Hinge cutting

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Thank you both so much for taking the time to come by and take a look and answer my questions!

Can't wait to start!

 

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

[Nomad]

Why do you have nocturnal deer from October on?   Who is putting the pressure on them?  We shoot a few on my property each year(7 acres) and I have big, small bucks and does running all around in the daytime.  Had 16 here at 9am and again at 3pm.  Fairly open hardwoods.  They come here for food. The only thing that is going to bring deer onto a property that size is a food plot or a big corn pile. Preferably both!    Cut and plant if you want, but if you want deer there feed them.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Nomad

[Rusty]

Why do you have nocturnal deer from October on?   Who is putting the pressure on them?  We shoot a few on my property each year(7 acres) and I have big, small bucks and does running all around in the daytime.  Had 16 here at 9am and again at 3pm.  Fairly open hardwoods.  They come here for food. The only thing that is going to bring deer onto a property that size is a food plot or a big corn pile. Preferably both!    Cut and plant if you want, but if you want deer there feed them.

 

 

Right now there is minimal food and cover, but with a little work the property will have an abundance of both.  If you build it they will come.  

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

I've had corn and apples down weekly from Aug on.. 99% nocturnal from October on. Not much pressure, just no deer close by.. takes them awhile to get from bedding to my corn pile.

So I am bringing the bedding closer

 

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

[tcook8296]

A few things to consider before you start hinging trees. You need a plan with a realistic goal. If you are trying to attract deer to the property, they need to feel safe or they will just be passing thru and movement will be later and later with each passing day of hunting season. Deer don't like wide open woods, they like thick. I haven't found a way to sugar coat hinge cuts. Its going to look

messy. The 1st year you do it you will think you over did it and the following year you will wish you did more. Hinge cutting 2 acrescould improve things for you but you may need to adjust some hunting habits. For both my properties, I have found this works pretty good for me. Hunting and baiting in the hinge cuts is strictly off limits except when the bucks are cruising and chasing does from Halloween until about the 2nd week in November. This is also the only times I will hunt a stand in the mornings. All other times of the year will be afternoon hunts only. This area needs to be kept quiet as much as possible. We still utilize the property during the off season. I have quad trails around my property and my wife loves to ride in the summer months but once September hits her ATV is in the barn. You will never hold a mature buck on a small parcel. You can however get does to reside on your property. I don't shoot my resident does. As long as they have food, water and safe cover they will stick close by and they will tolerate a little more human activity than a mature buck. Get the does to feel safe in the hinge cut area, they will take up residence and they will attract the bucks later in the season. Stands should be far enough away from the bedding/hinge area so you can get into it without alerting the deer and set a few for different wind directions. If you have room for a food plot, plant it. If you don't, you can always find a place for a strip of clover. If you have a feeder, keep it near the house and don't shoot deer off the feeder. The deer coming to the feeder will be your resident does. They need to stay happy. When they are happy and feel safe, they walk around a lot more in daylight hours. I don't usually hunt my NJ property unless I have a buck I want to shoot. As the season progresses, you should attract more deer especially when the guns start blazing. If your property has almost 0 pressure while your neighbors are trampling every inch of their properties for months, the deer figure it out pretty quick. Hunt your property for a year like this and I guarantee you will notice a difference. In year 2 the difference will be amazing.

[tcook8296]

There are a few good books out there. Check out books by Jeff Sturgis and Steve Bartylla. Also you can check out this thread http://deerhunterforum.com/index.php?threads/dbltrees-hing-cutting-thread.976/

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Thanks.. my big issue is the land is about 100 yards wide and maybe 450 yards deep or so.

 

We decoded today many of my trees will not be hinge cut, but instead they will be ringed and left standing to die. The leaves will not bud, and light will hit the ground. Then maybe in a few years I can hinge cut the saplings.

We're going to drop some maple trees in feb, kill the rest of the maples and leave them standing And Hinge cut the smaller trees leaving 2 or 3 big oaks and some pines on the back few acres where less people walk hoping to make it thicken up real thick in the future. (Tornado zone, but only 2-3 acres or so )

 

Going to plant 50-100 pine tree saplings throughout the property, and a half dozen pear / apple trees along the small 1/2-1 acre clover field (maybe) which is currently my back lawn/leach field.

 

Adding a mineral site soon near the pond edge

 

And hinge cutting the rest of the land and killing all trees that are not valuable to deer habitat and are just there blocking sun light from producing ground cover.

 

 

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

[Haskell_Hunter]

Take photos of the progression.

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

Take photos of the progression.

That's gonna be your job lol

 

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

[JerseyJaysTaxidermy]

There are a few good books out there. Check out books by Jeff Sturgis and Steve Bartylla. Also you can check out this thread http://deerhunterforum.com/index.php?threads/dbltrees-hing-cutting-thread.976/

That thread is excellent, spent 1 hour just on page 1 of 4. I'll continue tomorrow. Thanks for the link.

 

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

[Rusty]

That's gonna be your job lol

 

 

Yeah, if HH is the designated drinker he can at least snap a few pictures between pints. 

[Haskell_Hunter]

Yeah, if HH is the designated drinker he can at least snap a few pictures between pints. 

 

Great, now I have to multi-task.  Let me know before the first cut, and I'll swipe my daughter's awesome camera (and a 12-pack).

[Nomad]

Think about planting some cedars also.  

