Land & Legacy - Habitat + Hunting

This week, we break down Matt's buck harvest from this fall on a 7.5 year old buck. This deer never was top of the chain and seemed to evade us when it came to encounters over the past few years. But, he was not shy on trail camera. A few years ago, a late season scouting mission connected some vital dots to the lease property. A small overlooked island in a river bed turned out to be a huge corridor and funnel. For years now, it has become one of the hotspots for monitoring bucks working scrapes as they transition from cover to cover or from bedding to cover. During a hot November morning, Matt headed to the island and had a close quarters encounter with House-8 . A stare down ensued, but the buck ultimately didn't bolt away and offered a great broadside shot at just 20 yards.

Year after year, season after season, next year will be the year that you start shooting does like you should. Forgetting that you are slipping further and further away from really growing bigger bucks. The pursuit of trophy bucks gets in the way so much during the season that you are so consumed by an objective of a single deer that you get further away from accomplishing the original goal. This is what we call the trophy buck death spiral. It's time to be honest with yourself and shoot does like you need to. If you are doing habitat management and not herd management, this podcast is for you. We chat in detail with Jack Hutson of Midwest Deer Survey about his consistent findings during thermal deer surveys. Consistently deer herds are twice the density that they need to be. That is a problem. It is in distinct opposition to growing trophy deer consistently. Listen and apply!

On this podcast we are joined by HuntWorx own Greg Glesinger. Greg is known for pursuing huge whitetails in the midwest. Year after year he and Kasey Morgan are toe to toe with 6-8 year old mature whitetail bucks. These pursuits test so many skills that a whitetail hunter must have. This year however, tested patience and persistence as they went after a buck named The Natural. What made this year such a grind, perhaps it was the 80 acres of standing grain in the field due to a broken combine or maybe it was just the rut needed to take full swing before The Natural got on his feet. One thing is for sure, the removal of the eastern red cedar thickets across this farm has more than doubled the usable space on the property. Without a doubt, this project has dramatically improved this property since starting it in 2021. To learn more about this hunt, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AddoCv7Im4A

One this week's podcast we are joined by Land & Legacy consultant Alan Summerford. He discusses his recent success in the field with his son Reid in Alabama. They went on a terror during the week of Thanksgiving harvesting three bucks! Most would wonder how frequent these deer were on trail cameras to encounter this many target deer in one week.... the answer will surprise you. These deer were not frequent and these hunt strategies were very different as one area is peak rut, while the other area is 4 weeks away from peak rut! How was this done, you may ask? Alan and his son didn't rely on the trail cameras to tell them where to and or when or if they should hunt. The cameras simply told them what deer were in the areas they were hunting. From there, they used knowledge of the landscape, food sources, wind, weather on a daily basis to intercept these bucks based on the day to day conditions within the region of where the cameras had picked them up. They most importantly didn't wait for the trail cameras to reveal a pattern. They hunted!

On this week's podcast we are joined by Mark Williams of WTP. He and his team have been developing deer management neighborhoods across the country. We have teamed up with them to help develop plans for these tracts of land to better the habitat within these communities. These opportunities are popping up in states like Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. These tracks of land offer increased opportunities to have like kind neighbors. When buying random tracts of land, you are playing neighbor roulette. You just never know exactly what you are getting, sometimes it works out, other times is is the reason for eventually selling. Buying into a community of hunters and quality habitat will help control the unknown better than most alternative situations. If you have interested in these parcels or others like it, then please contact Mark Williams and his team!

This week we are joined by Zeke Barrett of Whitetail Properties as he connects on a large home body buck on his property in North Arkansas. This story is a connection between quality land management and a solid hunting strategy! Habitat management successes don't always happen overnight, but sometimes they do. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Zeke on this home farm of 200 acres. If you want to share in the success and learn about your farm, contact us at www.landandlegacy.tv We would be happy to work with you as well!

It’s the time of the year when bedding thickets really shine! However, it doesn’t take years to develop these areas… maybe just weeks or months. We have the receipts to show you! We’ve had several success stories and new bucks swing up in daylight cruising the downwind side of less than one year old bedding thickets. It’s the easiest way to get ahead in your hunting strategy! Arrange, place, and build cover in the right areas respective to access and topography and you will win! Enjoy November and the sweet success of putting deer on your back forty!

The client success stories are rolling in, one after another! This story comes to us from South Carolina, the land of the pines! So if you manage in pine country, listen up. After several years of intense habitat management Jesse Furr connected on a beautiful 8pt buck in a small kill plot, adjacent to a bedding thicket that had been burned and exploded with new early successional cover. This setup was not accidental! With proper planning and execution of the plan comes results. We hope this story of a successful hunt opens your eyes to the possibilities of managing habitat for specific outcomes!

This week is the story of Chubbs! The hunt and management if the property are woven together tightly. You will hear how 1 year old bedding thickets and a timber harvest was this deer's demise. It's Hard to pass the best of the young deer when they sport trophy caliber racks, however it pays off when they get another year of age on them. Chubbs was a prime example of study, plan, implement, and execute!

It is here, we have arrived. The pre-rut phase is imminent. Are you Ready? If not, this podcast will prepare you for weather fronts, morning hunting, calling to whitetails, decoying, accurately identifying target bucks, and letting you know likely places the mature bucks will daylight in the coming weeks. This podcast is a must listen to maximize your effort in the field during the next two weeks of hunting. Get out there, be sharp and focused!

