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Post by terrifictom on Dec 5, 2019 9:43:59 GMT -6
Can you do some trapping this winter? I learned a new trapping setup a couple years ago while trying to get my bobcat that is simple and makes catching yotes in winter easy. Do tell! Pretty easy. As the snow gets deeper the yotes will start using the same trail stepping in the exact same track as they travel. Get some MB 650's. Put 10 feet of chain with a drag on them. Walk into trail from upwind at 90 degrees with a long handle ice scoop with the least amount of disturbance as possible. Works best if there is brush or tipped over tree laying on ground so your tracks to yote trail is not so noticeable. Scoop out enough snow so you can set 650 in distinct yote track. Be careful not to go to deep in snow when scooping snow out. You do not have to go all the way to ground. Take scoop to firm snow where trap will be sitting on. Now take a piece of crinkled up wax paper set it down in scooped hole, set your 650 on top of waxed paper. Take another piece of crinkled wax paper on top of 650 to prevent snow getting under pan.. Now take your ice scoop and fill in around sides of trap to build up to about the height of snow. Now take a dowel or handle of ice scoop placing it in center of trap pan. Take sifter and sift about 1/4 inch of snow on top of pan. Be careful not to sift to much snow as when you sift snow it becomes a crust, I learned the hard way and missed a bobcat because of this. When you are done it should look like a yote track in snow, just what it looked like before you started. Now to finish up take bury the drag and chain. If there is brush along yote trail wrap/hook the drag around it. Then as you walk away from set cover up your human tracks. If you catch a yote, set again up trail, as almost always another yote will come and visit. This set will work for bobcat and other canines also.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Dec 5, 2019 10:02:25 GMT -6
My philosophy is to have a sanctuary on every property. The bigger the farm the larger the area is off limits. Seems to work. In Iowa we are fortunate to have a big area off limits, and my neighbor does the same and they border each other. So around 240 acres total of nobody in there. He shot a big buck coming out of the sanctuary and I hope to shoot something near that this weekend.
In Minnesota it is more 20 acre blocks...is that enough? I don't know. Sanctuary....food plot, have stand(s) that are geared for NW wind and S wind in between. That is my philosophy
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Post by smsmith on Dec 5, 2019 10:34:41 GMT -6
My philosophy is to have a sanctuary on every property. The bigger the farm the larger the area is off limits. Seems to work. In Iowa we are fortunate to have a big area off limits, and my neighbor does the same and they border each other. So around 240 acres total of nobody in there. He shot a big buck coming out of the sanctuary and I hope to shoot something near that this weekend. In Minnesota it is more 20 acre blocks...is that enough? I don't know. Sanctuary....food plot, have stand(s) that are geared for NW wind and S wind in between. That is my philosophy I do have a sanctuary here of around 20 acres. Some years it's more, some it's less...it all depends on water level in the swamp. I've walked through that area one time since owning the place. I have no intention of going out there again. In addition to that area, there is a natural sanctuary all the way around the lake. The cattail/sedge/tamarack/RCG/floating bogs as well as the wetness pretty much makes the area impassable. There are a couple lanes through various areas of the swamp that duck hunters use once in a blue moon to drag a boat out to the lake. Most of the swamp is totally untouched for 99% of the year.
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Post by mnaaron on Dec 5, 2019 21:59:22 GMT -6
My philosophy is to have a sanctuary on every property. The bigger the farm the larger the area is off limits. Seems to work. In Iowa we are fortunate to have a big area off limits, and my neighbor does the same and they border each other. So around 240 acres total of nobody in there. He shot a big buck coming out of the sanctuary and I hope to shoot something near that this weekend. In Minnesota it is more 20 acre blocks...is that enough? I don't know. Sanctuary....food plot, have stand(s) that are geared for NW wind and S wind in between. That is my philosophy We have the same theories. We like to set up multiple sanctuaries and then sit in between them or downwind of them. I think some usage of the property is ok as long as it is predictable and doesn’t surprise the deer. Staying to main travels and always giving the deer plenty of safe areas should keep bucks around. Depth of bedding cover is nice however doesn’t appear to be an issue on your property. My two cents
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Post by MN Slick on Dec 6, 2019 8:28:00 GMT -6
Overall I think we give too much credit to mature bucks. I think you'd be fine increasing your activity provided you aren't stomping through the deer cover every weekend. Many properties don't hold bucks all year anyway. If you have does the bucks will show.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 6, 2019 8:35:19 GMT -6
Overall I think we give too much credit to mature bucks. I think you'd be fine increasing your activity provided you aren't stomping through the deer cover every weekend. Many properties don't hold bucks all year anyway. If you have does the bucks will show. I tend to agree. My best set up is about 75 yards behind a neighbor's house. My SIL took a 150"+ plus there and I've screwed up two times on P&Y caliber bucks from the same spot. This year I saw at least 2 book bucks from the same spot but had no shots. Once bucks start thinking about does, things change big time
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Post by batman on Dec 6, 2019 9:24:32 GMT -6
Overall I think we give too much credit to mature bucks. I think you'd be fine increasing your activity provided you aren't stomping through the deer cover every weekend. Many properties don't hold bucks all year anyway. If you have does the bucks will show. Many places have lots of stupid mature bucks. If you hunt an area of greedy hunters with low deer numbers, the stupid ones are all dead. MN in a nutshell.
