How long do you give a property?

[mheichelbech]

How many seasons would you give a property or area before dropping it from your rotation if not seeing the kind of bucks you are after? You see lots of deer and smaller bucks, the place has everything a buck would want and should have bucks traveling through, bedding, etc. but they just don’t seem to be around...no sighting, no trail cam pics and not much for buck sign but you keep thinking it should have the kind of bucks your after but they just don’t seem to be there. You do everything right, not over hunting, good access, and just aren’t seeing any.

How long before you stop giving it your time?

[mipubbucks24]

About 5 seconds, I’ve never experienced what you are talking about it’s more year to year on the properties I hunt, some years they are there some years they are not. But I did hunt a small private piece about 8/9 times before I ever saw a buck, that buck taught me how the deer use the property and this year I hunted it twice and saw bucks both times and got a shot at a very large buck.

If I have a spot that I know nothing is living there I want to kill, I’m not hunting it. Does not matter how awesome it “looks”.

[Boogieman1]

Depends on how close it is to home for me. Much easier to keep a watchful eye on a spot right down the road vs constantly traveling. If it’s a free permission private spot then I never totally walk away. The public is pretty much what I opened up with. Depends on how far away it is. I do believe sooner or later a nice buck is gonna end up on every property. I just don’t have the gitty up and go to keep up with all that. I like to have 6 or 7 places I know very well. Then throughout summer and pre rut running cams I see what’s on the menu of each. Since I don’t go after 1 particular buck I look at odds. If this property has only 1 big buck showing up and this one over here has 6. Well, easy choice for me on where to spend my time.

[oldrank]

I would never give up on it. It only takes one buck to make it through a few seasons on any property. I would find the best looking buck habitat n put it on my rotation. If I find a buck I want to kill using it I will hunt him. If not I will keep it in my back pocket. I have alot of "spots". Sometimes I hunt the heck out of em n sometimes I dont hunt them for years. The spot I killed my buck last year, I didn't hunt at all this year.

[Dewey]

Sign doesn’t lie. If older bucks aren’t using the property and laying down some type of intel there’s a reason. Maybe there’s not good security cover for bedding/travel or a lack of a preferred food source. Could just be the way the property sets up for primary winds so it’s no favorable. Younger deer tolerate much more and are not nearly as reliant on security. It’s all about feeling safe and mature bucks rarely let their guard down even during the rut especially in a highly pressured area. I personally wouldn’t waste much time there and move onto better options. No sense beating a dead horse. Doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on it though because things do change sometimes drastically from year to year.

[Lockdown]

If I know big bucks are there, I won’t give up on it. That is how you learn and become better... by overcoming challenges.

That said, if I ran some cam and gave a property a good honest effort and I didn’t see ANY 3.5 yr olds or older, I’m outta there after 3 seasons, maybe two.

It can be tough because if you don’t know everything about the property, you don’t know everything. And if you don’t know everything, what are you missing?

A couple years ago I almost gave up on the Sugar Patch. Told myself if I didn’t get a big buck on cam in daylight during rut (camera bombed one bedding area just off the public), I was done. Well ONE showed. And an even bigger one in the middle of the night. I ended up re-thinking and re-scouting the entire property and found that for whatever reason all the big deer are by the road.

I killed my target buck there on public opening day last year and ended up finding my target buck late October on private this year. Unfortunately this time my shot wasn’t true

[UntouchableNess]

I’d keep it in rotation. I’ve been amazed at how 15 miles between properties can make a difference. One goes dead, hit another.

[mheichelbech]

Sign doesn’t lie. If older bucks aren’t using the property and laying down some type of intel there’s a reason. Maybe there’s not good security cover for bedding/travel or a lack of a preferred food source. Could just be the way the property sets up for primary winds. Younger deer tolerate much more and are not nearly as reliant on security. It’s all about feeling safe and mature bucks rarely let their guard down even during the rut especially in a highly pressured area. I personally wouldn’t waste much time there and move onto better options. No sense beating a dead horse. Doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on it though because things do change sometimes drastically from year to year.

Got a couple places like this. One one of them I gotten trail cam pics in summer or seen some in summer but they all seem to vacate. Another one I’ve seen good ones on adjacent properties(where I don’t have permission) but not on this one that is next door.

[dannyboy]

My dilemma is this is the second year in a hunting club 30 minutes from my house. Our season runs from October 15 to Feb. 10. You don't see hardly any deer till the second week in January when the rut starts. Then you see a good number of deer and their are at least a few good mature bucks there. I like to at least see some deer early and mid season. The club is rather pricey but their is no decent public land close. In Alabama that is quite typical. What would you guys do?

[RiverBottoms]

Sounds like a spot to shoot a freezer queen and monitor lightly for the occasional big buck. But as far as hardcore buck hunting, I'd be moving on to greener pastures.

[Kokes]

Id never drop the property. I would perhaps stop hunting it but continue speed scouting field edges every year or hanging a cam and just keep in my back pocket until I see what I like in there..

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

Being as there’s money involved that would change a lot of things for me..

If it’s a free be then I may always monitor it/shoot does etc

But for cash that be tough, depends how much money you got and how much it would cost you to hunt elsewhere if public isn’t nearby.

[Prairie Sasquatch]

My in laws have a property I’ve monitored for 4 years and I had one picture of a shooter buck in that time at night and probably 3 total bucks. Everything about this property screams deer. It’s got great cattail cover and it never gets hunted and some areas are miles from a road. I glassed it and hung trail cameras and could not figure it out. Had about given up.

I kept hanging cameras anyway. This year the neighbors planted an 80 acre cornfield next to it. Just like that it was loaded with deer and good bucks.

The difference. There had never been a food source within 2 miles of the place. With lots of good cover on the neighbors as well they were shifting closer to the better food sources.

[phade]

Alot of people hit on the right things - free, paid, etc. Those are factors.

People component seems to be the big one; we have a great spot that has all of the makings but the hunting pressure is insane and it does and has limited production of bucks that are typical of the area. It's amazing at how pressure can crush a property, even if that pressure is adjacent. Walking away from a property is very very hard to do, but often proves rewarding.

[Swedishbowhunter]

If scouting doesn't show a mature animal or a very good possibility of there being a mature animal I wouldn't give it a seconds worth of my time. I definitely would not pay a dime to hunt it. If it looks like it "should" be good I would scout it again in a few years.