How much land do you need ?

[Hunter007]

If you practice good deer management how much land do you need to keep your bucks safe from Neighbors  shooting them before they get mature.  What I'm asking is how many acres does it take to keep deer mostly are totally on your property all year long  so they dont get shot before they  get a chance to grow big .

[stubborn1VT]

2000 acres.  Or a fence.  

I don't think there is an accurate number.  Some bucks are going to leave and get shot, regardless of how many acres you have.   What you have for land is more important than how much.  If you provide security, food, water, and enough does, then a buck might stay put on your property.  He might wander off during the rut, or go looking for a different food source.  It's hard to tell.

[Lawdwaz]

y

[land 1]

Lots i  found you can keep does on a property with like only 100acres i seem to have about 10 to 12 does that never leave my 90 im sure they do but they  have  small core area, but bucks really wander exspecially rut.. but it seems that they change areas from summer to fall/ winter and move long distances at times i may never see a decent buck on camera till september then i get regular pics of them ...

[Buckmaster7600]

I don’t think there is a number, that’s why 20k acre ranches in Texas are fenced. Look at the studies of bucks walking 10-15 miles in a night.


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[Daveboone]

Every year for the past three years I have had an absolutely bodacious buck stop in for a few pics about every 3-4 nights. A friend owns land about six miles away, and has pictures of the same buck. Outside of owning massive amounts of land and living in themiddle of it, or high fencing, it is difficult. at the same time, having a property with proper bedding/ food areas can go a long way in your favor, as does having a gentlemans agreement with neighbors about shooting restrictions.

[G-Man]

You can keep a doe family on about 40 or 50 acres depending on how the land is laid out. Deer dont stay in square or rectangular home areas. Keeping a buck past 1.5 is nearly impossible with out a fence. In the summer bucks have different needs nutritionally and may stay on 30 acres. Ask my neighbor he loves his trail cam pics of bucks all summer on his place and then fall comes and poof they are all gone..

If your talking keeping bucks during hunting season

Best thing you can do is make you property as thick and nasty as possible. Then take half the land you have and make it a sanctuary( no hunting or walking through or shooting into) Visability  should be 50 yards or less and you will keep bucks on it as it's a safe secure area. They will leave to feed / breed  but will return. 

[nyslowhand]

Every parcel of hunting land is different and has distinct characteristics; land area shape, habitat features, travel routes, food sources, intrusions into or on neighboring properties, etc. Deer need food and security. Rather than cater to trying to keep BBs on a property, I always attempted to keep the does around with what ever food or security I could provide within $$ reason. Eventually the boys will come...!

W/O a high fence, worrying about what your neighbors shoot is futile and evolkes the "my deer" mentality.

 

Edited June 4, 2018 by nyslowhand

[Doc]

I try to get the best deer that the property has to offer, when the opportunity offers itself. I hunt the deer as I find them and do not concern myself with trying modify the deer or their habitat to accommodate my hunting. I manage my expectations to accommodate reality and enjoy the act of hunting rather than worry about peer acceptance of what I harvest. I find that allows me to enjoy my hunting without stressing about what is going on over at the neighbors or who is shooting a bigger deer than I will get. It's just a different way to approach hunting, and I find it makes me feel a whole lot better about that part of my outdoor activities.

Yes there are issues of the quality-of-the-hunt and the fact that I do not enjoy hunting in a crowd and I don't appreciate gangs of hunters interfering with strategies or creating unsafe situations. That simply means that when I feel crowded, I move to a different area or retreat to my own land, but that has nothing to do with "managing the herd" or growing a buck that will make me the hunter-hero of the neighborhood.....lol.

I realize that we all hunt for our own reasons, but one of the reasons that I hunt is to de-compress a bit, relax, and not to create stress about things that really don't actually matter all that much. My enjoyment of the activity has sky-rocketed since adopting a more casual attitude toward my hunting. Maybe that's something that comes with age ....lol.

