Grow the Hunt

The Birthing Moon

-By Randy Cooper

June is the month of new birth in the woods. You see rare and precious things this time of year if you are patient and know what to look for. I have a Moultrie deer feeder at the end of a food plot in my back yard. When I first put it up over a year ago, I didn’t know what to expect. Finally, the deer found it and I began to get as many as 10 to 12 pictures of deer feeding under it every couple of days. I was so excited that it was getting a response. Today, things are a little bit different. Now I’m getting over 100 a night!!! My record for one night is 166. I have to admit, sometimes it’s almost boring to sit and go through all those pictures day after day. I do this each day because I know, like so many times before, that somewhere in those pictures there will be something truly rare and special.

Last November, I caught a buck fight on my camera. I’ve seen the aggression a buck has as he runs off rivals to protect his does and his food source. The other critters like raccoons, foxes, rabbits and even a ferret are comical to watch in their natural movements.

I have a mineral station on a local property with a Moultrie I-60 camera covering it. I’ve seen just about everything happen around the mineral site. Lately, the deer have been bedding down right beside the site. I literally have to stand in a deer bed to swap out my SD card each week. It’s so cool!!! I truly do love my Moultrie game cameras.

Through what I’ve seen in recent days, the does are so pregnant they are about to POP!! What blew me away was when I checked footage taken over the mineral site the other day. A doe I began calling “BIG MAMA” because of her tremendous size was standing in front of the camera about 20 yards away acting funny. This footage is rare to say the least. If you watch her mid section closely, you’ll see the fawn or fawns she’s carrying moving around so much its unbelievable! I’m sure I was seeing her RIGHT BEFORE SHE GAVE BIRTH!! She is twitching her tail like she is agitated and she also begins to lick at her tail. Run the footage back and forth and see this awesome sight. I’ve never seen anything like it before and feel so fortunate to have once again caught something so special on camera.

I’d like to know if anyone else has seen this rare event. Please comment on this post and let me know. I look forward to the does bringing their fawns to my feeder as I know they will later this month. Get yourself one of these great cameras and capture your own special pictures. They are priceless!!

Half Cutting Trees

In last week’s blog post we discussed the benefits of using a chainsaw in habitat management. We touched on creating wildlife openings by lowering tree density to allow sunlight to reach the forest floor and stimulate new growth. An alternative to completely cutting trees off at the ground is to use a method known as “half cutting.” By only cutting halfway through the trees, the trees fall over but continue to live. This creates instant cover for animals. Since trees continue to live when they are half cut they continue to produce leaves and browse that are easily reached by deer.

Half cutting works best on smaller trees that are between three to eight inches in diameter. To half cut, use the saw to cut about two thirds of the way through the tree, about waist high, and simply push it over by hand. It may take a few trees to get the hang of it but it can be learned pretty easily.

Half cutting is also useful in providing cover around the edge of food plots and fields, making worry deer feel a little more secure about visiting your food plots during shooting hours. Half cutting in an area close to food plots provides cover and bedding areas that otherwise might not exist. Try experimenting with half cutting trees and you will witness the benefits firsthand.

Growin' the Bone

-By Brandon Wikman

The infatuation of two simple bone protrusions upon a deer’s head has captivated hunters from around the world in pursuit of goliath-racked bucks. Although, this isn’t your average type of bone, this is pure, gnarly, twisted and massive beauty we’ve come to know as antlers.

We as hunters desire to learn the necessary tips and techniques for growing a deer’s headgear far past its usual potential. I recently had the opportunity to discuss antler growth with a good friend of mine, Paul Bernegger, who is the owner of MaxGrow Mineral. He has taught me some valuable insight on antler growth, which I’m very excited to share.

During growth season, which is basically as soon as deer shed their antlers, the antler is composed of nearly 80% proteins. When antlers begin to harden late in the summer, the antler is comprised of equal parts of protein and mineral.

The two most common minerals are calcium and phosphorous. They are both stored in the deer’s body and account for 35% of a deer’s weight, which is only a small portion of what it needs to grow into the next walking world record! The only way to make that dream evolve into a reality is to supplemental feed deer with mineral, manage the herd, and get very lucky. Optimal antler growth is a science, but can be attained using the right resources.

