Looking for ground in Ohio, Kentucky…., or a micro property about anywhere a mature buck my roam

[Garrett S]

Hi Folks.

I have two diverse goals - one is to find some good ground in Ohio or Kentucky to slowly build into a whitetail masterpiece with time and eventually relocate to. Looking for more “rough” than “turn key” and without a substantial dwelling. Prefer it has topography and creek, river or water present. Turnoffs are almost exclusive to disrespecting neighbors- can’t get over that. The goal is to move here in 4-5yrs from NY (where I do own some good deer ground).

Like many I lost my backside with my 401k and looking at asset/equity investment that I can smile about and enjoy. Blue collar dream chasing…

Also looking for a small chase phase kind of property in the Midwest just to have a little slice of Heaven to hunt once or twice a year.

The sole hunting focus of both is mature buck opportunity, not looking to fill a tag every year or having the delusional “Booner behind every tree” dream. I’m a legal eagle who is all about karma and willing to help others. You’d be happy and thankful to have me as a neighbor. I also know how many will
giggle at the forward nature of this post; I’m trying to keep faith and rather try this than talk to another less than valuable realtor.

So if you have a piece from 5-500 for sale, that’s cheap and loaded with giant deer (hahaha- being a Jackwagon here) OR any input, advise, or thoughts please reach out w a message or post here.

Thank you so much.

 

[Telemark]

Like many I lost my backside with my 401k

What? How?

 

[yoderjac]

Hi Folks.

I have two diverse goals - one is to find some good ground in Ohio or Kentucky to slowly build into a whitetail masterpiece with time and eventually relocate to. Looking for more “rough” than “turn key” and without a substantial dwelling. Prefer it has topography and creek, river or water present. Turnoffs are almost exclusive to disrespecting neighbors- can’t get over that. The goal is to move here in 4-5yrs from NY (where I do own some good deer ground).

Like many I lost my backside with my 401k and looking at asset/equity investment that I can smile about and enjoy. Blue collar dream chasing…

Also looking for a small chase phase kind of property in the Midwest just to have a little slice of Heaven to hunt once or twice a year.

The sole hunting focus of both is mature buck opportunity, not looking to fill a tag every year or having the delusional “Booner behind every tree” dream. I’m a legal eagle who is all about karma and willing to help others. You’d be happy and thankful to have me as a neighbor. I also know how many will
giggle at the forward nature of this post; I’m trying to keep faith and rather try this than talk to another less than valuable realtor.

So if you have a piece from 5-500 for sale, that’s cheap and loaded with giant deer (hahaha- being a Jackwagon here) OR any input, advise, or thoughts please reach out w a message or post here.

Thank you so much.

If by "building a whitetail masterpiece" you mean impacting the herd in some measurable way, you are undersized in your scale. I'd be looking for 1,000 acres as a minimum. On the other hand, if you mean, making a property more huntable, a much smaller property will work.

To be honest, if my driving objective was mature bucks, I'd start with the record books and look for counties with substantial numbers. I'd then look for some impenetrable swamp or something of that ilk and do nothing with it except figure out access routes and set stands.

Most of us don't have a single objective, but a balance of objectives. Here are some things to think about.

Do you have kids? Do you plan to pass it on? Do you care about introducing new hunters to the sport? Do you have enough independent funds from other sources, or do you need the land to provide income to justify holding it?

Enjoy your search!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Garrett S]

If by "building a whitetail masterpiece" you mean impacting the herd in some measurable way, you are undersized in your scale. I'd be looking for 1,000 acres as a minimum. On the other hand, if you mean, making a property more huntable, a much smaller property will work.

To be honest, if my driving objective was mature bucks, I'd start with the record books and look for counties with substantial numbers. I'd then look for some impenetrable swamp or something of that ilk and do nothing with it except figure out access routes and set stands.

Most of us don't have a single objective, but a balance of objectives. Here are some things to think about.

Do you have kids? Do you plan to pass it on? Do you care about introducing new hunters to the sport? Do you have enough independent funds from other sources, or do you need the land to provide income to justify holding it?

Enjoy your search!

Thanks,

Jack

Hi Jack.

By the “masterpiece”- I meant whatever it is I hope to invest my efforts to into making it the property that hunts great presenting the best opportunity feasible for bow hunting. Hoping that process is part of the joy it brings. Hear ya loud and clear with Acres and expectations being correlated.

While there will likely be some hunts with my son and a shed or mushroom walk with the Mrs… this really is for me. I’ve been frugal and paid off debt quickly and invested for retirement. While money/shared in the market isn’t quite the same as money in hand…. It also brings me zero joy. We have a great property for hunting in NY… I’m done with this state and hunting here brings me little joy. At this point, sharing time with a friend or two there is a feasibility but not an upfront goal. Helping others get into hunting is something I do enjoy here but have not made that a forward consideration for there.

Thank you for your time and thoughts.

 

[yoderjac]

Hi Jack.

By the “masterpiece”- I meant whatever it is I hope to invest my efforts to into making it the property that hunts great presenting the best opportunity feasible for bow hunting. Hoping that process is part of the joy it brings. Hear ya loud and clear with Acres and expectations being correlated.

