We have 365 acres with 185 being woods. During bow season I am the only one out there on most days, but there are also 3 other guys that will hunt it from time to time on weekends. I consider myself lucky that I have that little of pressure. During the gun season though, we have 12 guys that hunt it. To me this is WAY to much pressure on this farm.
In my neck of the woods the hunting pressure isn't too bad during archery season. During archery season it's just me, my dad, and his friend that hunt the 100 acres, with no one on the neighboring properties. My dad and his friend don't hunt nearly as much as me, and I've usually got a majority of the land to myself. Once shotgun season rolls in it's a different story, because all of the neighbors hunt, including some guys that lease on two sides of us that are from Florida/South Carolina. We used to be lucky and have a mutual agreement on not shooting basket racks and smaller bucks, but that was before some new hunters moved in. However, we still usually have 4 or 5 shooter bucks running around if you can catch them at the right time.
Here in MN on any public land the pressure is....here I will put it to you this way! (ASSHOLES to ELBOWS) with hunters and I am not exagerating and a bunch of them are Hmong and shoot anything that moves including turkeys, squirrels, grouse and whatever might be out of season! That is why this year I found myself 300 acres out in Wisconsin with mild-moderate pressure (from what I'm told anyway). Not to mention the thousands of acres of public land available that holds some damn nice deer.
Me, my wife, my dad and one or two visits from my brother and my friend.... close to 2000 acres... I'm more likely to see a whitetail humping a timber wolf than see another hunter. Shhhhh... don't tell anybody!:p We are very blessed to have the area to hunt. 95% is public, but there is no real access...
I hunt a 200 acre farm and the hunting pressure has increased dramatically over the past 10 years. Not so much on the land i hunt but on the surrounding properties.
For the most part, my best spot is "almost" exclusive during archery season. You get a couple locals here & there. More often its tresspassers & quad riders that mess me up. And the landowner roams around a lot & hunts once small game comes in. The 3 border properties are hunted pretty hard. During gun season, the whole area is driven out daily for 2 weeks. During the late season it is driven almost daily...well at least every day that I've spent hunting there. (and probably the days that I am not) Locals gang drive the entire township, regardless of property lines.
Hunting pressure is a funny thing, IMO does not matter if your spot is not pressured(unless it's at least 1 sqm) because it's what surrounds it that matters. Our 300 acres during bow season does not have much hunting pressure on it at all, but we have tons of pressure going on around us. We have "pressure" of a working farm. The land around us now gets pounded, nor matter what you do, you are now hunting pressured bucks. This hunting pressure on the outside of you makes the pressure you may put(hunting or not) worse than it really should be. The key to hunting great land, good land, or pressured land is not dictated by you, it's what is around you that determines how much pressure you have.
I agree with you 100% Germ. It took me about 6 years to figure this out on our own 130 acres, but do agree all the way. I really think my best bet for a true slammer is to get on some public land that is way out of reach of most guys. I actually spent this weekend hiking and scouting a stretch that is over 5 miles from the nearest public road.
