Jeff, I love the small parcel stuff. I've got a blank canvas here in SW Wisconsin on 16 acres that has a small stream that runs the whole length of it. I've learned a ton by watching you, but I still lack confidence on how to design the darn thing. Maybe one day can have you come for a visit. Keep up the great work.
I applied some tests last winter (hinge cuts and defining lines) and had success with the trailcamera recording larger bucks coming through more than ever. Daytime even! After a year of working through your designing ideas, I drew out a plan and yesterday I started implementing. Let me tell you, as you are aware, it isn't a quick thought and done! Anyway, I was thinking yesterday as I worked the land I have graduated from being an infantile hunter to a teenager. The next step it to be good enough to encourage those bucks on to my land and then hang 'em on the buck pole.
Man I live hearing it all Rick! Really happy for you. There are so many levels to graduate to and many never leave their level of comfort. Keep up the great work...I can read the excitement in your voice ☺️
@@RickLarsonPermacultureDesigner very cool to expirement Rick! I've found that deer will eat fresh shoots off the side of just about any hinge cut...and for sure they definitely have their strong preferences!
I am looking for good locations to use the method of switch grass or red cedars on my property. I have a large amount of red cedars but unsure of the location as I don't want to scare them when we drive past on our driveway.
I added a small food plot of turnips in july on the 37 acres i hunt this year and had the worst year i have had for buck movement in 15 years. So i believe i fell under your food plots gone wrong topic. I had 12 to 15 does in it all day long all season and buck movement went away. Even my young bucks vanished on a property i usually see tons of bucks and hardly any doe.
Constantly learning things I wouldn't have ever thought about from watching your videos. It's so nice to be educated on whitetail habitat and being able to put a well designed plan into place before making improvements to my new property in west virginia. Before watching your videos I had ideas that I was ready to put into place that wouldn't have worked well together considering depth of cover and elevation changes. Now I'm putting the pieces together to have a better plan to success. Can't thank you enough for sharing the information Jeff.
I have been hunting for years and have learned more from you this year than all the previous years combined. I have been telling all my hunting friends to che k this guy out. Thank you very much sir you are awesome and appreciated.
WoW Jeff perfect timing, I just had a select cut done on 10 acres there was no sun getting the ground and you could see for 200 yards or more. I left mostly white oaks still standing and had someone tell me I should turn it into a oak savanna and your right it sounded cool. Now after seeing this video I will just get in there cut some travel corridors through the tops that have been left and let the growth come on of new growth. Thank you Sir for your willingness to share your wealth on knowledge. As always keep it coming and I will soaking it in. Forever addicted and loving it.
Thanks for all you do to help us improve our habit. Been watching you for some time. I just purchased 22 acres in northern Arkansas and I use your knowledge as I try to improve my hunting land. Thanks again have a great year!
I live in northeastern Iowa. I’m trying to find a good place to find bucks. I gave a plot that I can go to that has crops river and bedding area. The bedding if first then the crops and plenty of cover. Would it be better to sneak in early morning near the bedding and the crops or closer to the river?
I have just under 50 acres in Southern NY. 9 of it is ag field in the upper private corner of the property. The rest is wooded. Do you scout property in NY?
I had 160s buck coming in to the camera every day this season and practiced all your methods, including being more cautious and slower when getting into the stand, but I had a neighboring property that cows broke out and drove through ours without permission and turned the buck nocturnal and driving it to be killed 300 yards by my other neighbor
Jeff, I've been a huge fan of yours for a number of years. I try to take all that you say to heart, as I'm my hunt club's planting guru. The 1 item I see lacking over & over from books and/ or mentors, is how to drought proof food plots in case of a lack of rain. I've not seen anyone truly address this topic. My suggestion is use bentonite clay a.k.a. natural cat litter. It absorbs 40X its weight in moisture and holds it until the ground becomes so dry, then the clay gives it up to the plant. One 7 lb. bag at Dollar General is $1.25. 7 bags or 49 lbs. costs $9.75. + tax. 40 X 49=1960 lbs ÷ 8.5= 230.5 gal. of water held in reserve. I think that's cheap drought insurance to ensure money for seed & fertilizer isn't wasted. Happy Hunting, David Hall
Great comments as always. I just wish we had met earlier, before I made all the mistakes I have made. Unfortunately, some we cannot change and have to live with. As you know our greatest challenge is one you mentioned...how to get to our deer stands without spooking the deer off of our food plots. With your help, we are working on correcting that. T Thanks again for all the information and help you offer!!! Bob
Another great video! My new 40 has pretty decent cover and great diversity but there is no ag in the area and don't know what the night time feeding would be there.I am guessing that I have to put some solid work into my food plots this year and get the soil up to par.
If an oak savanna consists of scattered white and red oaks, and the balance in switchgrass, and if deer eat acorns, and like to bed in switchgrass, how does an oak savanna beccome a wildlife desert?
The situation that I have is that the surrounding farmers have nuisance kill tags and shoot every damn deer that moves! It does me absolutely no good to try and create habitat for deer when as soon as they cross the property line, they get dead. I've watched it happen several times already. Any advice?
I've thinned out trees around persimmons trees and around my food plot to get more sunlight.. my foodplot did great this year lots of daylight deer..2 nice bucks I let walk hopefully next year they will be back..
We do not have the option on cutting trees, along with Neighbors of the land that shoot anything that walks on 2 sides the other side is the interstate. How can I manage that?
Like Yes we have killed 1 150 class deer but that was the RUT. but its mainly HARD WOODS some small thickits close to the 2 small fields. We have a TON of hard woods big woods. Early season we bow hunt close to the river and kill deer nothing big really. But late Nov rifle season we see more bucks on the ridges than the low creek bottoms
On my lease it’s mixed. Red and white oaks poplar maple pine cedar ash. Several white oaks now. My stands setting right in the middle of a white oak patch. They’re anywhere’s from 16 to 36 inches at the stump. Lots of acorns this year but I’m moving my stand soon.
