Hunting Public and private land

[Pygmy]

Jeeze, guys,....If you are hunting New Zealand, 100" bucks ( stags more properly) seem kinda small..

Oh..wait a minute....NZ doesn't necessarily mean NEW ZEALAND...??..

Sorry....Never mind....My mistake....Silly me...

[RoadKill44]

The good news is: It sounds like your freezer is not empty and inspite of the difficulty, you do enjoy yourself. Seven weeks off work is a vacation bordering on partial retirement. Gotcha beat - Retired. [Grinning]

Edited January 27, 2016 by RoadKill44

[wolc123]

In a good many years of hunting, I have long lost count of the deer I have killed, but only (2) were on public land.  My first was a young buck on Allegheny state park, and the other was a year or so older mule deer buck on a Federal park in Colorado.  Most of the rest were taken on our family's land in the flat portion of North-Western NY.  The last few years, I have been spending more time hunting in the Adirondacks and that awesome scenery sure does have a powerful draw.  I fully understand your situation.  My in-laws have been building a camp, and plan on retiring up there.  That has given me access to a plot of private land adjacent to the 6 million acre Adirondack park. Two years ago, I killed my oldest, and largest-bodied buck up there with a rifle, and big doe with a ML a few years before that.  Although the deer may be fewer and further between up in the mountains, the quality of the experience more than makes up for it.  I have taken a few larger racks at home, but the odds of killing an older deer are better up there due to the almost complete absence of hunting pressure.                              

[The_Real_TCIII]

I think I've killed at least a dozen on public. Nothing huge but I have seen three true Giants and couldn't close. We've got some really nice public tracts here in WNY in my opinion

[Rockspek]

So 11 different bucks, 3-1 doe to buck ratio, that's 44 deer.  400 acres makes about 1 deer per 9 acres.  I'm not great at math, am very new to hunting and no near nothing about managing a deer population but I would say that at those numbers your land would have to be at the high end of the spectrum for providing food and cover to handle that many deer.  Maybe work on a food source to try and keep your deer from wondering so much. This will provide more food for your higher population and maybe keep some doe on your property which may in turn keep some bucks from roaming so far.

[Buckmaster7600]

So 11 different bucks, 3-1 doe to buck ratio, that's 44 deer. 400 acres makes about 1 deer per 9 acres. I'm not great at math, am very new to hunting and no near nothing about managing a deer population but I would say that at those numbers your land would have to be at the high end of the spectrum for providing food and cover to handle that many deer. Maybe work on a food source to try and keep your deer from wondering so much. This will provide more food for your higher population and maybe keep some doe on your property which may in turn keep some bucks from roaming so far.

Just because I have pics of 11 different bucks on cam doesn't mean that 11 bucks live on my land. If I were to guess I would bet that half of them "live" on my land. I don't have any idea how the "pros" estimate a herd but I would be willing to bet that it's not from trail cam pics. A lot of summer scouting is where I base my numbers and I think I saw 6 different bucks regularly.