While there will likely be some hunts with my son and a shed or mushroom walk with the Mrs… this really is for me. I’ve been frugal and paid off debt quickly and invested for retirement. While money/shared in the market isn’t quite the same as money in hand…. It also brings me zero joy. We have a great property for hunting in NY… I’m done with this state and hunting here brings me little joy. At this point, sharing time with a friend or two there is a feasibility but not an upfront goal. Helping others get into hunting is something I do enjoy here but have not made that a forward consideration for there.

Thank you for your time and thoughts.

I hear ya! One more thought, if bowhunting is your thing, I'd check P&Y vs B&C. In my state, most of the P&Y bucks come from a very different county than B&C bucks. Why? Age seems to be the limiting factor in most of our state. It turns out that most of the P&Y bucks come from our most populated county. Firearm use is very restricted. This means most of the hunting is bowhunting which has much less impact on age structure because of the lower harvest numbers. Age is not a factor in that county. Also, with all the landscaping and edge habitat created by development, nutrition is not a big challenge.

THanks,

Jack

 

[Garrett S]

I hear ya! One more thought, if bowhunting is your thing, I'd check P&Y vs B&C. In my state, most of the P&Y bucks come from a very different county than B&C bucks. Why? Age seems to be the limiting factor in most of our state. It turns out that most of the P&Y bucks come from our most populated county. Firearm use is very restricted. This means most of the hunting is bowhunting which has much less impact on age structure because of the lower harvest numbers. Age is not a factor in that county. Also, with all the landscaping and edge habitat created by development, nutrition is not a big challenge.

THanks,

Jack

Great points. Your takes make perfect sense. Age (structure) is key with genetics being a good way back.

My take on “book buck” locales has been with a grain of salt. It’s actually part of where I was hoping this brazen post would get me. My personal experience is some states have a large faction of hunters, especially the consistent ones, not entering things into clubs/books. It seems like this is also more often the case for traveling hunters (with the NR portion skipping entry). Not disagreeing by any means, just having to recalibrate or reconsider my thinking. I know NY well, and where the big boys fall are 100% where the gun pressure isn’t. The record books skew that perception with most entries being the bear minimum and by a random hunter’s (single) big lucky encounter and day.

For the record I love guns, own a bunch but really prefer to bowhunt whitetails.

Somewhere between pride with persistence and feeling like an idiot for being so blunt with this approach comes the basic question of local knowledge on “what are the areas you’d pick?”

 

[BenAllgood]

Look in big ag areas with little cover and find a piece that isn't farmable in the middle of all that. You may be able to get a farmer to split off just the "woods" or "draw" section that they can't farm.

 

[yoderjac]

Great points. Your takes make perfect sense. Age (structure) is key with genetics being a good way back.

My take on “book buck” locales has been with a grain of salt. It’s actually part of where I was hoping this brazen post would get me. My personal experience is some states have a large faction of hunters, especially the consistent ones, not entering things into clubs/books. It seems like this is also more often the case for traveling hunters (with the NR portion skipping entry). Not disagreeing by any means, just having to recalibrate or reconsider my thinking. I know NY well, and where the big boys fall are 100% where the gun pressure isn’t. The record books skew that perception with most entries being the bear minimum and by a random hunter’s (single) big lucky encounter and day.

For the record I love guns, own a bunch but really prefer to bowhunt whitetails.

Somewhere between pride with persistence and feeling like an idiot for being so blunt with this approach comes the basic question of local knowledge on “what are the areas you’d pick?”

You're right, you can't take just the book records out of context to pick a spot. And most record bucks are taken by guys in the right place at the right time. Probably true for most mature bucks in general. One reason I mentioned the suburban situation is that it sort of points that out. I'm also a hunter education instructor in that area and there simply is not the hunting heritage in the suburbs here that we have in rural areas. Permission to hunt was very limited due to the litigious nature of folks in urban/suburban areas. I ended up getting together with a handful of experienced bowhunters and starting a Suburban bowhunting group aimed at population control. This all eventually ballooned into county programs for small parks and such as well. The point is hunting pressure was very light, but because bucks had age and nutrition, bowhunters in the right place at the right time had success with mature bucks.

That was an atypical situation. In general, there are other ways to modulate the record book data. Many state agencies record harvests by county as well. They, when combined with the huntable acreage of the county, can be used as a proxy for the hunting pressure in that county. Public land acreage open to hunting vs private land acreage in a county can also be something to consider when doing analysis. Also keep in mind that everything is driven by dirt. Looking at the NRCS soil maps is a worthwhile activity.

All this paper analysis will only get you into general areas to explore in more detail.

From my perspective, I'd start with areas where I want to live. I'll give you some insight to what I did when looking for land. It is nothing like what I just described, largely because shooting big bucks was not on the top of my list. I started looking at retirement. I like the liberal game laws and progressive game department we have in this state. I decided I wanted to end up in this state. It also had to do with family, climate, friends, and more, but I did not want to be in an urban or suburban area. Next, I looked at medical care. Health is a major concern as we age. I wanted top notch medical care in easy driving distance. My wife is into athletics. We ended up identifying a college town with a great university medical care system in the state as a target. We began our search in that general area.

