I know without scouting and actually looking on the ground it's hard to know what kind of deer herd you have around. I recently got this small piece of land and would like to hunt on it as I don't have access to any place else, and don't want to bother with the public land around here, it's to crowded. I've attached a couple pics of it. One is a bigger pic with the surrounding land. I'm wondering if you guys who have lots of hunting expertise can tell me by looking if any spots look good and why. And what can I do to bring deer to my area and try to keep em. There is a creek that runs through, a pond, thick cover for bedding and 7 or 8 acres of hardwoods. Thanks
If it has a deer herd most certainly you can have success on 15 acres. Just gotta make it a place they want to be either through habit changes or food. Build it an they will come. Good luck.
You can not dismiss the wind, set up more than one stand. Plan your entrance and exit and do not over hunt. Hard to sneak in the dark before the sun so best bets might be afternoons.
I hunt a 4 acre property have had tags filled every year. It looks to me you have 2 locations opposite ends of property. Use the stream to your advantage. Remember shelter, food, water even if you don't have them coming in pay attention to where they come from where there heading. Once you get the idea of what they have you can create on your property the things that are lacking. My 4 acres are joined to crop land owner has 4 2 acre food plots scattered a pond and stream. Used first year manly for info to pattern them. The following spring I hinge cut and created bedding areas and a small hh as a stagging /pinch point. Just remember small acreage makes it easy to over hunt. If the wind does not favor you don't hunt. Make sure you entry and exit points won't bother the deer even if you have to walk farther did risk it they will only tolerate you so much. Good luck. You will get out of it what you put into it.
The best thing you could do is start adding a little food. Sounds like you have everything else. My mom has 3 acres that is surrounded by everything else, oak ridge/crops/bedding. (The oaks are in her backyard) I can get a few hunts in out there before the does figure me out. On 15 acres if you play it right with wind and sound you should be able to get more hunts than that. (I would think).
This^^^ Also not only can you have success you can (if allowed) begin to carve out a tiny sweet spot for the deer. Been doing it for years on a 9 acre parcel and to an extent on a larger one now as well.
I have 23 acres. On that 23 acres is our two and half acre pond. Our house is on two more acres including a yard. So we actually have 18.5 acres of wooded land that we hunt that surrounds our house and pond and we fill our freezer every year. It mainly depends on the land around your place and how appealing your place is compared to the surrounding land. Your main objective should be to pull the deer on to your place.
I would start with every 4th day to same stand. Hopefully if you have stands at the opposite ends and wind works with you. You can get more hunts divided by the two. Another thing to remember is to take the stands down at the end of the season. Rotate locations even if it only 30 yrds. Hunting the same tree year after year the deer will begin to pattern you. Most important to me is just watching them know where there feeding area is and the trails they take to and from. With that alone you can manipulate there trails with just a little hinge cutting. create new bedding areas at the same time. You won't be able to keep them on your land mature whitetails have a large home range You will have some that if you give them everything they need hang around usually they will be the 1.5 olds that have been pushed from the group. By the time there 3 they will be expanding there range.
so hunting once a weekend shouldn't be to much? i got a late start on things and only have one stand out. due to the fact most of it is so thick and hard to get into. this winter after season is over i plan on cutting down a bit and getting some entrance and exit routes with more stands. i really don't even know where to begin with stand placement, im a beginner! there are a ton of heavily traveled paths, from a aerial photo you can see all of em on google earth, its pretty impressive i think! any suggestions on stand placement and what to look for when picking spots?
I've ground up hunting a 12 acres parcel and we have shot 11 bucks from it. 5 of them being pope and young. Its very possible.
I shot my buck this year already (Oct 3rd) on a 1.5 acre piece of land behind my grandparents house. All you can do is put up cameras and see if there is any activity. Very possible though! Good Luck
Depends on several factors, big one is scent and access and egress. Are you hunting a travel path or a food plot?
Keep in mind a lot of discussion about hunting pressure on this site is for mature bucks. Fawns and yearlings are more tolerant of human interaction. Has the herd encountered people before? On a regular basis? Do they have less pressured areas to go nearby? What's the age structure? A young herd is more forgiving of hunting pressure. Unless you're hunting a mature buck, hunt hard and go whenever you have time and the wind is right. You'll learn more while you're out there rather than waiting a set amount of time between hunts. If you want to attract mature bucks to the property, disregard.
It all depends on the area. I hunt a 10 acre tract that has lots of big deer around it. Killed my biggest buck off this 10 acres.
youll have success. but its not a primary place to hunt every day. id probally go there 3 or 4 times in a season because of the area being small. id also place trail cams to help tell you when they travel during the day. id hit public land for most times if I were you. shift around. you might be suprize on what youll see on public land. but dont give up on that small parcel. there will be a day and time youll see a dandy there roaming there during the day.
disagree......100% As long as he can access/egress to his stand, and the predominant wind is in his favor and he limits pressure on the property treating it like a sanctuary, theres no reason why he can't hunt it at least weekly.
i am kinda leaning towards this,granted im no expert on deer and not by longshot! what i do know is since the 15th of september when bow season opened in missouri, i've hunted it either on a saturday or sunday every weekend. i've seen deer every sit but once. twice had a doe 10 yds from me and got winded before i could get a shot. today had a doe come in about 12 yds or so and she was sniffen but i had a good wind, and finally got a shot and got my first deer kill with a bow. what a rush!!! killing a deer at 100 yds or more has nothing on this!! but thats another story in itself. im not going to hunt it anymore until the rut comes in. i will limit how i use it but im excited!!
