My father and I will soon be purchasing some land for hunting and I was wondering what are some of the things you guys would look for when buying your own land? One of the main things I think about is how close we are to a city, Does anyone have land just outside of city limits that they do well on? Do you worry about the expansion of the surrounding city?
Wish I could help more, all mine is out in the country I guess you could say, we don't much of a city here. I'd walk the land really well and look for sign. I would try to find some that has some type of water source...small branch or pond....for me. I like fields and wooded area both. I have 9 fields on my 101 acres...a few decent size ones and some smaller ones.
Before I purchased my property I walked the property and found what appeared to be a deer trail. Then I asked the (previous) owner if I could dump a bag of corn and put up a field camera for a week. After a week I went back and had tons of pictures of deer and the property was mine a few weeks later. My property is just outside a small town/village of 1,000 people. It's off the beaten path but not too far from civilization.
Ask them for their best trailcam pictures off the property. Ask them to show you where those pictures were taken. Ask them what bucks they have killed off the property.
The first thing we looked at was what boardered the property and the roads surrounding it. We didnt want any main roads or highways boarding. Also we looked at how much cover , grasses and woodlands where there you dont want all tillable and no cover or trees. And the main thing we looked for was water if there were any creeks or ponds on the land deer need water. We made sure the properties had all that before we even consider buying it. Me and my family now own 2 properties one boarding the illinois river and the other has a creek off the river running threw it. so what you want if you have the money is woodland , some tillable , water , and crp grasses or beding areas. And i would recommed trying to find a piece tuck away somewhere down some back roads or country roads well thats what we did .
Well my question to you is what are you looking for in your land purchase? is it just going to be for hunting, maybe a family getaway spot? If its for hunting I would try to find a place that maybe already has three major things on it. Food, cover, water. If you have all of those then it comes down to accessability and location. If it doesn't have all of those things you might what to look at what the cost of developing those things in the future will be. For us we wanted to get away from any major population. We only have one road that leads into out place and we are land locked by other properties. We also looked for a place where my inlaws could retire and one day maybe my wife and I. It took about 6 months but we found it.
Location of the property to deer hot spots. Possible Crp contracts. History of deer being harvested on the potential location. Water source. Potential building site. Possible tillable acres. Fair market value. Future development. Zoning issues. Crazy neighbors? Railroad tracks? Flooding issues? Resale potential? Local economic situation.
number one thing I looked for when I bought my land was, surrounding pressure. I wanted to buy land that no one wanted to go on or buy, wetlands. I bought 40 acres and a 4 bedroom house surrounded by thousands of acres of non-buildable wetlands. im not talking about 4 foot deep standing water nasty swamp, just always damp thick wetlands. spring time its very wet, and sometimes wet in the early fall as well. just something to think about.
Big bucks!!! Lol Can't wait till I am in a position to do what you are doing. Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
As someone else mentioned, especially in the suburbs, and if the parcel is small, look for something surrounded by unbuildable land, be it wet, steep, watershed land, nature preserve, whatever. It will make your land feel bigger. Look for evidence of hunting pressure on the surrounding properties. You will get way more enjoyment out of a piece of land that's close to home too, and be able to keep a closer eye on it for trespassers. Once you get your land, if it is open woods, do a good amount of hinge cutting of trees to let sunlight in to thicken up the place. I have never seen anything quite as effective to bring in deer as hinge cutting, it provides a combination of food and cover that can't be beat. For resale, be sure the actual piece you buy is buildable (far enough from wetlands, ect.) Buildable land near a city can explode in value.
Also talk to bordering hunters to see if they practice QDM, if they don't and you want to shoot huge bucks it can be a pain in the backside to watch then shoot forks Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
One thing I would look for would be access routes to potential stand sites. If you can't get to your spots without running every deer off the property you would be shooting yourself in the foot.
