Figured I'd start a thread about what folks are doing on their hunting properties related to deer or turkey management, property enhancement, preparation for hunting, etc. Include pics if you have them.

This morning I removed a tower-type stand (made from conduit) that was a victim of Hurricane Helene last fall. It was crumpled beyond my interest in repairing. Took it to local county metal scrap bin.

Headed now to get some corn to put in a couple feeders. Getting ready to re-activate cell cameras to get an idea of what the area bucks look like b4 they rub the velvet off and disperse from their summer bachelor groups. Im a bit behind schedule on velvet buck inventory. Usually have 5 cell cams up and running by mid-July. Only have one today, but thays about to change. Buck group break-up happens completely here by mid-Sept. They'll hold together for only a few days once they're all rubbed clean.

Later.....

I used to put in food plots but all of that land has changed hands
Now I don't do anything until after hunting season has closed
If we get a decent snow I will break trails for them to the crop fields and pull down browse for them along the trails
They really don't need our help to survive except during drought and heavy snow

Nothing. In my home region we predominantly hunt in a National Forest.

i keep three corn feeders running year round for the does - not many bucks use them. Try to imprint the deer to my ground. Everyone here baits during deer season - not so much the rest of the year. Outbait they neighbor. Keep the deer on your own property as much as possible.



Corner of 8 acre food plot with clover in it. A lot of weeds right now, but that shades he clover



Apple trees - producing from mid summer until Nov



A two for one - the deer ate a bunch and we will shoot doves in a few weeks

Do some food plot work with my buddy in MO not much top soil to work with his area is like a gravel pit soil wise. We lime and fertilize the “soil” trying to build it up had soil samples done for some guidance on what’s needed. I need to open up around some treestands in the woods next month and see if that helps any.

Lots of oaks so some years the acorns are plentiful but the place lacks the true deer trails you find in most other places no real huge draw that they come and go to in the area mostly hardwoods with a few openings we maintain.

I’ve been putting corn out since we acquired the property. This year I started putting out mineral supplements and planted a box of stuff the wife brought home that was on clearance. lol

…oh yeah, I also do rain barrels for water. The bucks don’t use them much but the does frequent them.

Good stuff guys!
Here's some pics I took a few mins ago.

Put corn in only 2 feeders. Had put 50lbs in the cheap black feeder a few weeks ago, but a group of bucks cleaned that out fast. The big green hopper feeder hasn't had any corn in it since last March. The doe was watching me from about 200 yds up the hill. They pay little attention to my white truck.





A few of the pear trees are loaded this summer. One to the point of being damaged by the weight of the pears(I must have pruned it wrong).


Live oak acorns seem to be behind on their usual growth. This tree has always started dropping by Labor Day...its behind schedule. Wondering being battered by that hurricane changed things.

The river sure looked refreshing....if my knees were better Id get in it....but might not be able to get back up that 20ft bank. Water level is low....rock shoals and caverns exposed.

Rain about to start...headed home to sit down with AC....113° heat index here.


Later.....

We can't feed deer in PA we have crazy CWD regulations

I can hunt a cornfield or an orchard but I can't put corn or apples on a pile for them

… I see you got that hat on backwards…. That’s fairly gangster Uncle Swamp lol

Stopped at the one acre cypress pond on the lease and fed the bream b4 heading home...some good sized bluegill Ive fattened up....lol

I like watching them boiling the water...

… is there anything you don’t feed lol

Noice,,,,
Blacktail don’t eat corn here, so we rely of black berrys and new tree growth.
River recalls it fish to the spawning grounds

No......I even feed the anti-game warden folks all they can eat...lol

Different world on the left coast 4 sure.

We planted chufas Milo and sorghum in the about late May and it seems to be doing good after getting some much needed rain.I had some work done a couple weeks ago getting some lane pushed out due to some logging that was done last year.I put a feeder out in a new spot with some corn and protein and planted some peas.The heat has been pretty bad here in the Deep South our indexes have been in the triple digits also.

Uncle Swamp…. Tell us a game warden story about an outlaw that got over on you or something lol

No outlaw ever got over on me...lol

....but, I did get outran twice in one night....by night deer poachers. Same field, same county dirt road. Each pickup truck came from same direction, slowed and stopped same spot in road....shined spotlight on deer in field (there were about 30 in the field).

