What is the smallest amount of hunting land you would buy?

[phantomak47]

I was able to go hunting in Miss. this past week on some inlaws hunting land that he leases. Its only 85 acres, but it was pretty packed with all sorts of wildlife, along with the fact that it was surrounded by rural land. It was very convient to where I was staying and I was pretty impressed with it even though it was somewhat a small piece of land, it "hunted big" if that makes any sense. It could safely could be hunted by about 5 hunters.


Anyways, I was wondering what the minimum amount of acerage you would purchase. The area of Texas I am looking at is North of Houston, very rural, grassland/ woods, lots of small creeks. Here are the specs of how the land would be hunted.

1. Maxium of 3 hunters(hunted 90% by myself), probally would put around 5-8 stands.

2. Feeders , food plots standard.


I am thinking at the very min. of 40 acres. Discuss!

 

[swampgator]

Forty acres is a pretty decent size piece of property. My homestead is that much and although I find it small since I know the whole area like the back of my hand, other people thinks it's huge.

You can spread 3 hunters out fairly well depending on the layout of the property. My land has several small pastures bordered by thick hardwoods. Several acres are very wet/swampy but the majority of it is huntable. I've got three permanent stands in place covering about 25 acres.

Since the pastures are planted in grass and its abundant year round due to the climate I don't maintain food plots. But I have set up several feeders in the past.

So yeah, 40 would be the minimum I'd feel comfortable on.

 

[Grumulkin]

It needs to be large enough that the deer have enough resources to complete their full life cycle without leaving it. It also needs to be big enough so the projectiles of choice (arrows, rocks, bullets, etc.) don't go on your neighbor's property. This means adequate food, water and cover. In some places you might get this with as little as 25 acres if heavily wooded and hilly. In other flat wide open areas with limited water, several hundred acres might be needed.

 

[redneckrepairs]

Grumkilin is close to right , The amount of land needed to do what you want is terrain dependant . No way to give an acerage figure since acerage will vary vastly with the resourses offered by the area .
Its more or less do your homework , and then go physicaly inspect the plots you consider . Take no one elses word on it unless you also walk the ground yourself . Land is a sizeable investment for most, so take the time expense, and effort to buy a piece that you know will fill your needs.
Some realtors have been known to " guild the lilly " a bit for out of state hunters looking to buy , at least here in colorado they rape " forigners" if they can get away with it .

 

[Smoke]

Be in the 200 acre area for me... smaller just to confining for me and animals.
If you want to hunt, cheaper to lease than to buy.

 

[Highland Ranger]

Another vote for terrain dependent.

Water, cover, backstop for bullets.

I was looking for the same thing in the hills of PA recently and that was my formula.

Unfortunately the market is crazy which is leaving me a bit concerned about buying something that won't appreciate for 30 years.

 

[Geno]

In Michigan 40+

In Michigan, anything less than 40 nets you zero benefits for special licenses, etc., and the 40 acres must be undivided. However, my thought is to have a place to set the vehicle and perhaps a tent. I love winter camping!!! In such as case that I could locate any size land that joined state land, I'd snap it up for the right price. If it did not connect to state land, 40 would be minimum, but I would strongly prefer something between 100 to 200.

Doc2005

 

[Greybeard]

" here in colorado they rape " forigners" if they can get away with it . "

Yep, I know some guys that fit that criteria (rapees). But, at least in much of Colorado the "surface area" is substantially greater than what most flat-landers are acclimated to.

Quote: " If you want to hunt, cheaper to lease than to buy. "

Sometimes, but not always. When I told my 80-year old Dad what 5 of us we paying for a lease up in Archer County he said "Are you buying it?"

Mineral rights have become an even bigger issue with the Barnett Shale frenzy in these parts. Wildlife and hunters having to get acclimated to gas wells in the middle of everything - including the going rates for the land.

 

[Art Eatman]

Seems to me that it's a mix of the terrain/vegetation, and how one likes to hunt.

For instance, a properly located five-acre patch might be a deer highway from a feeding area to a bedding area. So, a stand-hunter's in business. A walking hunter is plumb out of the deal.

Open country means lower population density. So, more acreage. Some little 40-acre patch might have a deer travelling through every day or six, but who knows when?

For whitetail, you can figure a "life circle" of some half-mile radius, moving around from food plot to water to food plot to bedding area. Round numbers, maybeso 400 acres or more. You then must look at carrying capacity, acres per deer, to figure out what sort of population might be there. Next is the buck::doe ratio.

So, "how big" is a heckuva variable. Definitely, bigger is better.

Art

 

[B.D. Turner]

I would take 10 acres in N.C. if it was surrounded by more woods. Add a feeder field and have em coming to you from all over. The optimum is for the five friends to buy joining tracts of land and turn it into a co op for an even bigger place to hunt this would cost less per person and give everyone a big place to hunt.

