Edge Feathering and bedding areas

[letemgrow]

Like your plans Phil! Take some before and after pictures to share later...

My other camera is MIA on the farm somewhere... too much habitat work and not enough paying attention to detail. Got a good deal through cyber monday on another camera so I am back, locked and loaded!!! :way:

 

[IQDM]

Some of you may have watched Rich take another beautiful 5 1/2 year old buck from his farm last fall, on Realtree TV so it's not an accident or a fluke. I asked Rich for permission to use his photographs and I urge you to read his article in Quality Whitetails, for great common sense information that you will find very helpful.

I'll second that on the article! One of the best in recent months IMO! :way:

 

[huntdoc]

when is the time to start cutting? I may have a chance to cut a few trees in next few weeks if it isn't too early in Winter to bother.

 

[dbltree]

when is the time to start cutting? I may have a chance to cut a few trees in next few weeks if it isn't too early in Winter to bother.

You can start anytime now...:way:

Let's talk about funnels....what they look like, why we need them and how we can make them...

If you have never been frustrated watching deer traveling down a runway 50 yards away or popping out into the field in a different spot every night....raise your hand! I doubt in a room full of hunters we would see a single hand go up, so suffice it to say that everyone who has ever hunted deer, especially with archery equipment, would love to know that ALL the deer within a reasonable distance would have to travel down one runway.

This is an example of some natural funnels and while this is not my land I have hunted here many times. I have had encounters with gigantic whitetails but never once have I killed so much as a doe in this spot. Look it over and pick out the natural narrow areas we refer to as funnels, bottlenecks and pinch points and pick your stand spot!

I didn't mark my stands on this picture but circled a couple narrow spots that naturally bottleneck deer but I also marked the many runways that make hunting even this great funnel extremely frustrating. I hope it is obvious by the way that this spot connects larger areas of timber and during the rut traveling bucks are constantly cruising through here. The question is....how can we funnel them down to only one runway?

if this were my farm I would make some fairly simple changes by edge feathering/hinging trees along the line fence (assuming my property was the one to the south). The creek along the west side is naturally deep a with very steep banks so it is somewhat of a natural barrier and open fields to the east tend to keep deer traveling within the timbered areas.

The red line then is were we would hinge to block multiple runways, the blue lines would be lines of travel, the yellow stands for E or NE and W NW winds. The orange lines would be hinged areas that create a cushion around the stands to keep deer from coming in downwind from a field area.

Deer don't like to exert necessary energy and very quickly adapt to taking the "easy way" and soon every deer will travel through this spot just as easily as they did multiple runways beforehand.

Note that the hunter can easily access this narrow corridor without spooking deer bedded in either of the larger timbered areas. If deer were feeding in the hidden bottom field, the hunter can easily slip out to the east after dark without being seen or heard.
Deer can be picked off in a narrow spot like this without alarming every deer in the area and because it's not a field edge, mature bucks are far more likely to appear before dark.

These illustrations are just meant to plant seeds of ideas so that you can first recognize natural funnels and then pinch movement further by blocking off other runways. Hinging cull trees is just one method that happens to be the easiest and most economical way to bottleneck deer and lower your frustration levels next season....

 

[dbltree]

What about places with no trees...what then?

Personally I am ethically opposed to using any form of "high fencing" and by that I mean something so high that deer cannot possibly jump over it. Deer being basically lazy however will go around fence that is too much effort to jump over, so knowing that I use 16' foot cattle panels along old fences or places with few trees.

Usually I can just wire them to old fence pots already in place....just slightly higher then the fence and that is always enough to divert deer towards an opening (usually where I lower the fence) leading to a runway by my stand.

Pretty simple and easy to use and it does provide an option where trees are not...

Some funnels are just amazingly simple....like this spot where I mowed a path through a corn field that never got planted this year. It grew up to a mass of weeds and grasses so i mowed a path from one side to the other and it leads right to food plots and within easy range of a ground blind.

Deer pour down this simple funnel on a daily basis

Don't make funneling complicated...it's not...use anything available to block off multiple runways and funnel them by your stand. Make a "mess" and they'll avoid it....

 

[dbltree]

Here is an example of using some natural impediments where only minimal hinging is required to complete the funnel. In this case deer travel from neighboring cover and it's a real hot spot during the rut. There is enough cover that deer prefer to stick to it but not enough that they might bed there. The blue line indicates the road/fence and the green lines indicate a very steep ravine that deer prefer tor to stumble down.

These are some pictures from my stand where elevation helps me show what you cannot see from the trail cam view

The green lines indicate the ravine and steep cuts that jut up from it, the orange line indicates the runway that brings deer within 20 yards of my stand.

