Small acreage deer hunting

[mheichelbech]

It seems like I read about guys having small tracts of land to hunt....between 5 to a 100 acres in addition to their bigger public land areas and even some public spots are small.

Like to see some tips, tactics, etc. for hunting and/or managing small parcels.

Also, what are the differences between small parcels vs larg r parcels.

In my experience one of the disadvantages is often there are fewer access opportunities...in and out for a variety of different reasons.

[<DK>]

I also hate it when a buck is bedded on the edge and headed away from the property most days. Also, when a guy just gave you 100acres to run around on... it makes for a fun conversation when he can see you out of his window in a stand bc the biggest buck on the property lives behind his house!

[SidewayZ]

Small tracks can be fund and frustrating. Fun cause the funnel same areas frequently, frustrating cause the one you want is behind a house on private land as DK said.

Plus in the northeast most don't like hunting, so you have to be discrete which can be tough as well.

[JAK]

I just ran into a dilemma the wife's aunt has a 80 bout 6 acres r wooded first year she has ever had beans in there and low and behold there's a big old slob everynight out in the beans but no possible entry without him knowing he beds by a pond behind her house only thing I was thinking was belly crawling through the beans to lay along edge of the woods to where he is comeing out. Any thoughts.. I have heard of guys killing big bucks on small parcels but access must be tough

[James]

I'm very interested in this topic. We purchased a home on 5 acres last year that I am able to bowhunt on. Last season I was able to hunt it but did not have any time to make improvements. I got some pretty nice bucks on trail camera but all at night. I was close to a buck in the late season that was coming through 10-15 minutes after quitting time every night. Wasn't able to catch up to him.

Fast forward to this year - I was able to plant a couple small food plots and do some work to improve the habitat in the spring. I have already noticed a huge spike in deer activity. I have multiple shooters in daylight hitting the food plots. I'm just hoping that patterns continue into the season.

I'd like to know what others have done to bring success on such a small parcel. It's not like I can hunt over beds or hunt in the typical fashion. I am essentially waiting to hunt the best stand site and keeping my pressure to an absolute minimum. Once the food plots were in I am very judicious about only checking my camera midday on Saturday's with the same walking path / routine. My gut says it is all about patterns and pressure. I won't hang a stand, sit a stand or setup for a hunt or do anything differently until I'm ready to make a kill. Will see how it works! These deer have to be used to the noise from the other homes on the small acreage parcels like mine (dogs barking, kids waiting for school buses, atv's, etc) so I am hoping that my patternable camera checking blends in with the activity they are used to. So far judging by camera pictures it seems to be.

[stash59]

I'm very interested in this topic. We purchased a home on 5 acres last year that I am able to bowhunt on. Last season I was able to hunt it but did not have any time to make improvements. I got some pretty nice bucks on trail camera but all at night. I was close to a buck in the late season that was coming through 10-15 minutes after quitting time every night. Wasn't able to catch up to him.

Fast forward to this year - I was able to plant a couple small food plots and do some work to improve the habitat in the spring. I have already noticed a huge spike in deer activity. I have multiple shooters in daylight hitting the food plots. I'm just hoping that patterns continue into the season.

I'd like to know what others have done to bring success on such a small parcel. It's not like I can hunt over beds or hunt in the typical fashion. I am essentially waiting to hunt the best stand site and keeping my pressure to an absolute minimum. Once the food plots were in I am very judicious about only checking my camera midday on Saturday's with the same walking path / routine. My gut says it is all about patterns and pressure. I won't hang a stand, sit a stand or setup for a hunt or do anything differently until I'm ready to make a kill. Will see how it works! These deer have to be used to the noise from the other homes on the small acreage parcels like mine (dogs barking, kids waiting for school buses, atv's, etc) so I am hoping that my patternable camera checking blends in with the activity they are used to. So far judging by camera pictures it seems to be.

Are you checking on foot or with an ATV. By using an ATV. Once there use to it you could also use it to get dropped off to hunt. No experience with doing this. Just kinda what I saw how the Lakosky's do things on their big properties. Not sure what would have less impact. Curious how it will go for you. No matter how you do it.

[Hawthorne]

First I think the key is having a small piece in the right neighborhood. Either surrounded by large tracts or a bunch of small ones that don't allow hunting making them sanctuary. Having good access is important with screening cover. Not over hunting it also. My 23 acres doesn't heat up till rut and I'm competing with some excellent habitat in the area. I have two bedding areas the bucks will bed. Amazing how close you can get with the right access and wind

[James]

I'm very interested in this topic. We purchased a home on 5 acres last year that I am able to bowhunt on. Last season I was able to hunt it but did not have any time to make improvements. I got some pretty nice bucks on trail camera but all at night. I was close to a buck in the late season that was coming through 10-15 minutes after quitting time every night. Wasn't able to catch up to him.

Fast forward to this year - I was able to plant a couple small food plots and do some work to improve the habitat in the spring. I have already noticed a huge spike in deer activity. I have multiple shooters in daylight hitting the food plots. I'm just hoping that patterns continue into the season.