 

[redneck2]

There's a 15 acre parcel next to our woods that I'd love to buy. You could take as many deer out of it every year as you could use.

Let farmers own the surrounding land. All you need is the bedding area, or maybe the travel route to the bedding area.

I know a guy that has five deer in the record books and two were taken in a four acre plot.

 

[CrawdaddyJim]

As little as 1 acre if it is connected through deeds to a much larger tract of land. I own a 1 acre plot that gives me hunting and fishing rights on 3500 acres.

 

[MCgunner]

I've got 15 well placed acres and all the deer hunting I care about, hogs, too. I am the only one on it most times, but I set up two feeders and stands on it for my buddy to hunt when he comes down. This season I've taken two bucks off it and missed a hog with my pistol. My buddy missed a doe. :banghead: I haven't hunted it a LOT. I try to let it rest between kills some, try not to over hunt it. If I comfortably wanted to hunt 3 down there, 40 acres sounds quite reasonable to me. It really depends on the parcel of land, though. 40 acres out in the west Texas desert ain't enough to take a leak on. Around here it's a pretty decent size parcel of land. Of course, it's stand hunting, feeder watching. You ain't gonna get 3 guys out there still hunting 40 acres.

I'm sure happy to have my little chunk of heaven. Leases are ridiculous now days. If I had to lease, I couldn't hunt.

 

[Smoke]

As little as 1 acre if it is connected through deeds to a much larger tract of land. I own a 1 acre plot that gives me hunting and fishing rights on 3500 acres.

There's a couple of places like that around here. I hear nothing good out of them. Often, too many tracts are sold so that the hunter population is far too great for the amount of land in the "commune". The one's locally are run by a board of the owners, usually the loudest squawkers get on the board. They make silly rules. And you can't control who your hunting partners are.

 

[CrawdaddyJim]

Yep, them crusty old buzzards can be a pain. But most will see things your way if you are persistant. We have a border with the hooligans (ATV/ mudder) bunch. Had to chat with them a couple of times but they came around to our way of thinking and pretty much stay on their side of the land. Total acreage is about 8000 or so.

 

[dfaugh]

Well, I've only got 10 acres, but there's lots more adjacent to it(probably 100 acres, other owners, Powerline ROWs etc. And there's all manner of wildlife out there. Because its a semi-rural area there's little hunting pressure, so while I'd love to have more, for now its works.. Unfortunately, they're now building on some of the more distant tracts, that connect to mine, but it hasn't (so far) seemed to make any difference whatsoever, to the game..

 

[B.D. Turner]

What is wooded land selling for in your area?

What is wooded land selling for in your area? Most around here is running about $1,500 per acre.

 

[bowfin]

I can think of places where 20 acres would give you a lifetime of deer and turkey hunting, and I also know places where a section (640 acres) wouldn't hold enough wildlife to make it worth driving out for a morning.

Myself, I would get bored hunting the same piece of land year in and year out, and I have in fact abandoned places that had good hunting once it seemed I found myself hunting it the same way for the same opportunity several times in a row.

I would rather use the money to go to different places for game not available or plentiful in my area, or even to hunt that same type of game in a different setting, but pride of ownership means a lot to some people, so getting a deer of of their land would be like shooting a deer with rifle or bow that they made.

 

[MCgunner]

Well, I've only got 10 acres, but there's lots more adjacent to it(probably 100 acres, other owners, Powerline ROWs etc. And there's all manner of wildlife out there. Because its a semi-rural area there's little hunting pressure, so while I'd love to have more, for now its works.. Unfortunately, they're now building on some of the more distant tracts, that connect to mine, but it hasn't (so far) seemed to make any difference whatsoever, to the game..

My place is similar except that there is no all weather access back where my property is and everyone that owns back there bought for hunting. There's also no power access there, about 3/8 mile from the nearest power line where I'm at and further for everyone else. I'm on the end and there's about 25 acres on the other side I don't even know who owns and it's been this way for 18 years. On the other side of that is a HUGE ranch measuring in the square miles and I'm on the fence line of another huge ranch. I have only seen the deer and hog herds grow since I've been there, just gets better and better, though it's not exactly trophy hunting.

Myself, I would get bored hunting the same piece of land year in and year out, and I have in fact abandoned places that had good hunting once it seemed I found myself hunting it the same way for the same opportunity several times in a row.

I have gotten a little tired of watching the same trees and feeder and got on hunting leases elsewhere, but my little plot is my fall back and is sure is nice to know I won't have to quit hunting just because I don't have a lease or money for one. Deer leases in Texas are outrageously overpriced IMHO and they priced me out of the market a long time ago. I was in a hunting club that had a really fine 13,000 acre managed ranch 13 miles west of Langtry, Texas (that's west Texas). I really loved hunting out there, but it got up over $1000 a year and I just couldn't afford it anymore at the time. That was really the only deer hunting in that club that was worth anything. I killed a few does on other places and there was one close to home I had year round rights to that I squirrel hunted a lot. I sort of miss that.