From there, shear luck took over. Other hunter education instructors were looking for hunting land and a pine farm came up for sale that none of us could individually afford that was in my general target area. We ended up buying it and I've not looked back since.

 

[SwampCat]

Look into property that joins lands with very limited firearm access - as in state parks, national wildlife refuges, etc

 

[yoderjac]

Look into property that joins lands with very limited firearm access - as in state parks, national wildlife refuges, etc

If you have the money, that is a great strategy. It was a strategy when I was a kid. By the time I got old enough to start looking, the tracks in those locations has all been pushed up in price.

 

[Mortenson]

The state parks here have hunters til the season ends and then dnr snipers for 2 more months. It didn't used to be like that. Good luck in your journey.

 

[Garrett S]

This discussion and reply suggestions is exactly what I was after (though I won’t look past a gifthorse property for sale referral.

Honestly never considered the later in life amenities like health care. Huge point taken in there.

Killer idea with the attached “sanctuary” or easier access to public access.

The idea of putting in effort and seeing the reward is huge for me; if not I’d lease and just keep burning money in the 401k barrel.

How happy are you KY land owners?

 

[yoderjac]

I can't speak to KY specifically. I will say that every general location has both plusses and minuses to weigh. Another consideration for the long-term, including retirement is how your particular retirement income is treated by the state. In my case, the benefits of a low tax state did not outweigh other factors, but it was something I considered.

One more thought pops to mind. I'm a different person now than I was when I first started dreaming about owning my own land. Most hunters mature through a progression of "shoot at something" to "tag out" to "biggest" to "more challenge" ( Equipment, game selectivity,...) to "Enjoying nature and giving back". Well, at least that was my progression. These days, I'd rather take a new hunter out and help them shoot their first deer much more than harvesting a big buck. Habitat work probably started with the motivation of improving hunting. Today, I'm thinking more about what my land will support when I'm too old or unable to continue active management. I now enjoy seeing a persimmon I grafted years ago hanging heavy with fruit just as much as seeing game under my stand. When I was younger, getting away from people and spending time alone in a stand was very important. Today, spending time and strengthening relationships with folks, especially young folks, is more important.

This is just to say that establishing goals is not a once and done thing. They will be adjusted over time.

My specifics won't directly apply to you, but I hope they stimulate thought as you plan your journey!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Native Hunter]

Today is your lucky day pal. You can be my neighbor for only $845,000. A real bargain considering what a nice guy I am.

2222 Sano, Columbia, KY 42728 (MLS # 22017234) - Walker Realty and Auction

UNRESTRICTED!!! Beautiful and hard to find farm and recreational land. This 187 acre land is a dream come true. There are so many possibilities. It does have a small cabin with a wood stove, (no plumbing or electric) there's also a covered storage shed attached to store your tractor or UTV. You...

walker-realty.com

 

[yoderjac]

Today is your lucky day pal. You can be my neighbor for only $845,000. A real bargain considering what a nice guy I am.

2222 Sano, Columbia, KY 42728 (MLS # 22017234) - Walker Realty and Auction

UNRESTRICTED!!! Beautiful and hard to find farm and recreational land. This 187 acre land is a dream come true. There are so many possibilities. It does have a small cabin with a wood stove, (no plumbing or electric) there's also a covered storage shed attached to store your tractor or UTV. You...

walker-realty.com

He'll have lots of nice deer around, but we all know you have them trained to stop at your property line, turn around and head back in.

 

[Native Hunter]

He'll have lots of nice deer around, but we all know you have them trained to stop at your property line, turn around and head back in.

Especially if they are hungry.

 

[DJN]

I vote we all just chip in to be Native’s neighbor! Then we can do actual walks in his prairie and orchards while he teaches us hands-on. It’s win-win! (Ok, maybe Native wouldn’t agree with that reasoning).

My family does happen to have 64 acres just getting ready to go up for sale in the center of WV. Not exactly an area known for big bucks though… lol

 

[Garrett S]

Today is your lucky day pal. You can be my neighbor for only $845,000. A real bargain considering what a nice guy I am.

2222 Sano, Columbia, KY 42728 (MLS # 22017234) - Walker Realty and Auction

UNRESTRICTED!!! Beautiful and hard to find farm and recreational land. This 187 acre land is a dream come true. There are so many possibilities. It does have a small cabin with a wood stove, (no plumbing or electric) there's also a covered storage shed attached to store your tractor or UTV. You...

walker-realty.com

One decimal place off from buying it instantly. Haha. Nice neighborhood


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[buckdeer1]

The land podcast is really good.I heard something just today about buying land now VS 25 years ago.Back then you could serch for the perfect property now if you can get 2 out of 3 things you better buy.I would start with land sites like landwatch to see whats out there

 

[b116757]

Eastern Kansas
All but three from the home 35 my kids have shot many of them particularly the smaller ones hard to tell a 10year old not to shoot the first buck they see. As far as property goes I’d look at states with income taxes that are zero or very low on retirement income, reasonable housing costs and generally decent health care you will certainly need it as you age.