How many acres?

[bat man]

I am going to buy a piece somewhere in MN to split into 40's or 30's or 20's or 60's. Might be 200 acres, might be 2,000 acres.

There will be association rules on harvest. It will be a hunter managed herd.

You can run 1 billion people through during season but can only kill X does and X bucks each year.

It will be set up with a base camp area (possibly a 10 x 25 cabin etc), an access exit strategy, fish ponds (duck hunt/moats deer won't cross) food plots, interior bedding, exterior trails to 4 wheel, bird hunt, walk etc. Its the residential neighborhood assoc concept with hunting bylaws.

How many acres does one need to go from shit hunting to good stuff when regulated by the hunter vs the state?

Please don't answer if you are not familiar with the low dpsm areas (less than 15 pre fawn) I am looking at.

 

[biglakeba$$]

Depends on your neighbors...... We could have stellar hunting if we had neighbors that weren't only in the game to shoot at all costs at all things brown. The one guy must have had a brown boot the one year, because he shot himself in the foot.

 

[bat man]

Depends on your neighbors...... We could have stellar hunting if we had neighbors that weren't only in the game to shoot at all costs at all things brown. The one guy must have had a brown boot the one year, because he shot himself in the foot.

Bad neighbors are my biggest fear.

How many acres to not worry about brown its down neighbors?

How many acres to make hunter managed herds work?

 

[McLovin]

Sounds like way more headaches than fun. 1000 acres with 100 acre sections, anything smaller gets too many chefs in the kitchen. It will be a tough sell until you actually can show results, which means at least 1000 acres IMO...

 

[biglakeba$$]

A good friend of mine has 240 acres near Dead Lake, and is just loaded with deer. His permit area is managed for 9-12 dpsm.

They have been hunters choice for years and are frustrated because they cant take any does because they dont want to burn tags on them and be done.

Their neighbors arent too picky on the deer they shoot.

Its an extremely unique property in the area though, so it has the goods to draw and hold deer.

 

[bat man]

which means at least 1000 acres IMO...

1,000 acres is not a big deal if a guy buys for $700 and sells for...

 

[bat man]

A good friend of mine has 240 acres near Dead Lake, and is just loaded with deer. His permit area is managed for 9-12 dpsm.

frustrated because they cant take any does because they dont want to burn tags on them and be done.

Poor soul can't find some young hunters to shoot does. Feel bad for him.

 

[biglakeba$$]

I dont feel bad for him. I am jealous he has deer.

 

[bat man]

I dont feel bad for him. I am jealous he has deer.

I feel bad for guys who bitch about not being able to kill does when so many are not seeing deer.

Give him my phone number. I can give him a reality check.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

With a large chunk who cares about neighbors. Set it up with 20-40 acre thick bedding sanctuaries with exit funnels to your liking. Obviously the sanctuaries can't be near borders and there needs to be safe travel in cover for the deer. Give me 2000 acres a chainsaw and a tractor and I will produce a big deer in 2-3 yrs. Maybe it's not that easy but with the right mix of tree cover and openings it would be fun to set it up to manipulate every thing from deer bedding, travel, food, access, funnels, stand placement. I would avoid property with large swamp but look more for terrain features, ponds, hardwood and some tillable. Swamp can be good but it also can be hard to manipulate to your liking. I also like an area where the neighboring parcels have good cover to allow rutting bucks to range onto your place(avoid an island of cover type property)

 

[biglakeba$$]

I get your point Brooks. He is one that thinks the DNR is crazy for lowering limits like they have. I think I even told you at one time that he has the place on Mille Lacs and says every time he goes up there he sees deer south of Mille Lacs on his drive and cant understand why everyone is biching about no deer in the state..... His views are very hard to figure out, but he is convinced there are more than enough deer in most areas. I gave up years ago trying to reason with unreasonable thoughts.

However, back to the point of my post about his land, the answer is to your question about how many acres needed. Its a real example of what happens on their place and has for many years. Its not an anomaly for them. They have deer every year.
I have muzzleloader hunted up there and seen more deer in one weekend than I saw on our farm all fall. And thats after they have been hunted every single weekend from mid September to that point.

 

[foggy]

^ A hunting co-op? Even land allotments?.....or draw for hunt locations? or?

Id say abot 40 acres could keep the hunt quality.....but that depends on the cover and topography.

 

[McLovin]

I'm changing my answer to this.

 

[Freeborn]

Allot would depend on the quality of the land, how it lays and where the neighbors are located. Also does it have quality bedding, cover, transition and feeding areas.

One worry I would have are land owners or realtors trying to take advantage of your efforts. If you could have some natural boundaries it could help with neighbors.

Without having an idea of the above its hard to give you an estimate.

Where would this be approximately? Are there wolves and how bad are the winters?

 

[Jim Timber]

Bad neighbors are my biggest fear.

How many acres to not worry about brown its down neighbors?

How many acres to make hunter managed herds work?

You'd need to envelope the herd's home range - so 4 miles square for does/fawns, and then rut would be a problem if you didn't have 10 miles beyond that for cruising bucks.

Your moat idea is cute - you meant high fence right? Deer can and do swim. At least they do at our lake. I can provide pics. ;)

 

[foggy]

Can I get a blind near the deer crossing sign?

 

[tooln]

Can I get a blind near the deer crossing sign?

Donna has that one.

 

[Jim Timber]

I've got a Hunter Crossing sign - think the deer will steer clear of my access routes if I put it up? :)

 

[biglakeba$$]

Jim
You could buy this and steer deer right to your hunter crossing. Its a recipe for success.

http://steeradeer.com/

 

[Jim Timber]

I'm gonna go loot Jeff's fishing line stash instead. I read that works better than 3-wire electric from Bubba online, so it must be true.