For now, my land is paid for and I've gotten excited about hunting it again. I go through these moods. I think in the future, I may take a hog day hunt here or there, but far as deer goes, my place will have to do. If anyone develops around me, well, I'll sell and look elsewhere. Hunting's just too good and if you've sat in one stand, you've sat in 'em all. What I liked about west Texas was the spot and stalk hunting, moving and spotting from the ridges. That was a change from feeder watching.

 

[Lambo119]

BD in Southern Iowa timber is selling for $2500.00+ an acre. Lots of out of state investors buying up all the hunting land. Hard for locals to find places to hunt.

 

[daniel (australia)]

My apologies if this is seen as off-topic, but I just had to express my amazement at the size of hunting property you are talking about. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being critical, but I just hadn't appreciated the enormous difference between there and here.

Where I live public land hunting is booked on the basis of one hunter at a time per 1250 acres, and that's the minimum sort of size I'd have in mind for a private block in good country. I've hunted on properties under 1000 acres, and you'll pretty much cover them in a few days hunting. I can't imagine spending even a couple of days hunting on 40 acres.

In the outback blocks are bigger, and in fact three of my friends got together and bought 46,000 acres to hunt on, and installed a sharefarmer to help defray the cost. The land was fairly cheap, but out there it doesn't have such good carrying capacity, especially in drought time. The best I ever did on that place was 21 pigs in three days, but that was in a good year

 

[Art Eatman]

daniel, it mostly has to do with population density. In my area, I'd venture that for a hunter of the desert mule deer who considers the carrying capacity and the probable numbers, anything much under five or ten thousand acres just isn't much of a proper size. I'm thinking in terms of at least two ro three hunters each having a chance of finding a really nice buck, not just any little old buck.

In this same area, though, if you don't want deer, there are javelina, dove and quail. Easy enough to have fun on a few hundred acres. Plus varmint hunting for coyotes...

Art

 

[Jalexander]

Let farmers own the surrounding land. All you need is the bedding area, or maybe the travel route to the bedding area.

That's all well and good until the farmers start selling out to developers. Then you'll have a little plot surrounded by new houses, most of which will probably be occupied by folks who hate the idea of anyone firing a gun, much less killing the poor little deer.

Of course, that can happen even if you own a couple hundred acres, but the smaller the parcel the more severe the problem.

James

 

[MCgunner]

That's all well and good until the farmers start selling out to developers. Then you'll have a little plot surrounded by new houses, most of which will probably be occupied by folks who hate the idea of anyone firing a gun, much less killing the poor little deer.

That's when you sell and find something else. I haven't had the problem where I'm at, though, had the place since 88. I don't think folks really wanna build in a mosquito infested swamp that has no all weather road access or power.

I picture Australia as similar to the trans Pecos in West Texas. I hunted a ranch out there for some years in the hunting club I was in, 13,000 acres. It was managed and had good bucks, mulies, but especially white tail. Since it was closer to hades than civilization, it had little hunting pressure other than opening morning. However, they would put 3 people per section (660 acres) on it if they all showed. Usually opening weekend, you had a crowd, then they all hunted Sunday morning and split. By Monday morning, there might be four or five left to hunt the whole 13K. It was one of the few ranches they had that didn't get over hunted.

Where I'm at, there's no one close to me hunting. I'm very lucky in that respect, low hunting pressure, on a fence line bordering a ranch that measures in square miles and another one just down the road. The deer population keeps expanding there and the hogs are going crazy. But, to hunt, I put out a feeder and a tripod stand and go sit. There's no glassing, driving, looking, stalking. Folks in this part of the state have gotten used to feeder watching, I guess. The cover is so thick, it's really the only thing that works. I really enjoyed hunting that big ranch out west spotting and stalking and sitting on the edge of dry washes watching for movement. It was different, fun. It also cost lots of money. But, if money gets better, I may get a chance again. There's lots of public land up in New Mexico I've hunted, too, huge tracts of national forest and BLM land. If you don't have a lease, that's an option, however, I heard something about them requiring guides of out of state hunters now, don't know if it's true. If so, screw New Mexico. There are a LOT of mulies in that state, though, and I know where lots of 'em are. I've only taken one, but I'd like to do it again sometime. I had a total blast the couple of trips I've made out there. I'd like to try it during black powder season, longer season, better weather. Snow and 17 degrees gets old for a south Texas boy after a few days sleeping in a tent.

 

[spectr17]

Dad, a buddy and I hunted 40 acres with bows okay. Rifle season I'd want at least 100 acres to be a little safer.