How much Land do you own ?

[JR60]

What’s a good number of acreage for deer management?

[turkeyfeathers]

I think it more so has to do with your neighbors not shooting everything and anything too 

[sodfather]

About an 1/8th of an acre and the bank owns it but I have a pool 

[G-Man]

I have over 270. But it's about having the right piece more than the size.. my neighbor has 640 but 600 of it is field.. the remaining woods are scattered . It doenst hold.many deer.

In nys I would want 50 just to secure a land owner tag. 

. 

Edited March 12, 2018 by G-Man

[G-Man]

36 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

I think it more so has to do with your neighbors not shooting everything and anything too 

If you have a sanctuary the deer will find it and stay on your property.. that in my opinion is the most important thing to have on a deer hunting property.

[REDNECK4LIFE32]

I have 5 acres on the pristine Saranac river and agriculture field to my left and a few acres that stretch to the nearest bridge with 2 house b4 it. The most deer Ive seen in the agr fields is 15 at one time. Most ive had on camera on my property was 4. A couple years ago the only deer I killed here was a button buck that came in with mommy and another little one. Ive had some nice bucks show up at night on camera only one spike during day light wrong place wrong time. Only pics no meat.

[Robhuntandfish]

I only "own" about a 1/8 of an acre as well.  Not much hunting there but helps keep the taxes lower.   I do lease 120 acres in one spot and have permission on another 100 acres and also a 12 acre and a 9 acre spot.  And it all depends on location and terrain and neighbors.  To say there is a magic number for deer management it would have to be over 500.  Otherwise the deer are into other properties more.  But if you have a good mix of woods and food and security then can draw them into a lot smaller areas.  The 120 I lease is a brushed up tangle and has really no food plots but a ton of cover.   The other 100 is almost all open fields and no cover.  (if I could only put them together).  And both get hunted on the other sides.  So to say I was gonna grow some big deer and not have the neighbors shoot them before they got to be mature would be crazy. I am able to usually get a doe and be a little picky on a buck but usually end up with a 5,6,7 point in the end.  Last year I didnt get a buck and passed up a few hoping for one of 2 big 9 pointers that were around.  

i think with any size of land there are things you can do to improve it and keep or bring deer there.  If you can provide some security and some food they will come in and you can increase your chances.  

[LET EM GROW]

I own 12 acres, and over the years have made it a place whitetail and other critters want to be. It is not perfect, but it is not bad.. Myself and many neighbors follow QDM  practices for years now.. Results are amazing. I do not own enough for a sanctuary so i hunt only in the perfect conditions.

If you are buying, I would make sure you can incorporate at least 1 sanctuary on your property, along with food and water.. keep the pressure off... deer have will not have much reason to want to leave.. 

Sanctuaries are KEY.. followed by food and water

[BigVal]

Close to sealing the deal on a property (my first house) with 9 acres but not done yet so knock on wood lol.

[chas0218]

Depends, around our house we have 40, my FIL has 40 in Middlesex, and back on my family's farm we have just shy of 200. All of them hold deer and have seen and taken some dandy's. On each property we have taken 160" deer. Except the 40 acres behind my house we didn't get to connect with the 140" 8 point. All of the properties are almost 100% wooded except for 60 acres of the 200. If I was looking for land I would like 50 acres, and good amount of brush and 100% wooded. If there isn't a food source there has to be a bedding area. At least you can add a food source later on.

Edited March 12, 2018 by chas0218

[outdoorstom]

We have 120 acres. 50 + in crop fields, 25 acre woodlot, 22 acre wet area with 8 duck ponds, and the rest is yard and surrounding area.  The neighbors behind us  have 100 acres and they're picky about what they shoot.

[moog5050]

40 acres all hardwoods and wetlands.  Lots of bedding and neighbors have the food sources.  Not enough to really manage deer, but they seem to be doing just fine on their own. 

[sodfather]

24 minutes ago, moog5050 said:

40 acres all hardwoods and wetlands.  Lots of bedding and neighbors have the food sources.  Not enough to really manage deer, but they seem to be doing just fine on their own. 

Wetland does it hold any ducks?

[WNYBuckHunter]

I have 15 acres, mostly woods with a small creek and a couple of clearings that will become food plots this year. We just purchased it this year, and I have some information about the hunting around us, but no experience yet, so we will see. Supposedly the neighbors all hunt low pressure and are picky about what they shoot. It is not my primary hunting area though.