The typical soil around the country lacks the essential nutrients to boost a buck into a giant. When you look at where most of the largest whitetails have been taken, the hot zone is nestled in the fertile farming grounds of the Midwest. And I am proud to be living among it!

Using the proper combination of calcium, phosphorous and sodium—minerals that most lands lack—is critical in maximizing antler size. Whitetails deposit calcium and phosphorous in their skeleton before antler growth. During this phase is when minerals are transferred from the skeleton and into the development of the antlers.

Spring is best known for rainy days and the lush colors of green rebirth. Due to the tremendous amount of water, deer are usually in constant need of sodium from the high water and potassium content in forage. I found it interesting that deer need the essential minerals at different times of the season to meet the proper body maintenance and antler growth.

Applying mineral the correct way may not be as confusing as you had thought. Simply find a well-established deer trail and pour a few pounds of power-packed, antler-juicing mineral onto the ground. After you’ve applied a generous amount, mix it directly within the soil. Not only does this substitute lacking trace minerals in the soil, but also provides you with your very own permanent lick station. Be sure to hang a game camera over the lick to capture some stellar photos of deer enhancing their nutrition.

Chainsaws: A Valuable Wildlife Management Tool

If you are looking for a great tool to add to your habitat management collection, consider adding a chainsaw. A chainsaw can be used for many different applications in habitat management. Some of the uses include creating wildlife openings, creating bedding cover, cutting shooting lanes, and clearing trails.

Reducing tree density reduces the amount of canopy overhead allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. The sunlight stimulates the growth of herbaceous vegetation creating a deer salad bar. Felled trees create temporary cover for deer, turkey and a host of other animals. A chainsaw is a great habitat management tool. Do yourself a favor and invest in one if you haven’t already. Be sure to use caution when using chainsaws and let someone know your location.

Enhancing Natural Food Production on Your Property

-By Randy Cooper

I’ve been asked a lot lately about how to get natural vegetation, fruit and mast bearing trees to produce more on hunting properties and attract more wildlife. The answer is to fertilize the already existing plants and trees that benefit deer, turkey, quail and the host of other critters on your hunting property.

Through scouting, I’ve noticed the places deer like to feed and the travel corridors they like to use. I’ve found several varieties of oak trees on my property that deer love to feed on when acorns are falling. Knowing the area and lay of the land really helps put the puzzle together in plotting a hunting strategy. I’ll find a stand sight in a tree with good foliage cover that allows me a bow shot at an oak tree I know from experience the deer love to hit when the acorns start falling.

I’ll mark these trees with surveyors ribbon so that in the winter, when all the leaves have fallen and the sap in the trees is at its lowest, I can find and fertilize them. There is a specific way I go about this that I have learned from the advice of farmers, QDMA members, respected wildlife biologists and from hard learned personal experience.

If I can find a tree that deer seem to pay more attention to than any other tree in the area, I’m in business. Usually the reason they are hitting this tree and ignoring the others that are dropping just as many acorns is that this is what I call a “SWEET TREE”. Simply, this means that the tannic acid content in the acorns this oak tree is producing is lower than any of the other trees in the immediate area. The acorns don’t taste as bitter to the deer, therefore they are sweeter. Finding one of these special trees takes some looking but when you find it, you’ll know what you’re looking. From the base of the trunk, all the way out to the drip line and beyond, there will hardly be a leaf to be found and the ground itself will look like a roto-tiller has chewed it up with all the tracks and droppings there. It truly is a sight to see! By fertilizing this already good tree, I’ll make it even better next fall.

I like to do this after the season closes. I’ll get several bags of 10-10-10 fertilizer. The first number is for nitrogen, the second number represents phosphorus and the third number is for potassium. Along with this I like to add zinc in a granulated form. I mix the zinc with the fertilizer in a 5-gallon bucket and then fill my handheld broadcast spreader. I spread fertilizer around the entire tree at the DRIP LINE. This is the imaginary line formed by how far out from the trunk of the tree the limbs grow. Underground, the root system will reach out to the drip line and that’s where you want the fertilizer to reach when the rain soaks it in. You don’t want to get any closer to the trunk of the tree than that.

