I bought a DR brush mower and really opened up my dense hunting spots. Now I see that I may have over done a bit. I’ll make a few adjustments you’ve covered and I think I’ll start seeing more deer 🦌. In central Arkansas you can brush cut an area and after a few spring rains it is a jungle again, so I should be able to allow some new growth to accomplish two things. One, redirect my paths to be less straight and two, allow the rest to grow into good browsing.
I setup a tripod stand with canopy cover between my two box stands hoping to catch deer traveling between the two feeders. That worked pretty well last year and early season this year but I also baited that location. I now believe that might be a mistake. It is a good travel route location between the two box stands but there are some oaks with acorns nearby and very thick cover on one side with a creek valley on the other. I plan to hunt it next season without bait but maintaining the shooting lanes and the open area that I brush hog to try and ambush the deer traveling the trails between the two feeders as originally planned.
I hunt on a lease in central Arkansas. I’ve been on this lease now for 10 years. The first 3 years I harvest two nice mature buck. Since then I only see 3 year olds or less. I’ve significantly developed my area which is in a pine stand which is now 27 years old and was thinned 7 years ago. Having now viewed a few of your videos, I feel that I over hunt my location, are not as wind concerned as I should be and may even be right in the middle of a very extensive bedding area. My area this season produced a nice doe and buck. I harvested the doe during early archery season with a crossbow but missed my buck the opening day of alternative weapons season. I have 3 stands that are 200-400 yards apart, all are that distance or less from our deer camp. I could go on but suffice it to say that human interference is a major reason I’m seeing less deer 🦌 and only younger deer 🦌. We due hunt over bait which I use feeders. I’m basically now feeding deer 🦌 20-30 bags of corn a year and coming away with 1-2 deer in return. Spending 100 hours plus in stands and seeing very little to show for the effort. It’s time to change things up.
What is your opinion on how close your vehicle is to your hunting stand. I usually hike 150-400 yards from my vehicle to my stand trying to minimize sound, sight and smell of the vehicle at my hunting location. Others drive right to their stands and shoot deer 🦌 as much or more than I do. I have seen deer 🦌 that rarely respond to a vehicle but where they immediately bolt when they see you exit the vehicle or are walking through the woods.
Most of our stands are less than 100 yards from the road. However, we park maybe a quarter mile down the road, walk down the road and then enter the woods where the stands are. A 4 wheeler only touches the woods if we're retrieving a deer.
Im fixing to start working on some deer fennels at my property. I wanted to hinge cut some trees along the trail to add so food and some cover. How spread out should i place these so i dont turn it into a cattle shoot? Thanks for info and vid. Love the channel.
That depends a lot on how thick your current habitat is. On my SE WI property I'm right on a creek/marsh area so the deer are used to being in some pretty thick cover all of the time so much so I probably could get away with a cattle shoot but on my NW WI property, I have a lot of mature woods so in that case I side a lot more on making those perpendicular barricades very long but spacing them fairly far apart. It all depends on the specific terrain but think of it as if you were driving a car really fast through the area - you can make slight turns but no sharp turns so just make sure you're blocking off every slight turn but leave the sharp turns open. Leaving the trail itself open as well of course. The deer typically won't take the sharp turns unless they need to escape. You can always monitor and adjust if they are jumping off the trail at a certain point.
Thanks for the reply. I'm in the pineywoods of East tx. Lots of green trees caps but nothing on ground level as food goes. Lots of woods and vines. Cover is fair. I won't go crazy as hinge cuts and will go at a nice flow for the funnel. No sharp turns. Just finished my poor man's 2 weeks ago. Deer started grazing it yesterday. Thanks again for the videos. Keep it up!
That can actually make this whole process easier. Just look to where the deer are naturally using the topography and just enhance it a little more or block off routes you don't want them to take and it will put them right in a pinch point in front of you.
@@HobbyHarvest I have 300 meters (900 feet) incline at 45 degrees or steeper. Most of it is covered in 12-20 feet tall deciduous trees. We have mostly red deer and some roe deer here. I am very very fortunate and have the seasonal movement going through here - and two glens where I can see the deer. I will for sure do some work at the top of theses glens to funnel the deer where there is a clear shot 🙂 Not intending to be negative - only describing the situation my place here in Norway.
I bought a DR brush mower and really opened up my dense hunting spots. Now I see that I may have over done a bit. I’ll make a few adjustments you’ve covered and I think I’ll start seeing more deer 🦌. In central Arkansas you can brush cut an area and after a few spring rains it is a jungle again, so I should be able to allow some new growth to accomplish two things. One, redirect my paths to be less straight and two, allow the rest to grow into good browsing.
