Learning my property

[Mag]

Saturday morning was a fun one, still using this season to do my best to learn my new hunting land. Put my Nephew in a ladder stand a few hundred yards from mine. Heard a shot at 6am and was sure it was him, nope. Sure was close though. Around 7 I had a small 4pt with his right side broken off come in and walk behind me, was within 10 ft of my ladder, about 45 minutes later a doe was following the same path and as I was watching her I heard grunting. Sure enough a buck was following, he was decent but not one I want to take this early. They worked to within 20 yards of me before wondering down the side of the ridge. No shooting but exciting anyway.
As we were leaving we loaded up the side by side and I was showing my Nephew the rest of the area and as we circled the trail behind his stand, we see a hunter in a tree just across the property line....now I know where the early shot came from. Really lookin forward to getting this place set up the way I want it to be.

 

[BSK]

Mag,

Learning a new property, especially YOUR property, is a wonderful and exciting thing. But a word of warning, you're never really going to learn it all. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something will change. A storm knocks down trees, you decide to harvest some timber, your neighbors decide to harvest timber, they change how they manage a field, etc. And that will change everything you've learned, and you're back to trying to learn new deer patterns. But that's one of the maddening thrills of working with the same property for years. I've had my place for 37 years. I'm still trying to figure it out. A good acorn year changes thing. A drought and acorn failure changes things. Every change we make in the habitat changes the deer patterns. It drives you crazy, but that's also the fun of it all.

 

[Ski]

Mag,

Learning a new property, especially YOUR property, is a wonderful and exciting thing. But a word of warning, you're never really going to learn it all. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something will change. A storm knocks down trees, you decide to harvest some timber, your neighbors decide to harvest timber, they change how they manage a field, etc. And that will change everything you've learned, and you're back to trying to learn new deer patterns. But that's one of the maddening thrills of working with the same property for years. I've had my place for 37 years. I'm still trying to figure it out. A good acorn year changes thing. A drought and acorn failure changes things. Every change we make in the habitat changes the deer patterns. It drives you crazy, but that's also the fun of it all.

100% spot on. Every year on my place is almost like a new property. One would think going from season to another would be like a continuation but it's not. It's a reset start over in many ways.

 

[Mag]

Mag,

Learning a new property, especially YOUR property, is a wonderful and exciting thing. But a word of warning, you're never really going to learn it all. Just when you think you have it all figured out, something will change. A storm knocks down trees, you decide to harvest some timber, your neighbors decide to harvest timber, they change how they manage a field, etc. And that will change everything you've learned, and you're back to trying to learn new deer patterns. But that's one of the maddening thrills of working with the same property for years. I've had my place for 37 years. I'm still trying to figure it out. A good acorn year changes thing. A drought and acorn failure changes things. Every change we make in the habitat changes the deer patterns. It drives you crazy, but that's also the fun of it all.

Yeah, already experiencing this. The top ridge of the property backs up to the neighbors. Was filled with old and thick timber.....until they logged it. Completely changed the landscape and certainly the patterns of the deer.

 

[BSK]

Yeah, already experiencing this. The top ridge of the property backs up to the neighbors. Was filled with old and thick timber.....until they logged it. Completely changed the landscape and certainly the patterns of the deer.

Get used to that! And then have to worry about changes no one is responsible for: weather, acorn crops, etc. Hadn't made a change on my place since we cut a lot of timber in 2020, but the drought and acorn failure this year changed EVERYTHING. It's been a real pisser to figure out this year.