Building Buck Beds and Food Plots

[dan]

Congrats on the new property Chris.

[Darin]

Congrats on the new property Chris.

X2! Sounds like a great property!

[Jackson Marsh]

Awesome! I'm a little jealous

[ Post made via Android ]

[Chris Conroy]

I finally got a chance to really walk the piece of property and really look it over. The first thing I noticed was how much deer sign there is on the land and just around the house in general. No one has hunted this area or the land just north of me. The neighbor to the north doesn’t even walk in his woods. The neighbor to the south has a friend that gun hunts on his small piece, but he only will shoot something 8 or bigger, and he doesn’t walk the land at all otherwise. The land directly behind me is for sale as a subdivision, but they cannot build all the way down to the edge. There is a conservancy easement between us. If you look at the back of my property you will see a small pond on my side, a small creek, and a bigger pond on the other land. That big pond is full of beavers and they have dammed the creek and flooded my pond and back section of woods. I plan on getting someone in there in the fall/winter to trap them out. They have taken down quite a few of the smaller hardwoods, and girdled some of the bigger ones on the neighboring property. My area hasn’t really been affected yet, except for a couple of small trees. Most of the trees along the back are big old willows and some cedars. It is very boggy and wet. The small field to the east of me is overgrown with smaller saplings and briars mixed in. It hasn’t been farmed for years.
Along the road to the west is all buckthorn, and you can’t see 10 feet into the property, even without the leaves right now. There are a few small openings that the deer use to get into my land as they come across the street. There is a big cornfield behind the homes to the west and the deer have paths beaten down in the little finger of woods to the NW at the edge of my property. Just inside the buckthorn along the road is some open area, with a few cedars, buckthorn, and mixed hardwoods. This is the area that I plan to plant something for the deer. The ground is a little higher than the surrounding area, which stays wet when it rains a lot. Between that area and the pond in the back is very thick buckthorn and tall cedars. There are a few junk hardwoods mixed in there as well, that could be used as potential stand sites if needed. In this area we found over 30 beds in the snow, tons of tracks rubs and droppings, and we jumped a bunch of deer that we couldn’t see. Most of the beds were under the cedars, and really worn down into the dirt.
My idea is to plant something in that open area between the two buckthorn areas. I think there is about 2 acres of semi clear land there. I could use a brush hog to clear small paths to the food plot, kind of like spokes from a wheel with the plot in the center. I wouldn’t do anything to mess with the bedding area, which is about 75-100 yds away. This would be a spot that I would only hunt a few times during bow season, and maybe let my daughter sit back there during gun season. She only hunts for about 3 hours per year and then she is bored and done. I will continue to hunt my public land spots until I get optimal conditions to sneak in once in a while.
Any opinions on what to plant? Maybe how to improve bedding areas? Is it a good idea to open some paths for the deer to walk right to the plots? I can get into this area very quietly myself from the house. I am completely open to suggestions as to what to do. The coordinates are 42.846835, 88.254912. That puts you right in the middle of my land.

The property with rough boundary lines drawn in. The pond to the east is the one the beavers are in and they have flooded the back around my pond, so it is roughly 2 times larger than the picture, and about 4 feet deep. To zoom in, you will have to look at Google or Bing using the coordinates 42.846835, 88.254912



Here is part of the “open area”. I consider this open when compared to the rest of the property. I would leave the cedars if I do plant here.






The next pictures show a couple of the deer trails through the property.





These pictures are to illustrate how thick this area is, some is actually thicker than the pictures. It opens up inside and there are cedars and small junk hardwoods in there as well. Most of the beds were found in here. I walked a little of the neighboring properties and the only beds I found were here on my
land.

[Chris Conroy]

I tried posting the images exactly as stated in the announcements section and it doesn't work for me. These are all hosted in the huntingbeast gallery. I copy the link, highlight, and click the mountain and sun to frame the link. Still didnt work.

[dan]

Chris, pm me when I am online and I will call you and explain the photo issue.

