2025 Deer Season Preparations

[HenryFan]

I do minimal property maintenance on my pine plantation/hunt property after the deer season ends until the following late summer when I begin preparations for the coming season. In the interim, the property gets mostly a bush-hogging to keep unwanted vegetation down in roads and food plot borders and an occasional property check.

In my Game Zone in South Carolina, rifle season comes in on October 11 (October 12? Not certain but I seldom hunt the first day in any event) so I will get serious starting tomorrow. In the coming week, it will be bush-hogging roads and food plot borders again, ripping the food plots with a chisel plow and running a disc harrow. I will take soil samples and get Clemson Extension service to give me an analysis. I will give it a couple of weeks and if much vegetation arises, I will hit the food plots with glyphosate. Then, the third week of September, I will plant, most often with oats and fertilizer. I will apply lime at the same time, based on the Extension Service recommendations. Then, I hope for rain.

Does anyone else do similar things for their food plot? I know timing will be different for different areas of the Country but I am curious how others do it.

[The Happy Kaboomer]

I did all that in July.........Been hunting since Aug. 15th......Saw lots of deer but no big bucks yet..........I don't do soil samples.....Just plant my plots.
On one paticular poor field we do use lime and fertilizer......I live in and hunt the SC low country.

[rickhem]

I'm in central-eastern New York, and my neighbor has been working on the stands he has on our property for a few weeks now. I've gone down and helped him with that a couple times, and he's been down trimming his shooting lanes a few other times. I have changed the chips in my cameras in areas where I hunt, and I need to move one camera to a spot where I have a nice stand, but no camera right now.
My fields are currently being hayed, and that's going to leave them cut from here out, not much growing will happen now so much better visibility. That also means I need to put a couple ground blinds out on the edges in a few areas.
I'm seeing a lot of bucks, both in-person and on camera, but nothing that looks real impressive yet. I'm sure they're out there, and the cut fields are going to help with seeing them. Everything is only going to get better now.

[HenryFan]

I live in and hunt the SC low country.

I lived in Beaufort for about 13 years and I too hunted the early season on a lease in Colleton County. Hot and humid. I actually bought a Ruger M77MKII stainless rifle since I sweat like a hooker in church.

When I retired, my wife said we were going to move above "the gnat line". That is why we are in Newberry County since 2002.

[cee_Kamp]

I am a new Member here on the Forum and live in upstate NY, about an hour southeast from Syracuse, NY.
More than 20 years ago now, I purchased a piece of nearby rural wooded property for hunting/recreation. About 69 acres.
Back then when I was still working, if you got cold when deer hunting, you warmed up in the vehicle you arrived in.

Now I am retired, and moved from the "city" life, out into the country. My new home is about 20 miles/30 minutes driving time away from the hunting/recreational property.
My home is on a one acre lot, but I have cornfields and woods as neighbors.

After retiring, I decided to make something of the rural hunting/recreational property. I bought several Kubota tractors, and a large double axle steel trailer for hauling the tractors.
Shortly after acquiring the new home, my Girlfriend and I found a local contractor who built sheds. They also do a two story cabin, build the first floor remotely, bring it to the cabin site on a big hydraulic trailer.
With a five man crew, they assemble the second story and roof on top of what arrived on the big trailer in only one day. Two days total, bring, setup 1st floor, add second story and they are done.

So with only a six week lead time, we had a new cabin on the 69 acre parcel. It was an empty shell other than a staircase.
We hired an electrician for dealing with the power company, installing the circuit breaker panel, and coordinating several electrical inspections.
We dug the buried in conduit electrical entrance cable run from the transformer/power pole to the cabin with our Kubota backhoe as an additional cost savings measure.
Everything else, we did ourselves. The cabin has a 200 amp electrical service, and we have added many other luxury items. (luxuries as pertaining to a deer hunting cabin)

Big wood stove for heat, electric baseboard heat for making the insurance company happy, electric range, refrigerator, microwave, king size bed, custom kitchen table, wheeled, bowling alley table top.
Sometime later, we added fiber optic into the home broadband internet, and running water into the cabin during seasonable temperatures.
The cabin still is uninsulated, as the big wood stove forces the door/windows to be open, even when down near zero F.
We do not heat the cabin when it is vacant, so the water system is drained/shut off in winter.

After getting the internet installed, I got a Verizon network extender from their customer service. It hooks up to the broadband internet with a LAN cable, and the network extender creates a 200' radius cell tower signal from the black plastic box. The cabin is so rural, no native "over the air" cell signal from one of the normal big steel cell towers is available.
We figured, people out hunting, operating machinery, the ability for making an emergency 911 call might be nice.

After getting operational cell signal at the cabin, I looked around to see what was available on the market for Cellular trail cameras, that didn't break the bank with operational expenses.
After some research, I zeroed in on Cuddeback/Cuddelink cellular trail cameras.
Most, if not all other cellular trail cameras require a cell data plan for each deployed trail camera. The dollars add up quickly! Ten cameras, ten cell data plans, OUCH!

Cuddeback/Cuddelink is totally different. When you purchase their equipment, you need two items.
1.) A "Home" unit, it serves as a picture collection device from all the deployed cameras in the woods. The cell data plan you buy, is for this unit only.
The deployed woods cameras send the pictures they take up the "daisy chain" of deployed woods cameras, until they reach the "Home" unit. Using a secure "mesh" Wi-Fi connection for interconnecting the deployed woods cameras.
2.) Trail cameras. You can run one woods camera, or up to 23 woods cameras. With only one "Home" unit and one cell data plan. My setup? More than one, less than twenty three.

Trail camera pictures can be viewed from anyplace in the world that you have a cellular or internet connection. In my case, I have pictures arrive from 20 miles away, with absolutely no need for pulling SD cards out of cameras.
It's MAGIC!
I also have one camera deployed for surveillance of the cabin, property gate, and road frontage viewing. Surveillance (camera setting) pictures arrive within several minutes of when taken.
Deer/game pictures arrive in "blocks" four times per day. You can also configure the system for taking daily "verify" pictures, low resolution/small bandwidth for receiving daily "proof" that the system and each camera, is operational.

That new-to-me Henry Big Boy brass rifle in .44 Magnum that I recently acquired? Some time after opening day when the weather is decent, it will get some woods time!

IMG_20190730_123332714_HDR by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20200126_113921157 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20200126_113901675 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_20201003_142239323 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_1922986349 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

IMG_1922986350 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20251028_212938484~3 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

PXL_20251028_212607440 by cee_Kamp 32ACP, on Flickr

[CT_Shooter]

That is a great story, ceeKamp. And, wow! What a great hunting/getting away cabin you folks built. I envy you. Thanks for sharing it with us. I look forward to reading about your adventures there.

[markiver54]

That is a great story, ceeKamp. And, wow! What a great hunting/getting away cabin you folks built. I envy you. Thanks for sharing it with us. I look forward to reading about your adventures there.

Ditto!
Awesome set-up you have there cee_Kamp!

[daytime dave]

I wish you well on opening day sir. Great cabin and property. May the deer gods be kind to you on opening day.

[cee_Kamp]

Thank You all for the kind words!
While up there at the cabin/deer woods doing projects and sweating in the hot summer sun, it seems like work.
Today, and just a few days before opening day of rifle season, it seems more like a plan that was well executed.

It keeps me out of the bars & taverns and away from most of the women!

daytime dave, shoot a big buck!

[rickhem]

What a great set up! It looks like you have a nice big aerial view of your property in that one pic, something I'd like to do for mine too.
I can see that being used for a lot more than just hunting seasons.
Nice buck too, I hope he shows up wherever you are during the season.