Hi Jeff, following your principles has provided me with exciting deer hunting opportunities on my small New Jersey Parcel which I never thought possible. Though the daytime temperatures have been exceedingly warm (70 degrees for a high today) I still have a 3 year old - 120 class 10-point showing up almost every day on camera to hunt. Thanks again Cris
My family lives on a 25 acre property that has an old horse training track out back. My grandmother walks the track every day around the same time, 10AM, and in the center is the thickest part of the property where we often find a large buck beds down every season. Do deer get used to this regular human movement, or do you need to plan the property to keep deer away from the track during that time? It doesn't seem to stop them from bedding in their during some days, but they are not in there every day. Learning a lot from your videos, starting to put a plan together now for the work to begin in the next couple months!
Thanks again Jeff, first time I'll question you. " Mature buck won't come back to their bedding area if you bump them out" ... The De Aquisto's almost exclusively practice the "bump and dump" method, finding bedding and/or the actual buck, bumping them, setting up that afternoon on it and counting on a return visit that night or the next morning. Andre has the #2 and #3 archery buck in WI that way... Curious on your thoughts... Oh and you have changed my hunting and management practices a ton for the better! Thank you!...
Great question... extremely impractical strategy for the average hunter or land location. Often guys are bumping one buck and shooting another...saying it was the one they dumped ☺️ I could have said I have done that times 20 over the years...but I don't bump them in the first place. Also, very, very rarely do you know which deer you bumped because you don't see them or hear them. But no, in the average high parcel pressure one spook and your season is ruined. Seen that and have seen or heard that pattern repeated, thousands of times. In the fantasy land states you bump one Booner and another one will sometimes filter in very quickly. In areas of very little cover this can happen too. But in high pressure locations the average buck age structure is much lower because bumped bucks don't just mean spooked bucks for several weeks...they mean dead bucks. Just a very poor tactic or belief for over 99% of all hunters out there. No different than thinking that a hunter can fool a bucks nose when he is downwind at 40 yards. May work once or twice but the other 18/19 times out of 20, the hunt is over...
Yeah, I always wondered how they identified the buck the we're "bumping" but then again, to each their own. I like how confident you are about your beliefs/strategies. I've always had a hard time not bumping something, different topic for another day. Thanks for responding. Aka : Charles Thayer
Thank you for naming specifically good and bad trees! That's very helpful. Do deer not eat walnut apparently? What MATURE trees are most useful aside from oak and fruit? Rather than being more useful for regrowth/regeneration?
You are very welcome Nick! Really other than treestand trees, very few trees are actually good for deer hunting or wildlife in general. Scattered oaks within cover are good...but not necessary or even "great". Soft mast around food plots are awesome...maybe in front of a stand location of the way to a food plot. But deer do not eat hickory or walnuts...both terrible, sunlight robbing trees. Conifer can be good for vertical screening...on a limited basis for snow hinderence and thermal protection. Most hardwoods just take up valuable space. There are many, many 40 acre parcels of diverse habitat that will drastically outcompete a hardwood 160 acre parcel in terms of overall deer herd and hunting potential.
We've been putting some of your practices into our property the last 3 years and it's really been paying off. Low impact hunting has been the biggest change thats helped us attract big bucks from neighboring properties. You know it's making a difference when old timers like my father catching on and not hunting days because of wind.. not walking around looking for sign. Etc... Hopefully we can put some more of your methods into practice in coming years.
I hunt and live on a 77 acre piece of land, it seems like every year around the end of December to early January the bucks move off our property, I enjoy shed hunting but I can’t do so when there’s no bucks on my property now , I was wondering if there’s a way to get them back like planting more food for them or putting out mineral sights which is what I just did a few days ago so I will see if that works.
I truly appreciate your videos. Just finished reading your books also. I closed on 20 acres of forest in Ashtabula County, OH last week, and am very excited to establish a quality whitetail habitat. With that said, I'm also hesitant on screwing it up somehow. I've reached out via your website for some on site guidance. Praying to hear from you soon. Thanks again for the great content, Jeff.
I learn something EVERY TIME I watch your videos. It’s so productive to hear what NOT to do. This channel has made me a 100 times better hunter and land manager over the coarse of only 9 months. So much knowledge in such a short time. Thank you so much sir!!!
Wow Jeff that's some great information as usual I really appreciate your knowledge you teaching us more and more I always thought cuz we have a huge lake that's drinking supply it's cleaner and the deer like it better there's a river behind my house but not near were they bed I'm thinking maybe put a water hole near it the rivers probably 400 yards from were I'm thinking not sure tho hope your having a great new year godbless you and your family some beautiful bucks you shot what a first buck your wife got a giant congratulations for her and your son's buck too! Well done!
Hello! I love the WHS videos, but I have to temper what I watch because I hunt deer in the southeast. The rut, the forage, and the weather all very different here based on biological data. Do you have any good reference to someone active in your line of work that is more specialized in southeastern deer management besides QDMA?
Awesome channel. I think the greatest though change for me is basing my small parcel improvements in a way to establish a deer movement pattern that sets up multiple stand locations. In the past I have made improvements without seeing the big picture( just as a single project). I have 16.65 acres that I live on about half I raise lambs and live on and the rest I hunt. It was all big timber before I bought it and unhunted and I shot 2 of the biggest deer I’ve ever shot while it was big timber. Now I have done a select cut and left most of my mast producing trees ( thinking I was doing what would help the deer the most. After watching this I wish I’d have left trees based on an overall deer movement plan. I wonder if sweet gums would be best hung cut for browse or cut repetitively to try to eliminate?
Jeff, what’s the best thing to plant in upstate New York right near the Canadian border? The snow gets so tall it’s hard to have a food source all year
Great video as always, keep them coming Sir. I have a all hardwoods property and have picked out and cleaned a spot for my first 1 acre food plot.what would you recommend planting
I took a screenshot of all the antlers on the table in the first video when you got them back and sent them to my brother in law and his response was "yeah well he probably hunted multiple states and 30 different parcels." I told him no that it was 2 different parcels in the same less than 50 acres each. I couldn't remember the exact number of acres so I just said that. He didn't respond. Lol.
