Management thread for sub 500ac land

[KactusKiller]

Now that I’m not on big leases anymore and primarily hunting two tracks of land I own that are considered smaller parcels so I thought I’d start a management thread directed primarily on smaller parcels. I watch several deer manager “gurus” on you tube trying to gather new ideas. One parcel is in Navarro co TX 108ac and the other is in Seminole Co OK 320ac. At either property the deer aren’t overly dependent on feeders like corn or protein. They can take it or leave it. This makes it tougher to hunt than a lot of the west/south Texas lands I’ve hunted in the past where you simply set up a feeder and the deer come running. This was our first yr in Oklahoma and even tho it was a decent yr overall I feel it can be a lot better both in mature buck numbers and quality. But I’m still in the learning side of that property so I’ll start with my Navarro property.

It’s 108 acre of over grown pasture and thick hardwood drainage type creek bottoms. I purchased the first of it in 2017 so I think I have a pretty good feel for the deer in my immediate area. I have spent countless hrs and $$ improving the land and still only about 1/2 way to my goals. We have not shot a single deer during this time. Our doe/fawn numbers have increased and we always have a decent amount of spikes and yearling bucks. I also have bucks that make it 3-4 yrs of history to say 5-6yrs old. The problem is that you may only catch a couple pics of them a yr. Consistent sightings are few and far between. My plan up till now has been grow the overall herd as much as possible and the bucks will come. My resident doe herd has grow by 200-300% in the last 3-4 yrs but my resent buck numbers have not. I thought by increasing the doe numbers and having the best yr round food sources in the area we would attract more “trophy” bucks. This just hasn’t happened. So this yr I’m going to just concentrate on improving the land more by clearing more brush to open the land scape more and continue to make the land more user friendly for the deer. I’m going to resist the urge to feed and plant food plots during the spring/summer. According to the “you tube pros” you don’t want to keep high populations of doe on your property yr round as bucks do not like to be crowded all yr. So according to them I have been making my place a doe haven which has had the opposite effect on my desired buck population. I’ll wait to provide the high end feed opportunities until the fall when it’s time to hunt.

I’m not sure how this will go but we will see. I like to feed yr round as I just enjoy seeing deee on camera yr round but my desire is steered more toward harvesting a decent buck on my place and that just hasn’t happened yet.

I plan to feed my Oklahoma place this off season to see how they react then adjust depending on my results after a full season in the books.

[J&M Hamilton10]

My biggest regret on my dads place is not planting an orchard. I planted two Bradford pears that have done great. But I wish 10-15 years ago that I planted some sawtooth and chinquapin, persimmon. They grow fast and produce fast. Well I did plant a few but the drought got them 10 years ago.

Also regret not making bigger plots. This year it wasn’t really needed. His fertilized hay fields are loaded in vetch and clover with all this rain. Lots of deer being seen the past two weeks in the fields. I didn’t put a camera out until the day after Christmas…

If you can establish an area with tall grasses for bedding and cover that might hold some older bucks.

[EastTexun]

It will be interesting and insightful to follow along as you create various improvements. I have working to improve my place (251 acres in East Texas) since 2004, but began spending significantly more time/effort/$$$ during the last 10 years or so. The payoff can be very rewarding, the days can get very long, and the returns sometime make you wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze. If I could tell myself a few things 10-15 years ago that I have learned the hard way, I would remind myself the following concepts: 1. Take time to make a plan for the entire property and stick to said plan. 2. Break up goals into manageable "chunks" so that you can celebrate victories, no matter how small. 3. Plan on things not working at all, equipment breaking down at the most inopportune times, and costs to rise even more than anticipated. 4. Remind yourself to have fun sometime..its doesn't always have to be work, work and more work. 5. Make notes, take pictures, and document what you have done. 6. Last, step back and take stock of all the progress that you have made.

[KactusKiller]

I’ve been doing a lot of work since the day I bought the first piece. My intention of this thread is to share some ideas about manicuring small tracts to attract bucks other than just put corn in a feeder and hope they come in when you’re there. I have cleared multiple acre as of unusable brush land and I do believe it has helped. One of my neighbors did the same even tho his was for grassland improvement for cattle. If anyone here has any special insight as far as stand locations and how they setup that would be interesting. Most of the online videos for small parcel improvements are based in the the northern and Midwest states like Missouri, Iowa, Ohio etc. would be great to get more shared info for eastern tx and Oklahoma.