I setup a tripod stand with canopy cover between my two box stands hoping to catch deer traveling between the two feeders. That worked pretty well last year and early season this year but I also baited that location. I now believe that might be a mistake. It is a good travel route location between the two box stands but there are some oaks with acorns nearby and very thick cover on one side with a creek valley on the other. I plan to hunt it next season without bait but maintaining the shooting lanes and the open area that I brush hog to try and ambush the deer traveling the trails between the two feeders as originally planned.
I hunt on a lease in central Arkansas. I’ve been on this lease now for 10 years. The first 3 years I harvest two nice mature buck. Since then I only see 3 year olds or less. I’ve significantly developed my area which is in a pine stand which is now 27 years old and was thinned 7 years ago. Having now viewed a few of your videos, I feel that I over hunt my location, are not as wind concerned as I should be and may even be right in the middle of a very extensive bedding area. My area this season produced a nice doe and buck. I harvested the doe during early archery season with a crossbow but missed my buck the opening day of alternative weapons season. I have 3 stands that are 200-400 yards apart, all are that distance or less from our deer camp. I could go on but suffice it to say that human interference is a major reason I’m seeing less deer 🦌 and only younger deer 🦌. We due hunt over bait which I use feeders. I’m basically now feeding deer 🦌 20-30 bags of corn a year and coming away with 1-2 deer in return. Spending 100 hours plus in stands and seeing very little to show for the effort.
It’s time to change things up.
What is your opinion on how close your vehicle is to your hunting stand. I usually hike 150-400 yards from my vehicle to my stand trying to minimize sound, sight and smell of the vehicle at my hunting location. Others drive right to their stands and shoot deer 🦌 as much or more than I do. I have seen deer 🦌 that rarely respond to a vehicle but where they immediately bolt when they see you exit the vehicle or are walking through the woods.
Most of our stands are less than 100 yards from the road. However, we park maybe a quarter mile down the road, walk down the road and then enter the woods where the stands are. A 4 wheeler only touches the woods if we're retrieving a deer.
Pine stands and briers makeup 90 percent of my hunting lease.
Thanks Ken. Appreciate you putting out info. Always. Enjoy the summer my friend😊
Thanks, you too!
Im fixing to start working on some deer fennels at my property. I wanted to hinge cut some trees along the trail to add so food and some cover. How spread out should i place these so i dont turn it into a cattle shoot? Thanks for info and vid. Love the channel.
That depends a lot on how thick your current habitat is. On my SE WI property I'm right on a creek/marsh area so the deer are used to being in some pretty thick cover all of the time so much so I probably could get away with a cattle shoot but on my NW WI property, I have a lot of mature woods so in that case I side a lot more on making those perpendicular barricades very long but spacing them fairly far apart. It all depends on the specific terrain but think of it as if you were driving a car really fast through the area - you can make slight turns but no sharp turns so just make sure you're blocking off every slight turn but leave the sharp turns open. Leaving the trail itself open as well of course. The deer typically won't take the sharp turns unless they need to escape. You can always monitor and adjust if they are jumping off the trail at a certain point.
Thanks for the reply. I'm in the pineywoods of East tx. Lots of green trees caps but nothing on ground level as food goes. Lots of woods and vines. Cover is fair. I won't go crazy as hinge cuts and will go at a nice flow for the funnel. No sharp turns. Just finished my poor man's 2 weeks ago. Deer started grazing it yesterday. Thanks again for the videos. Keep it up!
What are the pretty blue blossoms on the green trail you showed. Deer resistant plant?
@@thebadboo4875 That's Dame's Rocket. It's actually an invasive. Clearing out more of the invasive species is still on my long to-do list.
I have nought but steep geography 😀
That can actually make this whole process easier. Just look to where the deer are naturally using the topography and just enhance it a little more or block off routes you don't want them to take and it will put them right in a pinch point in front of you.
@@HobbyHarvest I have 300 meters (900 feet) incline at 45 degrees or steeper. Most of it is covered in 12-20 feet tall deciduous trees. We have mostly red deer and some roe deer here. I am very very fortunate and have the seasonal movement going through here - and two glens where I can see the deer.
I will for sure do some work at the top of theses glens to funnel the deer where there is a clear shot 🙂
Not intending to be negative - only describing the situation my place here in Norway.