Do you have realistic expectations for the ground you hunt?

My theory is full of holes... movement and transitioning deer are a fact. A 300 Acre farm is just 15 20 parcels all together... your point is what?

 

So some go and some arrive... what comes isn't, always better than what leaves... the point is there are only so much space on limited ground for deer to be there to start with. 20 acres can get over hunted in a short time if not hunted correctly more so than a 100 or 300 acres can... agreed?

 

Of course I am spoiled. With too much ground to hunt in many states,but I spend more time hunting at home anymore and on farms within 20 miles that I farm and care take,my family has tons of ground and have stands on ground I have not hunted in five or more years. so I guess my point is as I could hunt a new fresh stand every day of the season on my fav place that has heavy pressure around the edges deer are always changing areas around me so my cams always get new deer as the rut gets close. So I never feel that I have seen all the deer or that something new is not going to walk up at any min.

I think of how my old legs can walk in a hours time so how far a deer on a mission can travel would boggle the mind.

 

I have 50 acres, 25 field, 25 bush. I plant several plots ranging from summer to kill plots. My property holds about 3 does with they're mostly twin fawns, one had triplets last year. I occasionally put out cameras and see the odd buck. Every year I'm a little depressed that there's no big ones, then the rut hits. I'm surrounded on the north and west by miles and miles of uninhabited bush and the east and south are all farmers fields. My hobby farm is the first fields that form a funnel to the farmers fields. Every year Ive jumped the gun and shot a buck only to see a bigger one show up. I guess what I'm sayin is for the most part I try and hold as many does as I can and wait for the cold weather rut. Last year I shot a 135 and 2 days latter a estimated 165 showed up and hung around. I firmly believe that you need to keep does around then bucks from miles around will come a courting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Fre

 

I hunt 10 acres. Last year I had 2 does, with their twin fawns, living on the property. 1 yearling buck, a couple 2 year old bucks, and 2-3 does also visited my lot weekly. In November and December, 2 3+ year old bucks were chasing my does around regularly.

I expect to kill 1-2 does and have a chance at a decent buck each year.

 

I think we have pretty realistic expectations on our 80 acres in Tigerton, Wisconsin. There is tons of QDM all over the surrounding area and we have shot several nice bucks and so have the neighbors. We cant control everything that gets shot but we do our part in trying to make it the best it can be. We are enrolled in forest management programs and I also do food plots. Going to be going up tomorrow and planting some antlerking redzone and then some evolvest harvest megaplot. Run alot of cameras so I get a good idea of whats around until the rut anyway. We are able to track bucks by name and age. Looking forward to planting some seed this weekend and putting the cameras out.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

my point is that every 20 acres isn't the same. If I have 20 acres that is all bedding area, surrounded by 300 acres of ag, then I could potentially have 320 acres worth of deer bedding on my property.

 

The good thing is, I am surrounded by a lot of good timber owned by an old man who doesn't hunt. So although there is a lot of woods, there's no real sites of attraction in the area other than what I am providing. So although most of the deer are pass through visits, they are daily visits - sometimes multiple times a day. So regardless if they are living there or not doesn't bother me much, I don't need them to live there for me to kill them, they just need to walk by when I am in the stand.

 

Be careful what you wish for if your only hunting 20acres or so . Holding deer and always having them there is not a good thing . If they feed on the place , entering in the morning and exiting in the evening can be very difficult and you should expect to bump a few deer . Trying to get to your stand around bedded deer in the early afternoon ain't a lot of fun either .

I know because my favorite property is only 20 acres . When I first started hunting it , I thought I needed to plant food plots and make other improvements to the property and all I really accomplished was making it harder to hunt .

Now that my food plots have disappeared and no more mowing will ever be done there , life is good . I feel like I'm holding more deer than ever but it's probably just that I'm not bumping as many deer as I used to .