 

A few things to consider before you start hinging trees. You need a plan with a realistic goal. If you are trying to attract deer to the property, they need to feel safe or they will just be passing thru and movement will be later and later with each passing day of hunting season. Deer don't like wide open woods, they like thick. I haven't found a way to sugar coat hinge cuts. Its going to look
messy. The 1st year you do it you will think you over did it and the following year you will wish you did more. Hinge cutting 2 acrescould improve things for you but you may need to adjust some hunting habits. For both my properties, I have found this works pretty good for me. Hunting and baiting in the hinge cuts is strictly off limits except when the bucks are cruising and chasing does from Halloween until about the 2nd week in November. This is also the only times I will hunt a stand in the mornings. All other times of the year will be afternoon hunts only. This area needs to be kept quiet as much as possible. We still utilize the property during the off season. I have quad trails around my property and my wife loves to ride in the summer months but once September hits her ATV is in the barn. You will never hold a mature buck on a small parcel. You can however get does to reside on your property. I don't shoot my resident does. As long as they have food, water and safe cover they will stick close by and they will tolerate a little more human activity than a mature buck. Get the does to feel safe in the hinge cut area, they will take up residence and they will attract the bucks later in the season. Stands should be far enough away from the bedding/hinge area so you can get into it without alerting the deer and set a few for different wind directions. If you have room for a food plot, plant it. If you don't, you can always find a place for a strip of clover. If you have a feeder, keep it near the house and don't shoot deer off the feeder. The deer coming to the feeder will be your resident does. They need to stay happy. When they are happy and feel safe, they walk around a lot more in daylight hours. I don't usually hunt my NJ property unless I have a buck I want to shoot. As the season progresses, you should attract more deer especially when the guns start blazing. If your property has almost 0 pressure while your neighbors are trampling every inch of their properties for months, the deer figure it out pretty quick. Hunt your property for a year like this and I guarantee you will notice a difference. In year 2 the difference will be amazing.

In my opinion, this is exactly correct!!!  It is pretty much what I do.  In the past we made the mistake of shooting does on my small property, just to get the kids some action.  Now that the kids are older, I don't bother the does anymore, they really bring the bucks in during the rut. I have 8 or so big does here with their fawns and quite a few small bucks.  The big bucks usually make their appearance for a few days when a doe comes into heat and they sometimes stop for a quick bite to eat.  Occasionally, I get an older buck to stick around and come in for the feed regularly, and that's when my son usually gets a crack at him.

[Bucksnbows]

Think about planting some cedars also.  

 

 

 

He has a patch of cedars near his house that will see the hardwoods removed from inside their area to encourage new cedar growth.  His other "dark timber" component are mature white pines whose crowns are high up in the air, hence they no longer provide thick cover.  He will be planting Norway spruce in that stand of pines to thicken it up significantly.  Right now, this property has very little understory and is just a mature forest.  Once we get light to sections, it will thicken up nicely.  He does have some great red oaks that should produce well most years, and those will all be left standing with the scrub trees around them cut or girdled and left standing so all the sun can get to the oaks instead,  Yesterday was a good first day of planning and prioritizing the work he will have to do to greatly improve this property, but there is ample potential to hold a lot more deer in time.    

[JHbowhunter]

I've had corn and apples down weekly from Aug on.. 99% nocturnal from October on. Not much pressure, just no deer close by.. takes them awhile to get from bedding to my corn pile.

So I am bringing the bedding closer

 

http://www.jerseyjaystaxidermy.com

 

  Fredon Township is a beautiful area, and rich with good deer cover overall and plenty of food.   The pressure is not coming from you - Fredon could quite possibly be the most heavily bow-hunted area of NJ, plus still plenty of legacy gun-gangs pushing all they can during the extra shotgun days.  I been here since 2002.   Back then if you baited, it was as you would expect.  I consistent pattern of deer that would be active throughout the day as well.  That is simply not the case anymore. The amount of folks baiting and bowhunting is now off the charts. Yes masterbaiting is definitely at an all-time high. The #1 GDP in the area is probably corn sales to deer hunting and that is no exaggeration.

 

 The other issue that is prevalent in your general area is same as my buddy's 52 acres just down road from you - the forest did get over-mature and over-browsed from when the deer densities were a bit too high. When he first got that farm in 2005, the deer numbers and their patterns were completely different than they are now.

 

All that being said - you are absolutely going about this the right way and concur 100% with Rusty.   There is still very good hunting not far from you or me that have big bucks and good densities, but they do coincide with thicker cover and are near areas with no hunting.  The deer need sanctuary and be left undisturbed and in Fredon the real honey holes are near those sanctuaries.  What was once the best sanctuary was near Whittingham, but The Nature Conservancy opened that up to hunting several years ago. That was a massive tract of good cover and ridges and acorns and browse that had NO hunting for many many years.  Now that gets heavily bowhunted and driven a lot during shotgun and what a difference that has made.

 

We as hunters can complain all we want and I certainly am not only a complainer but also a contributor to the problem - TOO MUCH PRESSURE.   Too many hunters, not enough sanctuary for them to relax and stay on normal daily feeding patterns.

 

It is clear to me that your property is surrounded by human hunting pressure and other baiters  - there is no safe haven for them within a reasonable distance.  You said when you bought it there were stands on your property.   Now they are just hunting nearby and not "on" your property.   Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing you can do about that.    There have been times when that has happened near me and I seriously thought about moving because realistically that is the only thing you can do if you want to have quality hunting on your own land, but establishing better relations with neighbors has allowed me to focus on areas of the neighborhood that are closer to sanctuary. Last 5 years in my own woods have been rather bad - but the yahoo neighbors moved that typically ruined the hunting and it was much better this year.

Edited January 5, 2017 by JHbowhunter