[Tex1986]

It will be interesting and insightful to follow along as you create various improvements. I have working to improve my place (251 acres in East Texas) since 2004, but began spending significantly more time/effort/$$$ during the last 10 years or so. The payoff can be very rewarding, the days can get very long, and the returns sometime make you wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze. If I could tell myself a few things 10-15 years ago that I have learned the hard way, I would remind myself the following concepts: 1. Take time to make a plan for the entire property and stick to said plan. 2. Break up goals into manageable "chunks" so that you can celebrate victories, no matter how small. 3. Plan on things not working at all, equipment breaking down at the most inopportune times, and costs to rise even more than anticipated. 4. Remind yourself to have fun sometime..its doesn't always have to be work, work and more work. 5. Make notes, take pictures, and document what you have done. 6. Last, step back and take stock of all the progress that you have made.

Point #4 hits home with me. Our time is limited to work on our place so when we go, we try to get as much done as possible. Accomplishing those task are rewarding but, it seems our time to really enjoy is minimal.

[J&M Hamilton10]

Can you post a pic of your property with where blinds are now? I use a dry creek bed to enter most of my sets. Or have my dad drop me off and drive away. When we started doing this the sightings increased.

[EastTexun]

I’ve been doing a lot of work since the day I bought the first piece. My intention of this thread is to share some ideas about manicuring small tracts to attract bucks other than just put corn in a feeder and hope they come in when you’re there. I have cleared multiple acre as of unusable brush land and I do believe it has helped. One of my neighbors did the same even tho his was for grassland improvement for cattle. If anyone here has any special insight as far as stand locations and how they setup that would be interesting. Most of the online videos for small parcel improvements are based in the the northern and Midwest states like Missouri, Iowa, Ohio etc. would be great to get more shared info for eastern tx and Oklahoma.

I have a lot of thoughts on this, but will try to be concise. I look at it in terms of food, water, cover and pressure (or lack thereof) The property is managed for timber production, but I have tried to make it a dual purpose between timber and wildlife. I have spread out my timber replanting timelines so that I had various aged stands instead of one large stand to provide more edges and diversity instead of a monoculture. Additionally, when I have cleared for additional timber planting, I made the replant area very fluid on the edges instead of square or rectangular. More specifically, I tried to use existing brush/timber and slash to funnel deer to food plots and internal areas at the expense of knowing I was not maximizing my planted acreage. I feel like this has been a tremendous help to seeing more deer in the early years and providing a highway of sorts for them to move freely. To date I have not yet done any burns, but it will occur in the next 24 months as soon as I can get one thinning in.
Food/Water- I feed protein year around, minimum 1K pound feeders in a feeder pen alongside corn feeders. To see results from the protein took about 5 years +/- but they were and continue to be impressive. Right now I have 4 protein feeders on 250 acres and I am satisfied that I am getting feed to all the deer in a decent amount. Combined with the protein I also plant extensively, oats, cereal rye, arrowleaf, crimson and white clover for the fall and spring (October-early June if lucky) then soybeans, cowpeays, sunn hemp, alyceclover, vetch and some other varieties in the summer, depending on time, weather and seed availability. Lime is key, fertilizer is very helpful but getting to be awfully expensive. I have 2 large creeks and a small lake, so water is not a limiting factor on my place, but if it was, I would make sure that I had as many water stations as I had protein feeders if not more. Lastly, as far as food goes, I do fertilize native plants such as greenbriar in select areas and I have seen increased deer utilization in those areas. On the food plots, I have experimented with various methods of edge feathering to make the plots less square or boxy with mixed results. The bucks seem to utilize the edges more, but it also makes it a lot harder to see them because they can lurk at the edges instead of having to come out in the open.
Cover/Pressure- Because I grow timber, I do have certain areas that receive no intrusion nearly 365 days a year. I also do my best to not enter bedding areas except maybe one or two times right after season to do a quick survey. Its tempting to go in and hunt around them, but my experience is that if you push the deer on a small property, they may be gone for the season or your neighbor just got a freebee. If possible, I try to create or set aside these areas well inside of my property lines instead of right along side. I do have one area that is definitely a bedding/loafing area that borders a neighbor, and I am certain that it has increased the deer traffic on his side of the fence dramatically. One thing I do is study the neighboring properties on Google Maps and other aerial photo sources. Take a step back and look at the area holistically and see if you can see larger funnel areas or features that dictate animal movement. Look for stands and feeders, roads and houses and anything else that could negatively impact deer movement and plan accordingly.
As a one off- run a lot of cameras, and I mean a lot. For example, I have between -10 and 20 cameras going nearly all year long. Some stay in the same spot 365 days a year and others get moved around frequently. I have found it very useful to better understand deer movement on small parcels, how they react to my intrusion and neighbors, hunting pressure and other stressors. Over time these cameras have really helped me understand where I should be putting stands, feeders or staying out of completely.

