It is a myth that hinge cut trees last only a couple of years. If a hinge cut tree has plenty of light it will last indefinitely. Here you see a 20 year old hinge cut tree on the property of deer habitat pioneer Mike Hartges in Hillsdale County MI.  Mike was responsible, in my opinion, for popularizing hinge cutting for deer habitat in Michigan. He learned about it from a guy named Bill Snyder from Wisconsin when he subscribed to Bill’s newsletter and video series produced by the company Radical Land Management. Bill taught hinge cutting for steering deer and for improving habitat in bedding areas. Mike tried Bill’s techniques starting in 1995, and this is an example of one of those first hinge cut trees 20 years later.  Mike freely shared his habitat techniques with many visitors to his property over the years, who began to practice it, and some of them began to teach it to others. But from my research, I believe it is Mike Hartges who first popularized this killer method in Michigan.

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Release date is February 14th. The book will available from Feb 14th to Feb 28th at A 15% discount to anyone who is registered on my website (sidebar on right). After that it will go to the regular price OF 19.99

This will be an ebook available in either a pdf or epub format.

Links to free readers will be available at the purchase location for both desktop and mobile devices.

The book is over 200 pages with one to several color pictures, diagrams, or sidebars on every single page.

It would be prohibitively expensive to print in its current form, and doing so would greatly diminish the value.

The book will have clickable links to videos, articles, and websites that support the information.

For example, if I talk about a chainsaw technique, you will be able to look at the pictures of how it is done, but in many cases you will also be able to click to a video showing how it is done.

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In this video Jake Ehlinger from Habitat Solutions and I demonstrate how to make a hinge cut bedding spot for a buck in just a few minutes. Step one is to identify a spot. In this case it is a raised spot in the swamp that will stay high and dry year around, and has a view of a hinge cut bedding spot for does we made earlier. Next, we hinge cut larger trees next to the mound, and then hinge cut or pulled smaller trees down and tied them off with parachute cord. This creates overhead cover and lateral horizontal cover to make the buck feel more secure. We make several of these buck bedding spots for each doe bedding spot so that a buck will use the area under any wind or weather conditions.

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I was privileged to kill a big 8 point buck on my 40 acre Michigan property on November 2, 2014, and I got the whole thing on video (see below). Not only that, but my two good friends and best deer habitat mentors also killed trophy bucks on their small properties on the same day. Mike Hartges got a gorgeous 8 point and Jake Ehlinger got a 225 lb. 10 point. Mike’s property is 59 acres, Jake’s is 67 acres, and mine is 40 acres. How can such massive deer be killed on such small properties? A major component is that all three properties have extremely well managed habitat with a variety of food and cover. The cover is so dense on these three small properties that each property can provide bedding for several mature bucks at the same time. If you would like to improve the habitat on your small property so that you can harvest bucks like these, buy my book when it comes out in January, 2015. To read a free chapter and get a discount when the book comes out sign in on the sidebar of this page.

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Every year at this time I begin to hear hunters starting to complain about having standing corn in their area. If your deer are hiding in standing corn all day, don’t blame the corn. Deer are creatures that crave variety. They do not want to be stuck all day in a location with only one kind of plant and one food source. Dear hiding in standing corn all day is a wake up[ call to improve your hunting techniques and habitat. Watch this video to learn more about how to improve your property so that deer freely move around in daylight, even during firearms seasons.

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Every year like clockwork I begin to see posts on forums and Facebook about the rut being “on” because someone saw a buck chasing does. In most cases, especially in early october in Michigan, chasing has little to do with whether does are in estrus or not. It is just young boys being young boys. Juvenile antlered bucks begin chasing they day they shed their velvet. They are not chasing because the rut is on or there is a doe in estrus. They will chase any and every antlerless deer they come into contact with when they are not too discouraged by rejection or too tired.

This video shows typical young buck behavior Behind the Barn in my 8 acre research habitat on October 12th 2013. None of these deer are receptive to this buck and he does not discriminated on who he chases. he is chasing deer for the same reason the adolescents in the movie Porky’s peak through the keyhole of the door to the girl’s gym.

In either case, it has nothing whatsoever to do with breeding.

If you see a buck of 3.5 or older chasing a doe, well you can guess that she just may be ready to breed. Based on scientific studies, we know that the whitetail rut occurs in any given area roughly the same time every year. It may be over a three month window in the south, or a five week window in the north, and it may be affected by things like weather and hunting pressure, but it happens the same time every year. So plan your hunts around the times when mature bucks are most likely to be moving. In my home state of Michigan, that is around the first two weeks of November. After that hunting pressure changes daytime movement in many areas, but does not slow down the breeding process.

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