Who doesn’t want to see more deer and bigger bucks on their hunting property? The best way to go about getting to that point is with proper land management. Whitetails are very responsive to improvements in their home ranges, and tackling these tasks is something that you can handle. Using a Polaris Ranger or Sportsman makes taking on even the biggest whitetail habitat management task even easier.
One of the biggest impacts you can make in your whitetail habitat plan is to take a hard look at your timber stand. The age of the trees on your property is more important than you may think when it comes to deer. Sure, you need the old-growth, mature trees to provide cover, shade, mast and more for the health of both the forest and the deer herd. It also helps to hang a treestand if there are trees big enough to hang them in. However, too many big trees is detrimental to the forest and the deer. It may be time to grab the electric chainsaw and get to work.
You can selectively harvest mature trees to allow more light to reach the forest floor. This will spark an explosion of growth from the ground level, in the way of new trees, brush, grass and other plant life. As an added bonus, you can use your Polaris to drag the downed tree to a location that can help funnel deer to your stand. Unless you plan to cut it for firewood or use the lumber for something, a downed tree can provide short term mast for wildlife, and then act as a barricade to help direct the flow of traffic. You can use the Sportsman or Ranger to help direct where the tree falls, too. You simply use a rope or strap to put tension on the tree up 10-15 feet off the ground, and either use the winch or just the pressure from the machine’s weight to help fall the tree in the direction you want. Just be sure to use enough rope to have the Polaris parked out of the range of the tree.
Timber stand improvement
One thing you can do with your Polaris Sportsman or Ranger that is fun and easy to do is scout locations and hang your trail cameras. With a Sportsman, you don’t even have to get off the machine thanks to the ample storage under the front rack space. By doing so, you aren’t contaminating the area with your scent much, and you can be in and out faster. If you use cellular cameras with solar batteries, you won’t have to come back until you want to pull the camera during the off season.
Your Polaris ATV or UTV is a great scouting tool for pre-season scouting during the summer months. You can cover a lot of ground and many top whitetail experts will attest that deer are so accustomed to machinery noises and such that you won’t impact their movements by using an ATV/UTV. This is especially true for those of us that hunt near any sort of agricultural area. You can ride out, scout for deer, hang trail cameras quickly and easily, and make adjustments as you go. When people talk about hunting smarter and not harder, this is it.
If you have thick pine stands, with a lot of dense lower branches, you can go through and butt prune the trees to create direct funnels for deer. Deer like cover, but will take the path of least resistance when moving, and it doesn’t take long for them to key in on a good pathway. If you have dense pines, you can clear a funnel that leads out to a food plot. Then you hang a stand and wait for the deer to show up - and they will.
Your Polaris ATV can also be a great help with keeping your path to your timber stand and hunting property open. Ever have a tree fall on your two-track, making it harder to impossible to get back to your property before? Your ATV can help clear it out of the way. You can also plow snow for late-season hunt access, too.
Selecting pre-season trail camera locations
When establishing a whitetail mineral site, look for areas of high usage, such as trails, funnels, or habitat edges which often have thicker growth areas. These might be ones you created earlier in your habitat management process. Look for spots that experience high deer usage, making it easier for the deer to locate the mineral site, so if you created the funnel yourself, wait to put in the mineral site until you can verify the deer are using it simply because mineral sites can be affected by the weather.
You can use your Polaris Sportsman or Ranger to create deer mineral sites. You should remove the leaf clutter and a few inches of topsoil, depending upon which type of mineral product you use. ATV/UTV implements, like rakes, back blades, cultivators, or even a snowplow can make this an easy task. If you use a liquid mineral product that needs to be mixed with water, do so directly in the field right before you apply it.
Place the minerals out near the deer trail, but not directly on it. You want to have deer hitting the mineral site during the day, so limit the amount of time you are there and using an ATV or UTV cuts down on the human scent. You can establish a mineral site at any time, but late summer is a vital time to use one, as the bucks are in late-stage antler development and are craving minerals. These sites are best monitored by trail cameras, so be sure to hang one on the site to keep track of what is going on. If you want a treat, use the video function of your trail camera and watch how the deer interact at the site.
Preparing mineral sites
When it comes to hanging stands, your Polaris Sportsman or Ranger is a big help. For starters, it can help you haul the stands out to the property. This is really helpful when you are hanging up ladder stands. If your machine has a winch, hanging a ladder stand is easier and safer, too. You can position the machine and use the winch to raise the stand up against the tree, and use it to create pressure and help hold it steady while you secure the stand in place with the tree. Be sure you use the appropriate safety harness at all times when working on hanging stands.
When it comes to trimming lanes, once again, your ATV is a great tool for hauling your electric saws and cutters, as well as the appropriate safety equipment. Pole saws, especially the battery-powered kind, are big, bulky and somewhat heavy. Your Polaris can carry it with ease, though, especially if you use some of the Polaris Lock & Ride cargo accessories designed to make securely carrying gear easier. From your stand location, you should be able to see what lanes you want to trim. Be careful not to go overboard, as too much trimming can create an atmosphere of uncertainty for the deer, which can make them overly cautious, or lead to them not using the area. You may want to cut wide lanes to make sure you don’t have an issue taking your shot at a big buck, but you also need to be aware that cutting too much can cause that big buck to not be there in the first place.
Hanging a stand and trimming lanes
We all know how important food plots are to habitat projects. You don’t need a tractor to plant a food plot anymore. Your Sportsman or Ranger can do the job with ease, with a few food plot implements. In fact, using your UTV/ATV makes it easy to put in the small “honey hole” plots that have taken a lot of big bucks over the years. These small plots can be tucked into a spot that is secluded. Perhaps the spot you opened up with some selective timber harvests, as mentioned earlier, and by using a dense plant seed mix made for these types of locations?