Ha, too funny. One was 25 acres...one 30 acres of cover, 10 acres of field. 4 came from the 30...actually the four largest ☺️ Sam's buck on the 25 was around 137
Awesome video again! Question: About how much room should be between your walking path and a food plot if you have screening planted and pine thicket around the plot?
Hey I really enjoy watching your videos. I am 18 and I love working on whitetail habitat and just being out in the woods I was wondering how you can get into doing something like you do or other jobs that would be in the woods.
How should I go about adding habitat ...we have several grass fields that are dead space . I was thinking of planting trees and shrubs. What would be the most effective way to get this done.
Hey buddy quick question... I’m wanting to put in a food plot to the right of my stand but if my stand is already next to a corn field to the left of me do you think I’d be waisting my time ect?
Hi Seth! Use the rowed trees for access and to blow your scent into, get rid of trees for food plots in the best location...establish a core interior area that includes your food plots, remove at least 50% of the trees within the core area and encourage nothing but woody growth in for the form of trees and shrubs or broadleafs weed regen...no grass, conifers in those areas...all based on what's going on with your general access and neighboring food, cover and hunting pressure concerns. Overall roughly 60-70% of the trees would end up being removed.
@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 thanks for the reply. it's an odd property but it has a lot of deer and tons of turkeys but it is a pine forest in the center 40 and the top and bottom are essentially bare with sandy soil, garbage weeds, and prickly pears. the reset is surrounded by ag fields. now just trying to make it a better place for the deer. i like the idea of planting switch grass at the edge of all the pines
You can tell you're from the north lol. In the south, oak Savannahs are some of the best habitat. But we don't have winter's that knock all of the vegetation down, and we actually have cool season browse that survives all winter with the protection of the scattered trees.
Talking about food plots during lactation; Here in Northeast GA where I am, just before fawning season I have noticed does go nuts over the locust trees here (black locust, I think?) Feeding almost exclusively on them, getting up on two feet to reach the leaves at time. Does locust provide any good nutritional value?
That is a really cool observation! And yes for sure. Crazy how deer often base their browsing on nutritional levels too...Even spending more time in locations of a field that would have the highest nutritional levels. Maybe honey locust?
I bought whitetail success by design and loved. Cant wait to have my own property to apply the principles. Does your foot plot design book have strategies for areas with zero agricultural and your food plot gets hit hard after planting?
Also I have 10 acres behind my house that I ALWAYS get 1000 pics in 4 to 5 days mostly of the same deer and I have the 1 Deer that is BIG I want to hunt but being a small parcel and people around WILL shoot him I would guess I need to shoot him first OFC. Cause I can't let him grow cause he probably wont right?
Do you manage any wet swampy property if so can you make a video about how to set up a wetland whitetail property I have a 47 acre rectangle wetland property
Great video! I definitely need to change a couple things. What’s your recommendation for planting switch grass along a 2 track that neighbors like to drive down during prime time. Currently planting Egyptian wheat every year about 20 ft wide. Thank you
I’ve contacted you and left a message two times, I still have not heard back even to tell me your busy and maybe at a later date might work. Anyway very thankful for the TH-cam content and I think I’ve leaned a lot. My property is a little tricky and would love a consultation.
WOW..I think you covered almost everything in that one.And their is Sam dragging that deer again.Still smiling..Grandson didn't want to go out yesterday. 4 o'clock 8 point right in front of the stand we were going to sit in.Then he wants to go 🤔.Still have a week left of season. Maybe we will go Saturday. After thoughts don't shoot deer..
Great video Jeff. I was wondering what would you recommend for a property in Central Kentucky. where there isn’t any age around and the timber had a bunch of honeysuckle and smaller trees growing. I am working on having some food plots next season. I was wondering what you would recommend to do with the timber.
Great stuff, as always Jeff. First thing, I live in Southern Indiana. You've mentioned that at year 4 or year 5 post clear cut that it becomes inaccessible for whitetail use. Once that time-frame is drawing near or even happening currently, then what? Do you suggest opening up areas within that clear cut such as creating pockets? Conifer pockets?
You mention having oak as a problem? Are we talking about an area that was clear cut and "weeded" to plant oak and maybe a handful of other herbaceous plants or are we talking about a more/less native oak forest with mostly oak and a variety of herbaceous and native bushes? I follow all of the diversity arguments and so on but the idea of having "too much" oak conflicts a bit. Here in Oklahoma the ag extension service published a pamphlet on deer management for the state that was very detailed. pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2971/E-979.pdf Cool-season diets of whitetails would show stomach contents of anywhere from 16-96% acorns. The estimate is that 50% of their food value comes from acrons alone. Further, in the same pamphlet they highlight choice species of hard mast, they're all oak with the exception of hazelnuts, honey locust, and chinkapin. If I'm thinking right, you're pointing more at the idea of managing for oak production. A practice that would eliminate diversity, after all, you still need browse. Am I right about this?
Good job Jeff! The kids for Christmas got me a new tablet. Now if I can figure the darn thing out and download books on it, witch one of your books would you recommend for a 40 acre southeast Mn. parcel? 40 acre timber/bluff with ag surroundings.
Been learning much from your vids. Do you have any info helpful for deep south whitetails where there is surprisingly no agriculture nearby nor much hardwoods but plentiful planted pines of various ages? Thank you.
Jeff, having trouble finding cereal/winter rye in any common stores or local feed stores here in northern Kentucky. Everyone has ryegrass and winter wheat, but cereal rye is hard to find. Any suggestions on where to find that particular seed?