[moog5050]

2 minutes ago, sodfather said:

Wetland does it hold any ducks?

Huge pond across the road has all the ducks and geese (its crazy loud at times).  The wetland is mostly cattails with islands of brush.  Great for deer but not so much for duck.  But, I cant tell you how many times I sit a stand and have geese and ducks fly by in shooting range due to the pond across the road. (I assume 20-40yds is in range?)

[dbHunterNY]

i myself own just under 10 that i practice QDM on the best i can. it gets a lot of deer traffic in an area that has pretty low deer density for this WMU.  i get trail cam photos of about every buck in the general area that eventually gets taken, including the rare some that are older that others talk about. also my parent's own a farm that's 328 contiguous acres. it's apart of a QDM co-op i coordinate basic very basic QDM efforts for that's almost 12,000 contiguous acres. it's hunted pretty hard by the extended family. a vast majority of the co-op properties are under 80 acres with many less than 30 acres that do well every year. not all acreage hunts the same and it's possible to have a small honey hole in a war zone that still produces great hunting if you go about it right.

[GreeneHunter]

I have a little over 20 acres .... mostly woods and some fields and a stream ( rainbow trout ) runs through it !

 

[JRod 8G8H]

None... I have permission to hunt on a 15 acre piece, 5 acre piece, and a farmer's 200 acre piece.  And I consistently see the most deer and best bucks on the 5 acre property.  The 15 acres is sufficient for a small sancuary, food plot, travel corridors, and for you to get in and out undetected.  The 5 acres forget it.. you're either in stand before the deer move through or you might as well go back to bed cause it's a travel corridor between swamp and food

[Nomad]

Own 116 but don’t hunt that,, farm I hunt is around 3,000 .

The farm and many around us do “ manage “ it .

[Steuben Jerry]

86 acres, about 75% wooded, with permission on neighboring properties totaling another 120-ish. 

Larger landowners behind me and north of me are picky with what they take, and don't take much.

[Rattler]

I own 30 connected to my friend's 350.  So I hunt it all.  All woods with a trout stream running through it.  I walk right out my back door every day I hunt deer.  Sometimes my vehicle never moves for the entire first week of deer season.  I live here.  Took me 50 years to accomplish this dream.

[hunterman7956]

I own 13 acres 2 of open food plot and 11 pine woods that I bought off a member geno c on this site to my left is 15 acres my neighbor has which he only hunts i or 2 weekends a year , on my right the other neighbor hunts elsewhere .I just got sole permission to hunt 100 acres of land 10 minutes away last year and while being shown property lines we seen 6 different bucks 6 pts or better and i got a nice 8 point which i gave to landowner minus backstraps . I fish  during summer months and bring alot of fish up there for all my neighbors and they appreciate it . Thats how I got the 100 acres to hunt .

[E J]

I own 89 currently. I bought my house with 54 of mostly brush, woods and a little swamp. I cleared out a couple acres for plots. Then added 35 last year that is next to it. That piece is mostly open ag field with a little more brushy woods along one side of it. I hold a good doe population but the does keep the bucks out most of the year. I rarely have bucks on camera except during October, November and December. But during that time frame I get quite a few good bucks moving through and hanging out. My neighbors across the road get mostly bucks all year long on their cameras but not hardly any does.

[Steuben Jerry]

1 hour ago, Rattler said:

I walk right out my back door every day I hunt deer.  Sometimes my vehicle never moves for the entire first week of deer season.  I live here.  Took me 50 years to accomplish this dream.

We have a lot in common, same exact scenario for me, right down to the truck not moving. I may have beat you by just a little bit, took me 49 and 1/2 yrs.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Steuben Jerry

[land 1]

i got 90 no fields mostley wood and brush and 4 food plots, what i have seen via trail cam i have 6 to 10 does that r always very close or on my land and a good number more that are on it say 50% of the time i see the same bucks say 6 on a regular basis and numerous others that are on camera a handful of times. theres ag across the street and i have numerous wild apples .Im finding in the 2  years ive had this property if you do improvements like food plots tree cutting and make bedding and stay out of those bedding areas . more deer will spend alot more time on your property, but with that said 90 is not big enough to keep them there 100% The first year the apples were poor and no plots and no cutting I only saw like three deer in october. then saw more when the rut kicked in. this past season  i saw deer nearly every sit mind you many were deer i saw before.