I'd like to know what others have done to bring success on such a small parcel. It's not like I can hunt over beds or hunt in the typical fashion. I am essentially waiting to hunt the best stand site and keeping my pressure to an absolute minimum. Once the food plots were in I am very judicious about only checking my camera midday on Saturday's with the same walking path / routine. My gut says it is all about patterns and pressure. I won't hang a stand, sit a stand or setup for a hunt or do anything differently until I'm ready to make a kill. Will see how it works! These deer have to be used to the noise from the other homes on the small acreage parcels like mine (dogs barking, kids waiting for school buses, atv's, etc) so I am hoping that my patternable camera checking blends in with the activity they are used to. So far judging by camera pictures it seems to be.

Are you checking on foot or with an ATV. By using an ATV. Once there use to it you could also use it to get dropped off to hunt. No experience with doing this. Just kinda what I saw how the Lakosky's do things on their big properties. Not sure what would have less impact. Curious how it will go for you. No matter how you do it.

By foot. I don't own an ATV and firing up my little diesel tractor to check cameras isn't practical. I wear rubber boots, avoid touching anything other than the camera and take the same rote and avoid wandering off it. So far nothing has gone nocturnal and everything has stayed on the same pattern. Again, I shoot for the same time to ensure I am not bumping deer off the food plot.

[WEA$EL]

If you want small properties to be productive, stay out of them! I own 40 acres in Ohio and have permission to hunt the neighbors who don't hunt. I leave their place alone too for the most part and treat it as a big sanctuary. I do habitat work February through August but I stay out the rest of the year unless conditions are in my favor. Thankfully my farm is laid out good for access, another important factor that can make or break small properties. Find some other places to hunt when conditions are not right.

[hambone]

Actually, I have been hunting my small property exclusively for the past 15 yrs. The wanderlust that created, is what led me to Dan and this site. I have lived in this area, nearly my entire life. We bought 57 acres in 2000. Our home lies directly in the middle of it. The property is narrow and 1/2 mile long. The front half is bordered by a county road (alarm for deer to flee at the sound of gravel popping) on the N end and neighbors who shoot ever thing that moves, on both sides. So it knocks the "huntable" property down to around 20 acres. This place had a small pond, two creeks, 13 acres tillable, approx. 30 acres of hardwoods with the remainder in pasture when we bought it. The hardwoods had been mismanaged, had very few mast producing trees, and a wide open under story due to the giant hickorys, shading out the forest floor. Since that time, we took the 13 acres out of crop rotation and replaced most of the open areas and pasture with switchgrass. I carved out 3 small food plots, that are spread over the property, planted fruit trees and established mineral sites. I clearcut and did TSI projects in the hardwoods, starting on the ridges. I have created no go zones, with more coming. The only time I go in the woods is for improvement projects or hunting/recovery. I only hunt when the wind is perfect for a stand. I access by the creeks ever time I can. During October, I will only hunt a temp drop (10* or so) and rising pressure. If I am hunting a food plot, I have somebody pick me up from my stand, so I don't blow the plot, leaving my stand. If I can get a true N wind, before Oct. (long history of using milkweed) I have a good chance of killing a 4.5 yr old deer ever yr. on this place. My stands are permanent stands, yearly maintained but rarely used. I only hunt evenings until the end of October. Come November, I turn to all day sits with any Southerly wind I can get. I have a stand that is at the head of a draw, between 2 doe bedding areas. It has a creek entrance that leads to a deep draw. I take that right up to the stand. With a S wind, that stand is golden, from end of Oct to after gun season. I have seen as many as 17 different bucks in one day from that stand. I can hunt it several times a season, under the right conditions. I see at least one mature deer, usually in bow season, from this stand ever yr. I wear Burlys for hunting only, take a bath in scent free soap (Dove sensitive skin), wash my clothes in scent free (All) laundry detergent, hang them in fresh air, and spray down with homemade scent killer, before ever hunt. I realize that there are few here, who adhere to that philosophy. That is OK. If I had a large property to hunt or were hunting public (I'm plannin on it, is why I'm here) I would'nt be so meticulous about scent control, either. Here is where I stand on the scent issue. Can you ever 100% beat a deers nose. NO. Can you leave a slight enough trail of residual scent to convince the deer that the danger has passed earlier than it actually has? Possibly. What percent possibility, I am not sure. But I have watched the positive results of my efforts, enough times to feel that it is important to leave as small a scent imprint as possible. Especially on a small property. This place is surrounded by people who shoot in vollies and live by the motto "if its brown its down", so I don't catch a break there. My fence lines are lined up with "hunters" during youth, gun and alternative weapons seasons. When we first moved here, I was lucky to see a 2.5 yr old buck. These days, I expect at least one opportunity at a 4.5 yr old or older buck, with my bow, on my property. My advice would be to make as many improvements on your property as you can, creating a from of habitat other properties in your are are lacking in, leave as small a foot print as possible and hunt smarter, not harder...Years ago, a pet deer in a taxidermy shop taught me one of the most valuable things I ever learned concerning deer behavior. I have carried it with me ever since. The deer had recently been moved inside the shop and had bedded next to the air compressor. The compressor bled down until it kicked on. When it did, the deer liked to tore that shop apart, trying to escape. The next time the compressor kicked on the deer looked at it momentarily, then went back to licking himself.