[First-light]

All my neighbors own (bordering my property) 175, 350 and 200 acres. I own 68 acres and those hot does and bucks always seem to cross my property at times. 

Edited June 4, 2018 by First-light

[landtracdeerhunter]

 Best thing to do is spend all the time you can a field during deer season to increase your odds of getting one of the big boys. Do your homework. Where the doe are, is where the mature deer will show. Hunting good deer habitat a plus. Most of all, enjoy hunting. Very relaxing.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

912 acres is not enough Keeps many of the other sex around and that's all that's needed. Want to see how deer stay around a property. Paintballs to the hind quarters last until shedding and can be seen from long range. Cool to watch how they use a piece of property.


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[dbHunterNY]

if you hunt a property right so you're not getting busted over and over by deer to "burn out an area" you don't need a lot.  it also helps to do habitat type of a work to create separation of your access from the deer and ensure a likely hold of where the deer will likely travel through the property not in a straight line.  by NY DEC definition you need 1,000 contiguous acres to be recognized as a QDM Cooperative applying for DMAP tags.  I run the second largest QDM co-op in this state that hovers at just under 12,000 acres. we've got almost 100 landowners with most properties well under 80 acres.  i have ties to more that add up to around 40,000 acres and the same property sizes apply. your average buck's home range is several hundred acres and not in a nice circle with a radius of so many miles. also multiple times throughout the year instincts have all deer go on what's called excursions, traveling a ways outside their home range to simply know what resources are out there.  anyone i know simply buys or leases what they can afford.  you can't worry about getting enough land to keep deer indefinitely safe from your neighbors, because it can't happen.

[grampy]

I have two hunting properties, roughly seven miles apart. Have seen bucks from both properties, on the other one. The larger of the two properties is over 500 acres. It has a 50+ acre sanctuary where we never step foot in, and plenty of doe, food, and cover. We always wonder why they would leave, when they have all they need? But they do!!!

[dbHunterNY]

12 minutes ago, grampy said:

I have two hunting properties, roughly seven miles apart. Have seen bucks from both properties, on the other one. The larger of the two properties is over 500 acres. It has a 50+ acre sanctuary where we never step foot in, and plenty of doe, food, and cover. We always wonder why they would leave, when they have all they need? But they do!!!

grampy google deer excursions. some of us create deer utopias. yet the deer still leave at times and sometimes it's during the season.  it seems to be an instinctual thing to travel outside their home range but some might have a home range that big too.  a deer will never survive on much less all year with great resources the next valley or mountain over.

[moog5050]

I have learned that if we have the does around, the bucks will show.  We never have many summer picks of big bucks, but they start showing up in later Oct.

[nybuckboy]

On 6/3/2018 at 5:09 AM, Storm914 said:

If you practice good deer management how much land do you need to keep your bucks safe from Neighbors  shooting them before they get mature.  What I'm asking is how many acres does it take to keep deer mostly are totally on your property all year long  so they dont get shot before they  get a chance to grow big .

The bucks will always wander.  The young bucks will not stray to far and the 3.5+ yo dominant buck won't have to travel too far to service the area doe but the 2.5 and 3.5 yo subordinate bucks are the ones that will do most of the traveling.  

The key to killing big bucks on your land is to the does.  If you set up your 50 - 200 acres for doe habitat with food plots and thick bedding areas you will have the best chance to kill the mature bucks who eventually travel looking for the does that live on your property.  The other key to killing the mature bucks is to be in the woods when they are most likely traveling.  Make the time to be in the woods and stay on your stands all day between early Nov through the rest of the season.

[LET EM GROW]

What G-man said! 

If you want to keep deer, especially a buck on your property. You better give them everything they need. then make it thick. Food for 365 days of the year, cover and water. Take as much of the land possible and turn it into a sanctuary(where you never ever intrude in on and unless absolutely have to) including your wind etc.. 

The saying "keeping pressure off", is key to holding deer especially with a couple years under their belt.