2020 Oglethorpe County

[Triple C]

@jbird1 our kids are grown and married. We are grandparents. We love our kids, but an empty nest is just as fun as it was 28 years ago.

That deserves about a hundred like buttons!

 

[jbird1]

@jbird1 our kids are grown and married. We are grandparents. We love our kids, but an empty nest is just as fun as it was 28 years ago.

Thanks for the words of wisdom! I wouldn't trade these days of raising children for anything. That doesn't mean I won't be ready to run in the next phase, the Lord willing.

 

[Triple C]

Was not a good year for us, I saw deer early in the season, more in bow season than gun, then it became a lot harder, deer seemed to go nocturnal earlier than in the past , our mature pines were thinned a month or so before season and it may have played a role in disrupting their normal patterns, heard very few shots during gun season, but mainly being there on weekends I'm not sure what happens during the week, out of 4 hunters we only took 2 bucks, two of us hunting most weekends, weather didn't help in the last month or so, I've got to do some soul searching in the next few months, I've hunted this same property since 1977, we've leased it since 1979, I've never considered finding somewhere else to hunt , but I am now.

The founding members of an adjoining club turned the club over to someone else, and they hunted elsewhere this season, the people currently running it don't seemed concerned about population and harvested whatever, pretty sure an adjacent tract is shooting whatever, it may be time to move on, even though that place is like a second home to me.

transfixer...Those thinned pines should produce an explosion of forbs n bramble growth this spring and summer providing great cover and food for the next few years. Just curious how many acres of food plots ya'll are able to plant? Any possibility you could maintain year-round food plots to keep those nanny does and their young coming to the same plots every day to nibble on what's growing? If you have really heavy hunting pressure all around you see if you can create an oasis on your place that makes the doe(s) want to stay there for bedding, cover and food. 40 years hunting the same tract would be hard to give up, particularly if the outlook is good to continue to be able to lease in the years ahead.

 

[transfixer]

transfixer...Those thinned pines should produce an explosion of forbs n bramble growth this spring and summer providing great cover and food for the next few years. Just curious how many acres of food plots ya'll are able to plant? Any possibility you could maintain year-round food plots to keep those nanny does and their young coming to the same plots every day to nibble on what's growing? If you have really heavy hunting pressure all around you see if you can create an oasis on your place that makes the doe(s) want to stay there for bedding, cover and food. 40 years hunting the same tract would be hard to give up, particularly if the outlook is good to continue to be able to lease in the years ahead.

We're very limited in being able to plant food plots, since its a pine plantation they don't leave many places open , I've planted a couple small ones the last few years, but honestly haven't prepared them as well as I should, the only open areas we have are two or three loading zones they used, but nowadays they leave all the bark and wood they strip in those loading zones, they're more like big compost piles, so planting them is virtually impossible, they don't bulldoze or burn anything anymore,

I know the mature pines that were thinned will have plenty of browse this spring and summer, it just seems like we're fighting a losing battle, we started being very conscious of what we harvested years ago, and quit shooting does about 3yrs ago, at first it seemed to help, but I think the neighboring clubs have canceled out what we did, we only have 366acres, so its hard to make a difference with that. I'm going to get with the other two guys that hunt a good bit, and see if they want to put an effort into making what food plots we can, but the only place we really have to do them is on interior roads, unless we get a bulldozer and try to clean up the loading zones,

I'm just rather disgusted with the DNR to be honest, I know how the population used to be around that area,, and ever since the DNR expanded the bag limits and either sex days its gotten less and less , I know the insurance companies would like for deer to disappear, it just seems as though the DNR does too

 

[Todd E]

We are right there beside him @Triple C. Our 260 acres doesnt even hold deer. We just see what passes through going to @transfixer. The entire area is heavily pressured. We took three deer this year. One tract he mentions, was shooting every time I was there. I didnt hunt much. That tract has the primo bedding area.

 

[fredw]

We're very limited in being able to plant food plots, since its a pine plantation they don't leave many places open , I've planted a couple small ones the last few years, but honestly haven't prepared them as well as I should, the only open areas we have are two or three loading zones they used, but nowadays they leave all the bark and wood they strip in those loading zones, they're more like big compost piles, so planting them is virtually impossible, they don't bulldoze or burn anything anymore,

I know the mature pines that were thinned will have plenty of browse this spring and summer, it just seems like we're fighting a losing battle, we started being very conscious of what we harvested years ago, and quit shooting does about 3yrs ago, at first it seemed to help, but I think the neighboring clubs have canceled out what we did, we only have 366acres, so its hard to make a difference with that. I'm going to get with the other two guys that hunt a good bit, and see if they want to put an effort into making what food plots we can, but the only place we really have to do them is on interior roads, unless we get a bulldozer and try to clean up the loading zones,

I'm just rather disgusted with the DNR to be honest, I know how the population used to be around that area,, and ever since the DNR expanded the bag limits and either sex days its gotten less and less , I know the insurance companies would like for deer to disappear, it just seems as though the DNR does too

Four of our five food plots are old loading zones. We had the forestry department come in and push the trash out of the loading zone. While they aren't able to get rid of all of the limbs/stumps/bark the first year they can clean it enough to make a good plot. We have them return each year and plow. They do a little more pushing then as well. Our plots have improved each year.

