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I have a 500 yard pipeline... believe me, I know quite a bit about logging out a woods and managing it. My woods is connected to a 40 acre woods, together me and the other owner micro manage our deer properties. Food plots, bedding areas, cut some trees down to let light in, I will never ever let another logger into my woods... ever again. The last time was disasterous.

I think a lot of people will agree with you after being burned and the land tore to smithereens. It has been 10 years since I let a logger on my wood lot and just now getting it back to the way I think it should be, however, I know a logger that logs with mules and horses more for a hobby than making profit and I can tell when he pulls out of a lot all that is left is tops for the fireplace.
 
Having your own land to shoot on is great, but having neighbors that don't mind you doing it there is critical. Even it it is legal, and they don't like it, they can make things unpleasant for you. I have some land that is rural, and certainly can and do shoot there, but with neighbors just 100-200 yards away, I choose not to very much. A ML'er with light loads going off once every 5-10 minutes a day or two a month is one thing, but modern guns and their abilities to consume large amounts of ammo (as well as their much louder nature) is another. So if I'm going to shoot that stuff, out of respect for my neighbors, I'll find someplace a little more secluded, (with neighbors around there that don't know me)!
 
I think a lot of people will agree with you after being burned and the land tore to smithereens. It has been 10 years since I let a logger on my wood lot and just now getting it back to the way I think it should be, however, I know a logger that logs with mules and horses more for a hobby than making profit and I can tell when he pulls out of a lot all that is left is tops for the fireplace.
let’s just say I had about a 25 acre thicket after the loggers left... I started from that and planted persimmons, paw paw trees, let the mulberry’s grow, and black raspberry’s. I plant sunflowers in the pipeline.. and corn. The woods has about Three 1 acre swamps that are deep enough to trap turtle in. After 15 years of care and maintainence my woods is teaming with wildlife and the trees have grown significantly... My family has agreed to never allow it to be logged again.
 
A little over 79 acres in Mid Tn...
It’s mostly hunting land with a mixture of hardwoods, thickets and plots..

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But I live on the property as well.😁
 
Thanks , it’s something I always dreamed of ... (not necessarily so for my Wife)
However, All the Grandkids are still within a couple hours drive..👍
We’ve been here 11years now..time flies when you’re having fun!
 
Since I moved into a town I'm stuck with Eurasian doves and a very old pellet gun. Things could be worse. Don't pass up a chance to eat them. The things are tasty!

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Those Eurasian, or collard doves are considered as an invasive species here in Arizona.
They were first brought to Florida and now they have made it all the way to Arizona where they compete against other doves and birds for food.
Because of this, there is "open season" on them all year long with no limits on how many you kill.
 
Are they easy to identify on the wing? Differentiate from our native doves?
They are quite a bit larger birds and don't have the long pointed tail that the Mourning Dove has. We have the White Wing Dove here too. They are in between the Mourning Dove and the Eurasian as regards size. On the wing it's easy to tell the difference between the Mourning and the others but I haven't yet got the difference between the White Wing and the Eurasion on the wing. Both the White Wing and the Eurasian have a completely different call than the Mourning Dove. The Eurasian has a sort of raspy screech when it lands and no white outlines on the front edge of the wings. It's easy for me to tell the difference when they land on the wife's birdbath at 18' from the shooting bag on the sill of my shop window.😊 They have also made it all the way to Alaska.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eurasian_Collared-Dove
 
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I have a 500 yard pipeline... believe me, I know quite a bit about logging out a woods and managing it. My woods is connected to a 40 acre woods, together me and the other owner micro manage our deer properties. Food plots, bedding areas, cut some trees down to let light in, I will never ever let another logger into my woods... ever again. The last time was disasterous.
I appreciate your comment. I let someone I carefully selected harvest what I want harvested. Anyone else on my ground with a chainsaw has his choice of waiting for the sheriff or the coroner.
That said, you need clearings in your woods. Browse and game do not thrive in mature forests.
 
We have a couple hundred acres in Sw Iowa............plus my mother has another 160 that I used to farm and still manage for her. I do all my hunting on our own property. Built a new small lake on it and had another pond rebuilt. Stocked them with fish and cleaned up the old building site and ran electrical outlets for a few campsites. Just beautiful there and the kids and grandkids love swimming and fishing there. The hunting is very good as well. I grew up on this property. Love it.
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Nothing big, just a 15 acre tree farm on the side of Elk Ridge Mountain. I have a range and shoot from my patio. It's only 100 yards carved out of the woods and slightly down hill but it's just outside the man cave's door. I've got bears, deer, turkeys, fox squirrels, doves, hawks, bald eagles, possums, raccoons, grey squirrels, foxes and hear coyotes yipping sometimes. I'm 70 and would just as soon die now as live in town. Gunfire and taking a leak outside wouldn't go over too well there I'm afraid. Then again in some large cities that is normal behavior.😅
 

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I only have 4 acres, my neighbor has 50 and lets me hunt his land, deer pass through but bed elsewhere. I live at the end of a dead end road in a subdivision where everyone had 4 or 5 acres, because there is a couple hundred wooded acres behind my place I can shoot safely. I kill a number of squirrels on my place, mostly popping them out of my blueberry bushes out of season, my take is I feed them, they feed me. If I didn't keep the population down they would devastate my blueberries and probably my tomatoes.

I only shoot them out of season when I catch them pilfering my crops, playing in the yard is not a death sentence. When my wife was alive she fed the birds with a passion, this feeding attracted other critters like ***** and squirrels by the dozens.

One day the squirrels decided they needed the stuffing out of our expensive deck furniture cushions for building nests, my wife, who normally loved them one and all said "KILL THEM" and I went to work on them. I killed over 50 of them, problem solved.

I trapped about a dozen ***** as well and fed them to the coyotes, the **** wars started after they destroyed my sweet corn crop in one night.

After my wife did of cancer I immediately took down the bird feeder, the swarm of unwanted pests declined in short order. I learned I could put a very low strand of electric fence wire around my garden that the ***** wouldn't cross and solved the rampaging **** problem.

Corn patch **** damage;
coon damage.jpg


**** fence;
coon fence.JPG


Food plot down in my little patch of woods, it is about 75 yards from my deck. I have killed one deer off it in the past 20 years, with loss of my mobility (bad hip replacement) and old age many more deer will take a dirt nap down there in the future.
plot from the deck.JPG

My little plot Just planted, the electric fence keeps the deer out of it until the season opens, without the fence the deer will pluck the sprouting oats and wheat out of the ground as soon as it comes up leaving bare ground.

plot 2018.JPG


The deer around here are mostly nocturnal, I seldom see one on the plot during the day. Here is a typical night time picture;

does feb 2021.JPG
 
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I have a few acres here in a tiny rural town in the mountains and have a range set up where I shoot. My place in NW Arizona is much larger and has huge open area's around it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love the open spaces and fresh air. If a coyote or rattler needs to get shot it's a done deal. I target shoot with my ML and enjoy just being able to walk out to my little range and do it.
 
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