small acerage eye catchers

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hunter10
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small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby hunter10 » Wed Mar 23, 2016 1:07 pm

If your looking for new access in a high pressure area what kind of eye catching factors do you look for in small parcels. Is it thick cover, adjoining bigger land etc? Small parcels often don't hold a mature bucks full or even partial home range so what do you pick out to get the best odds of having an area to access that would have a higher percentage of buck frequency?

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Outdoor814
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Outdoor814 » Wed Mar 23, 2016 1:11 pm

That's a great question and I unfortunately don't have an accurate answer for you. I know from personal experience I would first explore thick cover. If their is sign, then I would determine food source near that area and keep watch for sign.


I'm curious to see other opinion. Great question.

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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Hawthorne » Wed Mar 23, 2016 1:58 pm

Ideal is its thick cover that backs up to a big piece of property that is managed or is the thickest piece in an area. I use to hunt a 40 acre piece that had the thickest cover with water in a 2 square mile agriculture area. The best bucks in the area would use this piece to bed. I killed some nice bucks off of it and saw many others. I would consider small acreage 40 acres or less. I know a guy in Michigan that only owns 5 acres that has killed two 140" bucks. His property connects onto a huge swamp that has only one owner and is across the street from a big no hunting park. When it comes to small acreage its location, location, location thick cover with a water source preferably. Both of the properties I mentioned are in high deer density areas.

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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Wed Mar 23, 2016 2:19 pm

hunter10 wrote:If your looking for new access in a high pressure area what kind of eye catching factors do you look for in small parcels. Is it thick cover, adjoining bigger land etc? Small parcels often don't hold a mature bucks full or even partial home range so what do you pick out to get the best odds of having an area to access that would have a higher percentage of buck frequency?

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What part of the country and what type of areas are you looking at?
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Lockdown » Wed Mar 23, 2016 3:31 pm

Key on areas that you know produce big bucks annually.

I'm a fan of finding small properties in great areas. I've killed 3 bucks out of groves that are maybe 3 and 7 acres in size since 2010. All are bow kills. Around here, a small grove near prime property can be great during the rut, especially if there are does in it!

Early season while crops are in, all you need is some corn on a couple sides of a grove and you're in business. If it's surrounded by corn, that's even better. Like I already mentioned if does stay there once in a while, it will be good during rut.

Usually these little groves go cold late season. No pun intended. They'll be in the thick prime areas near food.

Look for anything near managed property, big swamps, city limits, refuges... anything that will allow a buck to survive a few seasons.

I view tiny groves as sign posts of sorts. All deer, regardless of the time of year, like to swing by to "check in" so to speak. Rather than walk a strait line for 3/4 mile to their next destination, they'll swing by the little grove on the way.

One of the groves I lost permission for was great for trail camera pics during the summer. It was 3 acres give or take. It's not far from the 60 acre CRP field we hunt. I'll tell you right now I'd get way more pics in that grove. In fact if you asked me which is a better odds for a bow kill, I'd probably pick the grove even though FAR fewer deer bed there.

If I've got a property I think will be good during rut (let's say bucks don't bed there OFTEN, but they swing in during rut to check for does) I would rather hunt a 5 acre property than a 15 acre property. The bigger the property, the more room he has to get around me. Obviously the bigger a chunk of woods is, the more attractive it is as far as bedding and holding numbers of deer, but you get the idea.

If you're in a bigger woods situation I would look for a small piece that connects two good properties. That or one with terrain desirable for bedding.

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hunter10
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby hunter10 » Wed Mar 23, 2016 10:58 pm

Good info so far. I'm hunting small acerage farmland broken up with ag fields. Reason I'd like to get a discussion going is to somewhat prevent new hunters from "wasting" or burning out time on less important places. When I first started I wasted a lot of time on poor properties with minimal chance of killing a good buck

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Rich M
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Rich M » Thu Mar 24, 2016 1:13 am

I'm very interested in this - have 2 leases, both 45 acres in size. 1 is wooded with hardwood draw and several clearings, 2nd is ag field with wooded strips up the sides. Both sides show signs of deer traffic.

Have not hunted here - only seen the land twice so far. Need to get back out there.
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby briar » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:33 am

This is EXACTLY the kind of area I live in. We have an entire 2 counties of small farm, homogeneous type terrain. I would guess that there is 1000 acres of corn/beans within 5 minutes of my house on any given year. Every block has woods with bedding and more food than a deer could ever eat. We have bigtime hunting pressure for almost all species. People in the woods is just a fact of life..........unless you can manage to find places where they don't go. I think that is the key to these kinds of places, finding those areas where others won't, can't, or have a hard time getting too.....then taking those few select spots and finding the buck that calls them home.