In my Journal I shared pics of a doe I killed that bailed off into that ravine and I had to get my son to give me a hand getting her out of there. He hopped in the sled we haul deer in and rode it to the bottom of the ravine...just to give you an idea how steep it is.

We always want to take advantage of any natural travel impediment that might alter a deer's travel and then fine tune it with hinging or other obstacles.

Behind me is open field that while bucks do cross it obviously during the rut, they usually prefer the safety that the tree cover provides.

Deer follow a fence row to this point and that's it...so don't overlook some very simple entry points to your property funnels. This one allows me to hunt barely 50 yards off the road so i do not disturb deer in anyway. They don't smell me, see me or have any clue I have ever been there.

They filter in from all points and even follow the road down to the fence jump.

They eventually cross beyond me and scramble up the steep bank on the other side

Until then they prefer to avoid the steep ravine

These photos from a telephoto lens are probably 50 yards away

This is just a series of cam pics showing groups of deer coming through the funnel one after another

One group comes thru and the next ones appear in the background

In early fall it is easy to pick does off with out alarming large numbers of deer...I simply wait for a single doe and fawn or the last in the group.

In late fall into winter I wait for the buck that will invariably follow a few seconds later

Not only do funnels make it incredibly easy to harvest whitetails it is also easy to do cam surveys that allow the landowner to know both the quantity and quality of deer that are using his/her property.

By monitoring and hunting only narrow funnel travel corridors I significantly lower the risks of inadvertently molesting deer. I don't travel any where near bedding or feeding areas so I don't leave a "mark". Hunting strategy then is amazingly simple and utilizing this concept one can follow only a few very basic rules to hunt your property successfully.

Hunt the wind...only and always! Most corridors allow you to have two stands so you can utilize at least two different winds. Because they are narrow in most cases the hunter can access stands or cams without crossing runways or bedded deer. It's simple, amazingly easy and landowners and managers have at their fingertips the means to lower your frustration level and increase your harvest success.

Start with aerial photos, use cams to monitor current travel , observe during season and then tighten up bottlenecks for next season...you'll be glad you did.... :way:

 

[Hardwood11]

Oaks

Dbltree: I noticed in the picture of the open fields, you have tree rows planted. Did you plant pin oaks or red oaks in the field, looks like a hardwood that still has it's leaves in December.

 

[tslc]

Be careful with the cattle panels as deer will hook a back leg when they jump them and not get out.

 

[dbltree]

Dbltree: I noticed in the picture of the open fields, you have tree rows planted. Did you plant pin oaks or red oaks in the field, looks like a hardwood that still has it's leaves in December.

Those are sawtooth oaks planted about 15 years ago...very much like shingle oak in appearance and do hold their leaves much of the winter. They finally started producing acorns this year. :way:

Be careful with the cattle panels as deer will hook a back leg when they jump them and not get out.

yep...just like they hook their legs in barbed wire fences and die also. Remember I am not "fencing" with these cattle panels but merely diverting deer or blocking off multiple runways. They have no reason to jump them because a few yards away I have the barbed wire fence tied down so they can just step over it...

 

[dbltree]

I really enjoy sharing information with my friend Rich Baugh because he utilizes many cams to monitor his deer and that of course tells him how and where they use his habitat. Rich does have a large farm so he is able to hold mature deer and what he learns from that is always interesting. When you know a buck is residing on your farm you can be patient and allow him to mature and then kill that buck at 5 1/2.

Rich has been making a habit of that for some years now and killed a 191" behemoth recently and Rich shared a little habitat info that affected how and where this buck lived.

This picture of rye in his corn field also give you an idea that he has built the same type of habitat that I do...food sources surrounded by NWSG, surrounded by timber....perfect!

The larger the property, the more cover we have and the more likely we can hold bucks to maturity. Rich mentioned that "Dozer" lived in a 60 acre timber that is largely wide open partially because it needs to be logged and the market is depressed right now.

Within that 60 acres however he has hinged 3-4 acres 2 years ago and Dozer immediately took up residence there and lived in a 1//2 acre area since then. Rich noted that it is amazing how many deer bed in that hinged area!

Dozer bedded there because Rich had food sources within 300 yards going into winter and with the same thing happening this winter, this buck was easy to pattern. Rich was patient, allowed him to mature, patterned him with trail cams and then killed him as he came out to feed at 4:30 like he had done every day before.

Some of this should be obvious...the importance of hinging to create bedding, how much deer prefer hinged areas versus wide open timber, using trail cams to know what bucks are living there and then pattern them to kill them.