One of the best ways to use your Polaris UTV or ATV for a food plot is to select the site and use a sprayer to kill off the current vegetation. If you don’t want to use a glyphosate, industrial strength vinegar will do the trick in short order with no environmental concerns beyond leaving a short term scent. If you're in an area with low rainfall, you can go in after the plant life is dead and spray the site with water to cut down on the vinegar smell. You then use a chisel plow, or a disc harrow to break up the soil. Disking the soil alone can be enough to make it ready for planting, or you may need to use a cultivator to clean up the soil before planting.
Food plots
You can selectively harvest mature trees to allow more light to reach the forest floor. This will spark an explosion of growth from the ground level, in the way of new trees, brush, grass and other plant life. As an added bonus, you can use your Polaris to drag the downed tree to a location that can help funnel deer to your stand. Unless you plan to cut it for firewood or use the lumber for something, a downed tree can provide short term mast for wildlife, and then act as a barricade to help direct the flow of traffic. You can use the Sportsman or Ranger to help direct where the tree falls, too. You simply use a rope or strap to put tension on the tree up 10-15 feet off the ground, and either use the winch or just the pressure from the machine’s weight to help fall the tree in the direction you want. Just be sure to use enough rope to have the Polaris parked out of the range of the tree.
One thing you can do with your Polaris Sportsman or Ranger that is fun and easy to do is scout locations and hang your trail cameras. With a Sportsman, you don’t even have to get off the machine thanks to the ample storage under the front rack space. By doing so, you aren’t contaminating the area with your scent much, and you can be in and out faster. If you use cellular cameras with solar batteries, you won’t have to come back until you want to pull the camera during the off season.
Your Polaris ATV or UTV is a great scouting tool for pre-season scouting during the summer months. You can cover a lot of ground and many top whitetail experts will attest that deer are so accustomed to machinery noises and such that you won’t impact their movements by using an ATV/UTV. This is especially true for those of us that hunt near any sort of agricultural area. You can ride out, scout for deer, hang trail cameras quickly and easily, and make adjustments as you go. When people talk about hunting smarter and not harder, this is it.
When establishing a whitetail mineral site, look for areas of high usage, such as trails, funnels, or habitat edges which often have thicker growth areas. These might be ones you created earlier in your habitat management process. Look for spots that experience high deer usage, making it easier for the deer to locate the mineral site, so if you created the funnel yourself, wait to put in the mineral site until you can verify the deer are using it simply because mineral sites can be affected by the weather.
You can use your Polaris Sportsman or Ranger to create deer mineral sites. You should remove the leaf clutter and a few inches of topsoil, depending upon which type of mineral product you use. ATV/UTV implements, like rakes, back blades, cultivators, or even a snowplow can make this an easy task. If you use a liquid mineral product that needs to be mixed with water, do so directly in the field right before you apply it.
Place the minerals out near the deer trail, but not directly on it. You want to have deer hitting the mineral site during the day, so limit the amount of time you are there and using an ATV or UTV cuts down on the human scent. You can establish a mineral site at any time, but late summer is a vital time to use one, as the bucks are in late-stage antler development and are craving minerals. These sites are best monitored by trail cameras, so be sure to hang one on the site to keep track of what is going on. If you want a treat, use the video function of your trail camera and watch how the deer interact at the site.
When it comes to hanging stands, your Polaris Sportsman or Ranger is a big help. For starters, it can help you haul the stands out to the property. This is really helpful when you are hanging up ladder stands. If your machine has a winch, hanging a ladder stand is easier and safer, too. You can position the machine and use the winch to raise the stand up against the tree, and use it to create pressure and help hold it steady while you secure the stand in place with the tree. Be sure you use the appropriate safety harness at all times when working on hanging stands.
When it comes to trimming lanes, once again, your ATV is a great tool for hauling your electric saws and cutters, as well as the appropriate safety equipment. Pole saws, especially the battery-powered kind, are big, bulky and somewhat heavy. Your Polaris can carry it with ease, though, especially if you use some of the Polaris Lock & Ride cargo accessories designed to make securely carrying gear easier. From your stand location, you should be able to see what lanes you want to trim. Be careful not to go overboard, as too much trimming can create an atmosphere of uncertainty for the deer, which can make them overly cautious, or lead to them not using the area. You may want to cut wide lanes to make sure you don’t have an issue taking your shot at a big buck, but you also need to be aware that cutting too much can cause that big buck to not be there in the first place.
We all know how important food plots are to habitat projects. You don’t need a tractor to plant a food plot anymore. Your Sportsman or Ranger can do the job with ease, with a few food plot implements. In fact, using your UTV/ATV makes it easy to put in the small “honey hole” plots that have taken a lot of big bucks over the years. These small plots can be tucked into a spot that is secluded. Perhaps the spot you opened up with some selective timber harvests, as mentioned earlier, and by using a dense plant seed mix made for these types of locations?
One of the best ways to use your Polaris UTV or ATV for a food plot is to select the site and use a sprayer to kill off the current vegetation. If you don’t want to use a glyphosate, industrial strength vinegar will do the trick in short order with no environmental concerns beyond leaving a short term scent. If you're in an area with low rainfall, you can go in after the plant life is dead and spray the site with water to cut down on the vinegar smell. You then use a chisel plow, or a disc harrow to break up the soil. Disking the soil alone can be enough to make it ready for planting, or you may need to use a cultivator to clean up the soil before planting.