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Post by nhmountains on Jul 25, 2017 18:42:35 GMT -6
Since we purchased our property and started habitat work more does are staying resident on our land. Bucks show during the rut if we have food for the does. The heaviest dresssed buck in the state was killed near our property in 2015. He was a roamer too so I'll never know what will show up come November. Judging from the day time photos we get id say the deer are not spooked by our presence but, I'd say one more winter of clearing plots and we will be set for most wood work and less time in the woods.
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Post by coop on Jul 25, 2017 20:18:25 GMT -6
I didn't kill a buck larger than 100" during the first 15 years bowhunting whitetails. I made some changes to my program and learned from a lot of mistakes. The biggest change happened in January 2014 when I bought a farm. I'm on my land a couple days a week March thru July. I stay out of the woods (and the 9 acre sanctuary) after May Morel hunting. I plant a shit load of food that includes corn, beans, & brassicas. I never hunt September cause I elk hunt, but typically have camera intel on a good buck moving during daylight. I hunt as much as I can starting October 28th or 29th. I stay away from food plot stands in the AM. I've successfully harvested pretty good bucks 5 out of the last 7 seasons.
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Post by coop on Jul 25, 2017 21:39:31 GMT -6
The biggest change I made was moving to an area that had more mature bucks. I started hunting public and some marginal private land in SE MN in 2006.
I think habitat work makes an enormous difference. Couple habitat work with thoughtful pressure & your acres will be preferred in my humble opinion. I consider "Habitat work" to include manipulating the land for favorable hunting scenarios like various wind directions, stand access/screening.
I believe a guy can work on his land all summer as long as your not consistently spooking deer off their beds. This can be accomplished by staying out of bedding areas and getting off your land a couple hours before sunset. I think a buck will let me cruise past him on my tractor when he's bedded in cover, all day. But if you bump him when he's on his feet, there's a good chance he's gone.
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Post by Tooln on Jul 25, 2017 23:30:54 GMT -6
I bought my property to enjoy, to get a big buck would-be nice. Chances of it happening are slim to none with the Amish neighbors I have. I will not shot a doe, so as long as I get something with horns I'm happy.
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Post by Freeborn on Jul 26, 2017 5:46:52 GMT -6
I agree allot has to do with the size of your property and how it is laid out. I have 105 acres with 50/50 split between prairie grass and a mix of hardwoods and marsh. I have a sanctuary that is made up of 40 acres of the woods/marsh and I stay out of it. I have buddies who think I should cut trails into it and I disagree as I think it will cause to much human presents. I do think this approach enables me to always have at least 1 dominate buck on my property. Most of those bucks are a good representation of what is in the area (125-140)but there are larger deer in the area.
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Post by mnaaron on Jul 26, 2017 9:52:30 GMT -6
The biggest change I made was moving to an area that had more mature bucks. I started hunting public and some marginal private land in SE MN in 2006. I think habitat work makes an enormous difference. Couple habitat work with thoughtful pressure & your acres will be preferred in my humble opinion. I consider "Habitat work" to include manipulating the land for favorable hunting scenarios like various wind directions, stand access/screening. I believe a guy can work on his land all summer as long as your not consistently spooking deer off their beds. This can be accomplished by staying out of bedding areas and getting off your land a couple hours before sunset. I think a buck will let me cruise past him on my tractor when he's bedded in cover, all day. But if you bump him when he's on his feet, there's a good chance he's gone. I agree completely with COOP. I know our hunting got a lot better when we created sanctuaries and never entered them. We basically sit in between the sanctuaries waiting to catch bucks going back and forth between them. We limit our disturbance however when we go into the woods we stick to the main trails and always use a wheeler or tractor which they are use to. We commonly drive by deer with the tractor in fact sometime we will be working the plots and the deer stay in the plots until we stop the tractor.
I believe as long as it is routine disturbance they get use to them and accept them.
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Post by Bwoods11 on Jul 26, 2017 10:40:12 GMT -6
I think food + Sanctuary is the key...if you have both you will have a mature buck (in most cases)around your farm. I have 82 acres that has a 9 acre block of nasty cover right in the middle of the farm, with some mature oaks and we seem to have one nice one in there every year. Two food plots next to it. We never go in there, except to shed hunt. It does not look like much from an aerial map. online safety pics
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Post by jbird on Jul 27, 2017 15:31:59 GMT -6
I live on my property and I am out nearly every weekend so I know the deer get used to the typically activity. I know the deer know my scent and I think as long as it is not where it isn't supposed to be the deer largely don't see it as a threat. I will also say that a little warning helps as well. It's one thing when the deer hear you coming from a distance on a wheeler or tractor....it's another when your on foot and you get real close to them before they realize it. My hunting has gotten better with habitat work and better again when we started passing smaller bucks and then better again when I gave much more consideration to educating deer by watching my access paths AND when I hunt. Took me a while to recognize I was hunting harder and not smarter......I'm also a self taught deer hunter.....and pretty dense sometimes!
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Post by badbrad on Jul 28, 2017 18:22:51 GMT -6
I live on my property and I am out nearly every weekend so I know the deer get used to the typically activity. I know the deer know my scent and I think as long as it is not where it isn't supposed to be the deer largely don't see it as a threat. I will also say that a little warning helps as well. It's one thing when the deer hear you coming from a distance on a wheeler or tractor....it's another when your on foot and you get real close to them before they realize it. My hunting has gotten better with habitat work and better again when we started passing smaller bucks and then better again when I gave much more consideration to educating deer by watching my access paths AND when I hunt. Took me a while to recognize I was hunting harder and not smarter......I'm also a self taught deer hunter.....and pretty dense sometimes! Deer? Or big mature bucks?
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Post by jbird on Jul 30, 2017 18:33:14 GMT -6
I live on my property and I am out nearly every weekend so I know the deer get used to the typically activity. I know the deer know my scent and I think as long as it is not where it isn't supposed to be the deer largely don't see it as a threat. I will also say that a little warning helps as well. It's one thing when the deer hear you coming from a distance on a wheeler or tractor....it's another when your on foot and you get real close to them before they realize it. My hunting has gotten better with habitat work and better again when we started passing smaller bucks and then better again when I gave much more consideration to educating deer by watching my access paths AND when I hunt. Took me a while to recognize I was hunting harder and not smarter......I'm also a self taught deer hunter.....and pretty dense sometimes! Deer? Or big mature bucks? You make a very good point.... I will answer your question with a question. What do you consider mature? When I first started I was shooting yearling bucks, with improvements and changes in how I did things I was able to move up to 2 and 3 year olds. Now we are taking 4 and maybe even 5 year olds. Are the "mature" bucks.....depends on your definition. In my are these deer represent what I believe to be a fair sample of the bucks we have. If I held out for a true 6 or 7 year old buck here I may never shoot one. I honestly think I have seen deer of that caliber twice on or near my property in 15 years of hunting....that's seen, not shooting opportunity....seen. I will also say that until I started being more cautious with deer in general did we start seeing and taking the older (mature or otherwise) bucks.
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