|
Post by Catscratch on Dec 28, 2020 15:23:09 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by batman on Dec 28, 2020 16:30:57 GMT -6
When I started doing hinge cuts many of the beds would be on the outside of the hinged area. The hinges gave them the back and side cover but they demanded the view? Made me wonder if 2 or 3 dropped trees was enough to complete the bedding. Often it is all that is needed.
|
|
|
Post by kooch on Dec 28, 2020 17:01:31 GMT -6
When I started doing hinge cuts many of the beds would be on the outside of the hinged area. The hinges gave them the back and side cover but they demanded the view? Made me wonder if 2 or 3 dropped trees was enough to complete the bedding. Often it is all that is needed. When SD and I went for a stroll in the state land by his place, we came across a couple areas with multiple fresh beds. We stood there and asked ourselves, "why here?". They were in a relatively open area, could see over 100 yards easily. It was flat, maybe a little rise where the beds were in both instances. Like the weirdo I am I took a knee in one of the beds, bent over to try and see it from the deer's point of view. About 30 yards to the North there were a couple large blow down trees. It wasn't a massive tornado blow down, just a couple big trees on their side. I couldn't see beyond them. So, I suppose nobody on the other side of those blow downs could see the deer. The wind the night before was out of the North(ish) and the fresh beds were downwind of the blow downs. Earlier in this thread Batman wrote about a flat, dry area, where they can see a ways downwind, with cover to their back. This aligns with what we saw. Also, their tracks all went toward's SD's place.
|
|
|
Post by caveman on Dec 28, 2020 17:04:07 GMT -6
I think Preferred bedding is Undisturbed, flat, dry, has back and side cover and a downwind view. If your land does not have spots will all of those features bedding deer can be tough. Some spots only need some back and side cover. One tree top could make it gold. Done this in old red pine areas with great success. When i do saw work in areas try make sure I can Check every box, so the odds of intended use climb. spot on.
Recently with a chance to hunt some very hilly terrain I've noticed that 'back cover' can be a damn near cliff vertical drop just the same or maybe better as some dead tree tops.
|
|
|
Post by mnaaron on Dec 28, 2020 18:34:41 GMT -6
On our lands the mature bucks seem to find the nasty secluded cover and I am not a good enough hunter to tell where their exact beds are at. But have noticed does love to bed with dead falls at their backs. Our lands are all flat so not much terrain breaks. During our gun seasons the deer folk to the sanctuaries with the highest number of thick cover. Willows and conifers being the preferred and then thick poplar stands next.
I have also noticed that many times the does and bucks are bedded on the edge of the sanctuaries and then as the leaves come off they move further in the sanctuaries.
|
|
|
Post by MN Slick on Dec 29, 2020 8:12:30 GMT -6
We created bedding pockets in our sanctuaries by hinge cutting but didn't have much luck with deer bedding in them consistently. Overall I believe it's hard to get them to shift from their preferred bedding. After all, they bed there for a reason and unless something changes with the preferred bedding why would they leave it. I'd enhance the bedding they are currently using if needed rather than trying to create new bedding. I struggle with this idea. I tend to agree that it's useless to try to get them to leave what they already prefer for another area. With that said it wasn't to long ago that Batman posted pics of bedding that he had worked over and said that his deer had increased use to the area significantly. I'm trying to learn the nuances that make a decent bedding area a great bedding area, or entice new bedding. I wish it was as easy to create a solid bedding as I once thought. Lots of good points on this thread. I hope the generational theory has merit. I think good browse within the bedding area is overlooked. Last spring we put a scent tight blind in an area surrounded by cover that we used to leave alone due to swirling winds. From the blind we are able to see into a gold standard doe bedding area. Unfortunately, the prime bedding is on the neighbors but so close to our line we had plenty of buck action on us and my brother killed an old buck with his rifle after it left the bedding and came onto ours. Each time we sat there we watched does/fawns get up and browse many times during the day on Buck Brush berries. All day action despite temps in the 70's but it was so hot in the blind we hunted in a jock strap and tennis shoes!
|
|
|
Post by Bwoods11 on Dec 29, 2020 9:03:11 GMT -6
The farm that I sold in Iowa 3 year ago was hinge cut by a friend that knows his stuff! All 70 acres in the main block of timber.It worked out great, the neighboring land was pasture so most of the deer were on this parcel.
That being said, it was so thick and nasty you could hardly maneuver around it. Deer didn’t mind, and it was a hot spot when the local shotgun hunters pushed the neighboring draws.
For the future I would never hinge cut that many acres. You need a diverse mix of timber. Thick/hinge cut is fine, but I also like some open hardwoods. Seems like bucks like to cruise and search the open timber.... during the rut.
