Pound Sand? No Posts

[Gatorboy]

Today I pounded in 62 T-Posts -- glad to be done.

I am fencing in a 3 acre portion of my property to plant trees in (starting a tree farm). I'm hoping to keep the deer out. I've built a 6' high-tensile fence with 8 wires. I installed wooden posts approx. every 100 feet and put T-posts at approx. 20' intervals. I used 13,000 feet of wire.

Here are just a few pictures: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

 

[v8dave]

A good looking and ambitious project.

I have a local friend with 5 acres enclosed with an 8' fence. The deer still get in and eat the rose bushes. Maybe the deer in Maryland won't jump as high. But, here in California we'd have to use a double row of 6' fencing to keep the 150 pound rats out.

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> But, here in California we'd have to use a double row of 6' fencing to keep the 150 pound rats out. </font>

I am not quite sure how many deer my fence will keep out. I am thinking if this does a poor job, I'll attach some type of bracket off the wood posts horizontally -- like an outrigger -- and run wire from it. This way when they get to the fence and try to jump, they should hit this hanging wire, or it will just confuse them. If that won't work, I may try extending the fence height with rebar drilled into the top of the wood posts or I may have to put up a second shorter fence a couple feet outside of the original.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Are you going to run a strand of electrified wire at "nose" height?

I'm pretty sure the deer will clear 6' without too much trouble. We call them rats with antlers around here. I lost a small orchard to them. Replanted it and lost that one. Today I told the lovely Mrs_Bob that I wanted to fence in part of the soybean field and plant blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and try the fruit trees again. She said she'd have to go back to work full time to pay for all the things the deer will be eating. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[GareyD]

Good lookin' fence...

I put the twin to yours around my pasture...I think the deer love me for it...I swear they use it for an exercise gym...walk up to the fence and spring over flatfooted ...I think they are using the post spacing for their own slalom course (Boing, boing, boing) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I think most deer farms use at least a 10 foot fence, and don't manage to keep all them critters in the pens.

The only way I've found to keep the deer out of places I don't want them to be is to plant something special just for them where I don't mind them being!!!

 

[Archdean]

Very nice fence! did you use a 2 man steel fence setter to put in the steel posts or just with a sledge?
Dean

 

[beenthere]

Great fence, but cannot imagine it will do much to slow the deer down. Do you have some source of information that says this is high enough? Seems I've heard somewhere that the low fence in front of the high one works, or at least something in front of the fence, which changes there intent.

Maybe a thick hedge 2-3 ft out from the fence would discourage their flight pattern (or a hedge they'd rather eat than jump). /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[daedong]

Dave,

Just read this thread, I know nothing about deer but it sounds to me it ain't going to work. Is deer not good eating, it sound like the USA is over run with them,

Like Bob said, run a electric wire. ...............................Maybe 6 to 8 ft away at nose hight

maybe Bob might go boundary rider for you, problem solved (just kidding Bob /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif).

 

[wroughtn_harv]

That looks like some kind of fun. Nice fence too.

Did you fill that bucket with dirt or sand to help driving in the t posts?

As for the deer.......I've heard they won't jump where they can't see where they're landing. Using that idea I have to wonder what it would be like to place a three foot piece of sight barrier (silt fence material maybe) to cover between three and six feet in height.

It wouldn't be attractive until someone comes up with a color pattern that works if that's possible. But then barren land where trees once were isn't very pretty either.

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> did you use a 2 man steel fence setter to put in the steel posts or just with a sledge? </font>

I used a "1-man, boy I'm tired after pounding all these posts" type driver similar to this:

... and boy am I feeling it this morning -- oh, my aching back and arms.

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> Do you have some source of information that says this is high enough? Seems I've heard somewhere that the low fence in front of the high one works, or at least something in front of the fence, which changes there intent. </font>

Yes, I found several sources that showed a 6' high fence with the wire spacings I used. 8-8-8-8-8-8-10-12. I read that about 90-95% of deer will not jump a 6' fence -- I hope that is accurate.

I have heard about how horrible their depth perception is -- so I will do something else if this does not work.

My neighbor to the west has 60 acres of soybeans or corn (alternates each year), so I am hoping they rather just walk an extra 400 feet and eat that rather than jumping my fence to eat some trees. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[MikePA]

You must have great soil to be able to pound that many posts in by hand. Nice work. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> Maybe 6 to 8 ft away at nose hight </font>

You must have some tall deer around your parts if nose height is 6-8 feet. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Around here, there nose height is 3'-3.5'

 

[PineRidge]

You must have had lots of pent up energy for that project. Nice job!

 

[slowrev]

"Around here, there nose height is 3'-3.5' "

You muyst have deer like Florida, look like greyhounds with horns.
Still can jump well though, most deer seem to be able to jump at least twice their height.

 

[Gatorboy]

The deer are not those puny ones like in Florida. I may have gotten nose and shoulder mixed up -- but White-tailed deer are on average 3-3.5' tall at the shoulder -- not quite sure how much higher their nose would be, but it isn't that much more.

Description of WHITE-TAILED DEER (Odocoileus virginianus)

 

[rambler]

Hope it works. The local brewery here has whitetail for it's logo (Schell's Deer Brand Beer) and have a deer park. They use 10' fence, few of the fed deer escape, but during mating season they get a whole lot of visitors over the fence. All depends on how badly the deer want to get in to your trees U guess. They hop over my 4' cattle fence without breaking stride at all.

--->Paul

 

[beenthere]

In a search on "deer fence height", I found
slant fence

And another on height extensions, which was mentioned as a 'next phase' if the first phase didn't work (hope no more will be necessary for you). height extensions

 

[Currmudgeon]

That slant fence looks like it might work. But since the tall fence is already up, adding an apron to it may be the way to go.

Place short pickets on the deer side of the fence, midway between the posts. The top of the picket should be about a foot above ground. Then run wire diagonally from post top to picket, to post top. This will give you a diagonal zigzag extending out from the fence. Finally, attach longitudinal wires to the zigzags. The deer will foul in, or avoid the apron, which should inhibit their jumping the fence. Add an apron on the inside, if you want to nail them as they come over. If you want to foul the deer, use barbed wire, but gutted deer fouled in the wire are ugly.

This is a variation of the old military Double Apron barbed wire fence used to break up infantry assaults. They've largely been replaced by triple concertina wire, which is much easier to install.

I don't know if high tensile wire isn't too stiff to use for this task. Using barbed wire, you can twist the stuff togerther so the apron wires don't slip. You may have to wire them together with soft wire. I keep a roll of 14 gauge steel electric fence wire around for those oddball "baling wire engineering" jobs.

It will be a bear to control the grass inside a double apron fence. You'll probably make Round-Up's stock go up.

 

[meledward23]

I dont know about the slant fence.

I buy trees for a living. Anything from 1" - 12" diameter measured 6-12" from ground level.

Down in Georgia the common practice is a 10' fence for the local deer. My understanding is a few end up inside occasionally even with that. However, most of those few break something or get caught up in it.

Deer are a pest.