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Post by Bob on Feb 21, 2024 11:37:19 GMT -6
I was gonna throw a cellular cam out there this coming year and chickened out. I sent it back to Amazon. I will probably set up a regular cam or two and just set it on 1-minute intervals and let it run from Labor day to whenever I quit rifle.
Most of you know our property is a flat square 40. The plan of bedding in the center, food outside of that, and access and hunting outside of that has seemed to work well. All the buck activity seems to stay on the edge of where food meets that central bedding area. I'm continuing the saw work on the interior, and doing more work on moving stands around and improving shooting lanes and what not. Last piece is to just figure out how to get a bolt or bullet into something.
I set up three new stand locations after the big pre-winter chainsaw week. I've got to twist the big tower blind about 10 degrees to the west. May build a base for the south ground blind to get that up a few more feet. I could do it with lumber, or I could do it with dirt. I haven't decided yet. The rest of my camp is getting antsy about no-deer sits on public land, so I'm trying to squeeze a few more spots in that are low impact and near the road.
I need to rent the digger for another couple days this year anyway, I might as well do some more water hole/borrow pit construction. I've got a canary grass slough about 30 yards away where I've been itching to dig a small water hole/pond and fix the trail through it. That'd give the dirt to make a proper devils tower type base for that ground blind.
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Post by Bob on Feb 21, 2024 11:49:27 GMT -6
I also want to harvest the topsoil out of that canary grass slough.
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Post by benmnwi on Feb 21, 2024 14:25:34 GMT -6
Has anyone been putting in more buck plans ? I’ve personally looked into this more, but other than thicker cover, I have not changed a lot lately . I’d like to hear some feedback. I've been spending too much time this winter thinking about deer plans on the new place. I've actually spent a bunch of time working towards my goal though and I think next year should be interesting. I'm trying not to go too crazy before actually hunting the property, but there are plenty of improvements I can make to the property that shouldn't negatively impact whatever the property has going for it already. Last year was super dry, so I dug out two existing ponds and they already have a couple feet of water in them. If they hold water while the neighboring areas are dry, I should have a really interesting early bow season. Most of my woods is too open to be really solid bedding, so I've went through a couple gallons of chain saw gas expanding the few existing bedding areas and also created new bedding thickets. A patchwork of bedding areas should provide room for more doe groups, and that should draw in the bucks as well. Conifer cover is limited in the neighborhood, so I'll be planting 500 spruce trees this spring. White spruce grow slow at first, but in a decade these spruce trees should provide some of the best bedding in the area. I haven't decided exactly what I'll do for food plots yet, but that will be icing on the cake. Bedding is the biggest hole in the bucket right now and it is getting better with tank of gas I go through with the chain saw.
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Post by daydreamer on Feb 21, 2024 14:30:20 GMT -6
Has anyone been putting in more buck plans ? I’ve personally looked into this more, but other than thicker cover, I have not changed a lot lately . I’d like to hear some feedback. I've been spending too much time this winter thinking about deer plans on the new place. I've actually spent a bunch of time working towards my goal though and I think next year should be interesting. I'm trying not to go too crazy before actually hunting the property, but there are plenty of improvements I can make to the property that shouldn't negatively impact whatever the property has going for it already. Last year was super dry, so I dug out two existing ponds and they already have a couple feet of water in them. If they hold water while the neighboring areas are dry, I should have a really interesting early bow season. Most of my woods is too open to be really solid bedding, so I've went through a couple gallons of chain saw gas expanding the few existing bedding areas and also created new bedding thickets. A patchwork of bedding areas should provide room for more doe groups, and that should draw in the bucks as well. Conifer cover is limited in the neighborhood, so I'll be planting 500 spruce trees this spring. White spruce grow slow at first, but in a decade these spruce trees should provide some of the best bedding in the area. I haven't decided exactly what I'll do for food plots yet, but that will be icing on the cake. Bedding is the biggest hole in the bucket right now and it is getting better with tank of gas I go through with the chain saw. Have you posted an aerial of your new place Ben?
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Post by benmnwi on Feb 21, 2024 14:34:18 GMT -6
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Post by smsmith on Feb 21, 2024 19:20:52 GMT -6
For a few years, I've been planning on getting more scrape/rub poles set up as well as a waterhole or two. I feel like most bucks within a mile or two are on my place at sometime during the rut. Keeping them here longer and/or more frequently would be nice. Maybe I'll get those things done this year...
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Post by benmnwi on Feb 21, 2024 19:49:22 GMT -6
For a few years, I've been planning on getting more scrape/rub poles set up as well as a waterhole or two. I feel like most bucks within a mile or two are on my place at sometime during the rut. Keeping them here longer and/or more frequently would be nice. Maybe I'll get those things done this year... I think the rub/scrape poles increase the chance they will walk by your stand. They won’t bring in new deer though, since a deer would have to walk by to know a scrape branch is there. In a drought I think a watering hole can draw in new bucks if it is the only water nearby. If you have tamaracks in your swamp or other conifers, cut one of them down and use that for your scrape/rub pole. I’ve had much better luck using conifers than other species. Although now that I think of it, basswood is a close second. I cut down a red pine this year to use as a rub scrape branch behind my house. I planted the tree 10 years ago, but I decided I didn’t want it there anymore. There is something about pines, spruce and tamarack that draws in bucks. I buried the trunk 2 feet in the ground and a buck went nuts on it and pulled the tree out of the ground. I got it on camera too, which was pretty cool.
