I’ve Made posts like this before, but not since we had a timber stand improvement done. Any advice would be appreciated.
Hey fellas, Here's a lot of info on my property. Since I am now living on this chunk, this winter/spring I'm planning on making serious habitat improvements to help affect future seasons. Here are some details. Property is in far NE TX, (Southern Red River County), which is right on the edge of the post oak savanna and where the piney woods of ETX meet. Property is bottom land hardwoods, full of oaks and pine, with minimal junk trees and cedars. Can flood at times, minus high spots where food plots have been (green). The total acreage is 36.56 acres, and the boot in the NW corner is roughly 3.6 acres, while the rest of the main chunk of land is roughly 200 yards wide by 800 yards long. I have included a close aerial pic as well as a pic of the surrounding area around a mile or so around the property, and an even more zoomed out pic. Mostly timber around with some pasture land (no crops that I can see). The 2 small circles in blue on the far south side of the property are two houses, ours and my MIL. That chunk there under the yellow line where the houses are is right around 7.5 acres, leaving us roughly 29 acres to hunt north of that line counting that boot in the NW. Neighbor to the west doesn't hunt, some neighbors to the south hunt (lots of other 36.5 acre chunks, it was a ranch that split 25 years ago). Our neighbors to the east own 550 acres, and have taken good deer each year, roughly 2-3 bucks a year, with the largest being a 135" 9 point this year. That's the biggest deer we've had taken around here. They manage for age and plant 8-10 acres of plots a year. They are primarily gun hunters. We haven't taken a buck off our place in 11 years. Neighbor to the north with the open pastures just clear cut all that about 5 years ago, and are your typical gun hunters who traipse all over their place all the time and pay no attention to being quiet and playing the wind. most times they park their truck on the east side of their inside pasture and face the west and just hunt that way facing a feeder. We used to plant food plots in the green circled areas up until around 5 years ago, about the same time we started building our house. that area in green for plots is roughly 2-2 1/2 acres. we had the timber thinned 3 years ago, so the canopy has opened a lot and we have a few stacks of dead tops scattered around the property. We haven't done any mowing at all anywhere, so there's' lots of tall brown grass everywhere. ATV travel trails are all grown up. I have read Steve Bartylla's book on habitat management, and watched countless videos on the subject. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to what I could do to help bring in bucks during hunting season? I am planning on doing some hinge cutting between food plots to create bedding areas, I will plant fall and spring plots this year, and was thinking of putting up some screening around the plots and around the border of the property in order to have better access to stands without being busted. Our goal is to be able to take 1-2 3 1/2 year old bucks a year once we improve things a couple years down the road. We typically have just a couple sightings of bucks a year. We have a couple families that frequent our property every day, and they may actually be living on the property. But book sightings are rare here. Which I find odd because our neighbors to the east kill good bucks every year within a few hundred yards of us. Any other information needed just let me know. Thanks in advance guys.
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Hey fellas, Here's a lot of info on my property. Since I am now living on this chunk, this winter/spring I'm planning on making serious habitat improvements to help affect future seasons. Here are some details. Property is in far NE TX, (Southern Red River County), which is right on the edge of the post oak savanna and where the piney woods of ETX meet. Property is bottom land hardwoods, full of oaks and pine, with minimal junk trees and cedars. Can flood at times, minus high spots where food plots have been (green). The total acreage is 36.56 acres, and the boot in the NW corner is roughly 3.6 acres, while the rest of the main chunk of land is roughly 200 yards wide by 800 yards long. I have included a close aerial pic as well as a pic of the surrounding area around a mile or so around the property, and an even more zoomed out pic. Mostly timber around with some pasture land (no crops that I can see). The 2 small circles in blue on the far south side of the property are two houses, ours and my MIL. That chunk there under the yellow line where the houses are is right around 7.5 acres, leaving us roughly 29 acres to hunt north of that line counting that boot in the NW. Neighbor to the west doesn't hunt, some neighbors to the south hunt (lots of other 36.5 acre chunks, it was a ranch that split 25 years ago). Our neighbors to the east own 550 acres, and have taken good deer each year, roughly 2-3 bucks a year, with the largest being a 135" 9 point this year. That's the biggest deer we've had taken around here. They manage for age and plant 8-10 acres of plots a year. They are primarily gun hunters. We haven't taken a buck off our place in 11 years. Neighbor to the north with the open pastures just clear cut all that about 5 years ago, and are your typical gun hunters who traipse all over their place all the time and pay no attention to being quiet and playing the wind. most times they park their truck on the east side of their inside pasture and face the west and just hunt that way facing a feeder. We used to plant food plots in the green circled areas up until around 5 years ago, about the same time we started building our house. that area in green for plots is roughly 2-2 1/2 acres. we had the timber thinned 3 years ago, so the canopy has opened a lot and we have a few stacks of dead tops scattered around the property. We haven't done any mowing at all anywhere, so there's' lots of tall brown grass everywhere. ATV travel trails are all grown up. I have read Steve Bartylla's book on habitat management, and watched countless videos on the subject. Anyone have any ideas/suggestions as to what I could do to help bring in bucks during hunting season? I am planning on doing some hinge cutting between food plots to create bedding areas, I will plant fall and spring plots this year, and was thinking of putting up some screening around the plots and around the border of the property in order to have better access to stands without being busted. Our goal is to be able to take 1-2 3 1/2 year old bucks a year once we improve things a couple years down the road. We typically have just a couple sightings of bucks a year. We have a couple families that frequent our property every day, and they may actually be living on the property. But book sightings are rare here. Which I find odd because our neighbors to the east kill good bucks every year within a few hundred yards of us. Any other information needed just let me know. Thanks in advance guys.
Sent from my iPhone X using Tapatalk
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