Hunting/Improving small hunting tracts

[pseman]

I have been hunting on a large bow-only lease(2200acres) for the past 10 years that is close to my house. This past season(mid-season) we got permission to gun hunt the property except for a portion on the back side that borders a sub-division. While I am not against gun hunting, I am not to keen on this change and am considering not renewing my membership. Now to the subject of this thread.

I own ~40 acres that borders part of the same lease as well as some other thickly wooded property. My property has a mix of pine and hardwoods, a wet-weather creek/drain and several areas that I have planted food plots in the past. There are deer and turkey that use the property but not consistently. You may have high activity at times, then very low activity for weeks. I would like suggestions on how to improve the property to make it a destination for both deer and turkey. I figure I can use the $1000/yr that I was paying for the lease to improve my own land.

Please share any experiences you may have had in similar situations. I would like to know what type of land management ideas have worked for you guys.

[Jeff Strubberg]

This should be an interstign thread.  I have 85 acres with a great turkey population and a pitiful deer population.  Would love to improve my plot as well.

[Kip]

If the timber is ready to harvest do that easy way to improve and get revenue from the property.You can work with the forrester to do special things like leave areas but you may not get as much money if you make them do things for the wildlife it cost them more.Kip

[Dartwick]

It depends on what how heavily the neighboring property is hunted and what your specific goals are.

If the neighboring land is heavily hunted and you want a chance at big bucks. A good move is to take 3 or 4 acres of central property and make a refuge of sorts. Overly dense evergreens work well but other types of bushy growth work too.
Then stay out of it so the deer feel safe. Then learn when and where they travel in and out of it.

And even better maintain a grassy field that will stay green into the fall and winter between your refuge and the other lot.

If you want turkeys, grow a lot of whatever is ready to eat during turkey season. The obvious if not so sporting choice in many areas is field corn. Ideally have some nearby fairly tall stands of evergreen.

[pseman]

The adjoining property is as follows: to the east is the lease that I belong to but is not hunted much. It was select cut several years ago and is pretty grown up in underbrush with thinned standing pines. To the west is ~10yr/old clearcut that is leased and hunted but only 1-2 guys hunt it on occasion. They do bait however(illegally) and have some pitiful food plots. To the south is 120 acres similar to mine that has recently been purchased to be developed for sale/houses.

The property to the east and west is great bedding habitat/sanctuary because it is very thick and sparsely hunted. I would like to develop my land as a destination for food or breeding if possible.

I have some mature pines, but not enough to cut/sell at this time. What I would like to do is have a roto-mulcher come in and clean up some junk like sweetgum and open up some areas around my oaks. Anyone tried this?

Also, I have two interior food plot sites, one large(~acre) one small(~1/4acre). I could plant the powerline which is the southern border, but I worry about someone else being able to shoot them there. Anyone had good results with year-round plots in sandy soil? Any suggestions?

[Kip]

Long narrow food plots 3-5+acres to make the food plots work even if they zig-zag I plant my half mile of powerline and I am sure get poachers when I am not there but I still plant it like I said long and narrow works better.You will also see a lot more work to plant small round plots for the man driving the tractor.Trust me on this one.I enrolled with the state as a steward of the land and they sent out someone to look at it and hired a forrester to come up with a plan to enhance wildlife.Maybe your state has this also.Kip

[overbo]

W/ a small tract depends alot on how it's shaped.I to am considering some sort of game improvements.If you property is pretty square in shape I would go to the center and put in a 10/15 acer square, cut everything down other than oaks and choice trees that set on the edge of this cut for stand location.Then w/in that 10/15 acer square plant 3 or 4  .5 to 2 acre food plots and let the rest grow.Give it 5 years and see what happens and adjust things as you feel fit.
 good luck

[pseman]

Kip, I agree with you on the powerline planting but this powerline runs onto my neighbor's property and is clearly visible to them. Much to tempting for them to hunt as well. I even thought of planting something that would grow tall enough to allow the deer a path across the powerline that would keep them hidden. This may be a little extreme though.

Overbo, my tract is square. The large food plot is almost in the dead center of the property. I like the idea of opening the area up as you suggest. It could be opened to maybe twice the current size and plant as much of it as possible. Maybe in different types of food to appeal to turkeys and deer and allow for different plants to mature at different times of the year.

Any southern folks had success planting indiginous plants that will grow and attract deer? How about fertilizing oaks? I have several areas of smaller black jack oaks and a number of larger water oaks, no white oaks :-(

[rnharris]

hi Mark you need to create some thickets for bedding cover create edges by thinning timber
by planting some food plot's you will create edges and allow some brushy growth to fill in those area's! food plot's are good but deer will still want their native forage mostly browse!

if you create thick area's for does to bed you will have bucks checking them out in the rut!

when you do open up an area fertilize the native browse around the edges! good luck Bud!

[pseman]

Thanks Ralph, good ideas. Anyone ever planted honeysuckle?? I really don't have honeysuckle on the property but it is not hard to find near the house.

[Biggie Hoffman]

Sawtooth Oaks work well here in Ga and are early season magnates. I have a slightly larger tract of 140 acres and fertilizer on the muscadines and honeysuckle definately help.

[pseman]

Thanks Biggie. I have heard good things about the sawtooth oaks from others as well. Any idea where you can get them and if they are hard to establish in a new area?

[Kip]

Biggie   You are a magnate but not your trees.Kip      :D

[Biggie Hoffman]

Ah jeez...I know magnet.....
Sometimes I type faster than I spell  :-)

PSEMAN, I bought some from the state forestry office. Put 20 in the ground around a ffod plot and in two years had akerns on some of them. If it hadn't been so dang dry last summer, I think they would have done even better.
Around here you have to cage them or keep 'em sprayed with DeerAway. They'll rub them if'n ya don't.

[woodchucker]

Have a timber co. come in and log it off and leave the tree tops where they lay. It'll be thicker than thick in a year or two.    

[pseman]

Like I said, I have some mature pines but not a lot and they are spread out across the property. One reservation I have with logging is that I have seen what loggers do to a property, most of the time it ends up looking like a hurricane aftermath. I would like to thin some areas and remove some sweetgum, but having the property look like most of the timber land around is not appealing to me.

Anyone have any experience with the new roto-mulchers on either a bobcat or larger equipment?

[Kevin Winkler]

pseman

Check out the Quality Deer Management site. You can check out the articles and the forum for a ton of information.

You might check into "hinge cutting" it will create a good bedding area. Also maintaining some type of santuary area will help help along with some small food plots.

 http://www.qdma.com/

[Kip]

Mark like I stated earlier you can get a logger to do much less damage or a custom cut exactly like you want within limits, the only problem is he will pay less or if too custom you may have to pay him.I have all kinds of woods on my property inc. clear cut clean beautiful hardwoods and trashy especially after 3-hurricanes in the last 5-years but I have timber co. land all around me mostly pine so my hardwoods are attractive for deer.You will be surprised how fast a clear cut comes back to get a clean understory it don't take a bunch of years.Enjoy your project I know I did.Kip

[overbo]

Kevin is dead on w/ the hinge cutting.I did this 6 years ago and the deer took to the area the following growing season.Now it's not very pretty but very effective.W/ your oak planting use those tubes to start them off.Well worth the added expense but be very careful around them in the summer because the wasps love them.I like to add in my parts apple trees are by far my favorite and there are many different strans that produce at different times of the year.

[pseman]

Thanks Kip, I have a good friend who cruises timber for logging companies. I will see if he can come take a look at the property to see what type of cut could be done. He will probably know just how specific the loggers can be as well. I don't know if sweetgums are good for anything or not, but they can have all of them.