I will be sharing with you on how I made my property into whitetail paradise, and what still needs to be done. I own 150 acres in southwest Michigan, which I bought in 1989. Up until 1995 we, me, family, and friends shot every buck that gave us a opportunity and did not shoot does. All that change in 1995 when I shot a buck that scored in the 120’s. After that day I stared doing research on how to get bigger deer.
The following season I started putting in new ideas and concepts into my property. My first rule was if you shot it you had to mount it. This took care of the people that just want to shoot anything. I placed 20 acres in a safe zone. We also started to shoot does. After a few years we started seeing a lot more 2 1/2 & 3 1/2 years old and were killing nice bucks every year. I then went to neighbors and tried to get them on board.
During the next time period I started to add food plot and create better habitat. I made sure that I had food available for deer all year. I had clover, alfa, wheat, chicory, rye, corn, beans, brassicas, and many others. I clearcut 10 acres and did some logging, added a pond and started to plant pines around my open fields.
I also put in about 25 apple trees, my property was now the whitetails favorite property around, I started to draw deer from my neighbors that had the best bedding ground. While his land was getting more open I was creating thicker cover. I also added a few mineral licks.
My future plans include to add cover for travel routes though my open fields to the neighbors. Put in a pine stand in the middle of an open field and then plant cover around that, this will be a safe zone plus winter protection. I also plan on planting about 10 acres of switch grass.
During this time we have shot 25 bucks that have scored 120 or better, the best being a 165 9 pointer. I believe that I’m getting closer to have a Boone & Crockett running on my property. During this time I enjoy creating wildlife habitat and food plots just as much as hunting.
