My fiance and I are in the process of finding some hunting land. We have found a pretty decently priced 100 acres within a couple of hours of our home. It is fairly flat land in middle TN but does have a few high hills in the pastures which offer great views and make the property seem much larger. I have already looked at the land once and really like the place. The land is affordable has a good mixture of thick timber that can be used for sanctuaries and open land that I could plant food plots in. The one drawback I have is that I only counted a few oaks on the property at all and didn't see many through my binoculars on the neighboring properties. The property had several walnuts and several hickory trees. With the lack of oaks in the area I feel like it may be easier to draw deer into my food plots, but I am concerned that the deer size will never amount to anything because they just don't have enough to eat in the area. The land to the north of the property is mostly thick cutover from what I could tell with the road going through it mostly grown up. And the land on either side is cattle farms. Would appreciate any input you guys may have. This will be our first land purchase and we want to make the right choice. thanks
The first thing I would do I write out the goals you have for a potential property, class of deer you desire to harvest, etc. Then go talk to some neighbors and see what there management objectives are. If they shoot anything that is brown with bone on its head and you want to kill big mature bucks, its not a good deal. If they are into letting deer mature, your in the buisness. neighborhood is everything. you can plant food, and make thick nasty sanctuaries! But if your neighbor and his eight best buddies don't have any self control then i would not do it. However the aerial looks sweet! I can see lots of potential there if neighbors are decent! If you decide to go for it and ever want advice give me a PM, have been food plotting and doing habitat manipulation for around 8 years. The rewards to it are endless!
From what I can tell the neighbors are cattle farmers that do not do much hunting. I have met the land owner and her family lives on one side and they do not hunt. I figure there may be a few deer shot off the neighboring properties but at least a few should survive each year. Never know though.
My advice would be never purchase land for the sole purpose of hunting if the land itself can't make the payments.
A lot of people would be missing out on a dream if they had to make their land pay for itself. I purchased mine for hunting and found soooooo much more to it than just hunting. Land is the best investment you can make. After all, they aren't making any more of it. I know I wish I would have done it years ago. If you can afford it go for it. From the looks of the property there is much more deer food there than you give it credit for. The woods and underbrush should be full of browse. But you can't go wrong enhancing it with food plots.
That's a true statement, granted if you've got the extra coin to swing it it may not be problem on small acreage but if possible why not try to get something back out of your investment.
It might be a great buy, if the price is right buy it improve it and either buy the ajoining land next, or even sell it for a profit and buy a better, closer higher quality piece in your future. I can tell you few things are more rewarding than owning land, it may say in your family for generations. Good luck.
Looks like a great piece. I wouldn't worry about not many oaks...they eat alot more than acorns and some of the best deer ground doesn't have any oaks. Like others have said, you can add food plots as a draw, and you should be fine. If you can easily afford it, I say go for it. If its gonna be a stretch, you might want to find something cheaper. The good thing...the current land owner lives right there...I'd buddy up with them for sure. Being an absentee landowner can create a whole set of challenges most don't think about. Good luck, nothing better than owning land of your own.