A good rule of thumb as far as how much fertilizer to use is: 1POUND OF FERTILIZER TO EVERY INCH OF DIAMETER OF THE TREE TRUNK AT ABOUT CHEST HIGH. So if the diameter of the oak is 14 inches, use 14 pounds of fertilizer.

You can also fertilize greenbriar, honeysuckle, persimmon trees, crabapples and muscadines in the same manner. I buy persimmon, apple, crabapple and sawtooth oak tree saplings from an online supplier. They ship them in good shape with very little soil on them. They are wrapped in wet newspaper surrounded by plastic sheeting to hold the moisture in. I plant these in the corners of my food plots. I usually use potting mix and about a cup of lime mixed together in the hole I’ve dug for the sapling. I water it in with Miracle Grow mixed in the water. For support, I stake the tree to the ground using rope tied to it in three directions. I also use a piece of flexible black drain pipe that we’ve all seen with the drain holes in it to put around the trunk of the tree to protect it from bucks rubbing it and possibly killing it until it gets to be about a year old. At that time I can just cut it off with sheet metal shears and the tree is on its way.

I know all this sounds like a lot of work and it is. For me, I get the thrill of truly seeing the FRUITS of my labor. If you’re as passionate about farming for wildlife as I am and so many more that I know, it’s an accepted part of the big picture we all want to see each and every fall and we don’t mind doing it. I live for doing this in my beloved woods and absolutely love seeing the difference I’ve made in the health of the deer, turkey and other animals that live there. This is one more way that I attract and hold deer on the properties I hunt. Try employing some of these time tested tactics that I’ve used on your property and see the difference it makes in your wildlife and in your experience.

Setting the STAGE for Hunting Success

-By Randy Cooper

Hunting deer and turkeys for over 40 years has been like going to school. Every time I sit in class (the woods) I learn something new. By sitting in class I evolved as a hunter. In the beginning I did all the traditional things like focusing on the rut. I knew that bucks would be moving and more visible at that time more than any other. I hunted the ridge tops, bottoms, funnels and transition zones. Don’t get me wrong, I STILL hunt all these places. However, I have changed the WAY I hunt altogether.

Years ago I belonged to an archery only club that taught me a lot. We hunted the traditional places using the age old traditional tactics with limited success. At the time we thought that the piece of land we leased was the reason, and that we had to accept what we had and be happy with it. We just didn’t know any better.

Through information gleaned from great magazines, books and videos, we as a club began to realize that what we had was a property with potential. That with some work we could MAKE it into the kind of property that would be productive, have a healthier deer herd and increase the overall health of all the game animals that lived and thrived there. We started concentrating on ALL parts of the season, not just the hunting season. We asked a lot of questions to the Ag department on what crops would do well during different times of the year. I talked to successful farmers who also planted for wildlife on their farms. They, after all, had the hard-earned, long-term experience that we needed to know. We learned a lot about soil preparation, clearing, herbicides, lime, fertilizer, year round mineral stations, supplemental feeding through broadcast feeders and most importantly, food plots.

As a group and as individuals, we completely changed our mindset and approach as to how we looked at the property we had then and every piece of ground we’ve hunted since. It took time and a lot of work, but the end result was that we went from HOPING we would see something to KNOWING we were going to; and letting it walk if it wasn’t mature enough. We started spreading the news about what we were doing and showed the proof in the animals we were harvesting. People began to take notice and these techniques began to spread.

Slowly, people around us began letting smaller deer walk and planting for wildlife. We didn’t realize it at the time but we were planting the seeds of a CO-OP with the properties around us. A lot of those properties were gun hunters and once our ideas caught on, it didn’t sound like a war zone anymore with hunters shooting anything that came by. The attitude of “If it’s brown it’s down” went away and was replaced by “Maybe next year little fella.”

I don’t look at things the same as I once did. Now it’s a more tactical, scientific approach that involves year-round work and management. It has made me more mature and responsible. I truly feel like a STEWARD of the land doing my part to help produce bigger bucks and other wildlife.