Its' your last chance to get your cameras set before all scraping activity breaks loose! The peak of scraping and mature buck intel is coming. This podcast will prepare for whats next! You will get more from your trail cameras when you have them place appropriately. A buck should be active on multiple camera locations as he traverse a farm. You need multiple locations to help triangulate his range/movement patterns. Then strike!

Topography breakdown is here on the podcast. We show you through onX some awesome features you should be looking for on your hunting property. We discuss in detail treestand access, hunting thermals, wind direction, wind speed, morning vs evening hunting in areas with topography and much more. You will learn an immense amount about how deer use topography features as they traverse the landscape. You will see areas that they avoid and others they use regularly all influenced by terrain. Learn this and study it, it will help you become a better deer hunter and manager.

Hang on to your treestand seats.... we take a deep dive this week into why topography is such an influential part of habitat management and hunting strategy. There is nothing that predicts and dictates what deer do more than topography. From influencing what native vegetation grows where, to how thermals work, and the path of least resistance.... topography takes the cake! If you want to become a better deer hunter and land manager, learn how to read topography! Once you've mastered that, then you can begin to understand how it impacts vegetation growth, moisture and how wildlife react to it as they move on the landscape. A great tool to learn from is OnX on the desktop version of the map. Use the exaggerated topography with the hybrid map overlaid to really understand how to read the slopes! This will make you a better woodsmans overnight!

It goes without saying there are always things evolving or changing in the whitetail world. Early season may be the biggest change though. From testosterone changes, to territory changes, to food sources and then to minor pressure movements and often time drought conditions. These variables can be placed into two categories, Macro and micro variables. The Macro variables are the variables that all whitetails are having to consider or are being influenced by, these changes are more physiological than environmental like the micro variables. These variables alter, influence, and predict how deer will then move on the landscape. Therefore they impact hunt strategy greatly! These changes cannot always be predicted months in advance when you set your farm up for the season, so you must be willing to pivot and adjust or call an audible to your plan when it is necessary. Oftentimes, the best laid plans need to have audibles thrown into the mix to accommodate for these macro and micro variables that hunters and landowners do not have control over! This week we break these all down so you can become a better woodsman.

We are back this week at the Farm Progress Show in the John Deere Booth talking about green and yellow John Deere equipment and how to properly install food plots with various pieces of equipment. Not every food plot gets planted the same way, the approach varies greatly depending upon the starting point. Are you starting with timber, or an old log landing, or perhaps an old field is being converted into a food plot. Follow along as we go step-by-step on how to properly get that food pot plot planted. Skid steers, tractors, and the various implements can get confusing, which one do you use and when? We break this down for the audience to create a guide on installation with food plots. We often find that food plots get more complicated than they should be. It's important to know when to sit down a piece of equipment and when to pick up a different one, whether that be clearing, grading, burning, planting or spraying! We hope this podcast helps you become a more effective food plot planter!

This week we are recording live in the John Deere booth at the Farm Progress Show in Illinois. This event is huge in the agriculture world so this week's message is inclusive to owners of all different land-use types. From Ag-land, to timber production land and even cattle pastures, we talk to producers of different crops and how to expand operations and value land with some outside of the box thinking. It is easy to become singular minded when an operation is dependent upon success to hold the land, but oftentimes that singular focus can also be the thing that holds you back as a landowner. So, we breakdown each land use type and discuss the avenues out there for landowners to really increase revenue streams and find the max value in your land holdings. We hope you enjoy this educational podcast all about land ownership! Thank you John Deere for the invite as well, we will be back next year!

August: What is the bird doing? What is the bird eating? How do I create what the bird is using? Growing season burning- What does it accomplish for a turkey now and in the future? Soft mast foraging opportunities- Diet review, hard seed/grass seed production flock congregation- amalgamation poult production, over the hump! Sept: What is the bird doing? What is the bird eating? How do I create what the bird is using? Hard mast production and foraging opportunities begin TSI- Best time to complete- Are logging operations good for turkeys? Understanding roosting locations/ advantages

Deer season is just around the corner. Are you prepared or are you behind? This week we discuss 7 key points that you should be considering as we draw very near to deer season. From food plots, to treestands, trail cameras, and more we cover the fine detail points of each that will ready you both mentally and physically. It's time to get actually ready and ahead of the curve. As hunters is easy to be very reactive in your approach and hunting strategy. This podcast is designed to reverse that and make sure you are proactive in your approach. Don't miss opportunities, capitalize on them!

Deer season is upon us!!! Multiple states now have velvet seasons, but even if you don't have a velvet season it's time to start getting an inventory of the bucks on your property. On this episode Alan and Brady break down the strategies for targeting early season bucks. This episode focuses on how to find velvet bucks, and how to get them into bow range. --Trail Camera strategies --Where to place stands --Food Plot strategies that can be implemented now --Water holes

During this week's podcast Matt and Adam cover the long list of top priority items to get completed for the month of August if you are a deer hunter and land owner. In addition, we discuss bachelor groups of bucks and if you have them how to keep them, plus if you don't how to attract bucks once the bachelor groups break-up into fall home ranges. August is the make or break month for food plots. It's time to make the critical decision to know if you terminate and move on or if you just overseed for the fall. We break down the case by case scenarios to assist hunters in this decision making process. From perennial food plots to grain plots and even summer annual blends, we walk you step by step through the process of ensuring you have a successful food plot for fall.