[EastTexun]

Point #4 hits home with me. Our time is limited to work on our place so when we go, we try to get as much done as possible. Accomplishing those task are rewarding but, it seems our time to really enjoy is minimal.

This is really tough for me and has negatively affected my family at times. I don't have a good solution quite yet, but making a decision before I leave if I am working or if I am going to enjoy myself and sticking with it when I get there has shown progress.

[txbowman12]

Might want to read this and take it into consideration when managing deer herd. Sounds like you are already coming to this realization.

https://www.whitetailhabitatsolutions.com/blog/doe-factory-habitat-problems

It seems to me that a lot of guys approach habitat and herd management from a perspective of more deer = more bucks. That's true to a point, but only to a point. Mature deer easily pressured, that comes from habitat pressure from other deer, and hunting pressure from humans.

To that end, what have you done to create a sanctuary area that has cover (taking into account prevailing winds) and access to food sources? When I say sanctuary I mean human access no more than 1-2 times a year, none if possible, and never from August - January.

The other thing I have started working on and has paid off for me already is working on access, creating ways to access stands that keeps me covered, plus ways to stands that I rarely use except for that "right" hunt where the wind is on my side. Deer 100% know where you are accessing stands, shake it up some.

I'd work on thinning out your local doe population some, and maintain the habitat improvement work. I'm happy to be proven wrong, but I think especially in east texas that you can buck hunt, or you can try and see a lot of deer. Where I've had some success, I don't see a lot of deer, but I'm only seeing bucks.

[KactusKiller]

WHS is one of the channels I watch even tho I can’t hardly listen to that guy, he thinks a lot of him self. I’d love for him to address some southern US habitats.

I have always herd him stay tough to his guns on the “doe factory” and I hit most of the qualifications.

[txbowman12]

WHS is one of the channels I watch even tho I can’t hardly listen to that guy, he thinks a lot of him self. I’d love for him to address some southern US habitats.

I have always herd him stay tough to his guns on the “doe factory” and I hit most of the qualifications.

Agree on being hard to listen to, but it matches my observations in the field, at least with respect to social pressure and doe home ranges being tight.

I'm also watching it unfold real time on one of my leases. Have not been successful convincing my lease mates that we need to work down our doe population, and that combined with heavy overgrazing of browse by the cows during the drought has caused bucks that used to live on our property 24/7 to disappear. Don't know how much is from the cows or the doe counts, but I know we went from 50/50 buck to doe on cams, with balanced age groups, to all does, some young bucks, and virtually no mature bucks.

I think the thing to realize is you can't do it all on small tracts, you have to be specialized. You can have a lot of doe and be able to watch a lot of deer each hunt and that is a lot of fun don't get me wrong, but if you want to hold mature deer you need to offer them something they crave more than just about anything else. That is safety and lack of pressure.

[PassnItOn]

I'm going to state the obvious but feed, feed, feed however and whatever you can year-round, make sure you have water sources and keep the does fat, happy and present . Third year owning and it's made a world of difference.

[KactusKiller]

I'm going to state the obvious but feed, feed, feed however and whatever you can year-round, make sure you have water sources and keep the does fat, happy and present . Third year owning and it's made a world of difference.

That’s what I’ve been doing on my Texas prop and only animals I have consistently on the property are fat happy doe and yearlings. Even during the rut. In my Navarro co tx property and my Seminole Oklahoma property bucks aren’t overly dependent on feed. The does and yearlings are really consistent on feeders buck the bucks are not. I need to do something besides keep constant yr round feed on the property.

[Low Fence]

Gonna look into a logging crew to wipe out what woods I got left at dairy. Probably be tough due to size. If not I’ll go in and hack and squirt. My woods have become too mature and open. All my mature oaks would be left due to no timber value. But I don’t care to see a cedar, gum, birch on my property. They can probably salvage a few loads of pine. Need some new growth…. That ain’t privet

[KactusKiller]

Gonna look into a logging crew to wipe out what woods I got left at dairy. Probably be tough due to size. If not I’ll go in and hack and squirt. My woods have become too mature and open. All my mature oaks would be left due to no timber value. But I don’t care to see a cedar, gum, birch on my property. They can probably salvage a few loads of pine. Need some new growth…. That ain’t privet

That's a big part of what I'm going to continue to work on. Thinning the saplings in all species to open the land up more. I've been working on it a couple yrs now and going to try and complete most of it in Texas this winter and spring.

In Oklahoma my problem is they logged it back 2-3 yrs ago which opened alot of areas but now all the stumps are sprouting back which is gonna make it thicker and there is a tone of dead fall left piled in rows. There is alot of growth now but alot of it is completely accessible for the deer because its too thick. I could really use some controlled burns the next two yrs to kill off the stump sprouts and clear some of the dead fall from the logging.