Probably the most important thing I do differently now is using a strategic approach to planting my food plots. I categorize them into two groups. First is the MAIN PLOT. This is where deer ultimately go after dark or when a cold front is approaching and they want to pick up plenty of groceries before it hits. This can be from a half acre to several acres and in different shapes. I like the boomerang shape and the racetrack. Both will be completely surrounded by woods. The middle of the boomerang is a good place to put a stand because you can see down either of the sides. The racetrack is circular or oval in shape and has woods in the middle like an infield. The opportunities for stand placement here are endless. In the Main plot, I’ll plant corn, brassicas, turnips, chufa and millet for turkeys. Just plant the groceries and they will come.

I view these as the ultimate destination for deer. Everyone knows that deer move near dark, still within good shooting light, on the way to the food source they are moving toward. I use the Main Plot to my advantage. Through scouting, I determine which trails are getting the most use coming into the Main Plot. Then I back track as much as a couple of hundred yards to find just the right location to make a STAGING PLOT. We have all found clusters of rubs in a small area before. These are staging areas that a buck has used waiting for darkness to fall before exposing himself in a big opening to feed or check out does. During the pre-rut and rut, bucks will vent their frustration by horning every little sapling around where they are staging.

I take advantage of this tendency and try to find a place that has a natural opening, or even a place between pine plantation rows. Somewhere that will allow plenty of light to the ground. Right here I’ll make a small food plot back in the woods away from the Main Plot. In short order, this will become a common place for deer to stage, waiting for dark while giving them something to snack on. It doesn’t have to be big in size, maybe 20 feet wide and about as long. I use a variety of plants on these out of the way plots. I’ll always use something different in each one to see what gets the most use. Some of the seeds I use are corn, clover, chicory, soybeans and peas.

Carefully placing your stand at the STAGING PLOTS will give you a great place to take the bigger bucks that don’t like to show up in an open place during shooting light. It will also work well during the post rut when bucks are trying to recover. They don’t want to wander far from their bedding area to find food so this could be your ticket.

It seems like a lifetime ago that I just grabbed my weapon and went hunting hoping I would see something. I have evolved as a wildlife manager, steward of the land and matured as a hunter. I’ll never look at anything the same way again. I’ve learned to look at the whole picture and come up with a strategy that will work for both me and the wildlife on my property. By using the great seed products that are available, we now have the tools to make a good place a fantastic place to hunt and have a quality experience. Everyone is getting on the bandwagon of Quality Deer Management. Try looking at your place from a different perspective and give some of these techniques a try. You and the wildlife you take care of will be glad you did.

Prescribed Burning

For hundreds of years the use of fire has been used as a key management tool in forests. Using fire for habitat management is known as prescribed or controlled burning. Prescribed burning is beneficial and cost-effective. In fact, many species of wildlife depend on fire. Controlled burns remove the build up of combustible material on forest floors. They also help stimulate the growth of new grasses and vegetation that provide cover and food sources for a variety of wildlife. Many legumes require the seeds be scarified before they will germinate; prescribed burns help accomplish this, increasing the chance legumes will germinate. Burning also acts as a fertilizer. When built up organic matter such as leaves and pine straw are burnt, it releases nutrients back into the soil, helping fertilize new growth.

Forest animals benefit greatly from the food sources and habitat made available after prescribed burns. Hardwoods and shrubs quickly resprout, offering a buffet deer can easily reach. Burning also increases the number of insects on the regenerating forest floor, which have proved valuable to turkeys and upland birds such as quail. Burning also creates desirable nesting areas for turkey and upland birds.

There are many different ways to execute a prescribed burn. Breaking areas into small blocks and burning them on a rotational basis will give you many different stages of growth on your property. Ideally, you want to burn a section about every three years. This will leave you some sections for cover and bedding areas while the others provide new food sources.

It is important to contact your local forest service office for laws in your area, and what permits are needed to perform a controlled burn. They can also tell you when and what type burn will be the most effective for your desired management goals. Many times the forest service can perform a prescribed burn if you do not feel comfortable performing one yourself. You can also contract with private companies to perform the burn for you.

