Tag soup again.

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Well another season has come and gone here in NY. Been two years since my dad and I have harvested. We lost our prime land three years ago due to the owner passing. It was sold to a local farmer who gave us permission to hunt but began to clear as much of it as he can. It has really disrupted the deer. We have had to fall back to our old hunting grounds. Which haven't been very productive since the neighboring farms kids grew up and moved away. Bums me out big time but oh well I guess look forward to next year
 
Sorry to here that. But right there with ya. :( Tag soup for me too but No tag since I hunt Ohio as a Land owner still. Deer were just acting strange in their movements this year. Still not sure what was going on. Some locals think a bought of EHD started it but could not seem to find any one that saw evidence of it. Been several years since I got skunked. Oh well that why they call it hunting not shooting.
 
We had the trees harvested off of our hobby farm to free up some cash for maintenance & our daughter some college money. It really disrupted the deer, their patterns of movement and bedding areas. I did end up getting a small buck second season, but at a much longer range than I had grown accustomed too.
 
waarp8nt said:
We had the trees harvested off of our hobby farm to free up some cash for maintenance & our daughter some college money. It really disrupted the deer, their patterns of movement and bedding areas. I did end up getting a small buck second season, but at a much longer range than I had grown accustomed too.
That type of work on the farm does mess em up a lot. Our farm has Mead Paper company on 2 sides and when they harvest or later when they replant, it really messes things up for some time. Been about 3 years since they replanted but something very odd was happening this year and still no clue what it was. It was as if they started crawling into holes after the rut. Nothing was moving. They moved pretty good last year. My nephew saw a lot on the weekends right up to the Sunday after Thanksgiving (day before gun season) and he said it was like someone threw a switch and shut them down. :(

We Timbered our property too but I forget how long ago it was, maybe 8 to 10 years ago. Had an ice storm go through and it damaged a lot of good oak and poplar we had so took them down to salvage them. The top of one small hill had a good Oak flat that was about 2 to 2 1/2 acres so we had them clear cut that small section (now a small hay field). We walked the loggers we used back and told them that we wanted all the tops and brush pushed up into rows along that clear cut spot and the length of another ridge even flagged where we wanted them. This was to give the deer and critters some place to hide so not to feel so exposed. Next fall we actually saw deer bedding up against it and the Birds and squirrels thought it was an amusement park. :D My Brother had one of the local Ag Conservation agents over to discuss something and he saw what was done to the tree tops. He asked about how those came to be that way and when it was explained he was shocked. Said that NO one does that and said he can't seem to convince others (including loggers) doing clear cuts or select timbering to do things like that as all any one thinks about is "Cleaning up the mess".
 
ShawnT said:
We Timbered our property too but I forget how long ago it was, maybe 8 to 10 years ago. Had an ice storm go through and it damaged a lot of good oak and poplar we had so took them down to salvage them. The top of one small hill had a good Oak flat that was about 2 to 2 1/2 acres so we had them clear cut that small section (now a small hay field). We walked the loggers we used back and told them that we wanted all the tops and brush pushed up into rows along that clear cut spot and the length of another ridge even flagged where we wanted them. This was to give the deer and critters some place to hide so not to feel so exposed. Next fall we actually saw deer bedding up against it and the Birds and squirrels thought it was an amusement park. :D My Brother had one of the local Ag Conservation agents over to discuss something and he saw what was done to the tree tops. He asked about how those came to be that way and when it was explained he was shocked. Said that NO one does that and said he can't seem to convince others (including loggers) doing clear cuts or select timbering to do things like that as all any one thinks about is "Cleaning up the mess".

I agree with that idea 100%. Planning to cut firewood from the larger limbs and use the tops as habitat for critters.

Just wanted to ad my prevoius typical deer hunts were under 50 yards. Last year, even before the tree harvest, I did not get a chance for a shot due to extremely high winds in our area. First season was miserable with nothing moving and I was unable to hunt second season. Tag soup for me last year and I was greatly disappointed as I had promised the meat to a friend who fell on hard times.
 
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