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Post by jbird on Aug 8, 2018 12:08:47 GMT -5
I thought I would create a thread of my own to share with you all some of the things I have done in the past and the things we are doing now. Some of this will be hunting related, some of it will involve my kids, some will involve other outdoor pursuits, some will involve improving habitat. I grew up fishing every water puddle I could find and hunting small game with my dad and grandfather. I didn't take up deer hunting until I was out of college. I didn't have a mentor for deer hunting so I did a lot of dumb things along the way and modern TV didn't help. It's easy....just like on TV....just pick you a spot....the deer walk by....and you shoot one. Well in the county I was hunting....with farm fields being the vast land usage....deer where and are much harder to find than that. I took my first deer in 2002 with a bow....from the ground, no blind! I hunted the year before that with a shotgun and muzzleloader with no luck and the year before that with only a shotgun. Since then I have been hooked. I still get excited once I decide I'm shooting.....even at a doe. This is my first decent buck taken in 2008 - I had taken several basket racked bucks before that to "cut my teeth on". This one came in 2011..... and this one in 2013....this is my biggest to date and the buck in my avatar Another in 2014..... And 2016........ So.....I don't take a nice buck every year, but I try to hold out at least for a decent one. These have all come during our firearms season.
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Post by jbird on Aug 8, 2018 12:17:02 GMT -5
Ok - so enough of my ugly mug.... Some of my best memories deer hunting are with my kids. My only boy is the oldest. He has steadily increased his abilities and buck sizes as well. He must have had a good teacher!!! My newest prodigy is my youngest daughter. She took her first deer last year. Being able to pass the outdoors on to my kids is very important to me. All 4 of them have taken their hunters Ed class and they all like to fish, but only 2 really like to hunt. And I am fine with that. When I have the time I will recount the hunts of some of the deer I have taken and the deer they have taken.
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Post by jbird on Aug 8, 2018 12:32:57 GMT -5
I have also been bitten by the habitat bug. When I first got started I simply bought a tractor and mower to maintain the farm.....well.....things have gotten a bit out of hand since then.... Here is my habitat toys (I also borrow a 6 feet tiller as well) 30hp JD790 tractor with FEL, 6' double gang disc, 2 bottom plow, 6' mower, sprayer, spreader, 2 row ford 309 plate planter and the most valuable one....my stihl chainsaw! Now what do I do with all that stuff? Clean up from 2 timber harvests, plant CRP/native grasses, plant annual and perennial food plots and plant hard and soft mast trees.....to name some of the projects. So I have had 2 selective timber harvests - greatest habitat improvement I think a guy can do. The first one was done simply to remove a lot of junk and to improve the good trees and get some understory going. The second one.....I needed some cash....so we cut the walnut off the place. Both were selective cuts where I knew every tree that was to be cut. I was pretty worried at first, but the results are hard to argue with. I went from a park like environment to a summertime jungle. I also added field buffers - some of which I have planted native grasses (what survived was mostly switchgrass). I also have small perennial food plots of clover/chicory as well as larger plots (still under an acre in size) of corn or soybeans which I will overseed brassica and cereal grains into as well. Food is not an issue here in farm country, but once the harvest takes place....I still like having food around. Food draws the does....the does draw the bucks I'm looking for. I have also planted some apple and crab apple trees as well as a few dunstan chestnuts and sawtooth oaks as well (the sawtooth where grown from acorns). I like the idea of a long term food source that I don't have to take care of every year. Living on the property gives me plenty of opportunity to make the most of it. I still am limited in what I can do because we cash rent the ag fields so the income from that is very important to the household income. However I try to squeeze every inch I can where it makes sense to make a little more cover or a little more food for the deer. I try to focus on cover as that is the biggest influencing factor in my area.
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Post by scrub-buster on Aug 8, 2018 14:59:21 GMT -5
Welcome! And nice looking deer coming off your property.
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Post by bill9068 on Aug 8, 2018 15:38:39 GMT -5
Nice collection of working tools/toys you have there. How many acres you tend to? It's a buck haven for sure.
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Post by bill9068 on Aug 8, 2018 15:39:06 GMT -5
Nice collection of working tools/toys you have there. How many acres you tend to? It's a buck haven for sure.
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Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Aug 8, 2018 16:34:37 GMT -5
Nice looking deer! Good luck with it this year.
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Post by jbird on Aug 8, 2018 16:55:12 GMT -5
Nice collection of working tools/toys you have there. How many acres you tend to? It's a buck haven for sure. I have 150 acres to tend to. Most of it....roughly 100 acres of it is corn and bean field. The other 50 are broken up and spread out. In my area - if it can be farmed....it is. It's NOT a buck haven. The bucks come form other places.....I simply lack the cover to hold them. I feed the does and make them feel safe and let them bring the boys in when the time is right. It's not ideal, but I'm using what I have to work with.
