Owning and Managing your Dream Hunting Property - Part 4
Troy Esau
After part 3 in this series, you might really be questioning if owning a hunting property is for you, or if it is simply too much work to fight off the people who want what you've got. I'm here to tell you that there are few things in the hunting world that are more gratifying than sitting on your own property and being successful. Being successful on a hunt is defined differently by most hunters; for me it is largely about spending time away from the hustle of everyday life and enjoying the wilderness. I take a lot of time every year to prepare before season opens, to ensure that my time spent in the bush is successful. My goal is to have deer sightings, and more importantly, close range sightings where the animal is unaware of my presence. I love sitting in a treestand or ground blind and having an unsuspecting deer walk within bow range and carry on with its day oblivious to my presence. This to me is a huge win every single time. It means that my setup and scouting resulted in beating the animal on their turf.
Introducing people to the sport is also an incredible experience. It's neat to be a part of someone seeing a deer from a stand for the first time, or having them be successful and be part of their first harvest. My wife had done zero hunting, and I don't believe she had fired a gun or bow before we met. (Newsflash Troy: I taught archery at summer camp, though that was recurve, and I'd shot a .22 at magpies and squirrels on the farm -Heidi). Being able to introduce her to hunting was a lot of fun, and now we are able to show our kids the way of life in the bush. Spending time on our property as a family is always an incredibly enriching experience. This past spring my oldest daughter and I were able to get out and do lots of walking in the bush looking for sheds. Every time I would walk into the house after work, I was greeted by an excited little girl asking “Daddy, can we go look for sheds?” Of course it was extremely hard for her to twist my arm to go out in search for more brown gold....NOT! To be able to instill that passion in a child at a young age is truly incredible, and we look forward to the day it will be her turn behind the weapon, sitting in the tree with mom or dad.
One of the things that has become a huge passion of mine is habitat management and how it affects the way wildlife utilizes a property. When you own your own hunting ground, the only limitation on how you want to shape your property, is your motivation to work for it, and the legal limitations in your area. Where we live in Southern Manitoba, it is illegal to bait or create food plots for the purpose of hunting, but there are still many other things that dictate how animals use a property. One of the first things I did to improve the habitat here was put in a sustainable water source, and it has been amazing to see how much it gets used by the deer, turkeys, ducks, and other small game. Tree trimming, mowing, hinge cutting, creating travel corridors, and building shooting houses are just a few of the other things I have been working on to create better and more hunt-able habitat within our property. It is interesting to monitor with trail cameras how the deer react and utilize the changes that I make within our bush.
Last fall we were fortunate enough to have a couple of mature bucks living on our property. Unfortunately, we were unable to connect with any of them and they live to see another year, but we have hope that we may encounter them again in the coming fall. We also had a healthy flock of turkeys living in our bush, and my wife was able to capture her harvest of a beautiful Tom on film for an episode of Non-Typical Nation. This was an amazing experience for her as it was the first turkey we were able to take off the property since we purchased it. To be able to capture it all on film just adds to the amazing experience of harvesting an animal off your own land.
Having the opportunity to go out and sit in your own slice of paradise is amazing, it really is. To take things full circle and harvest an animal on your own property, and then take it home to feed your family is such an enriching experience. It makes you feel somewhat self sufficient, and feel a little bit like you are experiencing what previous generations did in living off the land.
Troy
