I agree with swat. Not to be a bubble buster but I have over 20,000 acres and will never be hunting more than 15 people at the same time (most prime rut weeks under 10). So that would avg out to 1333 acres per guy but in reality this ground is covered over 26 different farms and 4 counties. We hunt half or so of the farms one week or until a target deer is taken off that farm and then we rotate guys to the other half of the farms the following week. We will rarely if ever take a buck off all of the farms in a given year. Once a target deer is taken we will then shut down the farm until another old target deer shows up or for the rest of the year which ever comes first.
Why I gave this reference is for this reason: Say 40 acres is all you can afford to buy (which is great and more than I can afford to buy right now), if you hunt three people on the farm which could be done with the right 40. Now what if 3 people are taking say 3 bucks and 3 doe a year off this 40 acres. Or say that doesn't happen every year and you just take 2 bucks and 2 doe, what would this do to the deer population in your area? Especially if your neighbors are wacking and stacking deer yearly. That being said while looking for property keep a mindful eye on the deer population and gather intel on what the neighbors are doing. You can take a 40 or 80 acre piece and have a deer haven but unless you have hundreds of continuous acres holding deer is next to impossible depending on your area of the world. Now if you take that 40 to 80 acres and keep pressure to a minimum with restrictions on what deer can be killed or keep it to target deer only it can be done and hunted by 3 as long as everyone followed the rules put forth to plan to keep the herd in balance. It all comes down to what a person wants out of their farm. If you are looking to kill big mature bucks, low pressure and not killing young bucks is key. If you are looking to just have deer on the property, manage the doe herd that there will always be an abundance of deer and take whatever buck you want. Killing 3 bucks a year wouldn't hurt your goals in that instance. But if looking to enhance your buck herd in the area you have to limit the amount of bucks being killed in the area and keep it to a ow amount being taken. By the way out of that 26 farms I only have two that I believe "holds" deer year around, meaning they have no reason to leave, these farms are 800 acre farms and the deer still venture over to the neighbors.
Good luck with your land selection. All you can do is get what you can afford in the best possible area then manage it for your needs, whatever they may be.
come on out and I will let you run around hanging stands, cooking meals listen to whiny guys not seeing anything because of things they do to themselves and not get paid for 2 or 3 months. Other then that it i great getting to spend my falls in the woods. All jokes aside it is great getting to work the ground and manage whitetails. It was always a dream of mine.
