Having had a season to study our new property, I’m looking to make some improvements to a couple of sections. I appreciate the feedback about increasing the footprint of a plot in a recent clearcut area. I’m also wanting to make some changes in a low area of flat woods. This area is generally a bit swampy with a series of slightly(a foot or two of elevation) higher roads or trails cris-crossing the area. It is bounded to the north by a bit of higher(maybe 10 feet elevation change) ground which is rather thick but not difficult to walk through, a raised RR track and a shallow slough, then a deep creek, to the east, more of the exact same for a good long ways to the south and southwest, and even higher land with a gentle rise to the west and northwest. This area was logged out well before I joined the camp there 15 years ago, and I’m guessing the oldest growth is between 25-30 years old. It is almost entirely hardwood on the flat, with a mix of oaks and beech predominating. The higher ‘roads’ host sone grasses and maybe some forbs but not much. Mostly it’s canopy cover with the usual under canopy layers but very little vegetation near the ground. This makes it easy to see deer and hogs(of which there are plenty) at a few hundred yards but quite difficult to make a shot much past 80 in all but a couple of narrow corridors, from the ground, and less so from a raised stand.
I’m interested in using the hinge cut technique to achieve a few goals at once: open up more forest floor to get enough sunlight to encourage soft mast growth while providing added warm-season browse with the cut trees. Clearing some lanes for increased visibility and shooting opportunities for hunting without making the area too open(less attractive to cruising bucks).
Those who’ve done this, what are the better trees for hinging as browse? How do you plan out where to cut the trees and where not to and what percentage is appropriate? I know I can always cut a bit more later but I’d like to get a good show for the effort without creating a situation where I suddenly have too much low growth and the area is too thick to hunt.

Some preferred browsing species are oak, maple, black gum, elm…….but I’d hinge any specie except pine…..it doesn’t hinge, it breaks.

CNC, there are only a handful of pines in this whole 6 acre or so area so that isn’t a concern. There are a few larger @ 12” diameter trees that are broken or upturned and leaning from the storms that I plan to take down completely. I initially considered coming in and clearing a couple acres off for a plot but the low, wet nature of the location won’t support that idea. I do believe I could get some yucci clover established on the areas that already support grasses and maybe something else seasonal with a little more light. I’m already planning to cut a SxS trail in there for hauling game out. May as well make a day of it and do some other small improvements.

There's a little bit of an artistic touch to it when it comes to which ones and how many to cut..........You sorta need to be able to eyeball things and see the "after" picture as you're doing it. I like creating hunting situations in certain spots and then I'm good with the rest of it being thick and unhuntable.....iffin we're talking about just deer hunting

Mdees,
I'll try to make my response truly helpful here without sounding like a tail. I've always questioned the hinge-cutting craze as it would apply to cover, since most of our state is loaded with cover and there exists much better ways to create substantially more attractive cover. As the subject would pertain to food, I would also immediately in my gut say that hinge-cutting has minimal affect toward quality and especially quantity of food produced. I was listening to a youtube video this morning with Dr. Grant Woods in which he addresses the "ludicrous" act of hinge-cutting and furthermore what to do instead. I believe you can find it by punching in "Grant Woods answers questions Tennessee". I believe you will enjoy the Q&A. He's very practical in his land management as in how it pertains to us here in the South. I hope this helps and maybe pushes you to a more profitable outcome for your herd. Have a great one! --BHH

I gotta disagree with you…….Hinge cutting has its place an its not just a fad type of thing……Just like fish, deer like structure. Just like how some fisherman sink Christmas trees to create vertical structure…..hinge cutting creates some horizontal structure on the forest floor that the deer like for bedding and cover. I see this all the time when I’m tracking deer for hunters. They really like tree tops and downed logs for bedding cover……Hinge cutting is another way of creating some cover in the understory. As far is being usable browse…….It creates a ton of highly preferred browse. In essence its no different that a coppice/stump sprouting technique……I’ve seen maple stumps here on my place that looked like you took hedge trimmers to them.

Also, hinge cutting is helping to remove midstory trees and allow more sunlight in which is just about always a good thing. Hinge cutting can be used to manipulate deer movement as well by using the trees to create paths of least resistance in areas where you want the deer to pass by…..This is especially effective for bowhunters…….Hinge cutting can also be used a quick way to thicken things up and make them more unhuntable in areas where you may be having poaching issues and you want to block easy travel and easy shooting lanes……

I could go on but hinge cutting is another tool that should be kept in our back pocket and not just seen as a midwestern fad.