This was a loading zone four years ago.

 

[transfixer]

I've never tried checking into that, I guess I should, it would make things easier

 

[Triple C]

Four of our five food plots are old loading zones. We had the forestry department come in and push the trash out of the loading zone. While they aren't able to get rid of all of the limbs/stumps/bark the first year they can clean it enough to make a good plot. We have them return each year and plow. They do a little more pushing then as well. Our plots have improved each year.

This was a loading zone four years ago.View attachment 998830

Dang Fred...Either I'm hunting on your land or you're hunting on mine! Eerily similar.

 

[Triple C]

We are right there beside him @Triple C. Our 260 acres doesnt even hold deer. We just see what passes through going to @transfixer. The entire area is heavily pressured. We took three deer this year. One tract he mentions, was shooting every time I was there. I didnt hunt much. That tract has the primo bedding area.

That's a tough situation and I'm thankful that we don't have that type of pressure all round us. Feel like we did across the dirt rd for a number of years but even that has improved over the past couple of years. Only advice I could possibly offer and it would be a lot of work is to take 3 or 4 of the removed rows of pines in a north to south orientation and prepare them for fall planting of grains and clover, along with converting any of the logging decks into year-round clover plots.

 

[fredw]

Dang Fred...Either I'm hunting on your land or you're hunting on mine! Eerily similar.View attachment 998843

Lol. It sure is......you don't have a dog leg running to the left at the far end do you?

 

[fredw]

Four of our five food plots are old loading zones. We had the forestry department come in and push the trash out of the loading zone. While they aren't able to get rid of all of the limbs/stumps/bark the first year they can clean it enough to make a good plot. We have them return each year and plow. They do a little more pushing then as well. Our plots have improved each year.

This was a loading zone four years ago.View attachment 998830

I was off a year. This is what the loading zone looked like in 2017 while they were cutting.

 

[Triple C]

Lol. It sure is......you don't have a dog leg running to the left at the far end do you?

Thank goodness I don't! We good to go.

 

[transfixer]

I was off a year. This is what the loading zone looked like in 2017 while they were cutting.

Ours are actually more cluttered than that, although they didn't top the trees at our loading zones, they did that in the woods and just left stacks of tree tops wherever they cut them off, first time I've seen that, the loading zones were where they ran the trees through the machine that strips off the limbs and also some of the bark, I appreciate the loggers not running into any of our stands and feeders, they were great about that, but they sure made a mess of the woods otherwise.

 

[Buford_Dawg]

OK, year end results for deer harvest are 2,706, which is very close to last year, I think about 70 less. Obviously, these are reported kills only, not sure what DNR approximates the total kill given non-reports.

 

[transfixer]

OK, year end results for deer harvest are 2,706, which is very close to last year, I think about 70 less. Obviously, these are reported kills only, not sure what DNR approximates the total kill given non-reports.

70 less ? DNR will probably have either sex days start at the first day of gun season again next year then,,,, that seems to be the way they interpret harvest numbers in the last few years ,,,

 

[Jeff1973]

its good to see a post for OC, my family owns about 20 acres near smithonia/clouds creek since the early 1990's. looking to lease some additional land in OC for 2020. Please let me know if you guys need members or know of anything...look forward to a great 2020 in OC.

 

[Buford_Dawg]

Hang around Jeff, great group of OC outdoorsman on this forum. You may learn some new tricks, lots of good information shared. Clouds creek is a outstanding area, some really big bucks grow up there. Hunted there off Smithsonia for 5 years, saw some strong bucks taken.

 

[fredw]

Weather forecast at the lease.......wet and the roads are muddy.

 

[transfixer]

I can only imagine what our place looks like, if it will ever stay dry around the weekends I need to go check on my camp, and look for hog sign, for some reason the hogs tend to show back up on our lease around the end of Jan , first couple weeks of Feb ,

 

[Buford_Dawg]

Yep, I am sure all these rain has got the club roads in a mess. Got a squirrel hunt lined up tomorrow with a good squirrel dog, got some teenagers raring to go chase them. I just walk behind them to get exercise. Get in one good hunt on our SC property before all the hardwoods are gone, we have learned our hardwoods will be clearcut for most part Need to put our salt/minerals soon, but doubt we get that done tomorrow. Was at Walmart this AM, they have all their hunting stuff on clearnace, picked up several double ladder stands for 59.00, several moultrie feeder motors for 30.00, these are great for using on 5 gallon hanging buckets and a bunch of camo burlap for 5.00 each. We use that burlap to wrap all our ladder stands with. Those double ladder stands are not the most comfortable for long sits, but I take a thick cushion with me and can sit nicely for up to 4 hours, which is my limit anyway, so they get the job done. I have found the older I get, those all day sits dont work too well, LOL....