Hi Jeff! Greatly appreciate the channel. Subscribed a few month’s back and have learned a bunch. I am making alterations to improve both bedding cover and browse on an 80 piece in Southern Wis. that is a combination of drained marsh(former ag reverting back to a wet meadow), a woodland esker, and crop land. Much of the marsh has been taken over by Reed Canary grass. The fringe areas of the marsh are slowly growing thick with Box Elder. I am considering ‘hinge cutting’ some of the Box Elder as a means of increasing browse and cover. Here is the ‘million dollar’ question. Little grows under the Box Elder in the organic soil other than garlic mustard and jewel weed. What are your thoughts about disking under the mature trees and seeding with switch grass before dropping the trees as a way of improving the bedding cover around the new browse? My fear is that once full sun reaches the forest floor after dropping the trees, I’ll get a huge crop of RC grass around the new browse. As I am sure you have seen, that RC grass looks great until it collapses in the early fall. Thanks again for all you are doing!
Are you not working a set of properties in Southern Indiana this winter? I emailed about 6 weeks ago for a potential site visit and never heard back. Thanks for the videos.
My red book has a lot of general strategies...also the green book. Check out this video! th-cam.com/video/S5ecHmOVjek/w-d-xo.html Keep in mind there is no cookie cutter design that you can apply to your own land. Only the concepts. I hope that makes sense! Let me know what you think of the video!
Good evening Jeff, is there a place you'd recommend to purchase food plot and switch grass seed. I'd like to be able to purchase the types you've recommended and Ideally all from one dealer. I live in Central Michigan and have bought seed from many different retailers, some have worked and some haven't. I've found out the hard way that the most expensive seed is not necessarily the best. Good seed at a decent price without all the marketing mark up would be perfect. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.
Athletics and deer are not even close for a comparison. If I told Albert t pulos how to hinge cut a tree. He could. Everything you say is experience and wisdom being past down. It took you decades to learn all of that. But it takes us a couple videos to piece together what you have learned. I would argue chess players today are at an extreme advantage. Fisher had to learn from all of his mistakes with no references. Now magnus comes around can see every game fisher played and play way more frequent because of technology. Because a certain player can memorize moves does not necessarily mean he was better than Fisher in chess. But he took known knowledge and used it to his advantage. Without the experience of playing and learning.
Awesome stuff! and helps us a ton, especially with habitat improvement season starting. Jeff, do you run into much Honey Locust in your travels? If so, what's your opinion on them?
What about honey locust Jeff? I have observed deer browsing on the seed pods but not too much browsing on twig ends. Very hard on habitat management equipment . Worth the repair bill? Thanks
Absolutely nothing! Just every deers scent that walks by. They leave their pre orbital gland scent and it accumulates. If you use a commercial scent, powder, gel, dust etc...it just covers up the natural scent. Natural is always best. I will never have a deer scent sponsor...but oh well ☺️ Just trying to help folks out
I'm here to say I've spooked mature bucks 5 years old plus then kill them the same day 😂 being low impact and sneaky is great and is needed to hold deer but you are going to spook deer anyway
Hey Jeff, As part of my CAUV management plan here in Ohio they have recommended the removal of all of the ailanthus (tree of heaven) on our property. Have you ever seen deer use this specie as a browse and is it worth having some around? Is it worth all the time and money in expensive sprays to eradicate it all? I feel ridiculous asking this question as I’m well aware how invasive it is lol. Thanks for your time.
Hey Jeff, I've been watching your videos for years now and you've taught me alot that I've implemented on my 180 acres in the u.p. do you have any videos on predator issues? As it's hard to keep the deer secure on a part of my property cause with the improvements of the habitat come additional predators which also move the deer farther than I'd like them to go? Also what are your thoughts on mineral sites, I've noticed that my mineral sites seem to be an attractant throughout the year..maybe cause they are on the path from bed to feeding.. thoughts? Thanks for all your content!
Hello Jeff, Can you share with me the name and number of the company that you order your Switchgrass from? Do you have a promo code where you get some commission. Want to make sure you get credit. Thx Kevin (Lansing MI)
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Jeff, I love the small parcel stuff. I've got a blank canvas here in SW Wisconsin on 16 acres that has a small stream that runs the whole length of it. I've learned a ton by watching you, but I still lack confidence on how to design the darn thing. Maybe one day can have you come for a visit. Keep up the great work.
Thank You Jeff
You are welcome Carlo!
Thanks again for all the free content, always learning something
You are very welcome Mark! Have fun in the off season!
I applied some tests last winter (hinge cuts and defining lines) and had success with the trailcamera recording larger bucks coming through more than ever. Daytime even! After a year of working through your designing ideas, I drew out a plan and yesterday I started implementing. Let me tell you, as you are aware, it isn't a quick thought and done! Anyway, I was thinking yesterday as I worked the land I have graduated from being an infantile hunter to a teenager. The next step it to be good enough to encourage those bucks on to my land and then hang 'em on the buck pole.
Man I live hearing it all Rick! Really happy for you. There are so many levels to graduate to and many never leave their level of comfort. Keep up the great work...I can read the excitement in your voice ☺️
As an aside, I hinge cut a four inch black walnut last year and it grew a lot of stems, the deer will eat them but its not their first choice.
@@RickLarsonPermacultureDesigner very cool to expirement Rick! I've found that deer will eat fresh shoots off the side of just about any hinge cut...and for sure they definitely have their strong preferences!
I am looking for good locations to use the method of switch grass or red cedars on my property. I have a large amount of red cedars but unsure of the location as I don't want to scare them when we drive past on our driveway.
Love the tips Jeff thanks for what you do can't wait to get in and set up the hunting land this spring
I added a small food plot of turnips in july on the 37 acres i hunt this year and had the worst year i have had for buck movement in 15 years. So i believe i fell under your food plots gone wrong topic. I had 12 to 15 does in it all day long all season and buck movement went away. Even my young bucks vanished on a property i usually see tons of bucks and hardly any doe.
Thank you for your free information. Hoping to put this information to use on my 30 acres.
Constantly learning things I wouldn't have ever thought about from watching your videos. It's so nice to be educated on whitetail habitat and being able to put a well designed plan into place before making improvements to my new property in west virginia. Before watching your videos I had ideas that I was ready to put into place that wouldn't have worked well together considering depth of cover and elevation changes. Now I'm putting the pieces together to have a better plan to success. Can't thank you enough for sharing the information Jeff.