Winter food sources keep deer from moving to the neighbors during the most difficult times of the year and a combination of cover types insulate bucks from activity and they are more likely to stay put. Rich knows the importance of sanctuaries and leaving those areas alone but he also does habitat work, shed hunting and checks trail cams and that activity did not cause these mature animals to leave his farm.

On smaller farms we have to try harder and build the best premium habitat possible to be able to hold bucks to maturity. We have to hunt wisely and funnels allow us to do that without molesting deer in bedding or feeding areas.

The value of a chainsaw then cannot be underestimated but neither should the fact that a complete habitat program that provides year around cover and feed be overlooked.

Rich provides just such a program and even then acknowledges that he has much to do...but then again....don't we all....

 

[dbltree]

Landowners new to hinging often wonder exactly how to make the cut, how far to cut etc. I hope to make some short video clips soon but here are a couple photos to get you started.

Every tree is unique and different but hinging for bedding usually does not require that the tree tip over in any certain direction. I look at the tree first and then begin a cut that will allow it to fall the way it is naturally leaning. I cut on an angle and perhaps 60-85% of the way through the tree.

Often I can give the tree a push and tip it on over...two people can also work together by using a light pole and applying pressure farther up the tree.

Smaller trees obviously are easier and safer to work with and this gives you an idea what the "hinge" is likely to look like.

The larger the tree, the more difficult and dangerous they are to hinge so work with smaller trees first and be extremely careful with larger trees. The are so heavy that when they start to tip, a few may split and send the tree slicing backwards like a giant spear....even if you have a helper there there may be nothing they could do to save your life.

Be safe...wear chainsaw chaps and helmet and don't take unnecessary risks when working in the timber!

 

[letemgrow]

When in doubt on bigger trees, just ring them to be absolutely safe too!!!

 

[dbltree]

When in doubt on bigger trees, just ring them to be absolutely safe too!!!

Absolutely! About 12" dbh is my max and all the bigger cull trees I girdle...no deer worth dying for!


I'm not the greatest "artist"...(ok...I'm a terrible artist ) but here's a rough version of a funnel that i hope shows how I made it such a mess that deer don't bed in the area behind my stand.

I come in from a field and have some trees i have to step over (if you leave a clear path the darn things will follow it right to your stand....)

Some funnels could have stand either side but in this case there was no place for a stand and if there were...getting to it would be dicey.

Hinging for bedding can be pretty "messy" but hinging in the immediate area of the funnel (behind the "fence" hinging along the edge of the funnel) is more then just a mess. In this case they explored it at first and browsed on the hinged tops along the edge but a year later they just travel the funnel and have I have never noticed any in the hinged areas.

All you have to do is...be there...

Course once in awhile they get tuckered out and have to stop and rest a bit...right under my stand....

This funnel is awesome morning or night but I prefer to slip in under cover of darkness in the morning. Either way...thus far I have never jumped a deer going in or out although as that last picture shows...anything is possible....

 

[dbltree]

Sometimes there is a tremendous amount of "hoopla" over the bedding issue, for most of us it's just common sense but some put way to much emphasis on creating a "bed" versus a thick safe sanctuary. Usually the reason for that is because they simply don't understand enough about whitetail behavior, so let's see if we can make a little sense of it?

A mans wife says to him..."c-mon over here big boy and you'll have a night you'll soon not forget"....man says..."nawww...I have my comfy Serta mattress so I think I'll just get some sleep"...

Realistic? Possible perhaps but knowing the average man I suspect "sleep" would be the farthest thing from his mind at that moment.

Whitetail bucks....yearlings have a range up to 1200 or more acres while a 5 1/2 yr old may spend his time on 140 acres or less...EXCEPT during the rut! We create thick brushy sanctuaries that hold deer but the older the buck gets, the less he likes being around other deer so he may spend the summer and early fall in a little draw or field of NWSG or in a small area within a larger bedding area.

One would think then that we could pin down a buck and kill him easily if we know where he beds but...the older they get they have this nasty habit of becoming nocturnal, rare exceptions of course but those fellas don't last long. So what then? We have a 4-5 yr old buck living on our property but he won't budge til after dark...but all that changes during the rut! He didn't get old by being stupid so unlike the 2 1/2's he doesn't run along a scrape line before dark like an idiot but he is vulnerable because he is on his feet and moving before dark.

