No More Wind Free Range Sessions
 

My rifle range - before & after.

This is what the 300 yard rifle range at our hunting club lease looked like up until last week.



And this is what it looks like now, after a clear-cut of about 100 acres of our 900 acre lease.

That is a big difference! One question though. Where is your backstop?
That sort of looks like the reclaimed strip mine areas I shoot at up in PA.

It's difficult to tell from those pictures. But there's a gentle upward slope starting at the 50 yard mark and extending the length of the range out to the tree line seen in the second picture. That tree line is 340 yards from the bench. Most shots bury themselves in the soft sandy loam just beyond the targets. If there are any ricochets, the backstop is the tree line. It's all private land and our lease extends another 500 yards beyond that tree line.

wow thats a huge change of scenery.

I hate seeing clear cuts after I get used to hunting a certain area. But the amount of bucks you will see in 2 years on that clear cut will be amazing. It will be a deer salad out there soon.

You're right deer655. We're really excited about the cut. The herd on our lease was declining over the last five years as trees matured in much of the area. Then two years ago they did a "3rd Row" thinning cut on about 150 acres of the lease. Then last year they did another thinning cut on another 100 acres. In both instances we noted an increase of forage, thicker understory, and and increase in the deer population. Now with the clear cut we're going to see a real population bump over the next five years or so.

Thats the plus for sure. But DANG... why'd they have to do the section where your range is :(

Will they replant in rows, or just let it grow up? I assume rows for future harvest.

Yep definitely changed the landscape

Don't know the planting plans yet WV. They usually row plant.

This may be true in some cases, but we have a land owner who had the cut under growth killed off!!! Since this was done our deer have cut paths going around these areas.

As for me, my lease is mostly wet lands and what is dry is too small an area to harvest the lumber. I hope.

Our problems here in Virginia is that the price of hard wood lumber has gone way up!!! Once we loose the hardwoods and have them replaced with pines the area isn't the same!!

The low was -13 yesterday and it's only 14 now, no shooting anytime soon by me. Semi if you still got that NEF muzzloader it's time to dust it off and fire away !!!

I had a farm I was hunting that was about 50/50 oaks and pasture land. This land owner never replanted after clear cutting. When the blackberries and honeysuckle took over the bucks moved in. I work on large system printers and I had a paper vendor tell me once that oaks are only good for 2 to 3 weeks out of the year while dropping acorns but a replanted pine forest that allows it undergrowth to fill in naturally is a much better year round food and bedding source- made sense. But when those acorns start dropping thats where I will be if possible.

when they do that where I live we get poplar slashings that grow back. Poplar as thick as grass it seems. And is that a bear to get through. As for the deer, around here they like open areas. One reason I cleared a small section behind my garage. Not for hunting mind you, but for watching. Its fun to see the deer and turkey back there moving around.

Man I hear ya on that sbuff!!

Saturday here was -8 low with a high of 5 degrees and winds NNW at 20-25 mph! Sunday wasn't much better but the winds were out of the south at 10-12 so it was a little warmer. Yesterday it went from snow to freezing rain to all rain and we got pounded with heavy rains for about 4-5 hours. Talk about freaky weather patterns this year, GEEZUZ!! I'm on board with you, probably won't be doing any shooting until things stabilize some.

BPS