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Post by jbird on Dec 6, 2019 10:36:58 GMT -6
My 2 cents worth is that you will struggle to hold a mature buck with a fair amount of activity on the property. Which is fine....as long as you realize that. Here in farm country....deer (does, fawns and young bucks) tolerate all sorts of activities.....the mature bucks however....they prefer their solitude. And if your active on your property...like I am....that means those bucks live somewhere else for the most part. Yes they may come visit for some food or some tail...but that means other hunters could get a crack at them first as well. The way my property is situated in the general area....I wouldn't hold a mature buck any way. My property is long narrow strips of cover that connect other bigger blocks of cover on the neighboring properties. I simply try to keep the ladies happy and hope Mr. Horny Antlers makes it to my place looking for some tail when the time comes. Maybe, just maybe draw him in with some late season food....but mostly tail!
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Post by MN Slick on Dec 6, 2019 11:10:14 GMT -6
Overall I think we give too much credit to mature bucks. I think you'd be fine increasing your activity provided you aren't stomping through the deer cover every weekend. Many properties don't hold bucks all year anyway. If you have does the bucks will show. Many places have lots of stupid mature bucks. If you hunt an area of greedy hunters with low deer numbers, the stupid ones are all dead. MN in a nutshell. If you are talking about the penchant for MN bucks and deer in general to be more nocturnal I concur but I believe those deer are either born nocturnal or learned it from their mothers. I don’t think habitat work, visiting a sanctuary in March, planting plots, setting up blinds in August etc. is going change deer behavior long term on a specific piece of ground. Riding wheelers through bedding, shooting guns all over the property, not hunting smart, etc. on the other hand……......
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Post by Satchmo on Dec 6, 2019 11:31:55 GMT -6
A little clarification. My plan would be to up my spring and summer presence on my property and the main trail area of the county. I would do my plot work and project as early as possible in the year. I'm hoping this would push the predators back a bit and give the does and fawns which seem much more tolerant of people a better chance at survival. Most of the mature bucks seem to bed in or along the swamp that surrounds the peninsula. The edges of these areas is where we concentrate most of our efforts for good bucks. In fact, this year we have decided to infiltrate the south half of the county land with some more stand locations since the neighbors haven't been in there for 3 years. Their loss, our gain. This will give us more options for hunting the different deer patterns and wind conditions. I don't think the swamp deer should get pressured enough to leave the area if I try to keep the activities limited to the core high ground areas, but I could be wrong.
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Post by batman on Dec 6, 2019 11:44:30 GMT -6
e]If you are talking about the penchant for MN bucks and deer in general to be more nocturnal I concur but I believe those deer are either born nocturnal or learned it from their mothers. I don’t think habitat work, visiting a sanctuary in March, planting plots, setting up blinds in August etc. is going change deer behavior long term on a specific piece of ground. Riding wheelers through bedding, shooting guns all over the property, not hunting smart, etc. on the other hand……......
[/quote]
I hunted With a guy in Kansas had 2 orphaned buck fawns. The blind one went fully nocturnal when it turned 4.
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Post by smsmith on Dec 6, 2019 12:03:37 GMT -6
I think there's an awful lot of site dependence when discussing things like this. If you're in an area with many, many acres of similar habitat and most of it goes undisturbed for most of the year, then disturbing your portion of that area may have very negative consequences for mature buck sightings. Around here, many of the acres are at least somewhat disturbed with some frequency. There is also quite a bit of variance habitat wise.
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Post by Satchmo on Dec 6, 2019 14:53:17 GMT -6
I think there's an awful lot of site dependence when discussing things like this. If you're in an area with many, many acres of similar habitat and most of it goes undisturbed for most of the year, then disturbing your portion of that area may have very negative consequences for mature buck sightings. Around here, many of the acres are at least somewhat disturbed with some frequency. There is also quite a bit of variance habitat wise. Interesting! You may be right Stu. My relatively undisturbed deer population may be more sensitive to disturbance than the more urban or farm country animals.
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Post by nhmountains on Dec 6, 2019 15:27:00 GMT -6
I think there's an awful lot of site dependence when discussing things like this. If you're in an area with many, many acres of similar habitat and most of it goes undisturbed for most of the year, then disturbing your portion of that area may have very negative consequences for mature buck sightings. Around here, many of the acres are at least somewhat disturbed with some frequency. There is also quite a bit of variance habitat wise. I think it depends if the deer think youre invading their territory verses them invading your territory. They tend to know they’re going to have human interaction when near homes and buildings etc.
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Post by Sandbur on Dec 6, 2019 16:09:18 GMT -6
Each situation is different and you need to enjoy your property. Try different amounts of visiting the property and see what happens over a few years. You also need to consider if wolves are always present or just for a few days every couple of weeks.
Some say deer are more used to people in farm country. Old does around my place are spooky as hell from pressure.
One approach I had used was to not leave my yard and do any work in the surrounding land after Aug. 1. Now I have apples out back that I want to pick during September. I would leave the land completely alone until rifle opener in the past.
But I am an island of cover in ag country. Your situation is different.
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