Okay lets talk about management, not on 400, 500, or 600+ acres but the small tracks of land, lets say under 150 acres or so. Is it possible to manage and grow big bucks on small tracks of land? If so how would you do it or how do you do it now?
I heard of either managing land from the outside- in or inside- out. Outside -in being bedding on the outside of the property food source in the middle. The other is just the opposite. I think with a small property having the food in the middle is best, cause you can draw deer from other properties into your food and then they might bed on the edge. Having the food on the outer edge of your property might have the deer bedding on your neighbors land and traveling during daylight to get to your land, giving your neighbor a shot at him. Big thing about small property would be entrance and exit. can't push deer too much or they might leave altogether.
i have 160 acres with a road right in the middle of it so about 80 acres on each side of the road. I try to manage but it is tough. I pass the small bucks hoping they will grow but i dont think they do. I hear gun shot all around everytime im in the woods. some so close that i jump and some way off in the distance. I do have 2 plots on each side of the road though right in the middle of each section. I just dont see it possible to manage it.
My first step would be talking to neighbor hunters about it, then go from there. Luckily for me there is hundreds of lightly hunted or completely unhunted acres around our 55 acres, so I don't have to constantly worry about bucks being wiped out.
Oklahoma99 is correct...you have to get the neighbors to buy into what you would like to do! We have one block of 700 acres of leased land here in Indiana and a neighbor next to us has a 40 acre woods. He knows what we are doing and that he will benefit if he uses similar guidelines. Last year he harvested a 172 and some change of a buck we had pics of roaming our leases the last 2 years. Point being, if you get your neighbors to buy in, they can also reap the rewards of management! Without the neighbors buy into your idea, the small bucks you let walk will continue to be removed as they roam in and out of your property.
What would you do if your property is up against government land and that land is heavly hunted. Is there anyway you can handle this?! This is the situation that I have and Im not sure how to handle it.
Good food, water, and plenty of cover. Your goal is to get them on your land and too hopefully never leave. With small tracts you really have to be careful on hunting pressure. I hunt a 40 acre and a 20 acre piece of land. You can grow big deer if you just add the right ingredients and don't over hunt them. You can't control your neighbors so give the deer a reason to stay on your land. "Live Life at Full Draw" Sent from my IPhone
Then you make most of your property a sanctuary...pressure is THE most imortant factor in success. wearing 3 scentblocker suits and having a dozen food plots will not help in the least if the deer know they are being hunted...i would make the part of your property farthest from the state ground a sanctuary...meaning it has zero human intrusion (yourself included) at any time all year long, not just during season. the deer will pick up on this very quickly and will begin to feel safe there. you can increse you chances by providing thick bedding cover in that area by hinge cutting some trees or planting ones such as pines or cedars...or planting CRP switchgrass depending on the terrain. I would place my stand on a major travel route between your sanctuary and the state land....when the state ground is swarming with hunters....the deer will funnel through your farm to the sanctuary because they know it is safe....This is the strategy myself and a few others have been using for some time....we have all had great success....The two counties I primarily hunt in have the highest hunting pressure in the state, yet we still have success because of sanctuaries. The farms here i indiana range from 22-250 acres, with my best being 58 acres. The president of robinson outdoors (scentblocker/scent shield) also has four farms here...with the largest being 300 acres.....they kill HUGE bucks every year...back in 2008, michael waddell killed his biggest deer ever on one of his farms..it was only 150 acres.....during the footage you can hear guns going off in every direction, yet the deer in front of him are calm and relaxed. it sounds crazy to basically write off the best looking habitat for deer on your property, but it will pay off bigtime. hope this helps
the properties i hunt are 4 acres, 2 acres, and 12 acres. small land loaded with bucks, they have everything they need lots of bedding and thick brush, small grassy fields, oak trees, pine trees, and small ponds. if the deer have all needed resources the property size dose not matter.
We hunt a couple small acre properties that produce big bucks every year.. 12 acre parcel that is so thick in the middle its impossible to hunt so we set up a few stands on the edges and have had chances at 140+" bucks every year. I would say you need to designate a "sanctuary" of sorts that will make the deer feel more secure. Seems to have helped us on our small acre parcels of land. It also helps that the neighbors are some-what practicing QDM. They would shoot anything over 140" where we like to wait until 150-160". Here's a couple pics of the bucks we've got on camera the last few years.
I have almost 300 acres.. 9 years ago when I aquired the lease, there were members that shot ANYTHING !!! I now only have one other hunter with me... And we started managing the deer.. 2 years ago we had 9 shooters on camera that were always coming around,, and in the daytime at that.. We have seen our bucks get larger, walk around during daylight hours more, and visually seen the deer less skittish while meandering around the forrest.. It did not happen overnight, but 6-7 years of letting them walk, not saturating the area with scent, and allowing them a sanctuary to go where we DO NOT invade has proved positive to say the least !!! If you have an area that you will have for may years to come, try it... Yea, a neighboring property might shoot some deer that you let walk.. BUT.. they will learn to live on YOUR section if you provide food and cover and NO PRESSURE is soem areas.. It worked for us.. My thoughts? ABSOLUTELY !!!
I have 120 acres in northern Wisconsin that is primarily hardwoods. There is some marshy, low-lying areas that deer travel through, but not much. I have attempted the last couple years to manage the property by putting in food plots and some hinge-cutting. The problem I have is that I think the deer mainly use my property as a travel corridor from about Oct. 20-Nov. 10ish.. I am surrounded on 3 sides by paper company land that is "big-woods". I'm trying to create bedding areas and food sources on my property but from what I can tell it hasn't been very successful yet.