Thank you for your videos. Really enjoy them . Have used some of your strategies and have had great success .
I have been hunting for years and have learned more from you this year than all the previous years combined. I have been telling all my hunting friends to che k this guy out. Thank you very much sir you are awesome and appreciated.
Wish I had the money to get some land and do all this!
Jeff, love all your videos, you practice of what you preach. Thank you so much for sharing all these free great whitetail hunting ideas.
WoW Jeff perfect timing, I just had a select cut done on 10 acres there was no sun getting the ground and you could see for 200 yards or more. I left mostly white oaks still standing and had someone tell me I should turn it into a oak savanna and your right it sounded cool. Now after seeing this video I will just get in there cut some travel corridors through the tops that have been left and let the growth come on of new growth. Thank you Sir for your willingness to share your wealth on knowledge. As always keep it coming and I will soaking it in. Forever addicted and loving it.
I'm in Arizona with Coues whitetails, do you have any knowledge about them. Would love to talk about it
Thanks for all you do to help us improve our habit. Been watching you for some time. I just purchased 22 acres in northern Arkansas and I use your knowledge as I try to improve my hunting land. Thanks again have a great year!
any videos or advice for 15 acres and smaller? i'm usually limited to 5-10 acre tracts.
Mock scrape to at my stand this year. Thank you for sharing your videos and knowledge to brother GOD BLESS.
Awesome reminders. 18 mos in on my property. No kills, but LOTS of daylight pics of big PA bucks.
Another great and helpful video. I plan on buying some land here in Maine this year. There was a lot of great information hear. Thank You!
Great video. Definitely gives me a lot to think about as our 2021 deer season is almost over and I still have a buck tag in my pocket.
Never talk about drives
Great video brother be safe and GOD BLESS you and your family Amen 🙏.
I live in northeastern Iowa. I’m trying to find a good place to find bucks. I gave a plot that I can go to that has crops river and bedding area. The bedding if first then the crops and plenty of cover. Would it be better to sneak in early morning near the bedding and the crops or closer to the river?
I have just under 50 acres in Southern NY. 9 of it is ag field in the upper private corner of the property. The rest is wooded. Do you scout property in NY?
Im using all im learning from you to set up my 7.5 acre woods that we purchased last year! Thanks for all ur free advice keep up the awesome work!!
I had 160s buck coming in to the camera every day this season and practiced all your methods, including being more cautious and slower when getting into the stand, but I had a neighboring property that cows broke out and drove through ours without permission and turned the buck nocturnal and driving it to be killed 300 yards by my other neighbor
Jeff, I've been a huge fan of yours for a number of years. I try to take all that you say to heart, as I'm my hunt club's planting guru. The 1 item I see lacking over & over from books and/ or mentors, is how to drought proof food plots in case of a lack of rain. I've not seen anyone truly address this topic. My suggestion is use bentonite clay a.k.a. natural cat litter. It absorbs 40X its weight in moisture and holds it until the ground becomes so dry, then the clay gives it up to the plant. One 7 lb. bag at Dollar General is $1.25.
7 bags or 49 lbs. costs $9.75. + tax. 40 X 49=1960 lbs ÷ 8.5= 230.5 gal. of water held in reserve. I think that's cheap drought insurance to ensure money for seed & fertilizer isn't wasted. Happy Hunting,
David Hall
GREAT advice again Jeff. You’re going to need a bigger trophy room with the whole family tagging those awesome bucks. Congrats. Thanks again.
Great comments as always. I just wish we had met earlier, before I made all the mistakes I have made. Unfortunately, some we cannot change and have to live with. As you know our greatest challenge is one you mentioned...how to get to our deer stands without spooking the deer off of our food plots. With your help, we are working on correcting that. T
Thanks again for all the information and help you offer!!!
Bob
Another great video! My new 40 has pretty decent cover and great diversity but there is no ag in the area and don't know what the night time feeding would be there.I am guessing that I have to put some solid work into my food plots this year and get the soil up to par.
If an oak savanna consists of scattered white and red oaks, and the balance in switchgrass, and if deer eat acorns, and like to bed in switchgrass, how does an oak savanna beccome a wildlife desert?
The situation that I have is that the surrounding farmers have nuisance kill tags and shoot every damn deer that moves! It does me absolutely no good to try and create habitat for deer when as soon as they cross the property line, they get dead. I've watched it happen several times already. Any advice?
I've thinned out trees around persimmons trees and around my food plot to get more sunlight.. my foodplot did great this year lots of daylight deer..2 nice bucks I let walk hopefully next year they will be back..
We do not have the option on cutting trees, along with Neighbors of the land that shoot anything that walks on 2 sides the other side is the interstate. How can I manage that?
Like Yes we have killed 1 150 class deer but that was the RUT. but its mainly HARD WOODS some small thickits close to the 2 small fields. We have a TON of hard woods big woods. Early season we bow hunt close to the river and kill deer nothing big really. But late Nov rifle season we see more bucks on the ridges than the low creek bottoms
On my lease it’s mixed. Red and white oaks poplar maple pine cedar ash. Several white oaks now. My stands setting right in the middle of a white oak patch. They’re anywhere’s from 16 to 36 inches at the stump. Lots of acorns this year but I’m moving my stand soon.
Hi Jeff, following your principles has provided me with exciting deer hunting opportunities on my small New Jersey Parcel which I never thought possible. Though the daytime temperatures have been exceedingly warm (70 degrees for a high today) I still have a 3 year old - 120 class 10-point showing up almost every day on camera to hunt. Thanks again Cris
My family lives on a 25 acre property that has an old horse training track out back. My grandmother walks the track every day around the same time, 10AM, and in the center is the thickest part of the property where we often find a large buck beds down every season. Do deer get used to this regular human movement, or do you need to plan the property to keep deer away from the track during that time? It doesn't seem to stop them from bedding in their during some days, but they are not in there every day. Learning a lot from your videos, starting to put a plan together now for the work to begin in the next couple months!
