this year.

 

[jvanhees]

Glad you got friend with Bobcat coming to help. You can make a difference with those machines. My problem with bobcat was it seemed to me that someone adjusted the controls every time I got in one. What I thought was raise the bucket turned out to be go left real fast. I am sure your buddy is a champ with his.
As the Beatles would say go with the "Long and Winding" food plot.

I heard he is, but we will see. Fairly wet out there when I pulled soil samples but his machine has tracks so that should help. Not doing anything crazy, just need some food in this area. I've never driven one, so I cannot comment on controls haha.

You are off to a good start. Great idea to have a plan in place to avoid bouncing all over the place. I scanned back through the thread so if this was already mentioned I apologize but it's worth repeating: Plant and protect as many apple, pear and chestnuts as you can as soon as possible. I waited two years before I planted my first fruit tree and trust me, those two years of growth would have made a huge difference. Same goes for switchgrass if you plan on adding any. It takes a few years for that to get established also so the sooner you plant it the better. Also scout the place for any feral apple or plum trees. If you find them, open them up and get them producing this year.

Appreciate the input! I looked at Walmart yesterday and they have 5-6 foot apple and pear trees for $21 each. Apples said McIntosh and Golden Delicious. Are these a good choice? The trees looked healthy and were starting to bloom. I will get some fruit trees in this year. Great idea.

I don't have a full plan on paper yet but have what I think is a good one in my head. This year I just want to establish some food and make the property navigable for deer. What I mean by that is chop holes in the logging mess so deer can move through. I will spend this year watching and learning as well.

Saw these boys on cam. Not many deer yet....moved the cam too. Now if I can just find some time to turkey hunt.

 

[jvanhees]

Gettin ready for tomorrow with the bob cat! I'm going to try to take some before and after pics too


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[dogghr]

Bet that purdy chainsaw not so clean today? Place looks great. really love that thicket filled field you showed. I can't add much to what has been said. Easiest early plotting is doing the Lickcreek rotations. Cheap easy builds soil, attracts deer/turkey. Have fun.

 

[Sam16]

Congratulations!! Property looks great. I agree with weasel, get some fruit trees in the ground! Every year I regret not planting more, or any if I ran out of time!

 

[jvanhees]

What a great day at the "deer farm" yesterday!

4 of us arrived about 8:15 at the property. We started out brush hoggin a small parking area and then a path way east to west along the southern property line. Cut a few trees out of the way, and prepared this path for access/planting a screen. All done very quickly. I have twins at home, gotta move fast to keep momma happy!

Next we moved to the open field area to carve out some food plots. This field was mostly pickers/wild raspberries and some woody plant the deer didn't eat about 1.5 " in dia. pictured above in post #26. The bobcat was like cutting the grass through there. Good stuff. Have a two plot spots cleared...the southern plot is about .75-1 acre and the northern is .5 acres-ish. I left as much autumn olive standing as I could as i know the deer love it. Lots of the plants in this area are all heavily browsed. Got it all mowed down nice to add some more preferred food. Gonna come back and spray when the plants come out of their mow shock and try to grow hard again....this should set me up to plant. Here are some shots of the southern plot before and after.

.
In between the two future plots is a low area where the water drains through from the NE pond to the SW into the woods/swamp. The bobcat with tracks ripped across the first time without issues....but at 11am he tried to cross again, and well.....

Then our truck got stuck next in the new parking area as soon as we pulled off the road to save the bobcat. Ended up getting the northern neighbor Joe's truck and another neighbor Pat's tow strap to get the truck out. It worked. Finally we could use our own truck to tackle the bobcat. We had to get permission to enter from the north on my neighbors land to get to the bobcat. Joe was very nice and let me access after i already used his truck. Wow. I did cut up and move a fall down tree blocking his two track to help out as I could.

After 2 hours with zero progress getting this thing out, I had paths to cut through the wet tree top filled woods. My little bro and I each grabbed a saw, gas and some bar lube and started cutting. We spent a good 3 hours cutting 15-20 or so paths through logged tops. The purpose here is so the deer don't feel constricted and can move in any direction in the woods. If they feel constricted/trapped, they will most likely not use the area and we had multiple tops blocking off areas 75 yards long at some points. So we cut narrow paths making a maze. There were even tunnels at a couple points. Here is what we are dealing with.

All in all it was a good day and we got some stuff done. The wrecker was $350, and I owe the neighbors. Good to know they are all very nice and probably laughing at the new guy on the block right now. Will be back down there soon to spray. Now I have a pond. SMH

 

[jvanhees]

Forgot to mention I checked a cam. We got bucks!

How many deer do you see here? They all look fairly young at first glance. That front one might be a tad older?

Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum