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Post by mnfish on Feb 9, 2020 21:55:04 GMT -6
My neighbors use to be counter productive to my goals. Now, they dont exist. Once the house construction is complete, the entire property will be closed in and i wont exist to my neighbors. Happy people all around!
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Post by smsmith on Feb 10, 2020 7:39:19 GMT -6
North neighbors are good people. They practice "buck management" meaning they try to shoot bucks with 8 points or better. They do allow young hunters to take whatever they want. I think they may apply the 8 or better rule loosely some years, but can't say for sure. They take some does every year, but don't try to fill every tag. I have an odd shaped south line, so there's two southern neighbors. One doesn't hunt, but does allow the other south neighbor to go on his place to recover deer. The other south neighbor I've never met. They are beyond clannish. Nobody I've talked to in either small town (about 6 miles to each) around here knows much about them. I'm told they are "inline breeders" but that's only gossip. Their place looks like the typical meth cooking operation. They stay on their side of the line and I stay on mine. An environmental lake with no public access forms my west boundary, so no neighbors there. A road forms my east boundary. The only hunting directly opposite me to my east is by a good neighbor (Bob). Overall, I really can't complain much,
I know we all can get worked up about the neighbors, but I think we also need to be cognizant of what the neighbors think/say about us. I know most folks around here assumed I was a transplanted citidiot. I've gone out of my way to clear that shit up. There's a real resentment among long time locals toward non-locals who buy land and then expect the locals to change their ways. Nothing like a citidiot who buys acreage across from a farm who then complains about smelling cow shit.
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Post by jbird on Feb 10, 2020 8:34:53 GMT -6
I have pretty good relations with most of my neighbors. About 1/2 of my neighbors either hunt or have someone hunting their place. Most stick to themselves and are decent enough folks. I have had to have a stand moved before and I have had to have a discussion with a hunter about where the line was, but nothing that got heated. Simply misunderstanding about reference points for where the line was. Of course I got pissed when it happened, but once I calm down because it was an honest mistake things are fine. I have had to get permission to track deer before without issue as well. They do ZERO habitat work, which is fine. Some are trophy hunters and others are meat hunters....I don't know of any of them that kill every deer they see. Most are mostly gun hunters limited to the weekends. Yes is sucks seeing a neighbor post a pic of a deer you have been watching...but that is how it goes sometimes.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 10, 2020 9:03:22 GMT -6
I had an 82 acre parcel (Farm with a View) in land thread. It was close, scenic, good income, should have been good hunting. I sold it because of the neighbors. The parcel had 13-14 acres of good cover that bordered my west line...5-6 gun hunters in that small chunk. Kind of a zoo.
To the east ...around 40-45 acres of cover, and I think 6 hunters in box stands. In the two sections (which was around 260 acres of cover) in that area, another hunter confirmed 40-50 gun hunters were in the stand on opening weekend. Less than 10 acres per hunter.
It was insane, so I sold to a farmer and bought the Swift Falls parcel--which has pretty good neighbors (not as many hunters) but they hunt hard too!
I have found that MN hunters are very efficient!
As far as habitat work, most of my neighbors in MN do very little, I can think of a few food plots with one exception....I have one neighbor in Swift Falls (Swift County) that has a bunch of food plots, he is a good guy, serious hunter and we share trail cam pics. He had 40 deer in his corn and brassica plots in late January.
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Post by batman on Feb 10, 2020 9:08:35 GMT -6
What gun was your guy shooting there? 30-30 with 160 grain Winchester ammo? pre 64 model 94 Winchester 30/30. Bought it last summer. First centerfire rifle I have ever owned. And I believe it was 160 grain Winchester ammo-
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Post by smsmith on Feb 10, 2020 9:09:12 GMT -6
I had an 82 acre parcel (Farm with a View) in land thread. It was close, scenic, good income, should have been good hunting. I sold it because of the neighbors. There was around 13-14 acres of good cover that bordered my west line...5-6 gun hunters in that small chunk. Kind of a zoo. To the east there was around 40-45 acres of cover, and I think 6 hunters in box stands. In the two sections (which was around 260 acres of cover) in that area, another hunter confirmed 40-50 gun hunters were in the stand on opening weekend. Less than 10 acres per hunter. It was insane, so I sold to a farmer and bought the Swift Falls parcel--which has pretty good neighbors (not as many hunters) but they hunt hard too! I have found that MN hunters are very efficient! As far as habitat work, most of my neighbors in MN do very little, I can think of a few food plots but nothing extraordinary. The locals I talk to about habitat work look at me like I'm from Mars. The only guy I can have intelligent conversations about land management is a farmer...and he hates deer At least I can talk herbicides/weeds/water management-infiltration with him. As far as MN deer hunters being efficient killers, I'd have to agree. Since moving here it's clear that deer hunting in MN is all about meat acquisition. If the "meat" has big antlers, it's even better. If it doesn't...nobody cares.
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Post by batman on Feb 10, 2020 9:11:41 GMT -6
I wonder (hope) if the groundswell of habitat mangers will swing the tide of management more mainstream. In MN alone I could list 4 guys who have started deer habitat companies in the past year. Most seem to know less than the members of this forum - but there appears a need.
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Post by jbird on Feb 10, 2020 10:54:14 GMT -6
In my area.....the simple thing is some trigger control. Understand what waiting a year or two on a buck can do and understand how antlerless deer impact the heard numbers and habitat and crop conditions. With an average snow total of 18", no large natural predators, and a good mix of ag crops and hardwoods.....we have "good enough" habitat and hunting for most people. Sure some of us strive for better, but it is certainly a vast minority. We also have a low percentage of public ground....so the state can't screw up too much I guess.
I enjoy the habitat work, but other than a few projects I am pretty sure I am making only a localized impact at best. Those projects simply revolved around addressing the "lowest hole in the habitat bucket" for my specific area by adding some cover and cover diversity thru native grass planting and a timber harvest to improve the understory. My plots and fruit trees and the like are more hunting based than anything and may put deer where I want them, but they are by no means surviving because of my help in that area.
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Post by Sandbur on Feb 10, 2020 11:14:02 GMT -6
I had an 82 acre parcel (Farm with a View) in land thread. It was close, scenic, good income, should have been good hunting. I sold it because of the neighbors. There was around 13-14 acres of good cover that bordered my west line...5-6 gun hunters in that small chunk. Kind of a zoo. To the east there was around 40-45 acres of cover, and I think 6 hunters in box stands. In the two sections (which was around 260 acres of cover) in that area, another hunter confirmed 40-50 gun hunters were in the stand on opening weekend. Less than 10 acres per hunter. It was insane, so I sold to a farmer and bought the Swift Falls parcel--which has pretty good neighbors (not as many hunters) but they hunt hard too! I have found that MN hunters are very efficient! As far as habitat work, most of my neighbors in MN do very little, I can think of a few food plots but nothing extraordinary. The locals I talk to about habitat work look at me like I'm from Mars. The only guy I can have intelligent conversations about land management is a farmer...and he hates deer  At least I can talk herbicides/weeds/water management-infiltration with him. As far as MN deer hunters being efficient killers, I'd have to agree. Since moving here it's clear that deer hunting in MN is all about meat acquisition. If the "meat" has big antlers, it's even better. If it doesn't...nobody cares. My two neighbors in the section where I live, have families that hunt. They do plant foodplots . Two neighbors across the road are farmers who do not do foodplots. Even my neighbors that do foodplots are in ag.
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Post by sd51555 on Feb 10, 2020 12:02:49 GMT -6
I wonder (hope) if the groundswell of habitat mangers will swing the tide of management more mainstream. In MN alone I could list 4 guys who have started deer habitat companies in the past year. Most seem to know less than the members of this forum - but there appears a need. The divide between the haves and have nots is only going to get worse for deer hunting. Despite the shit outlook for the wild deer in MN, I, along with many others, continue to make improvements that make our land better, while the state, and people that use it, are doing everything they can to make public land worse. I would expect there is big money to be made in medium sized excavator work.
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Post by biglakebass on Feb 10, 2020 12:08:00 GMT -6
I wonder (hope) if the groundswell of habitat mangers will swing the tide of management more mainstream. In MN alone I could list 4 guys who have started deer habitat companies in the past year. Most seem to know less than the members of this forum - but there appears a need. The divide between the haves and have nots is only going to get worse for deer hunting. Despite the shit outlook for the wild deer in MN, I, along with many others, continue to make improvements that make our land better, while the state, and people that use it, are doing everything they can to make public land worse. I would expect there is big money to be made in medium sized excavator work. every WMA I drive by now days I just get grouchy looking at a field of snow and nothing else unless there is a lucky cattail slough or a small grove of bushes. Total wasteland otherwise... as many have stated on here. Its just so damn hard to understand why there cant be a diversity of WMA types? ok fine if they want to have some WMAs with worthless brome grass, well have it it. But make some that are choked with native grasses that can actually withstand some snow fall, make some with actual TREE plantings.
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Post by sd51555 on Feb 10, 2020 12:12:44 GMT -6
I wonder (hope) if the groundswell of habitat mangers will swing the tide of management more mainstream. In MN alone I could list 4 guys who have started deer habitat companies in the past year. Most seem to know less than the members of this forum - but there appears a need. And to answer your other point, I wouldn't expect habitat'ers to ever make an impact in MN for two reasons. 1. There aren't enough of them. I would bet there are less than 1,000 guys that do food plots, even fewer that do timber management, tree planting and gypsum. 2. If every private land owner was an engaged habitat'er they would still be in the minority given the amount of farm ground and public land.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 10, 2020 12:30:23 GMT -6
I wonder (hope) if the groundswell of habitat mangers will swing the tide of management more mainstream. In MN alone I could list 4 guys who have started deer habitat companies in the past year. Most seem to know less than the members of this forum - but there appears a need. And to answer your other point, I wouldn't expect habitat'ers to ever make an impact in MN for two reasons. 1. There aren't enough of them. I would bet there are less than 1,000 guys that do food plots, even fewer that do timber management, tree planting and gypsum. 2. If every private land owner was an engaged habitat'er they would still be in the minority given the amount of farm ground and public land. No way. I bet there are 15K guys just in Todd, Ottertail, Stearns, and Morrison counties who are plotting.
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Post by biglakebass on Feb 10, 2020 12:31:42 GMT -6
I would agree with that.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 10, 2020 13:36:53 GMT -6
It is hard to say, no idea, how many guys actually plant a quality food plot in my county?
Agree with BLB on the public land being desolate. How about mixing it up a little and plant switchgrass on some of it, and then some shelterbelts? Maybe leave a food plot?
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