Interesting View on bucks per acre?

[Buckbuilder]

This view I believe, will show how many smaller parcels can really shine.
Here is an example of my numbers below. Based on bucks with 4 points or more, these bucks can be counted by trail cam pics or by sightings on your land.
28 different bucks 23 acres
28÷23=1.21 bucks per acre.
I have done lots of tmi this year and will be recording changes in these numbers.
I feel these numbers are good, however before tmi 90% of buck sightings were october thru January. I have lots of doe all year long. 80% of the largest bucks were recorded during daylight.
What would these numbers tell about larger parcels or even smaller?

 

[Native Hunter]

I don't want that many deer. I would be worried about habitat destruction. That's 774 bucks (not even counting does) per square mile.

 

[Buckbuilder]

Would not work that way. These bucks may be coming to me from 2000 acres around me.

 

[Buckbuilder]

I am trying to highlight some small properties can be very productive if laid out properly it is about the number of bucks that you have coming to you when you're in the woods

 

[MarkDarvin]

Best I've ever had was 34 bucks on a 40 in one season. Could have been as high as 39, but I didn't count them if they were very similar or fawn bucks or spike bucks.

I've gotta ask, how is your property set up there you're above 1 buck per acre?

 

[Baker]

I wonder what the 5000 acres around the 23 acres looks like. Thats where those 28 bucks live.

 

[Buckbuilder]

I wonder what the 5000 acres around the 23 acres looks like. Thats where those 28 bucks live.

1000 acres with 7 homes closet to me, these are the surounding large lands. There are many communities where I am sure the bucks are held up at within a mile to 2 miles from me. My property is in the middle of a four way run which goes for 3 miles or more each way.
I'm holding does well and really do not want to rid them hoping for better results with buck activity. 2 miles away guys are taking hammers early season, I won't see them until late Oct during shooting hrs.

 

[OkieKubota]

I will break it down even further than that. I can see about 1 acre of ground from my best stand in winter I saw 24 different bucks and countless does there last season. I am not so naive to think my place can actually hold that many deer so I have to look much further out to where the deer actually spend most of their time and it isn’t the 90 we own. They come for food and sex and that is it.

 

[Chainsaw]

I will break it down even further than that. I can see about 1 acre of ground from my best stand in winter I saw 24 different bucks and countless does there last season. I am not so naive to think my place can actually hold that many deer so I have to look much further out to where the deer actually spend most of their time and it isn’t the 90 we own. They come for food and sex and that is it.

And maybe an escape from surrounding pressure?

 

[Buckbuilder]

I will break it down even further than that. I can see about 1 acre of ground from my best stand in winter I saw 24 different bucks and countless does there last season. I am not so naive to think my place can actually hold that many deer so I have to look much further out to where the deer actually spend most of their time and it isn’t the 90 we own. They come for food and sex and that is it.

This is exactly what I was referring to, focusing on small plots and what makes them what they are. I have hunted properties which were 1000 + Acres and of those 1,000 Acres I would say less than 100 acres were productive spots to hunt anywhere else was not so much.
Many situations smaller plots are better.
To those in search of deer hunting property, keep in mind you are better off having the right 10 acres than the wrong 300 acres.

 

[FL Plotter]

That is crazy!! On 1200 acres, I might have 10 bucks and of them, lucky if there are 3 shooters (4.5 y/o) for the 3 people hunting it.

It's a different world down here for deer (especially bucks).

 

[Baker]

I certainly agree that small properties can have lots of bucks move thru at times. That can be good or bad for the neighborhood depending on what happens as those bucks pass thru the small property. I've seen a small property down here [ less than a hundred acres in La.} decimate a buck herd annually by shooting everything that passed thru. Property was not managed in any way. Just tons of corn poured out during the season. His advantage was that he had neighbors doing everything they could to grow the deer herd. But, bucks will move around at some time irrespective of what man would like for them to do.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I certainly agree that small properties can have lots of bucks move thru at times. That can be good or bad for the neighborhood depending on what happens as those bucks pass thru the small property. I've seen a small property down here [ less than a hundred acres in La.} decimate a buck herd annually by shooting everything that passed thru. Property was not managed in any way. Just tons of corn poured out during the season. His advantage was that he had neighbors doing everything they could to grow the deer herd. But, bucks will move around at some time irrespective of what man would like for them to do.

This is a good topic, when keeping the original stated purpose in mind. Buckbuilder said in his focus statement; small properties can be very productive if laid out properly. So what can we learn from this small plot success? Would most not agree with me that that we are doing (or could do) our habitat improvement work on way less acres than the sum total of what we own or control (or dream of owning in the future), and the rest of our acreage is mostly a perimeter buffer zone to keep the non-QDMS hunters away? And if that's not the case for some ambitious managers, might these ambitious fellows that have their improvements sprawling from boundary to boundary on several hundred acres not be better off to have that work concentrated on 23 acres in the middle?

