OO2
Well-Known Member
I don't see a problem with posting. It's your land! Guys that surround me do it and it doesn't bother me at all.
Developing new land for big bucks!!
- Thread starter bowtechexperience
- Start date
Thanks for following along, its been an adventure for sure and its only beginning!! ill keep posting stuff up once i get out there and let everyone folow along as i develop my land and hopefully harvest something good off it!!
Here in PA if you own land and dont post it, its fair game for anyone to hunt on and they will take full advantage of it and your land is covered with hunters in no time. we had to post every bit of PA land we had just to keep some of the trespassers out but we still have to kick a few out every rifle season. I have heard Ohio isnt nearly as bad so thats what made me wander whats everyones opinions on posting. before i do much posting ill do what was said earlier and talk to the neighbors and explain to them why im posting (if i do). I for sure dont wanna come off as a dick because i am a nice guy and wanna get along with all my neighbors and hopefully gain some more land to hunt around me.
I'd plant some apple trees...and some chestnut trees. Those seem to pull deer from miles. If you have the money and the space, I'd look at going that route and forget about the plots. If you could get a decent amount of those tree started and do the rest in habitat...I'm jealous just thinking about it!
105 acres, lots of options, depending on location.
Assuming you are buying it,and planning long term hunting.
First i,d walk and learn the entire track.
Has it ever been timbered, is there a lot of oaks,
Is it flat or hills.
25 acres of clear cut except any nut trees will grow a great bedding area, Then planting apple and pear trees on 5 plus or minus acres with a few grape vines.
5/10 acres of food plots, and the rest let grow wild and thick.
Depending on your age you can have a big buck haven in a few years, as long as the neighbors are not shooting everything that moves.
One of the best properties i have is a 40 acre track with apr 15 acres of clear cut that is 5/6 years old.
we don;t mess with most of the clear cut, took out apr. 1 acre on the edge and made a plot with big timber on three sides. We draw a lot of surrounding deer in that small area.
Let me tell you.1 acre is NOT big enough for a food plot. They will distroy it in no time once they find it.
I;d also put mineral licks and year round feeders out just to get the resident deer to hold on the property.
Personally I would rather hunt more heavy thick nasty cover than open timber.
Hope the new property works well in enjoying the wildlife it will hold for you, family and friends(by the way I CAN be a great friend) ha ha. I would love to be young enough to purchase that much land in the right location.
Good luck with your adventures,
Assuming you are buying it,and planning long term hunting.
First i,d walk and learn the entire track.
Has it ever been timbered, is there a lot of oaks,
Is it flat or hills.
25 acres of clear cut except any nut trees will grow a great bedding area, Then planting apple and pear trees on 5 plus or minus acres with a few grape vines.
5/10 acres of food plots, and the rest let grow wild and thick.
Depending on your age you can have a big buck haven in a few years, as long as the neighbors are not shooting everything that moves.
One of the best properties i have is a 40 acre track with apr 15 acres of clear cut that is 5/6 years old.
we don;t mess with most of the clear cut, took out apr. 1 acre on the edge and made a plot with big timber on three sides. We draw a lot of surrounding deer in that small area.
Let me tell you.1 acre is NOT big enough for a food plot. They will distroy it in no time once they find it.
I;d also put mineral licks and year round feeders out just to get the resident deer to hold on the property.
Personally I would rather hunt more heavy thick nasty cover than open timber.
Hope the new property works well in enjoying the wildlife it will hold for you, family and friends(by the way I CAN be a great friend) ha ha. I would love to be young enough to purchase that much land in the right location.
Good luck with your adventures,
Buckmaster
Senior Member
You Sir are a lucky man. A beautiful pad with endless possibilities.
Only thing I'd worry about is horseback and dirt bike riders.
Only thing I'd worry about is horseback and dirt bike riders.
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Lundy
Member
- 1,312
- 141
To have large bucks consistantly on your property will have much more to do with what the surrounding properties do than what you do if your land already has the basics of cover and food.
For deer to get larger he must grow older. If the surroudning properties get heavy hunting pressure and are successful at killing bucks your property will never have a consistant population of older larger deer. 100 acres is just not large enough to sustain a independant deer population that doesn't leave the property. You can easily control what you shoot but if your neighbors are happy to shoot 2-1/2 year old deer then any appreciable number of deer reaching maturity with maximum potentail will be limited and sporadic.
I also don't think you can stockpile mature bucks. A given piece of property will only maintain and hold a certain number and on 100 acres it might be one or maybe even none of a consistent basis. I form this opinion from observations on the same farm of over 700 acres for over 25+ years. When a buck hits that 3-1/2 going on 4-1/2 mark they tend to leave and go find their own new locations never to be seen again. The good news is a deer from 4 miles away may move into your area and take up residence as a already mature buck.