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Post by jbird on Aug 9, 2018 8:22:43 GMT -5
So I'm not going to post piles and piles of what I have done in the past. But I will summarize some of the things I have done in the name of habitat improvement. Water holes - not sure how important water holes really are in my area, as I have 2 large streams on or very near my property. However during significant drought years I have seen them go dry. My first attempt was actual small "holes" - I used some plastic tubs and sunk them in the ground. These don't seem to be as much of an interest to the deer from what I have seen. They did however become quite a mouse trap. Even with a limb in them they would fall in and only swim along the edge. I have added some hardware cloth to the edge and we no longer have a "mouse trap". Since these didn't garner the deer's attention I decided to actually dig a hole..... I used my plow to dust up the soil and the FEL to remove what I could. This area held water at times so I felt it would be a good spot AND its near a bedding area and a plot that was to be put in. I dug the hole.....mother nature filled it up! I may need to bring in a small hoe to dig it out further, but that is I want....not a need at the moment. The deer seem to have taken to using this water hole much more so than the "plastic" ones that where smaller. After the EHD we had a few years ago I started paying more attention to water availability.
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Post by jbird on Aug 9, 2018 8:44:38 GMT -5
Soft mast - my efforts in soft mast have been hit and miss. My first planting was a few apples trees in a fallow filed.....which my wife's grandfather mowed over with a bush hog! He didn't know.....I didn't know....so I didn't do that again! Only native soft mast I have is pawpaw and those seem to feed the coons more than anything else. My second attempt I also didn't listen to good advice. I bought box store trees with "people" varieties. These have finally started to produce, but they come with a risk of disease and need more care than I really care for. They are for the deer, but I like "simple". I have since moved towards crabapples (Chestnut and Dolgo so far) - I just planted this spring. They are doing fine so far and the Dolgo has produced fruit already. I cage all my trees to keep the deer from eating them or rubbing them. I remove cages only once the tree has enough crown to allow the lowest branches to be 5' off the ground.....but I still protect the trunk from rubbing.
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Post by jbird on Aug 9, 2018 9:11:11 GMT -5
Hard mast - my place has mostly bur oak, chinkapin oak and norther red oak. As such I was sent some sawtooth acorns that I grew and then transplanted. I planted far more than I will need, but I figured some would not survive or can be removed when the time comes. Some I planted directly in the ground.....caged of course. Others I grew in small containers.......protected again. The ones grown at home and transplanted did better, but I had plenty to play with..... The best ones are now 2 feet tall or so. I am avoiding tree tubes as I have seen/heard/read about issues with weak trunks. I plan on just using cages. The other thing I have done is added chestnut trees. I started with a few container trees in 2014 and they produced their first nut last year. I have since added a few over time as well. Maybe my kids and grand-kids will be shooting deer from under these trees one day.
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Post by jbird on Aug 9, 2018 9:33:43 GMT -5
Everybody's favorite - plotting My plotting efforts have grown and changed as my tools to do so have changed. I tend to have a perennial plot with clovers and chicory and then annual plots that I plant into corn or soybeans and then overseed cereal grains (typically wheat) and brassica (typically turnip or radish). My perennial plots tend to serve a dual purpose as my "orchards" as well. This is my attempt to maximize the space for food so I can make as much area cover as is practical. Annual plots of corn or soybeans - I tend to use my 2 row planter. I prefer RR ready seed just because weed control is much easier. Some ask why I plant what is already there. Well once the harvest hits the new equipment is pretty efficient on getting everything, so come november I have foods the deer are familiar with. Sometimes I even combine corn and beans or even add a splash of sunflowers. I add the corn and sunflowers to add cover sense of cover to the plot with the main focus being on the beans. Overseeding with wheat helps add food diversity. I do this once the beans or corn start to dry down. As the crop dries down more sunlight becomes available and I just broadcast the seed and let the rain do the rest. The intent is to provide a "bonus" food so its not expected to be great. Not sure if you guys have the same issue or not, but I have some picky deer. They don't really like brassica.....maybe it's because "better" foods are available or they just are not used to them, but for some reason they do not seem to eat them much on my place. I also tend to experiment with other plantings as well. I have used rye, winter peas, different clovers, and even garden beans - all just to try different things. My latest plot project is in a clearing in some trees where I am trying to take advantage of something I have noticed over time. I have seen that my deer seem to love chicory once the air temps drop. I am not sure why it happens but I have seen it for a few years now. As such, I am making this plot heavy on the chicory and hopefully this will become a great archery kill plot. Most of my plots are in the open that was "left over" from my CRP buffers, so this is a little different than my other plots. This was just planted this spring so we will see how quickly the deer use it. The dog is "Buddy" he is one of our pack of 3....
