Who hunts 50 or less acres?

[kdunn]

Who hunts 50 or less acres and what do you do to keep deer coming around more often especially in a low deer density area? Obviously if you have any hunting pressure you can’t really control the herd and they prob aren’t spending a lot of time solely on your property. What are you doing to make your property more preferred than your neighbors?

I hunt on less than 6 acres and take a decent buck every year. Run my feeder year round and have it next to a small pond on the property. As long as the feeder is running they’re there at least every other day. Even before I had the feeder there they were in the yard at least once a week.


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[sharpstick35]

I have 40 acres in Edwards county that brings in a lot of deer every day. I have a 1.5 acre clearing in the center that has corn, cottonseed (most of the year), mineral lick, protein, alfalfa, and WATER. I have a large bachelor group that comes through daily and 4 resident does that seem to rarely leave the property. It is normal to see 10-15 deer in the clearing most evenings.

[junior]

I hunt on 40 acres, and we are covered up in deer. Had a few nice ones on camera last year that we never saw during daylight. My kids did kill two decent bucks, we need to work on thinning the doe herd this year! We saw deer or pigs every sitting. I fed corn during the season last year, and haven't let the feeder go empty since. I added a trough type feeder that has alfalfa pellets, sweet feed and corn in it. Only been up for a few weeks, and the deer already wear it out.

[jshouse]

most of it has all been said, but i try to feed stuff other than just corn, becuase i know my neighbors just have corn feeders going. rice bran, sweet feed, minerals, food plots, and whatever other stupid $20/bag stuff i can find at walmart or tractor supply. even if just 1 shooter likes the taste of something other than corn i may get lucky.

[SFAbowhunter]

Give them what your neighbors don't. Make sure they have cover (a sanctuary that you never go in unless retrieving a deer), food, and water. I don't have a lot of deer on my 70 acres right now..maybe 5 total deer. Everything around me is green and the only thing my place has to offer right now is 2 corn feeders. And the pigs have taken one of them over. With the amount of food right now and the pigs on my place, the deer are staying away for the most part or they don't summer on my place yet.

I can see just from google earth and driving around my property that the difference maker for me will be food. I don't believe really anyone around me hunts and if I give them a variety of it they will come. I want to hold the does on my place and the bucks will come.

[TxBowHntr]

We have 51 acres in Lee Co. which is a heavy hunting pressure county with lots of smaller tracts. We definitely feed year round to keep the does coming back, but we also don't clear the land anymore. A lot of properties around us are clearing their land more and more and we are purposely doing the opposite. Ourselves and 1 of our neighbors are becoming the only forested properties for almost a mile radius. About 2/3 of our property is thick, heavy cover, and the deer use it. My game cams regularly show 3+ different groups of does and numerous bucks (I have counted 15 this year so far, 5 mature legal shooters) from yearling to mature. Even have a potential 140 out there which was unthinkable for the area 15 years ago.

[JonBoy]

I hunt 16.5 acres in the hill country. I have a pretty high deer density and decent genetics so I just feed normally (corn & protein) and keep a water source most of the year. A lot of the properties around me have ag on them and are overgrazed down to dirt so my property tends to be a source for food and cover for wildlife.

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[Backwoods101]

I primarily hunt much smaller than that.

#1 rule- DONT HUNT UNLESS THINGS ARE PERFECT! that means that sometimes you can’t go to a certain stand just cause it’s opening day. Same goes for trail cams ect, as soon as they know they are being hunted it’s game over... done... no mas

This for sure. And it also helps to have your wife on stand by just in case the deer will not leave and you need her to pick you up on the mower so you don't scare them off to badly

[tdwinklr]

Have found out that hogs can ruin small deer hunting tracts. Do what ever it takes to keep them out!

kill'em all !!

[KactusKiller]

I've got pigs, they come in a decent amount but I wouldn't say they have taken over. Sporadic as well

[Jcjohnson]

The 24 acres I hunt had them sporadically for few years Then all of the sudden last year they absolutely took over. Didn’t have a picture of a single deer for two weeks on cameras that usually had daily activity. Never seen the mature buck I had seen on camera there again. They devastated the food plot, hand corn was gone by daylight the next day and rooted the creek bed all up. Spent a lot of time working this piece of property to make it a sanctuary for deer and the hogs turned it into a ghost town in two weeks time.

[Low Fence]

I too compete with hogs, but have learned don’t feed them and they leave. If your in an area where feed pens work... and your going to feed corn, feeder/hand corn build the biggest pen you can afford. If your in an area of Texas where deer won’t get within 200 yards of a pen like me... then learn to hunt without corn. I have 2 properties now with feeders running year around, for one purpose.. pay off the pigs. I put it where deer aren’t anyway and the pigs stay there. I can hunt them if I want and kill 95%+ off those stands. Pigs don’t bother food plots too bad since I have no corn near them. They might dig holes in plowed dirt but most seeds grow in the holes. If I hand corn in one place more than 2 days worth or consistently I’ll have hogs. But knowing where my deer are I can place a crown royal bag full in a random place along their travel and have deer eat it

Unfenced feeders in my area are the blame for the pig explosion here. Deer won’t enter them so nobody fences them ( in past 5 years I have less than 10 deer pics at feeders, and never a buck over 2.5), but I can place camera 150-300 yards from one on a trail and get pics morning, afternoon, and evening.


In my area I figured 10# of corn: squirrel, birds, coons, rabbit gonna eat 7# IF hogs ain’t there. It has the nutritional value of a candy wrapper so I just use it for a bribe for hogs in their own little hog ghetto

[Mule Skinner]

I have 40 acres in Edwards county that brings in a lot of deer every day. I have a 1.5 acre clearing in the center that has corn, cottonseed (most of the year), mineral lick, protein, alfalfa, and WATER. I have a large bachelor group that comes through daily and 4 resident does that seem to rarely leave the property. It is normal to see 10-15 deer in the clearing most evenings.

I'm on 30 acres in Edwards County. My parents have 40 next door. Which subdivision are you in? We are in 41 Ranch.

I was going to second that an alfalfa bale will bring in the whitetails.

[Bumpy]

My place backs up to the national forest. I can throw corn out and later that day does will be eating it.

[KactusKiller]

Found a couple water oaks with acorns growing on my place today, should be good to go come season.