[Lockdown]

I'm very interested in this topic. We purchased a home on 5 acres last year that I am able to bowhunt on. Last season I was able to hunt it but did not have any time to make improvements. I got some pretty nice bucks on trail camera but all at night. I was close to a buck in the late season that was coming through 10-15 minutes after quitting time every night. Wasn't able to catch up to him.

Fast forward to this year - I was able to plant a couple small food plots and do some work to improve the habitat in the spring. I have already noticed a huge spike in deer activity. I have multiple shooters in daylight hitting the food plots. I'm just hoping that patterns continue into the season.

I'd like to know what others have done to bring success on such a small parcel. It's not like I can hunt over beds or hunt in the typical fashion. I am essentially waiting to hunt the best stand site and keeping my pressure to an absolute minimum. Once the food plots were in I am very judicious about only checking my camera midday on Saturday's with the same walking path / routine. My gut says it is all about patterns and pressure. I won't hang a stand, sit a stand or setup for a hunt or do anything differently until I'm ready to make a kill. Will see how it works! These deer have to be used to the noise from the other homes on the small acreage parcels like mine (dogs barking, kids waiting for school buses, atv's, etc) so I am hoping that my patternable camera checking blends in with the activity they are used to. So far judging by camera pictures it seems to be.

Yep. You don't get many sits before they figure you out. Small acreages all differ so much its hard to describe how to hunt them specifically.

If you're in farm country your odds of success are about 100x better with standing crops around a small parcel. Small to me is 10 acres or less.

I typically stick to the extreme downwind side and let my scent blow out into the fields (not sure what is on the neighboring properties James.) I approach from the side of possible, not directly downwind.

[jman22]

I have a few small properties that I hunt. The key with all of them is they are either part of, or connect several larger pieces of timber. The reason I like this is because I'll get a lot of different bucks that will use these small pieces at some point or another as compared to a small to medium sized isolated block of land that doesn't see that much movement from adjoining properties. All of the small properties I currently hunt also have some good form of access, mostly in the form of creeks that I can walk through to get to my stands.

Some of the disadvantages are that many of these pieces don't really hold the bucks. What I mean is the bucks don't bed on these properties simply because the terrain isn't favorable for that. I'll get plenty of pictures of them at night in the early season, but it's not until the rut picks up that I'll start to hunt these locations as the bucks will be cruising through them more. It's easy to overhunt a small piece, so I bounce around a lot to keep things from getting stale.

Cameras are also very important to me on these smaller pieces. I'll typically put them on field edges that are easy to access or put them on scrapes on field edges. As long as access is easy, I'll check them somewhat frequently and if a nice buck shows up and I know a pile of does use the area, there is a chance I'll have a small window where this buck will be frequenting the property. It's still kind of hunting "behind the pictures", but just from past experiences, I know there's a chance I'll be in the game.

For me, the more history I have with a small piece, the more patterns I can piece together. For instance on one piece I have, whenever a mature buck shows up, it typically means he's been displaced from heavy pressure on adjoining land. On another piece I have, there is some great doe bedding, and when late October comes around, buck activity greatly increases. In the early and late season however, this spot is slowww. And on another small piece I have, there is some great buck bedding in early season, when the surrounding fields are soybeans. Point is, as you put your time in at these smaller pieces, you'll get a feel for when the best time to hunt them is.

[James]

Yep. You don't get many sits before they figure you out. Small acreages all differ so much its hard to describe how to hunt them specifically.

If you're in farm country your odds of success are about 100x better with standing crops around a small parcel. Small to me is 10 acres or less.

I typically stick to the extreme downwind side and let my scent blow out into the fields (not sure what is on the neighboring properties James.) I approach from the side of possible, not directly downwind.

We are on 5 acres and our property backs up to a 20 acre Christmas tree farm on S side and a 120 acre farm on E side. I approach my food plots from the E side where the big fields are. Pretty safe from messing up any bedding. Typically want my scent blowing out over the x-mas tree farm. Problem is sometimes deer approach from there. I haven't had a super consistent direction that they always approach from. Maybe this year with food plots in that will stabilize.

[cdeam]

I hunt a 25 acre woods surrounded by ag (corn/beans) on 3 sides and bordered by an interstate to the north. Access is from the east, usually along a fencerow, sometimes parallel to the interstate. I try to enter opposite the downwind corner, meaning with a northwest wind i circle wide to enter at the northeast corner. The deer seem to like to bed the thickest cover closest to the downwind corner or side of the woods. It hunts best with standing corn on at least one side. But this year only the west side is corn. South and east are beans. I've never hunted this particular crop rotation here, so I'm considering pushing right through the woods closer to that edge. We'll see. Sometimes these smaller properties can be quite a challenge.

[Kokes]

there was a good link posted on Midwest whitetail about this topic recently, its a quick read...give it a look

http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/micro-farm-hunting/