First poacher (dark colored truck) shot at a deer. But he shot and drove away around a curve in road. Road was pure sugar sand...deep ruts from log trucks. It was dry and dusty. I was close on him but I couldn't see my truck hood for dust. If he'd stopped I wouldve plowed into him. I had to slow and he gained distance. He got to the 4 lane highway well ahead of me. To the left was an immediate curve in highway. To the right was a 2 miles long straight-away. I saw taillights on the straightaway and closed the distance. It was a carload of elderly people with Pennsylvania plates.

I went back to the field, backed into same hidey-hole. Walked into field and found the deer that was shot (button buck). Before I could get the deer dragged to edge of field I saw the headlights of an approaching vehicle. This time it was a light colored truck. Stopped in same spot and shined spotlight. I was at my truck, sitting in pounce mode and took off down field edge to close the distance...my lights off and using NVGs. I got to with 100 yds of the truck, still shining their spotlight. He saw me, I cut my lights on, blue strobes and all. Truck went same way out to highway. Once again...I couldn't see for the dust and had to slow down. When I got to the highway there was a set of taillights on the long straightaway, but I went the other way, around the curve.....NOTHING. DAM! I CHOSE WRONG AGAIN!

I went back to the peanut field, back back in my spot and sat there till 4 AM. No more activity. I retrieved the button buck and went home. Gave the deer away the next morning.

I had never been outran before and got smacked twice in one night. But, what makes this night worse is I had 3 other officers out that night working night deer poaching. Two of those officers were about 60 mins & 90 mins away from my location. They both got outran that night too.

We were the joke of the next region meeting. But I stood up and told all those other officers that at least were were out there trying to catch em. There arses were at home in bed on that frosty November night.

I could write a book.....I had a fun career!

I was wondering how you were doing. Upload some pics if you can.

…. lol … they got y’all that night Swamp

… thanks for sharing

Driving in that heavy dust that night (twice) at about 60+ mph and not being able to see my truck hood had to be comparable to an airplane pilot flying in no visibility conditions. It took me a min to realize I needed to break that off. Almost wrecked each time. And as a my work unit's supervisor, that wouldn't been good as I had preached to my crew a few times about knowing when to halt their pursuit.

God was watching over everybody that night...both us GWs and the deer poachers.

I have had two game warden tickets. Got one in NM. They have an offset law for 3 size traps. I was aware of it. Some how put a closed jaw in the box fore I headed out. Then set it. No clue what I was I was thinking. Warden come come up as I was reluring that one. Asked for my license. Asked if he could check the tag so I stepped on it. He checked the tag then used a tape measure on the trap. Dumb me it took a second to figure out what he was doing. I assured him it was an honest mistake (which it was). I offered to show him more sets. He looked in my trap box and they were all offset. He was real friendly. Never got ignorant. Cost me 40-50 bucks and a trip to the courthouse.

Here in KS I was trapping with a friend from PA. He did not have coyote equipment. He was setting my traps and using my snares. We were in the same pickup though. One of us, I think was him, forgot to pick up a snare. I went to WY. Got home and warden came by. He knew we were trapping together as he tagged cats for us before Curt went home. That snare caught a coyote. Old woman that lived nearby called headquarters in Pratt asking if they would come get a dead coyote caught in some wire. I told warden I did not know which one of us hung the snare. He mailed a ticket to Curt and wrote me one. He was almost apologetic writing that ticket. Says he knew just missed it but he had to write tickets. I just paid that one by mailing a check.

I put one stand up today in a cedar thick hillside. You would think it too thick for an arrow to get through, but I've taken three deer from a tree about seven yards away. I had to switch trees, my stand was up to long in the other and had started to grow into it. It's one of those spots that you dream of for lots of action, trails actually gouged into the hillside.
Seven stands up so far on 3 of 4 properties, two or three more to go.

Sounds like a SPOT!

Gave up on the beavers for a while yet?

I don’t have recent plot pics, but I spent all day removing over 200 tree tubes now that the trees have outgrown them.

4 different varieties of crab Apple, crab pear, persimmon, chestnut, red, white, Burr and Swamp oak. Got another 75 or so to do tomorrow.

I’ll mow and spray the buckwheat at the end of August and then work on 6 plots across the farm for a total of about 8 acres. My farmer has 45 acres of corn he should be getting up around the start of September.