Not trying to be debbie downer, just saying deer inhabit large chunks of land, the don't know property lines and they only way they become mature is for some not to kill them when they are younger. The single most important thing you can do is to make sure you have as big a group of homebody does that you can, that stay on your place and feel comfortable and have no reason to venture forth. If you have a core group of does you will always have some of the best bucks in the area visit even if they only stay a couple of weeks and then leave to not be seen again.
For deer to get larger he must grow older. If the surroudning properties get heavy hunting pressure and are successful at killing bucks your property will never have a consistant population of older larger deer. 100 acres is just not large enough to sustain a independant deer population that doesn't leave the property. You can easily control what you shoot but if your neighbors are happy to shoot 2-1/2 year old deer then any appreciable number of deer reaching maturity with maximum potentail will be limited and sporadic.
I also don't think you can stockpile mature bucks. A given piece of property will only maintain and hold a certain number and on 100 acres it might be one or maybe even none of a consistent basis. I form this opinion from observations on the same farm of over 700 acres for over 25+ years. When a buck hits that 3-1/2 going on 4-1/2 mark they tend to leave and go find their own new locations never to be seen again. The good news is a deer from 4 miles away may move into your area and take up residence as a already mature buck.
Not trying to be debbie downer, just saying deer inhabit large chunks of land, the don't know property lines and they only way they become mature is for some not to kill them when they are younger. The single most important thing you can do is to make sure you have as big a group of homebody does that you can, that stay on your place and feel comfortable and have no reason to venture forth. If you have a core group of does you will always have some of the best bucks in the area visit even if they only stay a couple of weeks and then leave to not be seen again.
i agree with what you are sayng, i know i wont hold deer on my land long enough to grow big bucks, but my plan is that if i have food and bedding that at least i have a good chance of big bucks passing by sticking around for a little bit and me getting a chance at one.
CritterGitterToo
Junior Member
If it was me, first thing I would do is knock on the doors of every adjacent landowner. I'd want to get to know the neighbors and try to make friends. I'd listen to what they have to say about how deer seasons have gone the past few years rather than going on about planting food plots and such. I'd want to know how they do things and what their view points are. Good neighbors with similar ideas can go along way to getting bucks to a mature age.
Next, I'd do my best to isolate a geographical feature that puts the odds in my favor. The property might not have one, but I'd be looking real hard for something like that for sure.
Next, I'd do my best to isolate a geographical feature that puts the odds in my favor. The property might not have one, but I'd be looking real hard for something like that for sure.
cspot
Member
cspot
Member
Something I noticed when taking a walk on our property in PA. We have alot of ash and alot of them are dead now and starting to fall. The one bedding area that I was going to do some cutting in a year or 2 won't need anything. The canopy is getting opened up with all of the ash dieing. Also watch these ash when hinging/cutting as dead trees can be very dangerous.
i agree with you for the most part and plan on doing that. i wanna talk to the neighbors and see if they are into wacking and stacking or deer management, plus i was told that the ones with the bigger pieces of land south of me dont even hunt. the neighbors north of me are small 1 to 4 acre parcels and the seller told me very few of them even hunt. now south east and west are all big woods but i have studied google maps for hours and it dont look like anyone has anything planted for deer and there isnt much crop for at least a mile or 2. im in the biggest patch of woods around there including the two parcels below me are owned by older folks who i am going to ask if they are interested in selling or leasingnto me. this spring i am going to put in about a 16 to 20 tree small apple/pear orchard, plant clover food plots, and i talked to a farmer and i think he is going to plant corn and beans in my 2 fields and rotate them every year.
my last trip out there i did some walking and discovered i have 2 thickets but they are both on the outer edges of my land, but dang they are thick. no big trees in them and they are all some kind of underbrush and jaggers and all that good stuff, seller claims everyone stays out of them for deer safe zones so i sure hope he isnt full of shit but i think he will say anything to sell the place. seen lots of tracks and rubs, a few persimmon trees are in the one thicket, and there are 8 to 10 very large 100+ year old white oaks in the center of my land on top of a small ridge. after i get some fruit and crop growing there it should be like deer heaven in a couple years. at least a guy can dream haha
are there osage orange trees in ohio? the deer love them things on my land in PA, ive killed several of my good bucks hunting in an osage patch. once they get a hard frost it must soften the fruit up because they really tare them up after that.
We have a decent population of them up here in the NE part of the state, not sure down where you're buying at though.... I haven't seen deer do anything with the monkey balls when they're on the ground around us though....
OO2
Well-Known Member
I'm in Fairfield and pretty close to your property. We have a bunch of Osage orange where I am. Nasty stuff. Real thick and spindly. All of ours mostly grows on creek bank. Like J I haven't seen the deer have much interaction with the fruit. I try to stay out of them, last time I was in the thick of them pulling my two coyotes out I got stuck and swollen by their thorns.
Yea they make some crazy thickets where they grow at and that's crazy the deer don't eat then there. My driveway is lined with them to and in the fall time and the deer come in in heards and eat them fast as they fall usaully.