That takes us back to the analogy at the beginning...would we be so naive as to think that from late October to early December that any bucks are going to look for does all day and then scamper back to their "bed" when they get tired??? Friends....these bucks are big and powerful and charged up with hormones that would wear out the Energizer Bunny! They aren't going back to their bed...heck they aren't going to bed anywhere until they are exhausted and at that point odds are it will be with a hot doe.

Cool! So now they'll both run back to the bedding area and we'll way lay em! Maybe...but 9 times out of 10 he'll run her as far away from other deer as he can. Middle of an open field, a little used draw that leads to nowhere and other such places seldom used by numbers of deer.

Cheez Whiz! I did all this work making these bedding areas and now he is no where to be found...yeah...if it was easy we would all have a wall full of Booners.

So....assuming your goal, regardless of where you live is to begin to encourage more/older aged bucks to spend more time on your property and increase the odds of harvesting one consistently...there are things wayyy more important then worrying about making a "buck bed".

Create thick brushy sanctuaries by any means possible, logging, TSI, hinge cutting and planting shrubs and conifers and keep a constant succession of new cover by doing a new area every year or two. Build bottlenecks between bedding areas and to food sources so that ANY bucks that travel your property will be forced through narrow corridors vastly increasing your odds of an encounter with the most mature bucks in your area.

The browse and cover combined with adjacent year around food sources in safe, secure hidden areas well screened from human activity will hold more does then you bargained for. Those does will in turn bring bucks out of the woodwork that will have no other choice but to travel through the funnels to check doe bedding areas.

Spending time on complex, detailed individual beds is neither necessary nor productive because it only increases the time you are in their bedroom. Tip em over and get out!

Leave some areas semi open so deer can move around and travel yet be well screened

The cull trees in my area consist of primarily shingle oak, smooth and shagbark hickory, ironwood, maple, elm and honey locust. Of those the shagbarks are the least likely to remain alive while the others, regardless of angle of cut survive with even a tiny sliver of bark attached.

Reducing shading canopy by ANY means will encourage new shrubby/brushy growth that will in turn cause deer to bed and feed there and I emphasis FEED because browse is an essential but often completely overlooked element when dealing with our timber habitat.

I cannot over emphasis enough the need to use trail cameras to monitor your deer and to evaluate your habitat program, because without this toll you will be clueless as to what is going on. Without cams you have no idea how many bucks are using your habitat...note 3 bucks in a row going through this funnel!

Without trail cams you are completely in the dark with no knowledge of bucks actually living in your habitat from year to year. So they are important tools to watch young bucks

become older bucks

and eventually mature bucks

All using the same funnels in and out of the same bedding and feeding areas and ample proof that the habitat we have created is meeting our goals of holding not only more bucks but more mature bucks as well.

Don't fret the small stuff! Life is complicated enough with out adding dribble about making "beds"...make a mess! Log, or hinge a percentage of your timber every year and maintain funnels between them and keep deer adapted to traveling only to your food sources by not forcing them to look elsewhere! The right food source combination's that will feed them year around will in turn give them no reason to leave.

Be safe...hinge smaller trees and girdle larger ones to open up canopy...get in, get out and leave em alone....

 

[letemgrow]

Absolutely! About 12" dbh is my max and all the bigger cull trees I girdle...no deer worth dying for!

I agree, it is much faster to just ring the bigger trees anyways....keep up the DIY pics and info for all of us Paul!! :way:

 

[dbltree]

Every woodlot or timber is unique and different and the quality of timber there may vary widely. When the woodlot is higher quality oak and walnut crop trees then we have to take a different approach then if it is poor quality elm, ash, hickory and maple. Every landowner has different goals, so mine may not be the same as yours so i can only share ideas and guidelines to consider.

Some landowners can not afford to hinge cut trees because they need the trees for firewood and to others growing quality veneer oak and walnut logs takes precedence over growing quality whitetails. There is then, no across the board "right or wrong" way to manage your timber but I always strongly recommend walking your timber with your forester first and have him/her help you establish a Forest Stewardship Plan that will help achieve your goals. If whitetails are your priority, let them know so they can help you manage the timber accordingly.

Open timber is not the best whitetail habitat but it is also not wise to massacre a beautiful stand of white and red oak such as this one. I suggest in a 20-40 acres timber that you may choose 2-4 acres in the center for instance and work on thickening that area up even if you sacrifice a few crop trees and designate that as a safe bedding area.

Right now timber prices are somewhat depressed but...for those with a large percentage of crop trees in their timber I recommend doing some selective cutting (logging) under the guidance of a qualified forester. Removing large crop trees and leaving the tops behind instantly creates new cover that will start holding more whitetails.