Mineral Sites Made Easy

-By Randy Cooper

I’m in the process of installing mineral sites on the properties I hunt. To me, these sites are very important. The deer benefit from a nutrient standpoint. I benefit from being able to check tracks near the sites, as well as camera monitoring to let me know what’s in the area. I like to keep these sites active all year long as part of my management strategy. Mineral sites are focal points for deer. The law in Georgia says that you can’t hunt within sight of one of these mineral stations. The strategy I use is to hunt an active trail leading to the site instead of hunting over it, just like I would approach hunting a food plot.

Deer use mineral sites all year and reap benefits. In early spring, does carrying fawns especially need nutrients. Bucks have used up their mineral reserves after rut and winter, which they need to develop new antlers. Later in spring, does that are lactating consume minerals heavily and by now bucks also need them to power the growth of antlers that are already coming on strong. In summer does and bucks continue to need minerals to sustain antler growth and aid does recovering from fawning and digestion of well established browse. In fall and winter, bucks and does are consuming a lot of calories preparing for colder temperatures and the rut to come. At this time, doe consumption of minerals at the site will increase and bucks will decrease. I’ve even seen bucks use a mineral site as a scrape. I reason that he realizes does frequent this place and he responds with a scrape.

The main ingredients of many of the prepared minerals available today are calcium, phosphorus, sodium and magnesium. A lot of companies will also throw in a concoction of their own and patent it. Usually it will be something along the lines of molasses, sugar cane for an aromatic flavor that attracts deer, and protein and fat for calorie intake. Many companies make a powder form that can also be added to whole corn in a broadcast feeder or a gravity feeder to enhance the attraction.

I have always had good success by simply preparing a site at the end of a food plot. The deer are already there feeding so it just makes sense to put the site there also. You can put it along a good trail and hunt the downwind side of the site of the trail as long as you’re not within sight of the mineral.

To prepare my sites, I take a steel rake, clear the ground of debris and make a shallow, dish-shaped depression in the ground about 3-feet long by 2-feet wide. I usually pour a 40-lb. sack of a good mineral supplement evenly over the entire area. I make sure it’s in a trail so that deer can’t miss it. The reason for the depression is to collect water and wash the minerals into the ground. Farmers and wildlife managers I’ve talked to say that when deer eat the mineral-rich soil it aids in digestion. I’ve seen my sites grow 4 years later to 4-ft by 4-ft, 3-ft deep – you could use it as a foxhole!

The whole idea behind mineral supplementation is a good practice and should be part of a sound management program on everyone’s hunting property. It enhances the overall health of the herd and that’s what we’re all after. Take a look online at the vast variety from so many companies today. They all have something different to offer. This is just one more step in the right direction toward having that little piece of heaven all your own to hunt healthy deer. Give it a try.

Late Winter Supplemental Feeding

One of the most common mistakes that hunters make is providing supplemental feed only in the fall. Often times, many quality food sources are depleted by late winter. Starting supplemental feed programs from the end of the rut through the time when your spring food plots come in can give you a head start on building a healthy deer herd. By providing deer with high–quality feed during late winter and early spring, and maximizing protein levels during these periods, you will ensure optimal body growth and antler development.

Another advantage to using feeders in late winter and early spring is that deer season is over. Deer are looking for food; feeders will help draw local deer to your area. Using game cameras in conjunction with a feeder allows you to easily inventory your herd, determine what bucks to hunt next season, learn the time and the date of the sightings, get a good idea of your buck-to-doe ratio, and find out how many deer come to your feeder each day. Begin your supplemental feeding now; it will increase your chances of growing the quality bucks that you want to harvest next season.

Post-season Survey

With deer season coming to an end, now is a great time to conduct a post season survey of your game. The easiest way to do this is by using a game camera. A post-season camera survey of your whitetail herd allows you to see which deer made it through the season, as well as judge the overall health of your herd. Since bucks lose a lot of weight during the rut, looking at the does that you capture on camera will give you a good idea of the health of your deer. Once you’ve gathered this information you will be able to make more informed decisions about your game management programs.