I work to keep a lot of edge cover around everything for the quail and rabbits as well.

For all the haters, I haven’t named him yet, but this is my best on camera so far this year. Would like to get a few more pics so I can tell if I want to mess with him or not.

And as usual, I get a pic uploaded sideways. If anyone could be so kind as to fix it…

We’ve got a good piece of land in the family. Did some autumn olive removal and a little prescribed burning this spring. We have about a 2 acre clover plot that really filled in this year - lots of deer feeding in it since we aren’t in an Ag-heavy area of the state. Got some fall beans planted and I’ve been brushing out trails and shooting lanes.

Dragged a walk-behind tiller down to a swamp edge to try and put in a kill plot. Basically just mowed the grass with it and beat up my back in the process. That ground will need a lot of work but I’ll hit it again in the spring.

I usually hang sticks here and there for quick saddle sets, but still need to hang two this year. I make sure I have a few spots for different wind directions.

I’m working on a timber sale across the property that will total more than 40 acres. Goal is to get that early successional growth for winter browse and also trying to convert to oak forest in some spots.

Changed the bush hog blades



And back to bush hogging. About ten miles of trails to take care of

WhireCliffs,
You and I are on the same page....lol

Ive got to put new blades on my BushHog this week.

Looks like your feedin' fish too.

He seemed to favor the poachers.

Had about 15 acres of mature popple cut this winter. It was overly mature and I was spending too much time cutting up trees that came down in the hayfield every time the wind blew hard. The new growth is coming in quick and will provide great deer cover in a few years, not to mention good grouse and timberdoodle hunting.
I put one food plot into birdsfoot trefoil. Its a plot near the river and it stays too wet for alfalfa or clover. Treefoil tolerates wetter soils much better. I inoculated the seed and man is it ever doing well. First year, Im letting it seed out and then Ill cut it back as needed. The other side of that field is going to get a mix of red and white clover with a nursery crop of triticale this fall...not too long from now. Inbetween those two plots is an 8 acre field of grasses/clover mix that a neighboring dairy put in. Farmer also put in 3 acres of alfalfa just to the south of those plots. Its in its second year now and it really attracts the deer.
Still debating if Im going to renew that lease after i retire....I sure enjoy turning the dirt and managing food plots. We'll see when the time comes.

Broomchaser,
If you would've been riding with me that night....you'd think differently...lol

The poachers had a clear escape route...no dust. Even though they eluded court dates that night...they also didn’t get any venison...lol. They provided meat for a local needy family and didnt even know it.

We all survived, albeit short of our goals.

Just came in from pulling my last beaver job. I definitely sent the last one packing. Haven't seen any sign of him since I took his second toe. I've been called to the spot a couple times a year for the last 3 years. Basically a road ditch stream about 6-10' wide connecting a series of ponds. I catch a couple at a time, then nothing for a few months.

Swamp I am glad to hear what you did with the deer. They are shooting antlerless deer on damage permits in Mo. now. Many agents around here will not let you utilize the meat. (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman)?

I make sure my rifle is sighted in properly. And I trap wolves.

Blessed with thousands of acres of public land access?

Glad we dont have wolves. Dang coyotes bad enough.

We have plenty of forage, grazing, crops and cover in our general area to sustain what I consider a very good population of whitetails. Lots of deer and very few hunters. Not like it was when I was a young man. You saw orange vests, hats and hunting coats and a truck load of hunters traveling all around during the open season and weekends. Not like that any longer around here.

The planting is up…..sporadic but up. They don’t seem to be as interested as the feeding sight.

Spent the last couple days working my fall food plots and working in my deer stand for gun season. The area is about 1.5 acres in the middle of the lease. The road leading into the that area has a 350 straight away. Early this spring I scalped it and planted Merit Trail Mix which is a blend of clover meant for high traffic. I have to say it is really looking good. When you get to my area, we call it the Y because the road splits, I put a platform stand overlooking the plots and down the straight away. To the left is about 1/2 acre that I just planted with Merit Bison Mix, a mix of grains, brassicas, and clovers. To the right is an acre plus of Merit Whitetail Platinum, a mix a clovers. I have almost all my work done down there for the year.
The other food plot is two acres of clover and chickory. This is the first year for this plot. Lots of lime and fertilizer, still needs more lime.