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Post by benmnwi on Nov 13, 2018 16:13:59 GMT -6
It looks like your spruce sanctuary area is in the dead center of your property which is good to keep them safe from neighbors, but bad because there isn't a long distance between the edge of the sanctuary and feeding areas on your place. That makes it harder to slip in between the bedding and feeding areas to kill them.
Is there a big destination ag source in the area or do they just randomly feed on the small fields and openings shown on the picture?
I'm just trying to get a better idea of how the deer normally flow through your property and the adjacent land.
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Post by Sandbur on Nov 13, 2018 16:34:21 GMT -6
Is that parcel a quarter section?
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Post by mnaaron on Nov 13, 2018 16:36:40 GMT -6
It looks like your spruce sanctuary area is in the dead center of your property which is good to keep them safe from neighbors, but bad because there isn't a long distance between the edge of the sanctuary and feeding areas on your place. That makes it harder to slip in between the bedding and feeding areas to kill them. Is there a big destination ag source in the area or do they just randomly feed on the small fields and openings shown on the picture? I'm just trying to get a better idea of how the deer normally flow through your property and the adjacent land. They feed on the fields on each parcel. Most parcels in the area have large food plots. The does do not leave our parcel to feed.
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Post by mnaaron on Nov 13, 2018 16:36:52 GMT -6
Is that parcel a quarter section? Yes 160 acres
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Post by mnaaron on Nov 13, 2018 16:37:10 GMT -6
I will try and get some better maps and text later since I can tell I didn’t provide enough details
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Post by Sandbur on Nov 13, 2018 16:42:56 GMT -6
Could the trail system in the NE quadrant and reaching to the north be making them nocturnal? Should that one and/or part of the foodplots near the center of the property be abandoned?
If the total area is big enough, can two sanctuaries be created with a funnel in between?
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Post by Sandbur on Nov 13, 2018 16:44:13 GMT -6
Pretty much flat terrain? Seems like I saw an aerial of this before.
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Post by mnaaron on Nov 13, 2018 16:55:01 GMT -6
Originally we bought this property the road on north side was a two track but now is a large driveway. We like it because it has good access to stands so property doesn’t burnout but hard to get bucks to leave middle of property. We are thinking about putting barriers or cutting shooting lanes into some of the areas (maintain the vast majority undisturbed) just something so when the bucks are cruising and moving around we have a better chance of seeing them. It is also a pretty good neighborhood for letting little bucks grow.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Nov 13, 2018 17:04:36 GMT -6
You should in the chips with 30 does, bucks following in this cold weather.... have you guys shot any big ones yet?
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Post by Catscratch on Nov 13, 2018 17:27:31 GMT -6
Looking at your pic my first thought was "that's a lot of cover". I'm used to hunting between patches of cover or on the fringe of cover. Your place looks difficult to hunt and get around without alerting deer. Are you wanting to clear lanes so that you can see into cover more, give yourself a path to walk, or give the deer a path to walk? I would almost be tempted to clear some of your random cover and leave more defined travel paths that were advantageous to your prevailing winds. But I dont up north and have different ways of thinking...
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Post by benmnwi on Nov 13, 2018 18:42:57 GMT -6
You might be surprised how much the deer use your shrub willows. I have 10 acres of that stuff and the deer head there when pressured but without shooting lanes you would never see them. If you gun hunt, I'd put a tower blind on the north and south side with a long shooting lane cutting along your western boundary. Angle the shooting lanes in a bit so it's not a straight line between stands so you don't shoot at each other.
It looks like the deer bedded in your spruce bedding area can head any direction except west to feed on your land. You might have better hunting if they had fewer food options so there is a more consistent flow. Maybe make the southwest plot into another thick spruce area. Then dramatically expand your northeast plot to 20 acres or more. If they bedded in the southwest and fed in the northeast put an hourglass shaped funnel in between with stands on the north and south of that funnel.
If you can get the does to consistently feed where you want you should be able to get a crack at a good buck during the rut.
That's my $0.02.
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Post by biglakebass on Nov 13, 2018 19:51:18 GMT -6
No they stay on this parcel but do cross the roads cruising. We have around 12 acres of food with 4 acres of standing corn. Must be 30+ does on this parcel. All the neighbors talked this year and decided to focus on harvesting does since numbers are high on everyone’s not just ours. 30+ does on 160 acres? So adding in fawns and bucks you are talking 50+ deer on 160 acres? Neighbors are high doe pop too? So comparable to your 160 deer density roughly? That adds up to 200+ deer per sq mile...... Are you sure on this evaluation? Have you shot any deer at all this year on that parcel?
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Post by mnaaron on Nov 13, 2018 20:15:12 GMT -6
Mark Neighbor had 42 deer on his 40 acre field the night before rifle season and we had 15-20 deer in each of the southern plots and neighbors to the ne have even more deer. No one has really targeted does for a number of years and they really took off.
Come on up for a beer sometime and we will go for a drive
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Post by biglakebass on Nov 13, 2018 20:42:03 GMT -6
Mark Neighbor had 42 deer on his 40 acre field the night before rifle season and we had 15-20 deer in each of the southern plots and neighbors to the ne have even more deer. No one has really targeted does for a number of years and they really took off. Come on up for a beer sometime and we will go for a drive Question still remains.... are you guys shooting any does if you have 30 on 160 acres? Thats insane.
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Post by mnaaron on Nov 13, 2018 20:54:19 GMT -6
I know it sounds crazy but we have around 30 antlerless deer and probably handful of bucks. We shot 3 does and all the neighbors shot 5-9 does to try and curb the numbers. These high numbers are not typical we just happened to be really high right now since past 3-4 yrs most neighbors simply buck hunting and not filling tags.
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