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Post by jbird on Aug 9, 2018 9:59:08 GMT -5
other habitat projects CRP Buffers/native grasses - as part of trying to increase cover without loosing income from tillable ground I contacted my local NRCS/FSA office and field buffers seemed to be ideal. These buffers range from 30' to 120' wide. Before our buffers, it was woods or field....that was it. This is pretty common in my area. Once the crop is harvested the deer can sit in the woods 100 yards or so and see you coming across the open fields! With the buffers - you create habitat in the form of cover and even food in some cases. In some places I drilled switchgrass as it provide better cover in my opinion vs just letting the weeds grow. Good example of weeds vs switchgrass for cover...... As you can see I let native weeds and forbs grow in the switchgrass as well. Monoculture plantings are for agriculture....not for wildlife! I also like hinge cutting areas of low vale trees in an effort to free up better trees as well as create more ground level cover... Even with the leaves off you can see the differences. Also keep in mind the pics are taken at eye level.....and I'm 6 feet tall. The best habitat improvement I have had was a timber harvest. I was a little gut wrenching in the begining and while in process, but it has had a gross impact in a positive way that I could not have done any other way. We had a selective harvest where I and the loggers selected each and every tree that was taken. Before the understory was very weak and you could see a good distance thru the woods. After the selective timber harvest sunlight reaches the ground and mother nature explodes!!!! There could easily be something in there that will get you!
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Post by Woody Williams on Aug 9, 2018 10:27:59 GMT -5
What great information!
Thanks for sharing!!
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Post by jbird on Aug 9, 2018 12:59:36 GMT -5
What great information! Thanks for sharing!! Just some things I have done over the years. I wish I had more, but then I also seem to struggle to do what needs doing sometimes as it is. I am now trying my hand at fruit tree grafting - I had about a 25% success rate this spring when I simply grafted some of my current apples onto other apples.....just to see if I could do it. Growing softwood cuttings....I am working on elderberry and dogwood at the moment. I got the Elderberry to grow, but I wasn;t able to keep up with them once the heat set in. But I will certainly be trying it again. And growing what is called Miscanthus Giganteus (MG). Its a tall bunch grass sort of like what you see on golf courses and the like. My intent is to use it to grow screens for hiding the deer from the road as well as hiding my access to some stands.
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Post by jbird on Sept 5, 2018 12:17:53 GMT -5
Over the holiday weekend other than attending the local get-together over in "Little Africa" I planted my potted cuttings of MG as part of my growing road screen project. MG is a non-native grass and these should grow to 3 to 5 feet in diameter and to a height of 8 to 12 feet over the course of a few years. I'm trying to screen this area from a county road as I have had poaching issues before....and that really burns me! I got the cuttings from a buddy of mine in NJ....these started as "sticks" that I soaked in water until they sprouted roots and then I put into potting soil. So here is the actual project..... The plan is for the grass to grow faster than the cedars and once the cedars are tall enough then I will determine what happens. I also checked on my turnip plantings (planted early Aug via broadcasting only). The deer tend to ignore the turnips, but they are good for the soil and can provide an emergency food source if we have a harsh winter.
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Post by drfleck on Sept 5, 2018 14:30:13 GMT -5
Nice set-up jbird. Thanks for taking the time to explain what you've done.
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Post by jbird on Sept 5, 2018 16:36:11 GMT -5
Nice set-up jbird. Thanks for taking the time to explain what you've done. Thanks....been 15 years or more in the making. Not sure how many folks here get into habitat type work. I realize not everyone has the opportunity, but I enjoy it and it gives me a sense of giving something back to the environment.
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Post by duff on Sept 8, 2018 8:34:25 GMT -5
very nice. You put your work in there for sure! What county?
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Post by jbird on Sept 10, 2018 8:37:06 GMT -5
Well, like almost every weekend - even with the rain, I couldn't stay in the house! Made an unexpected purchase.....unexpected simply because I had not seen them for sale before. I was at my local Rural King store and I noticed they had gotten some more chestnuts in. As I walked over I noticed mixed in with them was some grafted persimmons trees (females). So I HAD to buy some. I limited myself to just 2, but planted in in area where I know the neighbor has some males..... I also collected some swamp white oak acorns during my trip to Rural King.....I have a spot. I placed several acorns in pots on the back porch. This was friday.....I went out to check them sunday.....and the #$%& squirrels cleaned me out! I have since replaced those acorns with some white oak I collected and those pots are not inside a wire dog crate.....some time the cage is to keep things in.....sometimes it's to keep things out! I'll get some more swamp white oaks..... I only lost the battle, not the war! While I was out checking on other things I also checked on my Chinkapin oaks (which are doing well) and I found some of the biggest pawpaw's I have seen in a while.... The turnips are also coming along..... As you can see I had some additional inspectors! I figure these should grow some decent bulbs yet this fall. Also found an opportunity. With the weather we have had I found where a small yellow/tulip poplar had been uprooted and decided to take advantage and placed my trail cam over it just to see how the deer react. Time will tell..... I also freshened the drip vine with a new one (sorry pic was blurry) but the sap began to run as soon as it was hung so I look for it to get some attention.....I'll move a cam to it soon to capture any activity. I pulled both cam cards and nothing really to report. We did get a video of a young curious buck (a forkhorn), but other than that just a couple does and their fawns. Fawns are just starting to loose their spots here.
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