On my farm in Monona County there are so many cedars I don’t need to hinge cut anything, matter of fact I’ll be cutting some cedars down. It’s a slow process and dangerous on the side hills. May have to hire a forestry mulcher.
|
|
|
Post by Catscratch on Dec 29, 2020 10:51:38 GMT -6
I struggle with this idea. I tend to agree that it's useless to try to get them to leave what they already prefer for another area. With that said it wasn't to long ago that Batman posted pics of bedding that he had worked over and said that his deer had increased use to the area significantly. I'm trying to learn the nuances that make a decent bedding area a great bedding area, or entice new bedding. I wish it was as easy to create a solid bedding as I once thought. Lots of good points on this thread. I hope the generational theory has merit. I think good browse within the bedding area is overlooked. Last spring we put a scent tight blind in an area surrounded by cover that we used to leave alone due to swirling winds. From the blind we are able to see into a gold standard doe bedding area. Unfortunately, the prime bedding is on the neighbors but so close to our line we had plenty of buck action on us and my brother killed an old buck with his rifle after it left the bedding and came onto ours. Each time we sat there we watched does/fawns get up and browse many times during the day on Buck Brush berries. All day action despite temps in the 70's but it was so hot in the blind we hunted in a jock strap and tennis shoes! I often end up with a buck bedded near me. They don't stay down for more than 1.5hrs per my observations. When they get up it may only be to turn and spin once or twice (like a dog before they lay down) then lay back down, or to browse a little. Like you said they never get far before laying back down unless it's time to go somewhere else. After reading this thread a couple of times I believe that the only difference between the spots that deer are using in my woods vs the spots they are not is the visibility. Very similar terrain features in relation to wind and slopes, but the spots that only have trails through them (with no beds) have little visibility directly around them. I need to figure out how to clear a spot of a thousand thumb sized saplings. You use a scent proof blind. 25 yrs ago I had a buddy that was building scent proof blinds. He put them on legs as high as he could get them and attached a chimney to them that went above the crowns of the trees. He swore that it worked. He was bowkilling 170-190 class deer on his place in OK at the time. He had a lot figured out, and was very secretive about all of it. I've wondered if any of you guys up north had went to the trouble of scent proofing a blind. Looks like you have.
|
|
|
Post by smsmith on Dec 29, 2020 11:46:18 GMT -6
I struggle with this idea. I tend to agree that it's useless to try to get them to leave what they already prefer for another area. With that said it wasn't to long ago that Batman posted pics of bedding that he had worked over and said that his deer had increased use to the area significantly. I'm trying to learn the nuances that make a decent bedding area a great bedding area, or entice new bedding. I wish it was as easy to create a solid bedding as I once thought. Lots of good points on this thread. I hope the generational theory has merit. I think good browse within the bedding area is overlooked. Last spring we put a scent tight blind in an area surrounded by cover that we used to leave alone due to swirling winds. From the blind we are able to see into a gold standard doe bedding area. Unfortunately, the prime bedding is on the neighbors but so close to our line we had plenty of buck action on us and my brother killed an old buck with his rifle after it left the bedding and came onto ours. Each time we sat there we watched does/fawns get up and browse many times during the day on Buck Brush berries. All day action despite temps in the 70's but it was so hot in the blind we hunted in a jock strap and tennis shoes! It at least does here. I have deer bedding here in areas that no deer bedded when I bought the place. I suppose it could also be due to an increase in deer numbers, but that becomes a "chicken or egg" argument. Your point about browse being available close to bedding is very accurate. Everywhere I have beds here, I have browse too.
|
|
|
Post by batman on Dec 29, 2020 12:32:56 GMT -6
They say deer feed 5 times per day, so it stands to reason that 2 of those will be in or near bedding.
|
|
|
Post by smsmith on Dec 29, 2020 14:17:19 GMT -6
A good number of times from spring through September my wife and I watched does, fawns, and bucks including the 8 pt. my SIL shot and a 10 pt. that the neighbor's brother shot, bedding down for 10-45 minutes in the clover plot just to the west of the house.
They would eat clover/alfalfa for awhile, then bed down. When they got up, they almost invariably took a shit and/or piss...ate a bit more and then moseyed on somewhere else. They did generally bed on the top of the small ridge that runs through the plot. There is great vision in most directions from there.
|
|
|
Post by MN Slick on Dec 29, 2020 14:21:31 GMT -6
I wish it was as easy to create a solid bedding as I once thought. Lots of good points on this thread. I hope the generational theory has merit. I think good browse within the bedding area is overlooked. Last spring we put a scent tight blind in an area surrounded by cover that we used to leave alone due to swirling winds. From the blind we are able to see into a gold standard doe bedding area. Unfortunately, the prime bedding is on the neighbors but so close to our line we had plenty of buck action on us and my brother killed an old buck with his rifle after it left the bedding and came onto ours. Each time we sat there we watched does/fawns get up and browse many times during the day on Buck Brush berries. All day action despite temps in the 70's but it was so hot in the blind we hunted in a jock strap and tennis shoes! I often end up with a buck bedded near me. They don't stay down for more than 1.5hrs per my observations. When they get up it may only be to turn and spin once or twice (like a dog before they lay down) then lay back down, or to browse a little. Like you said they never get far before laying back down unless it's time to go somewhere else. After reading this thread a couple of times I believe that the only difference between the spots that deer are using in my woods vs the spots they are not is the visibility. Very similar terrain features in relation to wind and slopes, but the spots that only have trails through them (with no beds) have little visibility directly around them. I need to figure out how to clear a spot of a thousand thumb sized saplings. You use a scent proof blind. 25 yrs ago I had a buddy that was building scent proof blinds. He put them on legs as high as he could get them and attached a chimney to them that went above the crowns of the trees. He swore that it worked. He was bowkilling 170-190 class deer on his place in OK at the time. He had a lot figured out, and was very secretive about all of it. I've wondered if any of you guys up north had went to the trouble of scent proofing a blind. Looks like you have. We use Redneck blinds and have had as many as 25 deer directly down wind from 10 to 75 yds with no issue. Perhaps an unfair advantage.......
|
|