20 07, 2022

“Clover Roads”: Easy Food Plots For Deer

2022-07-18T08:28:48-04:00July 20th, 2022|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on “Clover Roads”: Easy Food Plots For Deer

If you hunt deer on 200 acres or more of private timber, you probably have several logging roads that crisscross the property. Map out a couple flat road sections that are secluded near the center of your woods and turn them into “clover roads.” Planting 500 to 1,000 yards of open logging road is like putting in a half-acre or one-acre food plot, and with minimal work it’s a no-brainer. With an ATV or UTV and a weighted drag, ride the roads and break up the soil, then plant them with a proven attractant like Imperial Whitetail Clover. A couple things to consider. Plant accessible but hidden stretches of roads--deep in your woods, and out of sight of a county [...]

1 07, 2022

Why You Should Not Mow Deer Food Plots

2022-06-28T15:40:51-04:00July 1st, 2022|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Why You Should Not Mow Deer Food Plots

Put away that tractor and mower! In a recent study, Craig Harper, extension wildlife specialist at the University of Tennessee, found that regular mowing does not improve perennial food plots, and does not increase crude protein of the forage. In fact, the study showed that mowing white or red clover and alfalfa plots reduced forage production by 25 percent. Deer consumed 608 lbs./acre more forage in un-mowed study plots. Kip Adams of the National Deer Association agrees. “Contrary to what you might have heard, there is little to be gained by mowing clover,” he says. “In fact, you lose forage for deer and other wildlife.” Kip understands that many hunters like to mow their plots at least once, and for [...]

21 06, 2022

Will Drones Replace Helicopter Deer Surveys?

2022-06-21T08:28:48-04:00June 21st, 2022|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Deer Science, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Will Drones Replace Helicopter Deer Surveys?

In a recent Southeast Deer Study Group (SEDSG) meeting, wildlife specialist Jesse Exum presented a paper on estimating deer numbers with the use of drones. Drones were fitted with thermal-optical video cameras and flown at 5 different sites in South Texas. Result: The drone-captured thermal estimates of deer from the 5 surveys were comparable to much louder, time-consuming and expensive helicopter survey estimates. In another study conducted while doing his postdoctoral work, wildlife specialist Jared Beaver and colleagues equipped drones with thermal cameras and flew them over a 430-acre facility at Auburn University in Alabama, where the precise number of whitetails in the enclosure was known. After analyzing the results of their evening flights, the researchers found that the population [...]

9 03, 2022

4 Ways To Improve Your Deer Hunting Land With A Chainsaw

2022-03-09T08:28:18-05:00March 9th, 2022|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, whitetail deer|Comments Off on 4 Ways To Improve Your Deer Hunting Land With A Chainsaw

March is a great time to fire up your Stihl saw and improve the hunting on your property next fall. Create Browse A honey hole that had produced a bunch of bucks over the years went cold on my Virginia land. Deer quit using the area, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why. The woods had simply grown too old. There was a heavy, dark canopy and little vegetation on the ground. A couple of buddies and I fired up chainsaws and dropped most of the scrub pole timber in a half-acre strip. Today briars and berry bushes grow everywhere in there. It’s once again a staging area for deer and one of my favorite bowhunting spots. [...]

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