Hinge cutting

[Low Fence]

I hinge cut 40-45 trees the other day in strategic areas. They were once bedding areas but in the last few years have become too open (imho).... so I fixed that as well as made natural "fences" to funnel them to food plots WHERE I WANT THEM to come out. Amazing how fast woods will mature too much.... and yea it hurts a little to make a beautiful tree horrible looking, but I feel it will be worth it


Anyone have hinge cutting success or fail stories?

Will mesquites handle this as well? Have another property out west that would benefit from some super thick cover as well

[Brute Killer]

The mesquites will probably put out new shoots where they were cut. It won't kill them.

[Brute Killer]

If you're cutting big bull mesquites, you'll have lots of fire wood.

[Low Fence]

Everything I cut in east Texas was elm, gym, oak. I know the west texas neighbors chained theirs about 7-8 years ago and left it.... it's perfect now!

[Blackmouth]

Only trees I've heard to hinge/half cut were mesquites so I would guess yes, they will do fine.

[White Falcon]

Kyle, should work out fine for you! Don't see many people hinge cut.

[stinkbelly]

What is hinge cutting?

[Rtree1]

It's where you cut a tree about waist high about half way thru and push it over for deer to bed in

[Rtree1]

Typically a bunch of trees together

[Big pig]

Yup.
Also Opens canopy and allows undergrowth.
Plus they browse on the leaned over tree.

[Bumpy]

Everything I cut in east Texas was elm, gym, oak. I know the west texas neighbors chained theirs about 7-8 years ago and left it.... it's perfect now!

I'm not an expect but I don't know if I would hinge cut my oaks in East Texas.

[tex4k]

Mesquite will do very well as long as it has smooth bark, seems like they get a bit particular once they get the really rough, thick tree bark. We did several hundred acres over a couple of years for a friend of mine, the rabbits, quail, and turkey are still going strong and that was about fifteen years ago. That landowner still uses this method to keep the mesquite limbs away from the road so the vehicles from getting scratched up.

[Big pig]

I'm not an expect but I don't know if I would hinge cut my oaks in East Texas.

We have such a thick canopy we have considered logging. Hinge cutting is a small step.

[Low Fence]

I'm not an expect but I don't know if I would hinge cut my oaks in East Texas.

They are a dime a dozen here and will never make a tree that produces due to being shaded out. In not cutting 50'ers. More like 10-15'ers

[unclefish]

I did quite a bit of hinge cutting on my place over the years. It was rough work because it was mostly thorny trees like mesquite and honey locust. I also had tons of cedar elm that would hinge cut pretty well. Those trees would lay over and when the spring would come they would shoot sprouts vertical on that horizontal tree. Deer would eat the heck out of those fresh sprouts growing out.

I did it mainly for what you are trying to do....to make the deer funnel where you want them to go. It also provided good bedding cover. The deer would bed in two locations in and around my property and one of those was a hinge cut area. Its always good to know the most likely spot a deer might come from and knowing where they bed is half the battle.