How to keep deer on a small property??

Ok guys here at home we have about 15 acres of land that we are able to hunt on the rest is corn field and hay fields !! My question is how do I get the deer to come onto my property?? I just have a corner of the woods and the neighbor has about 120 acres of woods that connects to ours !! We have allot of deer around and some nice bucks to !! And I would love to be able to hunt them with success !! Usually they just kind of move through! And kind of wonder down to the hay field or something ! Would a small food plot be good ? Mineral site , deer feeder, what would be your suggestions be to bring more deer into my little corner of the woods ? Thanks guys!

 

Food, thats what deer are after. Make your property more attractive to them. Have his 120 acres be the "pass through" and yours be the golden garden.

 

I might also turn some of your 15 acres into a bedding sanctuary by hinge cutting and thickening it up, you could then catch the deer heading back to it at daylight or catch a buck heading out of it to the major food source. Scoot

 

Yes! Make your place the Holiday Inn and intercept. Let them get comfortable, keep it quiet and licks, water, food of choice should be the ticket.

 

A feeder will bring deer in. Best option IMO.

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Small properties can be tough be as little as just a couple acres of a fence row between 2 big chunks of land can be golden honestly. While some are saying food I would think with a small acreage say 10 to 15 acres your number one priority would be cover. If deer can see you from just about the entire property in one spot they will not feel comfortable there in light.
Be very careful on stand placement and more importantly access. Odds are you will have to deal with them bedding on the neighbors but coming through your woods on there way to feed. Where is the major feed field in your area?
A small plot would be a good idea but dont use up your entire woods on food. Cover is more important in my opinion, otherwise deer would eat sleep in the middle of a hay field all day everyday.

 

If you have access to the hay field and if the farmer keeps bails in the field all year long I would consider using them to your advantage. You could hide behind them or even get a hay bail blind to put out in the field to give you more options. Also you can't beat a good food plot.

you might consider planting something in the spring to so the deer have plenty of time to find it and use it then around August you could plant a fall blend to help you out during the season. Also if you want the deer to really keep working your plot and get used to coming to it especially in the beginning I would use a feeder as well just to let them know where your plot is at and help establish a pattern.

Another thing you might do is talk to the owner of the other 120 acres. ask him about possibly hunting on his land evey once in a while in exchange you will help watch over the timber to make sure nobody else is using it. Or you may have to grant him access to your 15 and just share the entire woods.

 

First question I ask myself and/or any clients of mine is where is the primary food source? Meaning the destination food sources and the best nut producing stands of oaks? Those two factors will have an impact on how I treat a property.

In your case you have a lot of the same style of property as our homestead property's 10 acres. It is a travel corridor, but wasn't always a place they hung out during the day. A lot of hard work and sweat and planning and we are now finally really starting to see more and more all day movement. Hinging will become your best friend. It is a tool to accomplish bedding, bend traveling, sight blocking and travel blockading. It is the cheapest thing one can do to increase the properties desirability to deer.

If I were to place advice to you (remember I don't know the place at all) I would say focusing on cover and just micro plots along some edges is what I would do. You won't compete with the primary food sources but you can provide great first and last stop type food sources to the deer and throw in some brassicas and late season you will keep deer close.

 

You might could plant a small food plot as a staging area for the deer to stop at hang out on the way from your neighbors to the hay field. This would be a killer spot especially for big bucks. You just have to keep low pressure on it since its relatively small

 

Thanks allot for all the suggestions guys there very helpful! I figured I would go ahead and post a google earth picture to give you all a better idea on what im dealing with here !

The red lines are the property lines but on the top side i stretched it a little to far up we dont have all of that but almost !Hope this gives you all a general idea!



And I didn't have any pictures of the land but I do have some trail camera pictures! Hopefully this will give you all an idea on how the land lays !

This picture is on the edge of the Corn field! and the corn field is the field on the top!



Now this here next one is about 40 yrds in the woods from the hayfield on the path!





this one is at the edge of property line at the top



Here is another view just inside the hay field!



and here is a picture of the hay field! the small strip of trees on the other side is about 30 yrds wide and there is a corn field on the other side!! That is a good spot early season!



hopefully this gives you an idea on how our land looks !

and thanks again for all the suggestions all ready!

 

heres a sample of what you could do



orange dots--- treestands
green areas in woods- food plots
black slashed areas- hinge cut/bedding
blue slashed areas- tree plantings
green stripes in fields- evergreen plantings
yellow areas- native grass /switch/ or some sort of grass
grey blob -- destination food aka corn or beans
yellow with green dots- micro foodplots surrounded by grasses
red lines- deer trails
white lines - stand access

 

That's an awesome setup !! Thanks for taking the time to make that up!! Only problem is that the corn field is rented out and the farmer plants corn ! Which works until they pick the fields !! Thanks again!!

 

And what kind of foodplots would you plant?

 

Making sure they have a bedding area, mineral site, and watering hole will go a long way. Make sure you plant something different than what they already have access to. Once their palate is fixated on that food, you are in for the win.

 

Hunting is more like chess than most realize. I hunt a couple small parcels and a couple large parcels. We had great success this year in shooting targeted bucks. The smartest hunting on that small parcel of yours is to not hunt it. I would create a nasty thick corner and then forget it exists until shed hunting once a year. No pressure and trail cameras is all you need there, the contiguous big timber and ag field will supply more than enough food. 3 times a month is all I would hunt a parcel that size.

 

Ahhh so you don't own this piece?? Just hunt it? You could tell the owner about some crp programs that pay as much or more than cash rent.

 

We rent the whole property and the land owner plants corn and cuts the hay and we can hunt the land ! But your map gave me a good idea of just what I could all do to the land !! Thanks again


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But ultimately yes stay out and never hunt the wrong wind for your stands!!!!! Make the deer THINK there safe than Sssswackkk!!

 

Thats what I will do ! And that picture sure helped me get a general Idea! Thanks !

 

yup no problem glad to help.