need some advice on how to hunt new hill country property

[Buck56]

we have approx 800 acres of hill coountry property, about 60-40 woods to ag mixture. dirt road splits it down the middle then dead ends at back of prperty. this ag fields on both sides of the road for almost its entirety. ag fields are in the bottoms with 1100-1200 feet elevation to peak on both sides of the road. our woods for the most part goes to top of hill on both sides, but ends at the top. and where the road dead ends our property contiues past for a1/4 to 1/3 mile. there are some out croppings about 3/4 of way down the road so it does get alittle outside traffic an hunting.

if we try to hunt the property by accessing from the bottom and going thu the fields an getting up into the hills by old logging roads an four wheeler trails, is that going to ruin things? we do have some limited access from the top on both sides but would take some work and would have to walk acrross country quite a bit at times

[freezeAR]

The best I can do without a map is to say that you will never know if your access is going to hurt you until you find the beds. I would determine the predominant wind and find leeward sides to scout.

[Buck56]

maybe this will help. where the sides roads are highlighted yellow, there is no vehicle traffic,and roads are mainly grown up. the blue circles is where a found a couple of beds i think to be buck beds. the blue circled area is where a good buck was traveling last year from my understanding

[stratocasterNJ]

we have approx 800 acres of hill coountry property, about 60-40 woods to ag mixture. dirt road splits it down the middle then dead ends at back of prperty. this ag fields on both sides of the road for almost its entirety. ag fields are in the bottoms with 1100-1200 feet elevation to peak on both sides of the road. our woods for the most part goes to top of hill on both sides, but ends at the top. and where the road dead ends our property contiues past for a1/4 to 1/3 mile. there are some out croppings about 3/4 of way down the road so it does get alittle outside traffic an hunting.

if we try to hunt the property by accessing from the bottom and going thu the fields an getting up into the hills by old logging roads an four wheeler trails, is that going to ruin things? we do have some limited access from the top on both sides but would take some work and would have to walk acrross country quite a bit at times

Hill country Wisc? 60% woods so about 480 acres? That seems like an ideal split. 300+ acres of ag is big but if the woods have acorns then you have the best of both worlds IMO. Water is pretty key as Odocoileus Dakotensis loves those bottoms. You are fortunate to have such an expanse of land to pursue them.

[Buck56]

it may be more like 70-30 now looking at the map. there are 8 of us on the lease so it may get as much pressuse as public land does. i would prefer about half that many guys. im just trying to figure out if we can get away with huning from the bottoms where the fields are, or is that just going to ruin the hunting. i have a feeling some of these guys are going to access the woods through the fields in the morning times blowing alot of deer out of there on consistant basis. the deer numbers are ok but not real high. alot of the woods are mature hardwoods without alot of underbrush or cover

[tundra]

800 acres wow, when you have that much land, now your talking about management of a deer herd,,,,,, congrats on that..... at that expanse I would just start to hunt, and keep notes. We have 64 acres, which is not much, so we only hunt it, a few times a year, and jump around a lot of spots.... I know a guy who shot 2 bruisers in the last 2 seasons, and he only has 13 acres, but he is between some big farms.

Here is my take on ATV use. I was always against it, but when I went in on a camp in Clark County, there we had about 300 acres, and had logging roads, after the logging work was done. Foot travel changed deer movements more, and screwed me up more, than when I switched to ATV, and used the roads. Just a steady, put put put, nothing out of the ordinary, I had watched from my stands how deer bedded, would just watch it go by, but if someone came down that road, on foot, they were up and gone

Currently we have one road, going up from our camp, and one we can access from the amish neighbor. of course an ATV is out on that one, but even our other road, my partner does not want its use, so we hoof it. I think that causes issues with the deer on how they bed by us. This spring I am trying to secure permission from an amish neighbor to the north to be able to access, from the top, either way its a challenge. Unlike a swamp, we are so easily picked out, while on foot, from bucks bedding positions on the land.

One reason we hunt early season, and usually let it sit, till full rut, and hunt other spots between................

[megavites]

so I hunt a property in PA that is low lying fields and a mountain top. Approx. 320 ac used by 10 guys. We have to access from below and generally drive to within 200 yds of stands and walk the rest.
I have not seen it affect hunting. I honestly thought it would, but these deer are unpressured. I mean, I walked from a fireroad to about 60 yds uphill towards a stand in the dark and my red light catches eyes of a big deer laying on a point 20yds away. Freaked me out with a 5-10sec stare down before he bolted up hill.
Even with the ATV's going low and high...bucks have been taken in both areas. I'm sure its all relative to location and pressure but this was my experience.