LAMP or MLDP? What can I do?

[rhendrix]

I wanna approach the land owner of my lease and ask that we participate in one of these programs, I realize it'll probably ruffle some feathers since it'll limit what we can take off the lease and we'll have to fork out some money for a WMP, but it'd be worth it since right now the current philosophy seems to be, "If it's brown, it's down". Any suggestions on which is better, or which one I should recommend. Our lease is somewhere around 200 acres, almost half of which is pasture for cows.

Basically, I just want the land owner to stop all the idiots from going up there off season and putting pressure on deer, and to help make our lease a place where we can harvest some nice bucks, right now guys are taking 6 points and bragging about it. I know it might take a couple of years, but we could have some nice size deer if I could convince everyone to take part of this...anyone have any recommendations on how to get the ball rolling on this, anyone ever implement this at their lease as a hunter, not the landowner?

[Ol Thumper]

I'm not sure 200 acres is large enough to qualify for either,

[rhendrix]

That's what I was afraid of...I can't find anything on the minimum acreage though. If I can't get these guys to change anything I might just forfeit this coming up season and just hunt on WMA's.

[Krivoman]

Unless you can get the neighbors on board and lump in about 2000 acres, they will not do it. Might as well look for another place. 200 acres is not enough land to do much managment with if you are not the only hunter on the place.

[Ol Thumper]

200 acres is pretty small in the scheme of managment, Find another lease to get on that allready has something going.

[rhendrix]

Looks like I am gonna srart considering looking for a new lease then, 12 hunters on 200 acres is just too much already, I was hoping that this could help thin out some people, but doesnt look like thats possible.

Thanks for the information gents.

[Aggiebush]

12 on 200 acres! Wow, that's a lot of folks. You can get either with that amount of land, but you will only be allowed maybe 2 bucks and 5-6 does at most. That would mean that some people would not get to harvest anything. We have less land than that and are MLD 3, but I have been managing and keeping immaculate records for the last 12 years on our place. It is VERY hard, but you can manage a small piece of property and have nice, mature bucks. This year, I had pictures of over 20 different bucks on our place, with several being big mature bucks. We didn't take a single buck this year, due to tough hunting conditions, but managed to take all of our does.
Good luck, it could pay off for you.

[rhendrix]

Aggie, do you own the land you hunt on? I can't find any details on what the acreage restrictions are.

[Ol Thumper]

12 hunters on 200 acres I'd be running if for no other reason MY SAFETY

[rhendrix]

Thumper, safety has never been a problem, no one has a stand that is in another shooting lane, I'm hoping that if I stay there I can hunt on the southwest side, no one really hunts there at all...if I'm lucky though I'll be able to get on at a place near Trinity that a guy from church knows about and I won't have to worry about this anymore.

[Aggiebush]

Yes, we do own it, but all you need is for the landowner to make you the responsible party and the state can go through you as contact. Normally it takes at least 250 acres, but if you manage properly, you can get it with less. I started keeping detailed records of harvest data, food consumption, protein and corn feeders year round, food plots and timber harvest. When we first bought the property you were lucky to just see a deer. Each year of us not blasting everything in sight, we began to see more and more deer. Proper feeding and harvest and now, we are literally covered up with deer. Our buck / doe ratio has gone from around 15 / 1 to close to 3 /1.

I know it is much more difficult on leased land, but if you can educate the owner, it may work out for you.

[Mayhem]

ronald is this place in a antler restricted county, if so that shooting little deer should stop some..

[rhendrix]

Nah Justin, it's in Polk county, no antlerless restrictions other than no more than 2 antlerless a season.

I'm gonna text you my number, just remembered I haven't, let me know if you guys need anything buddy.

[Mayhem]

man i though polk was at.. i bet it will be soon or atleast should be..

[Mayhem]

polk is an antler restricted county.. just a heads up.