I have lived here going on 10 years and I have a few photos of decent deer at night, but I have yet to lay eyes on one in the daylight. We dont' really have leasing here so if you have permission, so do others and even posted ground, if not patrolled is hunted. I try every year to find those overlooked spots, or wade some swamp 100 yards to the dry ground to find 3 stands in a 50 acre patch. I have just kind of accepted it. Do I believe there are big bucks to be taken here? Sure....do I have the ability to find them, obviously not or I would have at least sightings.

Frustrating? You bet, do I accept it and just do the best I can with what I have...you bet.
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:25 am

If you guys have wooded fence lines and chunks of woods in each section, that is more cover than a lot of places around here. It will probably make bedding even more random than what I see.

I know of sections that don't have a tree or blade of grass on them aside from the road ditch. There aren't even grass fence lines separating the property lines in the ag fields.

That's why the groves I hunt next to big properties are so good, they don't have much for options.

I have a very hard time finding solid bedding in areas like this tho. Put me in a thick swamp or drainage and I can find huntable beds. In flat groves of trees, not so much.

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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Kraftd » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:36 am

In my experiencethere are two ways small acreage parcels can be good for big bucks.

1. Thick nasty stuff that hunts like a much larger piece and holds bedding/food/water or some good combo of each. From my experience these can be hunted like a larger piece, other than it is even more critical to limit impact and hunt smart, because often times the deer just head out, and you aren't stacking to a huntable area, you're just out of luck.

2. Rut funnels. Two of the best spots I have ever hunted are sub 30 acres, but dynamite rut funnels that connect much larger areas and really funnel things down so you get a steady stream of every buck in the greater area at some point during the rut. I've had pretty good luck with hunting these spots pretty hard and them being somewhat, but not totally resistant to burn-out despite the size.

If you have a small parcel that doesn't appear to hold bedding/food/water or doesn't appear to be a key travel route for the overall area, very well may not be worth investing much time in.
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby dan » Thu Mar 24, 2016 8:10 am

Heavy pressure = water... Swamps, and marshes.
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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby briar » Thu Mar 24, 2016 10:08 am

Ive lived in my area my whole life and have personsonally never seen a marsh. We just dont have them. I am thinking we may have some swamps but most are accessed by simply driving around the other side of the property as we have roads everywhere.

Where i am at is considered "the country" of pennsylvania but our states biggest bucks are killed in the city suburbs of pittsburgh on small parcels next to million dollar homes. Our largest deer population and biggest bucks reside in the city. That is their safe zone to grow

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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Mar 24, 2016 10:52 am

Kraftd wrote:I've had pretty good luck with hunting these spots pretty hard and them being somewhat, but not totally resistant to burn-out despite the size.


Same experiences here.

In my farm grove it seems I will have the same couple bucks that come through a few times a week, then I will have new bucks show up randomly. I will get a new buck or two every week all of November.

In fact the my target buck showed up the morning after I killed my buck last year. After I left scent all over.

A good rut spot is a good rut spot.

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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby Hawthorne » Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:20 am

briar wrote:Ive lived in my area my whole life and have personsonally never seen a marsh. We just dont have them. I am thinking we may have some swamps but most are accessed by simply driving around the other side of the property as we have roads everywhere.

Where i am at is considered "the country" of pennsylvania but our states biggest bucks are killed in the city suburbs of pittsburgh on small parcels next to million dollar homes. Our largest deer population and biggest bucks reside in the city. That is their safe zone to grow

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Some the biggest deer in.Michigan are taken in rich areas with high dollar homes. These areas usually have no hunting Parks also that the bucks grow old on. Getting permission on a small piece that borders one of these areas could be like a gold mine. Most property's are usually only 5 acres at most in these areas. Guys will bait them out of the no.hunting areas

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Re: small acerage eye catchers

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:24 am

briar wrote:Ive lived in my area my whole life and have personsonally never seen a marsh. We just dont have them. I am thinking we may have some swamps but most are accessed by simply driving around the other side of the property as we have roads everywhere.

Where i am at is considered "the country" of pennsylvania but our states biggest bucks are killed in the city suburbs of pittsburgh on small parcels next to million dollar homes. Our largest deer population and biggest bucks reside in the city. That is their safe zone to grow

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Most areas across the country I have hunted don't have many, if any, swamps and marshes. Water is only one barrier deer use.

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