It always feels great to go spend time on a public hunting land or a friend’s property to catch deer. However, it is so much better to get the deer to come to you. Sure, as a hunter, you already know the importance of wearing hunting clothes and covering scent to avoid detection. But, did you know you can also take advantage of your surroundings? If you own a property, you can use some methods to draw deer to your land.
Here’s how:
Using Food Plots
Deer tend to love diversity in grasses and vegetation. They like to eat certain wild plants; however, the perfect way to lure them to your land is by offering them variety. For this, you will have to till your land by discing it. This method encourages woody plants and natural grasses to spread and re-spout. You can get natural landscaping from https://wildtree.co/. Doing some shallow tilling with a disc will create a smorgasbord for deer on your land and help keep the brush at bay. Deer tend to avoid brushy areas.
Moreover, you can use a mower to cut your grass to help spread and diversity your foliage. Do this once every year during the spring or early summer to offer a tender grass cover for your food plot and control brush even further.
To manage deer habitat, you can remove undesirable trees and cultivate and plant mast-producing trees. Ideally, 20% to 30% of your woodland must have these fruit-and nut-bearing trees. Deer tend to love acorns, particularly from white oaks, chestnut, beech, and hickory. Also, they are attracted to soft mast from crabapple, persimmon, sumacs, and honey locusts.
With Water
Although deer get plenty of the water they need from the food they consume, they look for open water sources in the hotter months. Providing them with a water source will make your land a trusted hangout. You can attract deer to rivers, creeks, and ponds; however, if your property does not have these natural features, you can build a backyard pond or use a stock tank. Place the tank in the area that is mostly undisturbed throughout the year.
With Cover
You can use a lot of the same habitat management activities cited above to improv cover. For instance, thinning residues can be left to make a cover. Also, thinning will help increase understory vegetation. Food plots that contain corn can be visited by deer for cover. And native grasses can be reestablished through mowing.
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