Hunt 365 February 2018 The 40 Acre Challenge
This month, we have a question from Dan on how to improve your hunting grounds on a limited budget. Dan Thilges asks, “What are some ways that I can improve my 40 acres that will encourage more deer to visit my property? I must mention I have little to no surplus budget to use for land management. Thanks for the help.”
I love these kinds of questions for two reasons. One, most hunters don’t have vast amounts of private land to manage and hunt making this subject relatable to almost any hunter. Second, most hunters don’t have unlimited supplies of money to spend on their hunting…and you don’t need to spend a lot to get great returns. In fact, the best things you can do on your hunting grounds to improve the likelihood you’ll hold and see more deer require very little money at all.
Across all of the Midwest and certainly most places whitetails roam, the best whitetail hunting always occurs on the properties with the best habitat and the least amount of pressure. These are two things any hunter has in their control and you don’t need unlimited resources to do it.
Unfortunately, to perform even the most basic habitat improvements on your hunting property will require some resources in time and money. I don’t consider my time as being free, so any amount of effort I put into my hunting grounds I consider as being an investment of resources…but for just a little cash I can help keep deer on your farm.
Dan didn’t give a description of his property but I have to assume there is at least some timber on it. If your property has any timber on it the best, easiest, and most cost effective way to improve the habitat is to either harvest some timber on the property, or to hinge cut some of the timber. A timber harvest would actually generate some money for you while improving the habitat…this is accomplished by opening up the forest canopy to the sun allowing vegetation and smaller woody browse to grow.
If a timber harvest isn’t an option, then doing small pockets of hinge cutting is a great option. If you’re not familiar with hinge cutting it is a method of cutting a tree that only partially cuts through the tree just far enough to allow the tree to fall over…yet the tree stays attached to its base, bark attached, so that the tree can continue living. (The topic of hinge cutting is a huge topic in and of itself. To familiarize yourself with how to hinge cut, just go to You Tube and type in hinge cutting and start watching.) I like hinge cutting as a method to improve habitat because a hinge cut tree provide overhead and side cover that deer like. And, even though the tree is still alive, because it is now down it has also opened up the canopy allowing for sunlight to hit the forest floor. Hinge cutting actually provides better habitat than a timber harvest because the hinged tree provides instant and long lasting cover and the new growth provided by the more open canopy will generate woody browse or natural forbs that deer also love.
Small pockets of hinge cuttings can create great habitat and hold deer on your farm…even if it’s only a 40 acre parcel.
An inexpensive chainsaw can do a lot of work for you in a day’s time when hinge cutting…but if you don’t have access to one or can’t afford to buy one, a tree hand saw will also do the trick on smaller trees for quite a bit less. A premium hand saw like the Silky Zubat (I think that’s what it’s called?) can cost upwards of $100…but you can buy a less expensive and less quality saw that will also do the trick for 50 bucks or less. When hinge cutting trees there’s no need to cut hundreds of trees to be effective. In fact, in many cases hinging less will actually be better. I like to hinge cut in small pockets around food sources if I’m looking to create bedding cover for doe family groups. 3-5 trees hinge cut in a group…and then moving 30-50 yards and hinge cutting another 3-5 trees in a group. This allows for small pockets of cover for does and fawns to bed near each other while providing them with a natural food source right where they bed. Using a chain saw you can cut some larger trees to accomplish this but if you are only using a hand saw you’ll want to stick with smaller trees maybe no larger than 3-5 inches in diameter. A good way to hinge cut is to drop the biggest tree out of the group first…then drop the others onto that first tree. This creates a really nice pocket of cover deer can bed around and under.
For bucks, I like to create additional hinge cut pockets a few hundred yards away from primary food sources if that possible. I use the same method as described above but I might space my pockets out a little bit more. Instead of 30-50 yards apart, I might go 50-80 yards apart creating these same 3-5 tree pockets of cover. Again, I’ll drop the largest tree first and then try to drop the other trees on top of the first.
Creating hinge cut pockets of cover throughout your farm as described above will greatly improve the amount of deer using and staying on your farm. The best trees to hinge cut are the least valuable trees in terms of timber prices. In Iowa, I like to hinge cut shagbark hickories and box elder. Each farm has its own makeup of trees so a good idea is to consult with an expert on exactly what trees to hinge cut. With a little work each year you’d be surprised at just how much you can improve the habitat on your 40 acres without spending very much money at all.
Pressure
The next thing any hunter can do that can vastly improve the amount of deer that visit your farm (without spending a dime) is to limit the hunting pressure…all pressure as far as that goes. The smaller the property, the more important this actually becomes. On Dan’s 40 acres, it is likely that only a small handful of stand/hunting locations will exist that allow for entrance and exit into those spots without bumping deer. Then, while on stand, it is equally as important that deer are not busting you or getting downwind of you. Every time a deer busts you, you are putting pressure on those deer. Every time you hunt you are unknowingly putting pressure on the deer. If you check cameras, scout, hang stands…every time you are entering your hunting grounds you are putting pressure on the local deer herd no matter how cautious you are. Even non hunting pressure like walking around or taking atv rides is not a good idea. When not necessary-stay out. If you have bedding cover on your property (like those hinge cuts) you should avoid those areas like the plague. Some of the best hunting grounds I’ve been witness to in my life, that just didn’t hold deer were because of the pressure put there on the local deer herd.
When it comes to hunting pressure, do as much necessary work on your farm during the off season as you possibly can. All of your scouting, hinge cutting, tree stand hanging, clearing of shooting lanes, etc. should be done in the winter, spring, and summer months. A heavily browsed timbered cow pasture will hold more deer in its briar thickets than a thick timbered farm if that pasture gets no hunting pressure and the thick farm gets pounded with pressure. Less pressure=more deer!
Putting as little pressure on the local deer herd is a key component in making small tracts good hunting farms. Do as much work during the off-season as you can including scouting.
—For hunters on a limited budget hoping to improve the amount of deer they see on their farms, creating thickets and making a serious effort to reduce human pressure on the deer herd are great ways to start. In fact, these two things alone will do more to improve your conditions than most other things you could do overall. Superb natural habitat and low hunting pressure will give you great hunting if you are willing to do the work and take extreme measures to avoid pressuring the local deer herd. Good luck Dan!