How many acres is a good size to do some management and grow big bucks?

Dads Son

Member
I'm seriously thinking about buying my own hunting land where I can play (or work) with food plots, hinge cutting etc. Whatever it takes to keep the deer on my property and hopefully see my work pay off by getting some nice bucks. How many acres would be a nice size to do this kind of stuff and only have 2 or 3 hunters to keep the pressure low?
 
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Thats a good question. 20 acres is plenty if it is the right 20 acres. Meaning if you have AG fields all around and you buy 20 acres of brushy creek bottom between them. I bought the most I could afford in area that was known for good deer numbers in Missouri and it lays nice. My piece is 122 acres and it suffices my needs and was a good investment.
 
It depends some on what surrounds you. If there is an orange vest in every tree on the property line, the more acres the better. Otherwise, some small properties can be awesome hunting.
 
Also depends on how and how often you will have 2-3 guys on it. Access is huge. We have about 120 acres and that's great for 2 guys and an occasional 3rd. We can hunt pretty hard if wind is right. I have about 3 stands per wind direction.

I've hunted several spots less than 20 acres with a couple guys and had success. All about goals and what you guys find joy in.

Go to public land around here and you may have 3-4 guys every 20 acres and they still kill deer.

All a matter of priority.


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As much as you can possibly afford. I have a neighbor with 6000 and a few with just a few. Depends on how you manage, but trust me the 6000 ac dude is doing his stuff. Wish I butted against his place.
 
I think it also depends where you are and most importantly the neighborhood you're in

Location location location. Price/acre is a generally decent indicator.
 
Its all going to depend on the neighborhood. Unless you have really deep pockets having enough land to truly manage deer to the point they don;t leave your land - you will need 100's if not 1,000's of acres. If your looking to be just a weekend warrior like most of us I personally would suggest 20 acres to 50 acres per hunter or even more depending on the habitat and the like.
 
I own a 30. Myself, dad and brother used to hunt it. Not enough room for us.
I'm with J bird min 20 acre/hunter.
 
For hunting purposes I use 80 acres per guy on my farms. I also know that if you had the right piece of ground and it laid out nice for hunting you could get by with 40ish and hunt 3 guys on it at the same time without shooting each other. I was always told bigger isn't necessarily better but when it comes to hunting ground the more you can afford the better IMO.
 
Our 207 hunts 3 well. We could bow hunt more with steady winds, but our mountain is like a swirling toilet most of the time. The rednecks have really helped with this---they are just so damned expensive....
 
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That "keep deer on my property" part is going to require some very deep pockets. The reality is very few have that kind of acreage so we do the best we can with what we have, but with an understanding that your neighboring properties are going to impact your results/property. Place a huge emphasis on the neighborhood and remember that property ownership changes.
 
I hate to state numbers, but it takes more than you think to hunt 3. Especially if you spend many days in the stand. Even more so, if you take a trip at prime time with all 3 like I do and hunt 2 weeks solid.
 
I hate to state numbers, but it takes more than you think to hunt 3. Especially if you spend many days in the stand. Even more so, if you take a trip at prime time with all 3 like I do and hunt 2 weeks solid.

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.
 
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.
I want to be like you when I grow up. Wow
 
Lease rates are $45/acre by me. 20,000 acres would cost $900,000/yr

At $4500/hunter I'd need to bring 200 hunters a year just to break even on the lease

Math doesn't work
 
Bull you don't want to be like me when you grow up lol. Unless you like a huge pain in your backside during hunting season, rarely getting to see the woods for yourself and dealing with people that think I am the type of operation that ties a 200" buck up to every tree in the woods. Then they get up an hour late to go to the woods and is back at the truck by 10 am, stomps through the middle of the core area, doesn't keep themselves clean and whines that they aren't seeing any deer. It is not as much fun as a guy would think. And you are correct the math doesn't work although I do get the ground cheaper than that. It is a tall task to break even every year. I also only charge $3500 a hunter and I have to feed them and give them a place to sleep included in that price. Okie I wish it was as simple as using hunter money to pay for the leases. I am in panic mode this time of year trying to figure out how to pay for my leases every year. I can't find people that will give me $45 an acre to hunt a piece. Typically $30-$36 is the max and they cry about that. I also only have 17 guys booked for semi-guided hunts and my max would be 30. I do give yearly permission to hunt certain farms similar to a lease but without the lease contract and just a exclusive right to hunt permission slip. I am not allowed to sub-lease ground so there is just the one lease holder for all of the ground. Makes it even tougher to pay the bills for sure.

But Bull if you want to be like me :) 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.
 
Lease rates are $45/acre by me. 20,000 acres would cost $900,000/yr

At $4500/hunter I'd need to bring 200 hunters a year just to break even on the lease

Math doesn't work
That's the thing...you don't have to do it "by you"... you can lease ground in any state and do this...

Wapauca County Wisconsin does not have a patent on 150" deer or anything like that as you are finding out...Big deer can be killed anywhere the whitetail calls home if you know what you are doing...

Blizzard - I didn't mean to make it sound like it is super easy on you but if in fact "Bull" wanted to do what you are doing he certainly could and wouldn't actually have to own any land whatsoever...It would be a challenge and he would have to hire out a bunch of stuff but leasing ground to hunt and outfit on has been going on for a long time. I have been on a deer lease since 1998 myself and I still have it. I can live on the property 365 and hunt something every day there if I want to for what my lease money is. I have a very comfortable 30 foot travel trailer on it with electric hookup and as long as I keep putting water in my tank I have running water...we bought the camper for lake vacations but now we just go down to the deer lease and vacation whenever we want and it's a bunch quieter...can't even hear cars or anything in there...we pay $8500 for 1500 acres of a 15000 acre ranch so our lease is about $5.50 and acre and we have 10 lease members of which 2 have never hunted there leaving 8 hunters and of those the most we ever have show at one time is perhaps 6 and since it's all big woods with lots of structure nobody is trying to get the little brushy fencerow or small woodlot stand because every part of it can hold a big deer at any given time...we are going to hang on as long as we can but the owner is elderly and the entire 15k acres is being transferred to the boyscouts soon...
 
You have an awesome setup Okie. Wish land could be had for that price around here. And I didn't take anything personally I knew what you were saying. That is why I made the jokes.
 
You have an awesome setup Okie. Wish land could be had for that price around here. And I didn't take anything personally I knew what you were saying. That is why I made the jokes.
Got way off track on this one...my apologies to the OP...

As for how many acres you have had lots of good answers to that question. As much as you can afford and good neighbors...realize neighbors change over time and your hunting can change as a result. We have a neighbor that has a rent house on his place. Last renters didn't hunt, new renter is 25 yrs old and works February - September on pipelines and takes October through January off to just hunt and when you rent from my neighbor you can also hunt so now we have a guy and his BIL on that property constantly all fall...Sure changed last years hunting and I expect it to this year as well...can only control the dirt inside our fence...
 
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