bioactive said:

I had a great day today. The snow had completely disappeared, and then we got about three inches that ended late afternoon yesterday. I decided to go into my bedding areas in my Gravel Pit property--47 acres across the road and behind my in-laws property.

It was a great opportunity to see what deer were using it, since they are still pretty close to their pressured hunting season patterns.

Here is a pic of a trail into about a 15 acre area that is pure bedding area. It is untouched, unentered after the antlers of the deer are hard.

Hmmm...it appears some deer used this trail within the last 20 hours. Note the tree with the arrow. It is the source of my question and we will revisit it on the way back out of the bedding area.

As I strolled around the bedding area, I noted that many deer were using this small area. I saw at least 25 beds that were used in the last 20 hours. Here are a couple of shots straight down on a doe bedding area. I apologize for those pesky branches being in the way, they seem to prefer to lay underneath them.

Be patient, my question is coming...

A little bit north of there, I found a buck bed. How do I know? Well the tracks were just short of 3 inches wide and about 5 inches long. the impression was humungous, it was solitary, and when I got down and smelled it, it reeked with that tarsal gland smell that only a good sized buck can muster up, even though it is late season, there are still lots of doe fawns being bred. It had an entry area that came right over the brush and logs seen beyond the bed in the photo (so he feels hidden with his little tennis ball sized brain:lol, and there is a rub right at his entry point (arrow).

Now, this bedding area is somewhat of a dead end. I have created a tornado zone, which is meant to be mainly a barrier to hunters, but is also a pretty significant barrier to deer if you read the snow. It is programmed rabbit habitat. There is no good reason for a deer to go past that zone in day time, because there is wide open, park-like woods with sneak-on trespasser types on the other side, hence the need for the tornado zone. But it is so thick that, even for a deer, there is not much reason to enter it, because it is a lot of work for them,and no reason to go beyond it. Plus there is plenty of wonderful bedding and escape habitat to the west, north and south (all directions that go to properties of co-op members--I am blessed to be almost completely surrounded by co-op members--oh, I forgot, I elected to be surrounded by co-op members). Here is a pic of the barrier, or tornado zone:

Question coming, please be patient...

Now, there are two main pathways out of this area. There is a north pathway, that goes by one of my stands, into a food plot past the "key" stand, into another food plot, and then to my neighbor's destination fields. I saw at least 15 rubs on the 3 trails that converge on that stand, but to address my question, I will go back to where we originally entered. That is the south pathway, and it also goes by one of my stand, and then pinches to meet the other trail and go past the "key" stand. This is a spot where I saw a number of bucks emerge this year. No shooters for me, but plenty of bucks. This is not a pass-through area as I indicated above, but is a path to a bedding area. So here is the other side of the tree pointed out in the first picture.

This is a fresh rub. I have only had this property since April but I cut that tree around May and I know it did not have a rub. The top of the rub is at 52 inches.

Now here is my question. If I had a trail camera of a buck walking through here, would it have any more significance or meaning than the presence of this rub, which was obviously made by a mature deer?

By the way, the fact that there is a tree stand in this picture, in a spot where a buck coming through has to quarter away within 20 yards at some point, is not a coincidence.

I own about seven or eight trail cams but choose not to use them in sensitive areas. Here is an example of why:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=361801

Is a picture of a buck walking though a funnel between a bedding and feeding area worth more than a rub like this (and the other numerous examples I could show but would take up too much bandwidth)?

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Theonlydoe said:

The title of this thread is not Creating Natural Forage and Cover for Micro Managers. If you want to cover that aspect then start a thread on the topic. Personally, I don't care anymore what direction or where the deer lay in the bedding area. I don't care if they lay under an overhanging branch or hinge, I don't care if they lay beside a stump or log. I do care if they have cover to lay in and feel safe without human intrusion and natural forage to eat. Hence the title of the thread: "Natural Forage and Cover".

This thread is for people that for whatever reason don't buy into the TL micro manager way to do things. If you want to do things the TL way, knock yourself out. There are plenty of threads explaining the techniques...or lack thereof. Why are some people constantly trying to push TL concepts onto these threads. There are other widely accepted ways to build bedding and cover for those that don't want to spend money to learn how. We are not micro managing in this thread. We are creating hinge cut areas for "cover and natural forage".

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