Thanks again Jeff, first time I'll question you. " Mature buck won't come back to their bedding area if you bump them out" ... The De Aquisto's almost exclusively practice the "bump and dump" method, finding bedding and/or the actual buck, bumping them, setting up that afternoon on it and counting on a return visit that night or the next morning. Andre has the #2 and #3 archery buck in WI that way... Curious on your thoughts... Oh and you have changed my hunting and management practices a ton for the better! Thank you!...
Great question... extremely impractical strategy for the average hunter or land location. Often guys are bumping one buck and shooting another...saying it was the one they dumped ☺️ I could have said I have done that times 20 over the years...but I don't bump them in the first place. Also, very, very rarely do you know which deer you bumped because you don't see them or hear them. But no, in the average high parcel pressure one spook and your season is ruined. Seen that and have seen or heard that pattern repeated, thousands of times. In the fantasy land states you bump one Booner and another one will sometimes filter in very quickly. In areas of very little cover this can happen too. But in high pressure locations the average buck age structure is much lower because bumped bucks don't just mean spooked bucks for several weeks...they mean dead bucks.
Just a very poor tactic or belief for over 99% of all hunters out there. No different than thinking that a hunter can fool a bucks nose when he is downwind at 40 yards. May work once or twice but the other 18/19 times out of 20, the hunt is over...
Yeah, I always wondered how they identified the buck the we're "bumping" but then again, to each their own. I like how confident you are about your beliefs/strategies. I've always had a hard time not bumping something, different topic for another day. Thanks for responding.
Aka : Charles Thayer
Thank you for naming specifically good and bad trees! That's very helpful. Do deer not eat walnut apparently? What MATURE trees are most useful aside from oak and fruit? Rather than being more useful for regrowth/regeneration?
You are very welcome Nick! Really other than treestand trees, very few trees are actually good for deer hunting or wildlife in general. Scattered oaks within cover are good...but not necessary or even "great". Soft mast around food plots are awesome...maybe in front of a stand location of the way to a food plot. But deer do not eat hickory or walnuts...both terrible, sunlight robbing trees.
Conifer can be good for vertical screening...on a limited basis for snow hinderence and thermal protection. Most hardwoods just take up valuable space. There are many, many 40 acre parcels of diverse habitat that will drastically outcompete a hardwood 160 acre parcel in terms of overall deer herd and hunting potential.
@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 awesome, thank you.
We've been putting some of your practices into our property the last 3 years and it's really been paying off. Low impact hunting has been the biggest change thats helped us attract big bucks from neighboring properties. You know it's making a difference when old timers like my father catching on and not hunting days because of wind.. not walking around looking for sign. Etc... Hopefully we can put some more of your methods into practice in coming years.
I hunt and live on a 77 acre piece of land, it seems like every year around the end of December to early January the bucks move off our property, I enjoy shed hunting but I can’t do so when there’s no bucks on my property now , I was wondering if there’s a way to get them back like planting more food for them or putting out mineral sights which is what I just did a few days ago so I will see if that works.
I truly appreciate your videos. Just finished reading your books also. I closed on 20 acres of forest in Ashtabula County, OH last week, and am very excited to establish a quality whitetail habitat. With that said, I'm also hesitant on screwing it up somehow. I've reached out via your website for some on site guidance. Praying to hear from you soon. Thanks again for the great content, Jeff.
Have a safe blessed new year to you and your family from Ontario Canada, always enjoy your wisdom 🙌🏻👍
Thanks a lot Luc...really appreciate it! Happy New Year to you and yours!
I learn something EVERY TIME I watch your videos. It’s so productive to hear what NOT to do. This channel has made me a 100 times better hunter and land manager over the coarse of only 9 months. So much knowledge in such a short time. Thank you so much sir!!!
What is your favorite deer browse that would grow good in southeast Oklahoma? Thanks for your time and for sharing your videos!
Wow Jeff that's some great information as usual I really appreciate your knowledge you teaching us more and more I always thought cuz we have a huge lake that's drinking supply it's cleaner and the deer like it better there's a river behind my house but not near were they bed I'm thinking maybe put a water hole near it the rivers probably 400 yards from were I'm thinking not sure tho hope your having a great new year godbless you and your family some beautiful bucks you shot what a first buck your wife got a giant congratulations for her and your son's buck too! Well done!
Hello! I love the WHS videos, but I have to temper what I watch because I hunt deer in the southeast. The rut, the forage, and the weather all very different here based on biological data. Do you have any good reference to someone active in your line of work that is more specialized in southeastern deer management besides QDMA?
Awesome channel. I think the greatest though change for me is basing my small parcel improvements in a way to establish a deer movement pattern that sets up multiple stand locations. In the past I have made improvements without seeing the big picture( just as a single project). I have 16.65 acres that I live on about half I raise lambs and live on and the rest I hunt. It was all big timber before I bought it and unhunted and I shot 2 of the biggest deer I’ve ever shot while it was big timber. Now I have done a select cut and left most of my mast producing trees ( thinking I was doing what would help the deer the most. After watching this I wish I’d have left trees based on an overall deer movement plan. I wonder if sweet gums would be best hung cut for browse or cut repetitively to try to eliminate?
Jeff, what’s the best thing to plant in upstate New York right near the Canadian border? The snow gets so tall it’s hard to have a food source all year
Great video as always, keep them coming Sir. I have a all hardwoods property and have picked out and cleaned a spot for my first 1 acre food plot.what would you recommend planting
I took a screenshot of all the antlers on the table in the first video when you got them back and sent them to my brother in law and his response was "yeah well he probably hunted multiple states and 30 different parcels." I told him no that it was 2 different parcels in the same less than 50 acres each. I couldn't remember the exact number of acres so I just said that. He didn't respond. Lol.
Ha, too funny. One was 25 acres...one 30 acres of cover, 10 acres of field. 4 came from the 30...actually the four largest ☺️ Sam's buck on the 25 was around 137
Awesome video again! Question: About how much room should be between your walking path and a food plot if you have screening planted and pine thicket around the plot?