In my area one needs a minimum of 10,000 board feet or roughly 50 crop trees before a logging company will consider buying them but that can vary and again, discuss all that with your forester. Whitetails will almost over night begin bedding amongst the downed tops, backing up to the cover they provide to bed.

The tops screen deer and instantly changes the "open" atmosphere where they can be seen for a "country mile" common in open mature timber. Opening up canopy will encourage new regeneration and a more brushy environment that will encourage whitetails to spend more time there.

As with anything there are cautions and continued management is required because invasive shade tolerant trees such as hickory, maple and ironwood may spring up and unless you want them to take over you'll need to eventually go back and hinge those trees.

Other invasives such as honeysuckle may also creep in so never ignore your timber and manage it wisely with the help of qualified professional foresters.

The key is always the same...reduce shading canopy and encourage a thicker, brushy type understory and deer will live there...perhaps more then you bargained for...

 

[KSHUNTER]

I bought a farm this year that I took possesion of July 1st, soon as I took over I put up a cam over some corn and salt. I think I got a total of 4 deer from July to September, I then put in 5 acres of rye to provide food, and starting in October deer statred pouring in.

I plan on hinge cutting an area this year to start increasing cover and establishing funnels. My question is: Do I create funnels and bedding areas where I want them, or enhance the bedding and travel routes deer are already using?? I didn't hunt the property this year, so I don't know how they travel the property. Im planning on going in after a snow and having a look to see how they are using the property.

So would you create funnels where you want deer to travel or just manipulate the patterns they are already using? Same question with bedding areas.

 

[dbltree]

I plan on hinge cutting an area this year to start increasing cover and establishing funnels. My question is: Do I create funnels and bedding areas where I want them, or enhance the bedding and travel routes deer are already using?? I didn't hunt the property this year, so I don't know how they travel the property. Im planning on going in after a snow and having a look to see how they are using the property.

So would you create funnels where you want deer to travel or just manipulate the patterns they are already using? Same question with bedding areas.

I start with what they are using and "connect the dots"....enhance the current bedding areas and begin funneling the main runways between them.

Over time you expand the bedding areas and start brand new ones and "tighten" up the funnels as you hunt them and observe "leak" where deer may be sneaking through some where.

If the timber is wide open and deer are just bedding everywhere then start in the center and do some aggressive hinging and work outward from there...:way:

 

[dbltree]

I recently shared pictures of a violator who in cooperation with a neighboring landowner has been attempting to hunt/drive deer from surrounding farms to his friends property. They are competitive archery shooters and hunt together and have practiced this routine many times until...I caught him on my trail cam.

Without cams I wouldn't have known and the funny thing is that people walk thru the same funnels the deer do for the same reasons...it's easy! Neither people or deer care to stumble through downed trees and brush when they can walk down the trail so funnels make it easy to catch both deer and violators on trail cams and make harvesting a good buck significantly easier.

Violators are everywhere...no state or county is immune so as landowners it's something we have to deal with because it is often a significant problem that many are not even aware of. Wives or friends drop them off so they can hunt through without a vehicle parked on the road, professionals use night vision equipment or simply shoot them from the window during daylight hours.

We can lower the negative impacts of these violators by turning our properties in thick dense cover! Edge feathering to provide screening, hinging to create thick cover within our timber, planting shrubs and conifers, planting NWSG, establishing permanent shelterbelts to screen our property from the roads ALL combine to create a poachers nightmare!

We work hard to create sanctuaries only to have some clown walk through it, we allow young bucks to mature only to have someone poach it during bow season using a rifle. Without trail cam surveillance it is nearly impossible to know what is going on and without top quality dense habitat we only make it to easy for poachers to take advantage of our hard work. Don't dismiss or discount the violator element in your overall habitat goals.

I've shared pictures of boat loads of deer in my food plots...

but food alone will not hold deer on your property! My neighbor called me last night to tell me he hauled some round bales back to his cows in a protected area next to the fence between my place and his. My side is timber and part of it runs uphill and is visible from this remote are of pasture so he commented to me "You know where you cut (hinged) all those trees?"...I said yeah..."I counted 27 deer in there on that hill when they stood up and started moving when I got close with the tractor"...

When you combine year around food sources with year around cover you'll hold deer year around....simple as that... :way:

 

[dbltree]

I wanted to add a post about a chainsaw cut to the face to this thread...warning...it's graphic!

Chainsaw massacre

I ordered this helmet with face protection but it may not be worth a flip?

Peltor Lumberjack Series Hardhat

If you have a favorite that works well for you please post it up so we can avoid accidents like that post this winter.