[DEERSLAYER]

Chris,
Once you add a picture, go to your gallery and click on that picture. When the larger picture comes up right click on it and select "Copy image URL" and you will have the right link. Then you can use the mountain and sun icon. I did this on one of your pictures and got this:

copper/albums/userpics/10123/Buckthorn.JPG

Which I put in between these (from mountain and sun icon):
[img][/img]

And you end up with this:

[Chris Conroy]

I finally got a chance to really walk the piece of property and really look it over. The first thing I noticed was how much deer sign there is on the land and just around the house in general. No one has hunted this area or the land just north of me. The neighbor to the north doesn’t even walk in his woods. The neighbor to the south has a friend that gun hunts on his small piece, but he only will shoot something 8 or bigger, and he doesn’t walk the land at all otherwise. The land directly behind me is for sale as a subdivision, but they cannot build all the way down to the edge. There is a conservancy easement between us. If you look at the back of my property you will see a small pond on my side, a small creek, and a bigger pond on the other land. That big pond is full of beavers and they have dammed the creek and flooded my pond and back section of woods. I plan on getting someone in there in the fall/winter to trap them out. They have taken down quite a few of the smaller hardwoods, and girdled some of the bigger ones on the neighboring property. My area hasn’t really been affected yet, except for a couple of small trees. Most of the trees along the back are big old willows and some cedars. It is very boggy and wet. The small field to the east of me is overgrown with smaller saplings and briars mixed in. It hasn’t been farmed for years.
Along the road to the west is all buckthorn, and you can’t see 10 feet into the property, even without the leaves right now. There are a few small openings that the deer use to get into my land as they come across the street. There is a big cornfield behind the homes to the west and the deer have paths beaten down in the little finger of woods to the NW at the edge of my property. Just inside the buckthorn along the road is some open area, with a few cedars, buckthorn, and mixed hardwoods. This is the area that I plan to plant something for the deer. The ground is a little higher than the surrounding area, which stays wet when it rains a lot. Between that area and the pond in the back is very thick buckthorn and tall cedars. There are a few junk hardwoods mixed in there as well, that could be used as potential stand sites if needed. In this area we found over 30 beds in the snow, tons of tracks rubs and droppings, and we jumped a bunch of deer that we couldn’t see. Most of the beds were under the cedars, and really worn down into the dirt.
My idea is to plant something in that open area between the two buckthorn areas. I think there is about 2 acres of semi clear land there. I could use a brush hog to clear small paths to the food plot, kind of like spokes from a wheel with the plot in the center. I wouldn’t do anything to mess with the bedding area, which is about 75-100 yds away. This would be a spot that I would only hunt a few times during bow season, and maybe let my daughter sit back there during gun season. She only hunts for about 3 hours per year and then she is bored and done. I will continue to hunt my public land spots until I get optimal conditions to sneak in once in a while.
Any opinions on what to plant? Maybe how to improve bedding areas? Is it a good idea to open some paths for the deer to walk right to the plots? I can get into this area very quietly myself from the house. I am completely open to suggestions as to what to do. The coordinates are 42.846835, 88.254912. That puts you right in the middle of my land.

The property with rough boundary lines drawn in. The pond to the east is the one the beavers are in and they have flooded the back around my pond, so it is roughly 2 times larger than the picture, and about 4 feet deep. To zoom in, you will have to look at Google or Bing using the coordinates 42.846835, 88.254912



Here is part of the “open area”. I consider this open when compared to the rest of the property. I would leave the cedars if I do plant here.






The next pictures show a couple of the deer trails through the property.





These pictures are to illustrate how thick this area is, some is actually thicker than the pictures. It opens up inside and there are cedars and small junk hardwoods in there as well. Most of the beds were found in here. I walked a little of the neighboring properties and the only beds I found were here on my
land.





I appreciate any help or feedback you could give.

[Chris Conroy]

Finally got it right! Thanks Dan and Deerslayer! I was copying the location from a different spot and it didn't contain JPG. Took me 250+ posts to figure out how to post a picture. How long do you think it will take me to figure out this type of deer hunting?

[dan]

I would suggest Deerslayers crimson trail plot seed... Hard to say exactly what you should do without walking the property. Waukesha?

[Chris Conroy]

Vernon actually. 5 miles from Mukwonago. If you're interested after March 21st, let me know and we can work something out I'm sure

[ Post made via Android ]

[Chris Conroy]

If you tried to use those coordinates you would end up in China. My land is in WI. LOL. The true coordinates are 42.846788 , 88.255057

[ Post made via Android ]