Spur, the managment plan on our property is pretty simple and I know it works first hand because this will be the eighth season we have used this "plan" and we went from hardley seeing anything older than 1.5 years to last year where EVERY single time I climbed in a stand I saw a buck and, on average, would see a 2.5 year old shooter on every other sitting.
Our rule on bucks is simple; you shoot it you mount it. Our doe rule is; please shoot every one you can leagally that does not have spots on it. The past 2 seasons we have taken 5 bucks and 25 does. We always see deer and each year the number of mature bucks seen has increased. This has resulted in my hunting buddies being able to see so many bucks in a season they can afford to be choosy and I am really proud of the "shooters" that they have let walk because they understand the value of our managment plan. Example; last year I let two real nice bucks walk that I normally would have shot, including one real wide 7 point. Now that I have taken a very mature buck. The first thing I think of when i see a buck is, "how big would he be next year".
As far as habitat goes, I have tried to let as much sunlight hit the ground as possible, by clearing as many areas as I can. We also spend a lot of time and money on our Summer and Winter plots. I dont think I have enough food out to really increase weight and antlers but it does keep the deer around durring season and provides some nutrition to deer that dont live in an agricultural area.
If you cant tell I am fired up. We just built a cabin on our property and picked up an additional 425 acres that joins us to make our total huntable acres to about 1K! I am planting my winter plots here in the next few weeks....c'mon sept 25th!
