5 Low Cost/No Cost Ways to Completely Transform Your Deer Hunting Land/Habitat 

Lots of good ideas, I have 56 acres I bought 2 years ago, and have been doing different things to improve it to hold more bucks, hinge cutting feathering. And I had some selective logging done. The 23 season showed me that my efforts are paying off. Lots more to do. I’m lucky I do have a tractor and Ranger and saws, but still requires lots of back breaking effort to get things done, thinking on transplanting some small trees like you did . Labor of passion. Keep up the great content.

You sir have developed into the best teacher in the whitetail habitat world imho. Hope you keep making great content for us. Thanks !

🎉 one of the best videos in LAND I've seen! Tyvm. Simple.

Great video! Love your low-cost tips. Definitely will utilize some of your great ideas!

Great info. Really pulling for you to see your channel take off!

Just the ideas I was looking for....I'm all about inexpensive and native habitat you got a new subscriber! Hope to learn from your content! 👍

Great video and great ideas!

Good vid. Thanks. Some sound advice here. You are trading time for money. With $, you can tranform land on a larger scale and get results in year 1. With no money and time, your best bet is timber cutting. Just like building your house for $0, Property transformation can costs absolutely $0. It may take you 80 years. It may take 10. You need to ask when do you want results. Deer density is critical. High deer density may never work. Low density works best. For you to get results with ANY strategy. But with these solid tips, it takes a lot longer - 5-10 years vs 1 to 3 depending on deer density. Having transformed over 5 props and 1,000 ac., here’s my 2 cents on these suggestions: 1….transplanting trees - yes. Do it every year for 5 years and you’ll have an awesome stand. Just need a source. 2. Cuttings - another awesome solution. Cuttings get hammered in high deer density. Also work best in low lands. 3. TSI, hinge cut bedding and flush cuts. Single best way to increase nutrition availability. Opening forest canopy results in amazing results. For hinge cutters, your success is dependent on a skill, tree choice, and luck. Many trees die. Great opp to plant cuttings In tree tops. 4. Fallow field to Forest. It can take 10+ years to get an ag field to convert back to forest. Seed needs to be in seed bed. Kill back grass - yes! Burn, till. That’s cheap. Broad cast seed collected from areas you like to hunt!!! Also, long term land value is contingent upon standing crop and practices. So make wise decision. 5. Direct tree seeding. Great. Can work. And can work great. Add fencing and use cut trees to make a deterrent (circle of trees a few acres in size that deer can’t penetrate).

Well done again Sam. This stuff is life changing. So much to do and so much fun.

Thank you for your video.

Thank you!

New to your channel. Great information. Just curious what state are you in? I did see another habitat improvement in this video. At 7:27 there is a “mineral stump”. Great source of nutrition as the stored minerals in the root ball are going into the leaves of that stump. I cut my elm trees to make room for oaks. The deer will eat the buds of the downed tree and I use the rest for firewood. Eventually the stump dies as it can’t keep enough leaves. I apologize if you’ve covered this topic before.

Buy some scions and graft some fruit trees good addition to the habit as well

Thank you lot of good ideas . Cutting trees for cover is there any different cutting flush at the ground or leaving a foot or two of stump ?

Note...grasses don't sap the water from the soil. They hold it, just like covercrops. No cover and everything Dryes out.

Central WI here. With the warm weather do you think we could plant cuttings now? Ground is not frozen. Is there an issue if it gets colder which would be normaI? I do plan to plant some pines with root balls this weekend.

Great video! Do you have a link to where you get your clethodim herbicide? Just wondering exactly what brand you believe works best. Thanks!

I think the squirrels cut the Burr oak acorns down and buried them so the deer never had a chance to eat them ! Bonus tip: Put all the picked up acorns in water, the floaters are trash, saves you time by not planting diseased/damaged . The animals can sniff the bad ones and avoid them so need to collect as they are falling, older ones left untouched by wildlife are almost all bad, Good Luck

My county soil conservation department has an annual tree with VERY low cost trees available for purchase.

What is the best time of year to do red osier dogwood cuttings?

I have used a dibble bar to plant acorns

Any trouble with the deer eating or rubbing your spruce trees?

If i were you i'd of planted Chestnut trees....They produce food....I just cleaned off a hillside of Red Cedar & tall poplars....no sunlight hit the ground so no food or cover there....

Forsyntias branch’s work we also

I'm wondering if any breed of poplars would make good cuttings?

Ash? How can you possibly have any ash growing? Ours been gone for years already.

Where are you finding Clethodim for that price?

99% of us have zero ability to change our hunting ground.

"Every one should have a chainsaw" careful with that you might fire someones new addiction called c.a.d, one saw turns into 3 turns into more and some saw building