Hey guys! I'm curious, what are you guys hunting when it comes to whitetails? How many acres do you hunt on? What kind of habitat do you have? Is it woods or swamps? Do you hunt public or private? What kind of habitat work do you do? Do you do QDM? Do the neighbors? What state are you in? I'll start My family owns roughly 650 acres that we usually hunt, maybe 100-150 is agriculture, and about 100-150 some other guys in our family regularly hunt so my dad brother and I stay off of, so we deer hunt about 250-350 acres +/-. We have everything from woods, grassland, wet swamps, dry swamps, willows, and "sanctuaries". We are very active in our local pheasants forever chapter (each of us have been an officer at one point) so we regularly do pheasant habitat work as well as food plots for deer. We try to practice QDM as much as we can. We try not to shoot little bucks as much as possible, although there are some members of our hunting party that do not practice QDM. Luckily they don't hunt very much anymore. We do however encourage younger kids to shoot any buck they want for their first. We view shooting nice bucks as an awesome experience that doesn't happen every year and we fear that if a kid shoots a giant his first year, they may not realize the significance and come to expect that every year. Our neighbors are a mixed group. We have a friendly group that borders our land that practice very similar QDM to ours. We also have bordering neighbors that tend to shoot anything And we also have a small group bordering us that hasn't seen a buck in a few years. (I see bucks every year and I hunt 50 yards from their property line, I believe they move too much personally). This whole operation takes place in west central MN. Now, how about YOU?
My dad and I hunt in 400 acres. We din not own it. I work in the farm and help the farmer during the summer and he lets us hunt it. There are 5 if us total that hunt the 400 acres. The farm is separated into three individual farms. Each one is 90% fields/crops and 10% woods. Almost all of the bucks that we kill come while the crops are still standing. There are very nice ravines that run throughout the properties which makes funneling deer nice. The ravines are very thick and hold deer. The property is a very good place to hunt but we have to seal the deal in archery season because by the time rifle comes around all the food is gone.
I have two properties, could be down to one this year, that I hunt. My grandma's place is about three acres, half of which is woods. The other property I hunt, which I may not be able to this year, is ninety acres with 75% of it being hay fields. I may work on getting permission on some places closer to home this year.
My main spot this year was a 6 acre woodlot behind a friend's house. There are only 2 resident does on the property, but many deer have to cross the lot to get from bedding to feeding areas. I'll be hitting it hard again this season. Also, I recently got permission to hunt a 13 acre woodlot that borders a small corn/bean field. The area gets lots of hunting pressure, but it still has the potential to produce all season.
I hunt a friend's farm, it's about 130ish acres I think. Mostly ag fields with one chunk of woods maybe 20 acres. The rest of the wood are long strips along the streams that run through the property about 50 yrs wide on average. Two old pastures that have grown into thick nasty impenetrable bedding areas. Best part is I have it all too myself except for opening day of shotgun when the property owner hunts with me.
Sound like some interesting spots, have you guys taken any bucks off those pieces before? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have app 2000 acres of private land I'm allowed to hunt. I typically hunt 3 farms which equal out to about 80 acres a piece. I really need to start hunting the 700 acre place but it's hard to figure out and I've been too lazy to go scout it enough. Oh the benefits of my dad preaching at a small country church where everyone owns lots of land! The 700 acre place the owner kept nagging at me to hunt it lol. Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
Got a little over 400 acres to hunt. My buddy owns it and I'm pretty much only one who hunts it except a little during shotgun season. Its mostly ag fields and cow pastures with a few decent wooded areas. Always pretty good amount of food and its more of a destination farm then where they live or bed down alot. Its pretty decent early in season until about middle to end of November since crops get worked and ground gets worked up. This year I'm hoping to plant some food plots to help that.
Nice set up you got going! Try some trail cameras? Easy way to see whats out there without doing a ton of walking! Any waterways on the 700 acre place? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Small Creek running through and 2 small ponds. Was gonna hunt it hard during vacation last year wit my hang on and sticks but shot my buck first day of it lol. Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
Check out some brassicas for your plot! If you dont know, they are a plant that you put in about august and they taste really bitter until it freezes then the chemicals in the plant turn into sugar when they freeze and deer go crazy for that! Works good because thats about when crops come out so the deer will stay out of your plot until its grown and ready! Make sure you get a variety of brassicas because some are dwarf strains and dont grow real tall Just an option that works well for us, we have a similar set up with crops all around. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Yea it'll be the first time attempting plots so it'll be a learning process. Once planting time gets a little closer I'll probably be asking alot of questions. Thanks for the tip
If you do go with brassicas, hit me up i can give you our time line so you have something to work on. Dont be discouraged if you dont get a plot like you see on the bag, the first year they dont come very well a lot of the time but if you stick with it, it just gets easier every year Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you do go with brassicas, hit me up i can give you our time line so you have something to work on. Dont be discouraged if you dont get a plot like you see on the bag, the first year they dont come very well a lot of the time but if you stick with it, it just gets easier every year Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
