Minimum acres to actually manage deer?

[Beargrasstx]

It is all about location but have fun. For me, the fun part would be to manage the property. Grow different stuff, feed protein, log everything, 600 acres is big enough to old based on other's experiences I have read and listened too. You need cover, food, and water. Cover is most important, without bedding areas your place will just be a night time visit to eat at.

This program would be fun for you to use if you like to tinker with things. Great offseason and in season hunting tool.

thehuntersight.com - course I am biased but I included every feature that I could afford to include. Satellite maps, game photos, nutrition section, harvest(kill) section, lease postings, form clubs with people and share your information with each other.

[J&M Hamilton10]

I hunt my dads 106 acres with one really good bedding location. From what I can tell neighbor doesn’t hunt but others do around us. I put hardly any pressure on our place, have food and water. I’m seeing bucks grow and get mature. You will lose some but creating a sanctuary on that amount of land they will come with neighbors pressure.

[lovemylegacy]

It is more than possible. We leased 300+acres for years. We took several quality bucks and I took deer off of it every year(bow hunting only for me). We had private ground on 3 sides with a gun lease to the North. Never had a issue with killing deer.

Make at least 10% of your property as a sanctuary/off limits. The deer will flock to it, especially if you have food always available to them.

[Speck]

I am managing the **** out of my 25 acres!

[jds247]

I dont know about out west but in East Texas deer roam a good distance. I have a friend that hunts a mile and a half from me and we had the same buck on camera for most of November A few years ago.. he would be on my place every 3 days then back to theirs. Neither of us killed the deer and I haven't had cameras out in a couple years..

[steve morton]

If i had 600 acres, you better believe it would be a h/f in the making!
That being said, i would start with all the food plots and feeding program to hold as many critters until the last fence tie was in place.

[doghouse]

We have cam pics of a buck traveling 1.5 miles within 12 hours. This was during the rut in Mills county.

[2coolforschool]

We have 460 acres with a nearby 100ish acre tract that day leases and a bunch of other 100 acre tracts that receive moderate hunting pressure from their owners. We have high fence neighbors on two sides, so essentially half our perimeter is fenced. Several of our nice 3.5 year olds go missing each season. We feed heavily (protein, cottonseed, corn), provide water, and have more bucks in the summer, but watch what seems like half of them disappear and/or become infrequent visitors when they shed velvet. Some reappear after the season and/or the following spring for the groceries, some are never seen again. We have three regular bucks 4.5 and older that survived the season. I’m sure there are several more that made it whose home range is primarily on neighboring tracts.

[cstrey18]

You could probably have several mature bucks every year on 600 acres if there is good cover. Some bucks will travel and end up getting killed but others may never leave except for a short period during the rut. If you provide them a safe place with plenty of food then that is plenty of land to manage. I only hunt 240 acres in Bosque county that is fairly open and other people in the area will shoot anything close to 13". Some bucks still make it to 5 years old and sometimes older.

[Balcones_Walker]

A consideration, you don't always have to high fence the whole place to fence out those 10-40 acre plots. Sometimes fencing just one side will keep the (still wild) management animals where they need to be.

[BolilloLoco]

If you have the ability to buy anywhere you want then don’t settle. Make things easier on yourself. Find a place with as few neighbors as possible. Or something that is already fenced.

[-HIC-]

We hunt 3k acres and see young bucks killed by neighbors every year. We also have big deer that are never seen during the season and seem to never leave the heavy cover.

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[RiverRat1]

That's my general mindset. BUT when we are talking about buying a property you have to weigh the IS IT WORTH IT? If the best I can hope for on this property is to shoot does and watch 3 year old bucks then the answer is likely no. I can do that other places. If it's actually big enough to consistently see mature deer then that changes things. Very good population in the area so the supply is there. Just don't know if it's a pipe dream to hope to hold them on 600 acres in this part of the country.

You would just need to try it and find out. I have nearly 600 acres with nearly no hunters around me. HF on one part to the north and a 5,300 acre State Park to the south. I figured it would be easy. It didn't work as I thought. I can feed and get 100's (literally 200-300) on the property but being in San Saba I think they just roam too much as seasons change. Drought they move maybe towards the river 1 mile away, Spring their are huge farmers fields 2-3 miles away, during rut they run everywhere. Almost never see repeat bucks and we have tons of pictures year after year. Pros/cons LOL Can't beat the deer away with a stick but can't really watch the same bucks grow year after year either. But I never know what we will see which is great also.

If I was you I'd for sure feed the crap out of them starting a month before the rut right in the middle of your property. And don't pressure them at all. Don't clear brush so your place stays the safe place.

[Deerguy]

High fence is a horrible idea. You should only run around 40 (preferably 30) deer at most on that acreage in that country. That means something like 10-15 bucks. You would know every one of them by name, where to find him, what time he comes to the feeder, what he's going to score, etc. Not much fun to 'hunt' really.

[TildenHunter]

High fence is a horrible idea. You should only run around 40 (preferably 30) deer at most on that acreage in that country. That means something like 10-15 bucks. You would know every one of them by name, where to find him, what time he comes to the feeder, what he's going to score, etc. Not much fun to 'hunt' really.

That really isn’t true. Depends 100% where the property is located. Carrying capacity in Val Verde County is a lot different then Fayette County. If you can put in food plots that actually grow, you can carry a hell of a lot more then 1 deer per 20 acres. You could run more like 75 deer on 600 acres. Plenty of diversity in age across 75 deer to make it fun. It also depends what the terrain is like. Certain areas, 600 acres feels and hunts huge. Others, not so much. I wouldn’t hesitate to high fence 600 acres in the right circumstance. Big enough to be fun small enough to control.


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