setting up hunting land? any ideas or tips? all welcomed.

[itsasmallfarm]

Hello everyone itsasmallfarm here.
right now am thinking of ways and ideas to set up my family's land for better hunting. and need some ideas and tips. now i have google searched what other people do and it seems its all about white tail or turkeys. which is sort of helpful.
but i don't have any turkeys on this land or even a season in my province.
(also for legal note in my province i can legally bait for any game animal besides migratory birds all year round on private land)
now talking about this land or parcel.

its a 160 acres with about 15-20 acres of farm land, the rest is forest. there are two ponds/creeks on the land for water for game.
the big game animals am looking at, are mainly elk, black bear and white tail as i can get an over the counter tag each year for them, yet there are moose on the land and i can apply for a tag in the draw.

now am pretty clue less on things to do to increase hunting odds. but these are my ideas, please let me know if there bad.
1. am thinking a few feed stations and maybe a small orchard in the back forest.
2. more trails (have like none to walk on)
3. and a few stands

any ideas would be awesome thank you for reading and have a great day thank you.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Have you walked the land to see if there's already established trails made by animals? Figuring out where they are moving, and perhaps clearing out trail better would help. Most need to visit water daily so I might start there. Perhaps setting up bait stations near it. Than it's just a matter of positioning stands or blind correctly.

We have been slowly converting our farm land into wildlife habitat. Critters always like easy trails to follow, and cover.

 

[Folly's place]

x2! Also food plots, as in places where good forage is available, seasonally, or all year. Contact your DNR, wildlife experts, whoever is available for advice in your district.
Set up game cameras, in addition to finding game trails, to see who's there, and where they travel.
Don't encourage bears to come close to where you live!!! No close to the house food sources!
It all sounds wonderful!
Mary

 

[wyoDreamer]

Deer like edge habitat. Wide open fields are too exposed and forest land does not have much food. I have seen hunting land with long, narrow fields that are food plots for deer. Like 20-30' wide and 1000' long. One guy said he just widened the roads that criss-crossed the property and planted them for the deer. They use ATV's and UTV's now so they were not driving trucks on the roads anymore.

At our place in WI, we used a seed mix that had turnips in it. They won't touch those until after the first frost, then they go nuts diggging them up and eating them. Word is that the frost sweetens them up. Right now, we have deer eating the volunteer squash that grew in the compost pile.

Warning, bears will destroy apple trees to get at the apples. My BIL planted 8 apple trees on the hunting property and last year was the first year that they had apples. The black bears broke the tops off all but one of them to get the apples. They were short enough that the bear could reach up and grab the apples, but it was easier for the bear to just rip off the whole top and eat the apples from the ground at his leisure.

 

[Folly's place]

I think that you will have all the black bears you will ever want, without encouraging them to increase. Concentrate on habitat for the deer and maybe the elk. Safer hunting!
Mary

 

[itsasmallfarm]

thanks for the responses everyone.

before i start rambling on i should note i don't live there or even have a cabin on the land yet (something down the road we want to build) but its about 4 and half hours from where i live.

but i do agree there are tons of bears, so i will focus on the elk an deer for now

will have to now look around next time am up there and start planning.

 

[sorce]

I'd be wary of creating a "presence".
Since that is likely to lessen numbers of anything before increasing odds.
Depending on surrounding land of course.

Tracking now to find natural movements can help avoid creating a "presence". Like, you don't want to build a trail right next to the only place creatures move onto the land at.

Sounds like there may be a couple of Creek crossings that would be wise to setup a stand at.

Find their trails, and keep yours at least 20yards away, try not to intersect theirs.

Just remember that the very act of "making it better" is more likely to make it worse.

Sorce

 

[Kusanar]

I don't hunt, but a strange fact i picked up from an Alaskan cop show is that moose are attracted to chain saws because they like to eat the leaves, so they have been conditioned to associate a chainsaw with brush being brought down to where they can reach it. If you happen to get a moose tag, you may be able to crank a saw and call them in...

 

[jvls1942]

I would suggest you use what is there already and just improve on it.
ie: find the main deer trails and set your blinds at a strategic spot just off of the trails. Do this way ahead of time and then stay away from the blind until the deer get used to them.
planting a feed plot will cost you some money..
I don't know anything about elk. I would concentrate on the white tails.
unless you have lots of free time, I would not try anything with the bears, either.
X2 on the apple orchard. If the bears don't get them, the deer will eat the branches tight to the trunk. (on small trees) . which yours will be when you first plant them..
apple trees are a long term investment. You will be waiting for several years before you get apples..
Maybe there is an apple tree already on the property .. utilize it.. there will be a deer trail to it already,.
what do the properties around yours look like ? wooded ? fields ? houses ?
......jiminwisc.....

 

[itsasmallfarm]

I would suggest you use what is there already and just improve on it.
ie: find the main deer trails and set your blinds at a strategic spot just off of the trails. Do this way ahead of time and then stay away from the blind until the deer get used to them.
planting a feed plot will cost you some money..
I don't know anything about elk. I would concentrate on the white tails.
unless you have lots of free time, I would not try anything with the bears, either.
X2 on the apple orchard. If the bears don't get them, the deer will eat the branches tight to the trunk. (on small trees) . which yours will be when you first plant them..
apple trees are a long term investment. You will be waiting for several years before you get apples..
Maybe there is an apple tree already on the property .. utilize it.. there will be a deer trail to it already,.
what do the properties around yours look like ? wooded ? fields ? houses ?
......jiminwisc.....

thank you for the reply.
i should also note that this forest is the Boreal forest/ northern forest. pretty much end of the line, a few miles of pasture and farm land north but besides that nothing but forest.

as far as i know there are no apple trees on the land, lots of hazelnuts, raspberries, blue berries and cranberries.

nearest neighbor is about 1 1/2 miles away. the land around on 3 sides is semi pasture/forest land and one side is pure government forest land. (open to public hunting)