great video!!!

So beautiful!!! Switchgrass is one of my favorite North American grasses. The wildlife loves it!

I’m torn between planting light switch grass/planting bushes & shrubs in it and going with your other teachings of just spraying cool season grasses in spring and let seed bed take over. Any advice? I have about 5 acres of old field that I need more cover in to move deer between wood lots. Thoughts? Spraying grasses seems easier, but not sure that it would provide enough cover post mid/late October. Mid Michigan FYI

I have a nice bench system on my north facing hill wich i need to do some cutting for early season bedding. Now my south facing hill needs opened up. There is no sunlight comming through the canopy

How much Triclopyr 4 do you put in a 4 gallon backpack sprayer for foilage spraying? Thanks.

Most up against a structure of some kind. Makes sense, seems like they’d be vulnerable on a windy day like you have.?

Which sprayer do you like using? I just ordered the fmico boomless and I'm worried I may have made thr wrong choice

Nice job doing the homework for the rest of us!

Great video. Helps confirm my plans to frost seed on the lighter side this winter followed up with a planting of shrubs and trees scattered within. Rather than burning for maintenance, I'll just let mother nature do her thing. Maybe the guys that have solid stands of switch need to consider creating bedding pockets by spot spraying holes in their fields? Then planting some shrubs/trees along side those pockets to sweeten the deal.

Your switchgrass looks amazing!

Great stuff Sam. Totally agree. When i was younger and more ambitious, id collect discarded Christmas trees and drag them out into crp fields and just let them lay. Deer gravitated to them for bedding. Your really putting out some superb content!!

Great video. Thank you. How close can you get to the oaks when spraying without killing them?

How big is this field and is it square or odd shaped? Thanks

At what rate would you spread switch into a field you're trying to convert into bedding/old field management?

What happens when you get a snow?

Great, did you drill or conventional seed?

Like you mentioned, repeat in Winter with 8 inches or so of snow on it. That’s really why you would even, for me, use switchgrass. Limited nest cover ( edges) no brood value, it’s too aggressive to blend with native forbs, etc. So, it’s winter cover predominantly. But, next to a good food plot, can really hold a winter flock pheasants-deer. Keep it up!

Have you ever went back to that field where you put out logs for bedding spots?

That looks incredible Sam!

Cut mine last week. Rain coming soon in Indiana... Hopefully anyways

do you come back the year following after late summer heat cooks the wood and the cold winter months break down the woody material and run fire to encourage more seedlings to sprout and make sure you get it wiped out?

I have Jake mulching some buckthorn at my property near Fergus today! Love buckthorn destruction! Do you feel like a boom sprayer is better for this vs boomless?

Is the hack and squirt method effective on buckthorn?

Wish I had the funds to start a similar project. The 40 acre piece I hunt looks identical. It's great for holding deer April - November, but offers no winter browse. Nasty stuff.

would love to see you mark off a couple 10 foot square plots and plant acorns in those to see what happens! good luck👍

What herbicide are you running in your boom sprayer.?

Looking forward to the results of your work! Glad I don’t have to deal with buckthorn

My buddy had same problem, we tore that thing completely apart, the last thing we checked was the manifold, turned out the manifold went bad, new manifold and now all three nozzles work great again, so check your manifold

It can persist in the seed bed for 1 to 2 years. It's likely you'll still have to treat seedlings, but not as many. Good video. BT is a pita

Glad to hear you’re chasing buckthorn. Triclopyr 4 / diesel 1:4 mix works on basal bark treatments as well when temperatures are below 85°. Good information as usual.

Great share and information on this topic

That looks like it is working out pretty good. I am guessing the deer won't bother using it, so there won't be any chance encounters or being able to pattern you coming and going. Thanks for the video.

Ueah but jeffy says you dont need canopy😅

Nice

What are your thoughts on buckthorn?

Even if mineral blocks are legal in your state, mineral stumps are still better for multiple reasons: Naturally more absorbable They are going to keep consuming them for being preferred food, whereas mineral blocks are just a small taste they'll stop by for once or twice a day They'll keep consuming these all year, whereas mineral blocks are only hit spring through early fall.

How many lbs per acre was planted there? Can it be planted thicker for hay forage production?

Yall should definitely sell the plans and material list for the stand

I really like the ingress/egress solution here. Safety and possible to hide well. I spend many hours and often sleep in my blind during night as well since we are allowed to hunt when the moons makes regular optics safe to use. Without a nice chair that might be a bit harder. But I like the simplicity and effectiveness in this design,

Any issues with shooting a crossbow in close, under 20 yards? I worry about the angle.

Just put a 2 or 3 inch high block of some kind material for shorter hunters. Kinda like how you'd sit on a phone book in chair as a kid to be high enough at dinner table. 😅

That being said if Mathew’s wants to give you a new bow every year, or Yamaha a new utv or some new truck you would gladly start promoting and peddling content for them.

I would be worried the snow and mud from your boots would interfere with the sliding door, maybe a trap door that lifts up and catches with a magnet? that could be lowered with a piece of rope? Good Luck!

Sorry Sam. I see ZERO reason to have that stand over just a conventional type blind.

Kinda reminds me of a two story outhouse

I'm in Gaylord,MI. I have 4 different models.of tactacams. Bought each one a solar panel and none have failed me yet. I hung em.with the panels in mi's September and was still at 90% the following archives, just unbelievable. And we all know tactacam cameras are game cams that are very reasonable priced compared to other set ups.

Since there’s no chair, how do you support your back during a long sit? Can you lean against the wall ?

Probably not good for short people

These stands are not loud at all. No different than most box blinds out there other than it’s likely quieter. Most people will likely be rifle hunting out of stands like this and not crossbow hunting though that would totally be doable. Deer also don’t hear as well as people seem to think in my opinion either. They hear well if there is ZERO wind or the wind is drifting their way, but ears are not their main sense, smell is BY FAR a way more important factor here. Their noses are incredible. Any kind of wind makes their hearing just meh. These box blinds are incredible to hunt out of. I prefer hunting out of a tree myself but on the really cold or really windy days there is no other type of box blind that I would prefer to hunt out of and I’ve hunted out of so many different style blinds. The simplicity and practicality of these blinds are awesome.

After I killed of the fescue and brome grass in a part of an old pasture, I tilled it and planted a brassica food plot for deer. The following year I left it alone to see what came up and the grass came back along with some goldenrod, but it is also overrun with sedges. Obviously, my seed bank is bankrupt. 😂 So the other day I mowed it down and as soon it starts to regrow, I will have to use glyphosate and start over. Clethodim as far as I know, won't kill the sedges. I don't need trees here; I just want a field like in this video that I can mow once a year or every other year.