CNC,
I'm happy to see your disagreement. Hey, that's why we discuss here is to learn, (I assume). Other than your points on funneling deer and blocking poachers, for me and and my hunting partners, the practice is an unfeasable one on so many basic fronts. Our collective study-time and field experience, along with "skins on the wall" tell us a contrary story to what you tell. Will the practice of hinge-cutting have a negative affect to the aforementioned stated benefits in your reply?? Certainly
it will not. However, what I was pushing to Mdees was the fact there are so many superior ways to hinge-cutting which will create even better cover/ bedding, plus much hugher protein food and more tonnage of that food. My point may have gotten overlooked in my earlier post, but there it is. I doubt many would disagree with this follow-up assessment. Hey, but if hinge-cutting is your thing, by all means crank up the ol' Stihl!

There’s a lot of different strokes for a lot of different folks out there……big landowners…..small ones…..people with big equipment and people with none….. and a plethora of situations where different techniques can be applied…..It’s not an “all or nothing” ……It may just be us saying “Hey, let’s hinge a line of trees right along the road way to help block shooting lines of sight…. or let’s drop some cover and shed some sunlight on a southeastern facing slope …….I just don’t see why folks write off hinge cutting. When deer are pressured and seek cover I’ve seen where they go and what they seek out time and time again…….I’ll always provide them with some of that as part of the recipe on my small property……If I were managing on a larger landscape scale then I would probably look to other techniques……I would still want to achieve the goal though of providing that ground structure in the areas where I want it…….Everybody just looks at “thick” as being great cover for deer but there’s more to it……They like certain types of ground structure located in certain places like along streams or on ridge points or along the military crest of a ridge side ……

I’d hinge cut where I found deflated balloons. That’s a for sure killing spot

You joke but that may actually be a great idea if the wind current theory is correct

Plenty of decent points there, CNC, and I appreciate your take. You are correct in addressing the land size issue by alluding to any practice which may have a noticed importance on a small tract, but which that same practice may have zero affect at a macro-level on a large one. Definitely a fair point. Many options get thrown out quickly as actual options when smaller tracts are involved, no doubt; quirkier options then becoming more feasable possibly. Quoting David Lee Roth--- "Do the best with what you got!"

With that being said though…….While I do recognize that scale is gonna play a role in it for folks…..just because you own 1000 acres doesn’t mean that the same principles of small property management don’t still apply to small pieces of your bigger property……..To a certain degree 40 acres is 40 acres if you get what I mean. There’s ideas and concepts of small property management that can be applied to hunting setups across a larger property……You don’t just need good habitat and land management practices but you also need good mouse traps set too. A lot of people grow big deer that they cant kill

You lost your sale there, CNC. Size matters at some point on acreage -- guaranteed! Subjects which I studied and applied to my small tracts which I owned years ago, absolutely do not apply to me today with an over-adequate sized tract. They do not apply of course, due to choice; but also from a realistic evaluation and realization that certain small changes just don't carry weight any longer, such as hinge-cutting. It's the "drop in the bucket" concept here to a maximum degree. I liked the game of small tract chess years ago. I completely get it! The game just bumped into a new level each time we moved up in numbers of acres. The obviousness of the change is so apparent from a small to large tract, that it may just have to be something a hunter experiences in that particular tract's management to be able to understand. I'm out! Thanks for the debate, sir!

I can’t bring myself to hinge cut. Too ugly. Does it hinder turkeys?

Yes. Gives predators places to hide

Good discussion……..I think it’s good to be able to see things from a macro level and a micro level at the same time. Someone who has managed both ways would have a well-rounded perspective of things……The thing I cant help but think about when having this discussion with you is that I have 25 acres and my neighbors have 5000 and 1100…….However, I would just about guarantee you that if we all posted a pic of the good bucks that have been taken off our places over the last 15 years……I bet you would have a much harder time picking out the “little guy”……What if “the man” were being that productive pound for pound? I think to some degree managing on only a macro level can make some managers get sloppy over time and forget the things that make you successful in sealing the deal on one……I see it while tracking for folks…..It’s like you got this muilti-million dollar property but your hunting it like an amateur because there’s a bunch of deer and you can just about stick someone anywhere and have them see one.

I've been laughing my ass off about the balloon theory for months. Yesterday
I went into an old pecan orchard grown up with privet hedge and damn if I didnt find 3 balloons about 100 yds apart and appeared that 1 been there awhile and other 2 not more than a month or so. I know it's a hell of a bedding area but may e something to the balloon crap.

I’ve enjoyed reading through here, gents. I’m most concerned with opening shooting lanes and general visibility without creating a sense of being too open for the deer to feel comfortable moving in daytime. Creating browsing opportunities is secondary but would be nice. I do not want them to bed in the area as this would make even approaching it unproductive. The deer already bed on a patch of land just over the railroad track in an area that no one hunts.

There's lots of people who think clear-cuts are ugly too.....and to some extent they are I suppose......But

They are ugly but I love them. I am trying to cut 20-40 acres every 4-5 years so I continuously have good bedding on my property.My west neighbor cut 220 acres about 4 years ago and did not replant. It is the best thing that could have ever happened for me.