How I Keep Bucks On A Small Property

[@Manbunmen65]

The club I'm in is 2.5 square miles of mostly 1-8 year old cutovers, that even when there were mature pines, the timber company was in a continual cutting phase. Everywhere is a bedding area. No way to pattern them. To hunt in this area of NC, take everything you know about deer hunting and throw it out the window.

[@transamguy9073]

Great video. I have 21 acres and i have the same bucks all yr. I do have some that come and go. I lost one or 2 but gained one or 2. I have a fair amount of does. They do fawn there. I have summer fall and winter food. Seemed like last fall does left and we had more bucks

[@HobbyHarvest]

Thanks! It sounds like you have a really good buck/doe ratio on your property.

[@transamguy9073]

@@HobbyHarvest i guess. Last yr was 1st yr hunting it. Seen more bucks in the fall than does had 4 shooters

[@tfrost33elkhunter]

I’m in the same bot at. 20 acre piece. Surround by ag and neighbors woods. Bucks stay most of the year. They leave around April but always return in late June early July and do not leave til next April again.

[@transamguy9073]

@@tfrost33elkhunter i dont even no if alot of my bucks leave. I no some do. Ill get new bucks in ocf and loose one or 2

[@twc9000]

Great information.

[@HobbyHarvest]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BD85Sky]

If you have a great perennial clover n chicory plot that’s there all year and brassicas for the fall it works absolutely great and sprinkle in Cereal Rye your gold. I would never not have that clover plot for fear of to many does and we see two or three good bucks every year from spring till December

[@jordanpostma5059]

Great video Jeff.

[@daviddailey810]

Nice work man😊

[@HobbyHarvest]

Thanks 😁

[@Calebzimm69]

I have 17 acres here in PA i put in a foodplot on it cut and moved everything by hand im Still burning brush piles but I did get some of it established and managed to shoot a big 7 and a big doe outa it so far

[@HobbyHarvest]

Nice! I'm glad you're seeing success.

[@Calebzimm69]

@@HobbyHarvest it’s starting to turn into a weedy mess so I’m gonna go in a mow it down with all this drought that PA is experiencing I have established clover from last year dieing out on me

[@jeffpepin5930]

So when it comes to summer food, what about in areas where the deer densities are quite low, would you consider having some summer food plots?

[@HobbyHarvest]

Yeah, if you have very low deer numbers in your area, you can use summer food to draw them in and then keep them there with the rest of the strategy I laid out. This is only where the natural habitat is extremely poor and the home range of that herd is significantly larger than I talk about in this video. Even then, I've found just focusing on fall food will still draw them in so it's not a necessary step to do summer food. If it is an area where you're getting a lot of winter kill, I do recommend spring food in the form of winter rye that comes up a couple weeks before everything else in the woods to shorten their winter a bit.

[@jeffpepin5930]

@@HobbyHarvest ok my habitat is actually pretty good in my opinion but we get deep snow so they migrate out of the area each winter

[@jeffpepin5930]

@@HobbyHarvest also I heard you say you will plant winter rye in with your brassicas and whatever else you have, can you plant the winter rye at the same time as the brassicas?

[@heycatmon]

So I have 35 acres of standing hardwood forest and what ive gathered from your youtube videos (thank you! BTW) is that i need to open the canopy basically killing and removing the big trees to get successional growth and side cover?

[@HobbyHarvest]

Yeah, my NW WI property is much the same. Over the years I've had a chance to open up some areas which really thickened them up and that of course is exactly where the deer are on that property.

[@heycatmon]

@@HobbyHarvest I guess for me the big question becomes... "How much should i be trying to open up?" Its a lot of work and i dont have the time or budget to do all at once so im looking at a period of a few years to make all improvements... but i guess other than food plots should i be trying to open up the chunk of land or is some amount of standing canopy useful?

[@HobbyHarvest]

@@heycatmon Any large trees that are producing food for you, like acorns, chestnuts, apples, etc. are great ones to leave. The thicker a property is, the better it's going to be but most of us aren't going to have the time to clear a property ourselves so getting more sunlight down in and around the edges of your food plots is going to be a good place to start. After that, you can either try to create bedding areas adjacent to those food plots by getting more successional growth to come up or I've even cleared out areas I want the deer to move through in a more linear way because they'll travel in the thicker part of the woods if given the chance which makes them a lot easier to hunt.

[@sandych33ks1]

I'm in Northern Ny. I want to try crimson clover for a fall food plot. Do I plant it the same time I do my normal fall food plots ? Which for my area I'd normally the last week of July or first week of August ? Thanks

[@HobbyHarvest]

Clover is a little different. It can be frost seeded in late winter or it can be seeded in spring. I've tried seeding it in the summer and it did come up but not enough that I would consider it viable for a fall food plot. You could definitely go with one of the other food plot blends this year and then frost seed clover into it in late winter. I would stay away from anything that has cereal grains in it as those will come up with your clover next spring.

[@jerryperron5243]

Does the soaking of the seed help with the no till of the beans and peas and oats? Seems when I just broadcast seed I only get about 1/4 germination of seed even with good rains…

[@HobbyHarvest]

Yeah, I've found the biggest issue with no-till broadcasting using the larger seeds like peas and beans is that you never seem to get enough rain to soften the seed enough to get good germination before every critter out there eats them up on you. Soaking the seeds will literally soften the seed for you so you're not dependent on rain for it.

[@kurtcaramanidis5705]

I'm not sure who started the "we don't want bucks in the summer". I'm holding mature bucks all year with a mix of habitat and food. It's not that difficult. Take care.

[@HobbyHarvest]

It's not that summer bucks are bad as much as if you only have summer bucks and no fall bucks it's bad.

[@gsquared2394]

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