Yep on the money 💰 brother
Hey I really enjoy watching your videos. I am 18 and I love working on whitetail habitat and just being out in the woods I was wondering how you can get into doing something like you do or other jobs that would be in the woods.
How should I go about adding habitat ...we have several grass fields that are dead space . I was thinking of planting trees and shrubs. What would be the most effective way to get this done.
Hey buddy quick question... I’m wanting to put in a food plot to the right of my stand but if my stand is already next to a corn field to the left of me do you think I’d be waisting my time ect?
And what do you do if you did buy a christmas tree farm
Hi Seth! Use the rowed trees for access and to blow your scent into, get rid of trees for food plots in the best location...establish a core interior area that includes your food plots, remove at least 50% of the trees within the core area and encourage nothing but woody growth in for the form of trees and shrubs or broadleafs weed regen...no grass, conifers in those areas...all based on what's going on with your general access and neighboring food, cover and hunting pressure concerns. Overall roughly 60-70% of the trees would end up being removed.
@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 thanks for the reply. it's an odd property but it has a lot of deer and tons of turkeys but it is a pine forest in the center 40 and the top and bottom are essentially bare with sandy soil, garbage weeds, and prickly pears. the reset is surrounded by ag fields. now just trying to make it a better place for the deer. i like the idea of planting switch grass at the edge of all the pines
Jeff - I’m in western Pa - interested in discussing a potential visit to my land, your rates, level of information and plans. Thanks, Chris
You can tell you're from the north lol. In the south, oak Savannahs are some of the best habitat. But we don't have winter's that knock all of the vegetation down, and we actually have cool season browse that survives all winter with the protection of the scattered trees.
Talking about food plots during lactation; Here in Northeast GA where I am, just before fawning season I have noticed does go nuts over the locust trees here (black locust, I think?) Feeding almost exclusively on them, getting up on two feet to reach the leaves at time. Does locust provide any good nutritional value?
That is a really cool observation! And yes for sure. Crazy how deer often base their browsing on nutritional levels too...Even spending more time in locations of a field that would have the highest nutritional levels. Maybe honey locust?
When should we plant winter rye in mid Michigan? I know my brassica will go on the ground around beginning of September with rain in the forecast...
I really enjoy these videos I have a small plot 17 acres...between to fields and a bushlot at the back..what books would you recommend ...thank you
Hi James! I would recommend my own books ☺️ beginning with the red one...
www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/store
Haha ...I meant which one of your books...thanks I will get the red one...I'm in Ontario Canada...but the principles should be the same...
I bought whitetail success by design and loved. Cant wait to have my own property to apply the principles. Does your foot plot design book have strategies for areas with zero agricultural and your food plot gets hit hard after planting?
Also I have 10 acres behind my house that I ALWAYS get 1000 pics in 4 to 5 days mostly of the same deer and I have the 1 Deer that is BIG I want to hunt but being a small parcel and people around WILL shoot him I would guess I need to shoot him first OFC. Cause I can't let him grow cause he probably wont right?
I trust what you say on these videos brother. I’ve watched your videos long enough to know you know what your doing.
Do you manage any wet swampy property if so can you make a video about how to set up a wetland whitetail property I have a 47 acre rectangle wetland property
Great video! I definitely need to change a couple things. What’s your recommendation for planting switch grass along a 2 track that neighbors like to drive down during prime time. Currently planting Egyptian wheat every year about 20 ft wide. Thank you
A question please, from the video you are saying that I should not start working on food plots until September?
I’ve contacted you and left a message two times, I still have not heard back even to tell me your busy and maybe at a later date might work. Anyway very thankful for the TH-cam content and I think I’ve leaned a lot. My property is a little tricky and would love a consultation.
Even though there’s 3 ponds two close to my stand I can see them from my stand I’m putting a water hole in at my stand this year to and my plot.
WOW..I think you covered almost everything in that one.And their is Sam dragging that deer again.Still smiling..Grandson didn't want to go out yesterday. 4 o'clock 8 point right in front of the stand we were going to sit in.Then he wants to go 🤔.Still have a week left of season. Maybe we will go Saturday. After thoughts don't shoot deer..
Thanks D! Hope it helps. I live that clip so much 😁 Good luck if you can get out!
Great video Jeff. I was wondering what would you recommend for a property in Central Kentucky. where there isn’t any age around and the timber had a bunch of honeysuckle and smaller trees growing. I am working on having some food plots next season. I was wondering what you would recommend to do with the timber.
Great stuff, as always Jeff. First thing, I live in Southern Indiana. You've mentioned that at year 4 or year 5 post clear cut that it becomes inaccessible for whitetail use. Once that time-frame is drawing near or even happening currently, then what? Do you suggest opening up areas within that clear cut such as creating pockets? Conifer pockets?
Another great video Jeff! Hope to hire you in a few years to come check out our place. Thanks again and happy New Years.
Thank you Sean I really appreciate it! And that would be awesome...I would look forward to it. Happy New Years to you too!
You mention having oak as a problem?
Are we talking about an area that was clear cut and "weeded" to plant oak and maybe a handful of other herbaceous plants or are we talking about a more/less native oak forest with mostly oak and a variety of herbaceous and native bushes?
I follow all of the diversity arguments and so on but the idea of having "too much" oak conflicts a bit. Here in Oklahoma the ag extension service published a pamphlet on deer management for the state that was very detailed. pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2971/E-979.pdf
Cool-season diets of whitetails would show stomach contents of anywhere from 16-96% acorns. The estimate is that 50% of their food value comes from acrons alone. Further, in the same pamphlet they highlight choice species of hard mast, they're all oak with the exception of hazelnuts, honey locust, and chinkapin.
If I'm thinking right, you're pointing more at the idea of managing for oak production. A practice that would eliminate diversity, after all, you still need browse. Am I right about this?
What your opinion on spice bush/brush is it worth keeping around or should I chop it down I can't find much info about it if it's good for deer?
I'm interested in the books do you sell them in audio books.
