Your Best Improvement

[kpkot]

You can only pick ONE, but what is that one project you did that you know improved your hunting for Deer?

Personally I would say selectively mowing certain sections to help funnel deer in. At this time this would be my number one enhancement to the property,  even though it is very simple. 

Long term and down the road... I plant trees every year, but at year 9 I am just beginning to see their progress. 

Just looking for any ideas for habitat managment that you truly believe works.

[growalot]

Management of all the Native mast and browse.

[stubborn1VT]

Patch cutting areas for firewood.  I cut in September, October, and early November.  I pile the brush high.  The deer feed on the brush and feed on the regrowth in that area for 3-5 years.  Some of these patch cuts led to food plots, but I saw an increase in deer activity way before I planted anything.  

I agree that mowing trails and certain areas is one of the best ways to steer deer.  I want to do a combination of mowing and chainsaw work to funnel deer where they cross a big powerline.  I was looking at the way they moved around the blowdowns in the edge of the softwoods.  I don't want to get too crazy with the saw, but I want to give them a path of least resistance.

I'm hoping to add some mock scrapes with grapevines for licking "branches" to survey what bucks cruise through too.

 

[growalot]

I have to admit I've done so many things picking the one was hard. Two miles of clear trails, plots, brushpile fencing,the blinds,planting trees and shrubs,water tanks, hinge cutting, all the stand locations.

[First-light]

Buying 10 acres that border my property. Its such perfect area that holds a ton of deer if not pushed. 

[tuckersdaddy]

Divorce....

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[wolc123]

That is an easy one, Trapping coons early so that my limited acreage of field corn makes it all the way thru late ML season.  Speaking of that, its about time to check the traps.  They started hitting my corn last Friday night.  Sunday morning I had two in traps, and two more yesterday.  It will be interesting to see what this morning brings.  NY state DEC advises that landowner's bury of burn the carcasses of coons that are causing damage, if taken prior to the opening of trapping season, so bring along a shovel if you decide to do this yourself right now.  They are about the easiest furbearer there is to trap and they just love cat foot in dog-proof traps or peanut butter coated marshmelloes or bananas in box traps. I don't imagine they are too fond of the little piece of lead they get at the center of an "x" between the eyes and ears however.  If I can keep this up at this rate, maybe I will have some corn leftover at Christmas to give to my folks to feed their laying hens.   Time to go fertilize a few more apple trees.

Edited August 29, 2017 by wolc123

[LET EM GROW]

I have done alot through the years and alot of it has helped, but i think the one that helps hunting the most is creating natural cover and natural browse! Especially when it comes to Mature bucks, they like the cover, and the available food that comes with it

[GreeneHunter]

10 hours ago, tuckersdaddy said:

Divorce....

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OUCH ..... way too expensive !

[kpkot]

2 hours ago, LET EM GROW said:

I have done alot through the years and alot of it has helped, but i think the one that helps hunting the most is creating natural cover and natural browse! Especially when it comes to Mature bucks, they like the cover, and the available food that comes with it

What did you do? Hinge cutting? How big of an area?

[NYBowhunter]

Too much to list, but one recent enhancement is i had a guy come in with a dozer and made a road up my property (road goes straight up the mountain and then was connected to an existing road that runs through entire center of property) so that i can access the higher elevations. That road ultimately  enabled me to get my tractor up the mountain and has lead to 3 more food plots  in areas that are much more secluded and in very close proximity to my sanctuary. With that one road i can now access all points of my property.

[LET EM GROW]

What did you do? Hinge cutting? How big of an area?

I hinge cut multiple places leading into food plots or destination fields. I clear cut small pockets to promote natural growth. I tipped trees in certain directions to try and funnel deer movement. Planted to soft and hard mast trees in hopes to draw .. But my neighbors had some wood nearly clear cut the blast few years and the natural browse and deer traffic is un real.. the more research and experimenting I do .. I'm focusing more on natural browse and cover more than anything

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[land 1]

i got to go with cutting down a bunch of trees in december and januarary i think helped alot with getting the does food and thus alot of fawns, they really loved the buds and now all the new growth the deer are loving plus good bedding. food plots are great but cutting i think does more to improve things overall

[dbHunterNY]

became a QDMA volunteer.  seriously, it's given me access to experts in various fields, including whitetail biologists.  knowledge and resources about deer biology, ecology, habitat, and hunting more than my brain can take in are now available to me any day of the week.  
if you want something more specific and less all encompassing, some on here aren't going to like it but my answer would be implementing antler restrictions.  without it, doing everything else was just creating awesome young bucks with great potential in massive quantities that ended up usually dead their first year.  it was to say the least discouraging and not worth the effort given what people in the area were shooting and felt they had to shoot.  now that deer are fair game only until 2.5+ years old, they can hold their own a bit more and we see bucks naturally making it into older age classes.  even now seeing potential turn into results, we'd have a whole lot of crappy excuses and finger pointing like before we put restrictions into place.  nothing bothers me more than blaming someone else for your trigger pull.  you and you alone squeezed that trigger.  be happy with the deer you took and if you're not, keep your finger off the damn trigger next time.  sit back.  enjoy being able to hunt.

[grampy]

Leaving a sanctuary!  We have a 25 to 30 acre area that is so thick it's almost impenetrable for humans, but not the deer. We leave this area alone and never venture inside of it. We do however hunt the escape runs and trails leading in and out of it, in the surrounding hemlocks. We have stands and blinds to take advantage of most any wind direction. It is the best bedding area around, and the deer pile up in there when the bordering state land gets pressure. Over many, many years, this has consistently paid off for us.

[Buckmaster7600]

Getting in better physical condition! I got fat after getting out of the service and it really hurt my hunting. Bucks I killed the last 2 years would have been safe from the fat me.


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[ATbuckhunter]

One of the best improvements I've made is to make sure i'm up on time and be in the woods before dark. Also using trail cams to use my time efficiently. I know that there are certain times I'm more likely to see deer and I make sure Im there for that.  

[chrisw]

Hunt the latest sign, don't become emotionally attached to an area due to past success or one particular deer. Don't be afraid to go outside of my comfort zone, if I'm not feeling it in a spot I'll drive the extra hour to different state land I've scouted. One perk of only hunting state land is I'm always moving, I don't get glued to the easy stands placed on private land "behind the house." I've seen greater successes since I've employed this in my hunting style.

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[BizCT]

Throw & Grow


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[Nomad]

Married the farmers daughter .

[Robhuntandfish]

expanding my locations. I like having options.  Got permission to hunt about 60 acres, have a lease for 120, and permission for a small 9 acre area......and working on a 12 acre area.

#2 is learning to play the wind.   

[land 1]

Just bought a used tow behind DR 44in field and brush mower thats it no more toys for awhile

[Bigfoot 327]

Timber harvest and timber stand improvement. About 1300 trees were removed on 30 acres. Before the work, there was next to no deer browse as very little sunlight reached the forest floor. Two years later I have an explosion of second growth!

[Fantail]

Forge soy beans, I think.

Converted, well fall planted 1/2 acre with soy. Two weeks ago I was working on the plot stand and noticed the bean plot looked like a storm had matted it down. I thought beans should be more sturdy. When I was done with the stand I went over & checked out the plot, turns out about 2/3 of all the tops were snipped off.

[Chef]

I'd have to say selectively logging the entire hillside, and planting a small clover plot just on the edge of a thicket


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