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Post by benmnwi on Feb 21, 2024 19:50:08 GMT -6
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Post by smsmith on Feb 21, 2024 19:54:55 GMT -6
For a few years, I've been planning on getting more scrape/rub poles set up as well as a waterhole or two. I feel like most bucks within a mile or two are on my place at sometime during the rut. Keeping them here longer and/or more frequently would be nice. Maybe I'll get those things done this year... I think the rub/scrape poles increase the chance they will walk by your stand. They won’t bring in new deer though, since a deer would have to walk by to know a scrape branch is there. In a drought I think a watering hole can draw in new bucks if it is the only water nearby. If you have tamaracks in your swamp or other conifers, cut one of them down and use that for your scrape/rub pole. I’ve had much better luck using conifers than other species. Although now that I think of it, basswood is a close second. I cut down a red pine this year to use as a rub scrape branch behind my house. I planted the tree 10 years ago, but I decided I didn’t want it there anymore. There is something about pines, spruce and tamarack that draws in bucks. I buried the trunk 2 feet in the ground and a buck went nuts on it and pulled the tree out of the ground. I got it on camera too, which was pretty cool. All of my rub/scrape poles are red cedars that I cut here. I agree that conifers are the way to go. I've got a ridiculous number of tamaracks that I could use, I should cut a few this winter while it's still relatively easy to get around out there. I also agree that the poles aren't going to bring in deer that weren't already here anyway. They can/do keep them around longer and possibly more frequently however (once they've visited and know to check them out)
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Post by mnaaron on Feb 21, 2024 21:47:29 GMT -6
I think the rub/scrape poles increase the chance they will walk by your stand. They won’t bring in new deer though, since a deer would have to walk by to know a scrape branch is there. In a drought I think a watering hole can draw in new bucks if it is the only water nearby. If you have tamaracks in your swamp or other conifers, cut one of them down and use that for your scrape/rub pole. I’ve had much better luck using conifers than other species. Although now that I think of it, basswood is a close second. I cut down a red pine this year to use as a rub scrape branch behind my house. I planted the tree 10 years ago, but I decided I didn’t want it there anymore. There is something about pines, spruce and tamarack that draws in bucks. I buried the trunk 2 feet in the ground and a buck went nuts on it and pulled the tree out of the ground. I got it on camera too, which was pretty cool. All of my rub/scrape poles are red cedars that I cut here. I agree that conifers are the way to go. I've got a ridiculous number of tamaracks that I could use, I should cut a few this winter while it's still relatively easy to get around out there. I also agree that the poles aren't going to bring in deer that weren't already here anyway. They can/do keep them around longer and possibly more frequently however (once they've visited and know to check them out) I like to hang a wire across where I want the bucks to stop and then hang a bunch of branches and dripper from the wire. Works good for me. We have lots of water but thinking about some strategic small water holes. I think it would be fun to see what all uses them. Planning on planting 4-6 apple trees as well in locations I can bow hunt them better. Early season draw since our lands are set up well for early season hunts.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 22, 2024 9:40:24 GMT -6
We put a few pine branches on cut vines that are hanging from trees. It seemed like almost every buck checked them out, and does. So we are going to put more out this year .
Near our stands.. in bow range.
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Post by Reagan on Feb 22, 2024 14:52:47 GMT -6
We put a few pine branches on cut vines that are hanging from trees. It seemed like almost every buck checked them out, and does. So we are going to put more out this year . Near our stands.. in bow range. I did this with a Beech branch this year. It got worked over pretty good but I didnt have a camera on it.
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Post by benmnwi on Feb 23, 2024 12:57:55 GMT -6
I like the buck factory topic and here's a question related to that in general.
In SE MN, I've generally noticed that good buck hunting is 1) found first in areas with lower than average human pressure and 2) found in the thickest cover in the area.
When you think back to the best buck hunting spots you've had over the years, what made that spot different than other areas that held fewer bucks?
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Post by Sandbur on Feb 23, 2024 15:58:41 GMT -6
I like the buck factory topic and here's a question related to that in general. In SE MN, I've generally noticed that good buck hunting is 1) found first in areas with lower than average human pressure and 2) found in the thickest cover in the area. When you think back to the best buck hunting spots you've had over the years, what made that spot different than other areas that held fewer bucks? I agree with the above for ag country.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 23, 2024 18:24:11 GMT -6
I like the buck factory topic and here's a question related to that in general. In SE MN, I've generally noticed that good buck hunting is 1) found first in areas with lower than average human pressure and 2) found in the thickest cover in the area. When you think back to the best buck hunting spots you've had over the years, what made that spot different than other areas that held fewer bucks?I've never had "awesome" buck hunting like what you see on TV. That said, the spots where I've killed many bucks (big and small) over the years all were the best intersections of habitat types/edges on a property. The more variations of edges/intersections/types the better.
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