Are we going about this all wrong?
Are we going about this all wrong?
Seems like you can ask 100 hunters/land stewards “what are they doing to reinforce the deer population on their properties or....make their properties hold more deer”, and I’m betting 90%+ would mention supplemental feeding, food plots, mineral sites, etc… If our goal is (really) to hold more deer on the properties we hunt, might we be a little disingenuous in our claims?
Let’s look at a day in the life of your average whitetail deer:
12:01 AM Out to dinner or near the restaurant (food source)
6:12 AM – On my way home to bed
6:39 AM – Stopped to browse at a staging area
6:48 AM – Bedded for the day
10:44 AM – Out of bed to browse and grab a quick drink
10:58 AM – Moved 125yds….and back to bed
4:19 PM – Up again to browse
4:33 PM – Back to original bed for the day
6:05PM – Up from bed to feed/water for the evening
7:18 PM – Arrive at destination food source
*Continue this basic pattern until I die (and of course make time for lovin’ when appropriate)
What’s the one thing that stands out in this deer’s day, though…..MOST? Right….you got it…..Bedding. Why aren’t more of us concerned with providing better/more[/b] bedding habitat? I’ve got three theories:
Don’t care
Don’t know how or don’t understand it
Thinks providing supplemental feeding; food plots; mineral sites, etc… provides them a BETTER (w/ sometimes even less work) chance of killing more and better deer.[/ol]
So….are the deer you’re hunting bedding ON the property you hunt? Are they JUST feeding, there? Are they JUST using your land as a travel route between the two?
I’m betting you could (with permission, of course) create A [/b]½ acre bedding area, with one man and a chainsaw, in less than ½ day. What you’d be providing in browse potential and cover might make the deer you’re hunting wanna stick around the land you’re hunting, more. It looks to me like they spend an inordinate amount of their time bedding, anyways. Why not take advantage of that AND maybe enhance your hunting at the same time?
Anybody do things like this? I’d love to hear how it’s worked out….before I approach my landowners.
What got me to thinking about this wasn’t the land I currently hunt. They have 230 acres of sanctuary they can and do bed in, there. The new land I’ll be hunting is 150 acres of land they use as a travel route…..and may “occasionally” bed, there. But there are no prime bedding spots on that property….and I’d like to change that.