Serious I want to listen to them at work,. I'm there 12 hours a day might as well do some research
Good job Jeff! The kids for Christmas got me a new tablet. Now if I can figure the darn thing out and download books on it, witch one of your books would you recommend for a 40 acre southeast Mn. parcel? 40 acre timber/bluff with ag surroundings.
Is there any way to help a property become LESS nocturnal ?
Hi Cliff...for sure! I bet you will like my nocturnal bucks playlist...39 videos!!
th-cam.com/play/PLmV8IlexgmhdyDM7-RLjzWAzUjz_1nvdp.html
Been learning much from your vids. Do you have any info helpful for deep south whitetails where there is surprisingly no agriculture nearby nor much hardwoods but plentiful planted pines of various ages? Thank you.
Hey brother how’s your evening going I pray great Amen 🙏.
Deer feed five times in a 24 hour period, words to live by...
Amen Joseph!
If you ever come to Tn on the Cumberland plateau around Putnam or Overton Co give me a holler I’d like to meet you show you my Tn bucks on my wall.
Jeff, having trouble finding cereal/winter rye in any common stores or local feed stores here in northern Kentucky. Everyone has ryegrass and winter wheat, but cereal rye is hard to find. Any suggestions on where to find that particular seed?
Hi Jeff! Greatly appreciate the channel. Subscribed a few month’s back and have learned a bunch. I am making alterations to improve both bedding cover and browse on an 80 piece in Southern Wis. that is a combination of drained marsh(former ag reverting back to a wet meadow), a woodland esker, and crop land. Much of the marsh has been taken over by Reed Canary grass. The fringe areas of the marsh are slowly growing thick with Box Elder. I am considering ‘hinge cutting’ some of the Box Elder as a means of increasing browse and cover. Here is the ‘million dollar’ question. Little grows under the Box Elder in the organic soil other than garlic mustard and jewel weed. What are your thoughts about disking under the mature trees and seeding with switch grass before dropping the trees as a way of improving the bedding cover around the new browse? My fear is that once full sun reaches the forest floor after dropping the trees, I’ll get a huge crop of RC grass around the new browse. As I am sure you have seen, that RC grass looks great until it collapses in the early fall. Thanks again for all you are doing!
When talking about high hinge cuts the video rolling at 18:04 those are head high??
Yes for sure, those are head high and what not to do...
Are you not working a set of properties in Southern Indiana this winter? I emailed about 6 weeks ago for a potential site visit and never heard back. Thanks for the videos.
Do you have a book where there many land layouts/food plot designs? I’m wanting to get about 30 acres and I need a lot of pictures lol. Thanks!
My red book has a lot of general strategies...also the green book.
Check out this video!
th-cam.com/video/S5ecHmOVjek/w-d-xo.html
Keep in mind there is no cookie cutter design that you can apply to your own land. Only the concepts. I hope that makes sense! Let me know what you think of the video!
Whitetail Habitat Solutions Awesome information! Hoping to get that book soon.
Good evening Jeff, is there a place you'd recommend to purchase food plot and switch grass seed. I'd like to be able to purchase the types you've recommended and Ideally all from one dealer. I live in Central Michigan and have bought seed from many different retailers, some have worked and some haven't. I've found out the hard way that the most expensive seed is not necessarily the best. Good seed at a decent price without all the marketing mark up would be perfect. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.
Athletics and deer are not even close for a comparison. If I told Albert t pulos how to hinge cut a tree. He could. Everything you say is experience and wisdom being past down. It took you decades to learn all of that. But it takes us a couple videos to piece together what you have learned. I would argue chess players today are at an extreme advantage. Fisher had to learn from all of his mistakes with no references. Now magnus comes around can see every game fisher played and play way more frequent because of technology. Because a certain player can memorize moves does not necessarily mean he was better than Fisher in chess. But he took known knowledge and used it to his advantage. Without the experience of playing and learning.
Awesome stuff! and helps us a ton, especially with habitat improvement season starting. Jeff, do you run into much Honey Locust in your travels? If so, what's your opinion on them?
What about honey locust Jeff? I have observed deer browsing on the seed pods but not too much browsing on twig ends. Very hard on habitat management equipment . Worth the repair bill? Thanks
Last day of season here in Georgia. Shots all over, hoping they're still using discretion.
For sure... hopefully not a bad day for fawn bucks 👍
I want to know what’s on that stick that you,ve got hanging in front of that camera.
Absolutely nothing! Just every deers scent that walks by. They leave their pre orbital gland scent and it accumulates. If you use a commercial scent, powder, gel, dust etc...it just covers up the natural scent. Natural is always best. I will never have a deer scent sponsor...but oh well ☺️ Just trying to help folks out
I'm here to say I've spooked mature bucks 5 years old plus then kill them the same day 😂 being low impact and sneaky is great and is needed to hold deer but you are going to spook deer anyway
Everyone will always spook deer ..but smart hunters and land managers do everything possible not too.
It's hard to compete with corn feeder here in Louisiana. If your not feeding, you can bet your neighbor is.
Hey Jeff,
As part of my CAUV management plan here in Ohio they have recommended the removal of all of the ailanthus (tree of heaven) on our property. Have you ever seen deer use this specie as a browse and is it worth having some around? Is it worth all the time and money in expensive sprays to eradicate it all? I feel ridiculous asking this question as I’m well aware how invasive it is lol. Thanks for your time.
Hey Jeff, I've been watching your videos for years now and you've taught me alot that I've implemented on my 180 acres in the u.p. do you have any videos on predator issues? As it's hard to keep the deer secure on a part of my property cause with the improvements of the habitat come additional predators which also move the deer farther than I'd like them to go? Also what are your thoughts on mineral sites, I've noticed that my mineral sites seem to be an attractant throughout the year..maybe cause they are on the path from bed to feeding.. thoughts? Thanks for all your content!
Hello Jeff, Can you share with me the name and number of the company that you order your Switchgrass from? Do you have a promo code where you get some commission. Want to make sure you get credit. Thx Kevin (Lansing MI)
Thanks for the constant good info.
You are really welcome Scott!