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Hinge Cutting
Posted on 3/5/19 at 10:20 am
Posted on 3/5/19 at 10:20 am
Trying to improve retention of deer on leased property with big mature trees. Makes for nice scenery, but few bedding areas.
Anyone ever practice hinge cutting to create bedding areas? What are the best methods you’ve found?
Property is 280 acres in Jefferson Co. MS. Big hills, lots of oaks and acorns.
TIA
Anyone ever practice hinge cutting to create bedding areas? What are the best methods you’ve found?
Property is 280 acres in Jefferson Co. MS. Big hills, lots of oaks and acorns.
TIA
3
Posted on 3/5/19 at 10:30 am to Fulwar
There’s a great chance you’ll really piss off the landowner. On a good acorn year, you’ll have plenty of deer. Just wait for that and enjoy having turkey woods.
Posted on 3/5/19 at 10:33 am to Fulwar
We are going to try it this year as well. Sorry I have nothing to offer in the way of advice other than we plan to do it in bunches on south facing hillsides. I have a request in with the MS state deer lab guys to cover this topic before it gets into summer, as my understanding is now is prime time be be hinge cutting and resetting succession in general.
Posted on 3/5/19 at 10:48 am to 257WBY
quote:
There’s a great chance you’ll really piss off the landowner.
Pretty easy to establish beforehand, and hinge cutting is not about taking down huge valuable trees, it's more a method of thinning with benefits.
quote:
On a good acorn year, you’ll have plenty of deer.
Acorns attract deer, they do not hold them on the property. When they're gone so will be the deer. What holds deer year round is cover and browse, both of which can be created by managing succession.
quote:
Just wait for that and enjoy having turkey woods.
Turkeys can benefit from hinge cutting too as it provides nesting cover.
Posted on 3/5/19 at 11:35 am to TheDrunkenTigah
Agreed.
Deer will die without browse and hinge cutting creates it. Succession is good for pretty much all wildlife, really.
I once read an article and the author said an old biologist once told him that, "Pretty woods to a hunter are not the same as pretty woods to a deer."
There's lots of articles on hinge cutting. One thing they're stressing now is to not go overboard with it. Apparently that's a problem with people getting a little overzealous and creating too much of a good thing for their hunting interests, and also taking out desirables.
Be strategic about it based on deer movement observations.
Hinge cutting in the staging areas of active food sources is a good place to start. If done in linear form, it also creates a natural edge, and, as we know, deer are no different than other critters (including humans and our property lines) in the fact that they're oriented to the edge. Find the edge, find the animals.
And since does like to bed within 100 yards or so of bedding areas, HC'ing adjacent to food plots is also another plus because they have food and browse and bedding all in 1 place. Throw in a reliable water source and you just hit the jackpot.
That's my .02 cents on it, anyways.
Deer will die without browse and hinge cutting creates it. Succession is good for pretty much all wildlife, really.
I once read an article and the author said an old biologist once told him that, "Pretty woods to a hunter are not the same as pretty woods to a deer."
There's lots of articles on hinge cutting. One thing they're stressing now is to not go overboard with it. Apparently that's a problem with people getting a little overzealous and creating too much of a good thing for their hunting interests, and also taking out desirables.
Be strategic about it based on deer movement observations.
Hinge cutting in the staging areas of active food sources is a good place to start. If done in linear form, it also creates a natural edge, and, as we know, deer are no different than other critters (including humans and our property lines) in the fact that they're oriented to the edge. Find the edge, find the animals.
And since does like to bed within 100 yards or so of bedding areas, HC'ing adjacent to food plots is also another plus because they have food and browse and bedding all in 1 place. Throw in a reliable water source and you just hit the jackpot.
That's my .02 cents on it, anyways.
Posted on 3/5/19 at 11:39 am to Bigbee Hills
I like hinge cutting. Make sure you have a plan before you start just randomly cutting trees and go over the plan with the landowner ot get his buy in.
I think providing more natural forage is the way to go vs greenfields a lot of the time. Especially in areas that aren't traditional Ag land. I've been concentrating on fertilizing native browse, hinge cutting, and brushpiles the last year or two.
I think providing more natural forage is the way to go vs greenfields a lot of the time. Especially in areas that aren't traditional Ag land. I've been concentrating on fertilizing native browse, hinge cutting, and brushpiles the last year or two.
Posted on 3/5/19 at 1:25 pm to Chris4x4gill2
Deer can not climb trees. Trees are a deers worst enemy. If every tree were to be cut down it would help the deer.
I am not cutting all of my trees down. However, that doesn't change the fact that cutovers are what the deer prefer to bed in and that is also where they get the most food benefit from.
I am not cutting all of my trees down. However, that doesn't change the fact that cutovers are what the deer prefer to bed in and that is also where they get the most food benefit from.
Posted on 3/5/19 at 8:22 pm to omegaman66
280 acres of big hardwoods is awesome when the land all around has been cut. Especially on a good acorn year. Hunted several places like that over the years. The bucks really seem to like it during the rut.
Posted on 3/6/19 at 1:07 am to Fulwar
Hinge cutting is the best thing I’ve ever done to keep deer/bucks on our property.
QDMA
There are several good articles but don’t just go through and start hinge cutting. Come up with a plan. The area I hinge cut stay off limits till next Jan/Feb when I go back in to inspect and cut more if I need to. I tell people that other than adding a water hole if you don’t already have a water source, HC is the most effective way to keep bucks on your property. You do need to have a general understanding of tree species and know what trees to cut.
QDMA
There are several good articles but don’t just go through and start hinge cutting. Come up with a plan. The area I hinge cut stay off limits till next Jan/Feb when I go back in to inspect and cut more if I need to. I tell people that other than adding a water hole if you don’t already have a water source, HC is the most effective way to keep bucks on your property. You do need to have a general understanding of tree species and know what trees to cut.
Posted on 3/6/19 at 3:38 pm to TimeOutdoors
Thanks for the suggestions. We hope to gameplay this weekend and get to cutting the week after.
I hope to have several big buck pictures to post in the upcoming season.
I hope to have several big buck pictures to post in the upcoming season.
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