He was "seeking" around the food plot you can see in the background.
Nice buck. Whereabouts in central VA are you located? I live in Powhatan and am looking for land in the surrounding counties.
Totally understand and my expectations are not that of a 200+ acre property. I would be happy with just one encounter with a nice buck every year. That's part of the reason I am looking now as I won't be ready to buy until the spring. I want to find a property that's not located next to a large dog hunting club, or a machine shop with a lot of noise, or an animal rights activist, etc. The agent I'm working with is asking those types of questions about the neighbors for the pieces I'm interested in. This thread was just for my curiosity as to what others have seen on smaller parcels is all.The thing to understand, when working with smaller properties, is that your success or failure is harder to control. You have less ability to meet all of a deer's needs and the impact of others around you is greater than it is when you're working with a larger piece of ground. With that said, I have found that being successful (harvesting deer) on smaller properties can be fairly easy, if you set aside notions of huge bucks and focus more on not disturbing the ground you have available to hunt. While it is true with all property sizes, how you hunt small acreage pieces is crucial! Understanding dead zones and depth of cover, both on and off your land, is also very important.
My family and I hunt four small properties in Michigan of 25 acres or less. Three of these have been improved with food plots and tree plantings/cuttings, while the fourth is swamp ground where we just clear shooting lanes and do a limited amount of hinge-cutting. They have all produced deer, under varying conditions. I know you were hoping to see pictures of big bucks taken on small properties, and that certainly does happen. When you make your land better, it attracts more deer, particularly doe groups. During the rut, bucks come looking for those does, and therein lays your opportunity. However, that same buck is going to cover a lot of ground, not just your place...which means others will also have a good chance of shooting him.
Keep your expectations in line with your means and acreage, and you'll be happy with the outcome. Don't pass on good deer, hoping for great ones, because on smaller holdings, that's a recipe for frustration. Attached is an 8pt buck I shot from a 10-acre property this year. While his rack isn't massive, his body sure was and I'm just tickled to death with him!
How many acres you working with nc?
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Yea, state/federal land or an individual neighbor with a large tract can certainly help increase your odds. A lot of small tracts together means higher odds of other hunters around. If I can get my wife in line with the price, there is a 43 acre piece her uncle owns that borders 16000 acres of state forest. Closest parking is a 1-1/2 mile walk to the back line of his property. There are only 2 other neighbors so minimal human impact. So much potential for that piece.
I'm in Albemarle county. Dog hunting is huge in my area but the deer seem to head for my place for sanctuary.
Those big bodies sure do make the antlers look smaller. You got some quality bucks on that 11!
Glad to hear that! I'll be hoping for similar results in terms of a sanctuary property.
Yea, I can see the pros and cons. All that pressure can push deer off that gov't land onto you but at the same time you got more to worry about with intruders.