 

[Baker]

My nature would be to improve every square inch of whatever size property I have, cause thats what I like to do. However to me the pragmatic facts are that with no mgt. at all you can get bucks to pass thru smaller properties providing the opportunity for harvest simply by intensively baiting them, little or no habitat mgt. required. .Most bucks are going to roam over much larger acreage than many want to accept irrespective of what a particular parcel looks like. So sure small parcels can be very productive wether laid out properly or not but appreciate you are taking advantage of what is going on in a much bigger picture.

 

[Chainsaw]

My nature would be to improve every square inch of whatever size property I have, cause thats what I like to do. However to me the pragmatic facts are that with no mgt. at all you can get bucks to pass thru smaller properties providing the opportunity for harvest simply by intensively baiting them, little or no habitat mgt. required. .Most bucks are going to roam over much larger acreage than many want to accept irrespective of what a particular parcel looks like. So sure small parcels can be very productive whether laid out properly or not but appreciate you are taking advantage of what is going on in a much bigger picture.

Baker as you have so eloquently implied if the poster is accomplishing this thru baiting it is a win-lose philosophy and good habitat managers are not on the winning side. I have one neighbor that figured that out and he got greedy and discovered that it worked even better to both bait and night hunt (Both illegal here). Luckily an anonymous neighbor of his got word to the game wardens; they caught him. That problem is now over,,, temporarily at least.

Back to the thread, however if Buckbuilder is accomplishing this thru great habitat management, I'm all ears.

 

[Buckbuilder]

I am extremely fortunate to have very little hunting pressure around me. I have only seen a hunter one time in two years, he told me I had most of the Doe on my property and what ever I was doing was working?

As far as habitat management goes, after speaking with the Hunter I met for hours, talkin to Farmers and land owners, I do not believe anybody else is implementing habitat management near me. I hinge cut last year and this year and have planted a hundred and fifty different fruit trees. I have planted clover, Brassica ,buckwheat ,spring and winter peas winter Rye sunn hemp etc.

My property is shaped like a fish bowl with a stream in the bottom surrounded by wetlands, the highlands are 50 ft higher then the bottom. This property was logged out about 15 years ago whereas all the property around it has not been logged. There's probably 100 acres around me that nobody hunts.

After all the work I have done the last year and this year it will be interesting to see what kind of buck activity I will have this year.
As I mentioned before I have a doe Factory, The Fawns are bedded it up around my yard for safety.
Some say a doe factory is not good? In my case I am not willing to chance changing much in that aspect???

 

[Chainsaw]

First of all Buck Builder,thank you for putting yourself out there and sharing your extra special results with us. Next I'm a little slow today so what is tmi that you refer to in your first post? Sorry to ask as it is probably obvious but it is just not ringing a bell with me. Thank you.

Next, food plots do not draw bucks during the rut; they do however draw does and does ARE food plots to bucks. So that doe factory stuff if it even has any merit at all in any scenario does not apply to the conditions you are experiencing. I think you are right to discount that theory.

Also what is the four way run you refer to that goes for three miles? Can you somehow explain what it looks like and where it comes from and goes to?

If your numbers are on the level you are experiencing buck activity way beyond what most of us are experiencing.

 

[Buckbuilder]

TSI not tmi. Sorry for the confusion.

The four way run as I called it is basically land that cannot be built on do to terrain and land protection from what I understand. Fields and neighborhoods kinda develop these runs as well.

I am very happy with the numbers that I am reporting however 90% of the Bucks that I have on camera I have not seen while hunting.
The reason for this post was to show how some smaller properties can be very productive. I was not seeing too many reports about smaller properties on here and was unsure what some properties were showing as far as Buck activity in more residential areas.

I really didn't think I'd be creating doubt with the numbers that I am reporting. I have frequently heard of friends seeing 7 to 10 bucks a day . I have not been lucky enough to be on one of those properties though.

 

[Chainsaw]

I don't think you are necessarily creating doubt with your numbers, doubt on my part was my lack of understanding the full picture. The numbers are extraordinary and the residential area pretty much explains it. Anyone that hasn't been exposed to an almost non-hunted residential area just wouldn't imagine the age and number of bucks that they can produce. Somehow I didn't get that part and as where I live now there are more cows than people and the in-town residential area is less than forty acres and it is surrounded by thousands of corn field acres interspersed with woodlots. It is a different world here indeed and many experiences from our old world of residential areas had long been forgotten.

Interesting thread, as all of your fruit trees mature it sounds like your property will really be special.

 

[Buckbuilder]

Thanks, I'm sure I will face challenges and setbacks in the future. I'm hoping bucks spend more time around when coming through.
These small plots can draw unwanted attention as well, especially when individuals find out TSI is being implemented.