Opinions of small hunting land set up

[johnnyc]

I live on 15 acres that I hunt on as well and would like some tips on hunting this land better than i have been doing for 10 years.  The guy behind me has around a 1000 acres and only 3 or 4 people hunt it lightly.  There are 80 acres across the road that is lightly hunted.  It's all surrounded by woods, feilds, pine thickets.  Last year, the guy beside me put a stand probably 30 yards away from my line.  He only has 10 acres, but he burned off all the cover and now has absolutley no cover and he put up a huge tower stand and feeders so I'm not cussing him much anymore since he's basically feeding them for me.  
  I live in the middle of my property and I leave it grown up except for about a half an acre for my yard.  I have  a stand in the front of the property by the road and one in the middle and one in the back.  The place is overrun in doe.  Opening morning of bow season I saw 21 doe so it's not really a question of drawing in deer, it's the best setups.  I usually try to hunt in the back and the front, but I got to thinking I may be pushing more deer than I realize on to neighbors.  Would I be better off keeping a stand close to the house without having to walk through the property?  My mindset has been to hunt as far away from the house, but deer come up in the yard.  Would I be better off hunting closer to the house.  Baiting is legal.  Right behind my house, I have  a low draw that is about 3 feet lower than the rest of the property with a small ditch.  It's almost like a levee was built and the area is now 3 foot lower and in a thicket.    You can't even see my house. Just thinking this spot has potential but since it is so close to the house, I haven't hunted it.

[chopx2]

Hard to know without pictures or walking the place, but sounds like you have a fairly good idea. I think you may be onto something with that low draw as it allows them to stay hidden. Work the wind and check for sign in there. My guess if there are bucks cruising your property they are prbably using a hidden corridor like the one you describe to sniff out does in heat.

[lpcjon2]

You should put up multiple stands and rotate.I would find downed trees and big brush and make long piles---------- this will give the deer the cover to bed around.Your neighbor may be feeding them with corn but if provide cover for bedding and a small food plot such as clover or soy beans you have a good chance of getting and keeping bucks on your land.My buddy has 20 acres and does this.

[Red4arm]

I have a similar situation with our property. We have about 80 Acres. Behind us is 1000 acres of no hunting, a few people sneak in, but very little pressure back there. Me and my brother hunt ours. Do all you can do to keep food and cover on yours. Our hardwoods had gotten too big, so 2 years ago we had 15 acres select cut. We left the white oaks and thinned everything else.This made alot of good cover after 2 years of growth and left the good mast trees. We put in two food plots about 3 acres total. Baiting is illegal here so food plots were our option. Our deer sightings are trough the roof. We found with cover and a food source we became the home range for many deer. And when the rut starts a lot of bucks from the land behind us start cruising our property. Be careful not to over hunt you land, we hunt a day or two and take a few off. If we spook deer we stay away for a few days. We don't scout our land any, we know it well enough now. Stay out of your woods as much as you can and choose you routes to stands wisely.

My 2 cents.

[johnnyc]

Thanks,
  I definitly have cover, that's one thing I have going for me.  I usually have ALOT of persimmons, but we had a drought this year so I didn't have that.  I've planted alot of sawtooth oaks that are probaby a couple of years away from producing.  I just got to thinking that maybe my house doesn't have to be considered a hindrance as I've been thinking.  Rather than walking across my land to hunt, I could place a  few stands closer to my house where it would be easier to maintain a feeder without spooking deer.

[Stumpkiller]

I have a similar set-up.  I'm living on 20 mostly wooded acres (shaped like a ruler: 335ft wide x 2640ft deep).  My recommendation is to set up multiple spots.  I have given permission to several neighbors (and they share likewise), though the people to my south border are adamant anti-hunters with 40 acres . . . so I only bow-hunt there lightly when there is no snow to leave tracks in. ;-)  I have a bow-site near the house that borders a tangle of thorn and prickers - 30 years ago it was cow pasture - that is a bedding site.  I put my tree stand on a funnel into that area.

To my west is a non-resident owner with 600 acres and I have hunting permission in exchange for keeping an eye on things for him the rest of the year.  He has a cabin there and I have a spot in a stand of hemlocks just inside his property that is productive as they tend to keep the deer circulating, and this spot is an opening in otherwise dense cover a few hundred yards from their well-travelled ATV/Pick-em-up truck road.  

For better or worse, during gun season I "hunt the ATV's".  That is, I hunt on foot and select spots I know the deer will move to when those who chose to drive to-and-from their spots have disturbed them.  There are several old roads and logging trails that intersect the area, and I hunt the likely deer travel routes by still-hunting or lashing a ground-level tree seat at a likely spot.

After the bum's rush of the first two weeks of gun season deer begin to again act like deer and I find spots between the feed and bed areas.

[joekeith]

I've only got 7 acres.  I have a pop up that's only about 35 or 40 yards from the house that I leave up all the time.  I've got deer and turkey from it, they were only about 50 yards from the house.

I've gotten 2 turkeys from inside the house.  Just leave the screens off the windows and keep your eyes open.  Call from window, then another.  If they follow around the house..    

4 acres we only take the dogs for a walk on once a day, then stay out of there.  Give the critters some room to feel safe.  But when they come too close to house I figure they're wantin' in the freezer.    

[Don Stokes]

I have 20 acres of mostly hardwoods and 30 acres of dog-hair thick cutover, in an L shape with a 5 acre lake on the short leg of the L. My relatives own the land adjoining on the north, bad neighbors to the east, and good neighbors with 120 acres  of mixed woods and cutover to the south. West side is where my house is, by the paved road. I have 10 ladder stands on the uncut 20, and I can see the back porch light from three of them. One I can see from my office window when the leaves are off. I hunt the property very lightly, and never sit the same stand twice in a row. If I'm spotted (not just smelled) in one of my ladders, I move it 50 yards or so. If I spook deer going in, I back out and wait a while before trying again, usually the next day. That happened yesterday- I didn't even get past the septic system drain field. They go nocturnal with very little pressure, so I'm very cautious about spooking them too often. I'm not blessed with a high population, so I don't get many "strangers" on the property except when the rut gets them roaming. I could name most of the local deer.

I stay out of the center of the 20 acres except for a couple of scouting trips when the acorns start to fall to locate the best tress, and when the bucks start to rub and scrape in earnest. I access my stands by moving around the edges of the property to the closest, downwind point where I can get to the stand I've chosen without exposing myself or my scent to the main body of the property.

Sometimes it actually works!

[landman]

Sounds to me like you should get your coffee, use your porch as your stand and have it 'em.

[Stumpkiller]

Originally posted by landman:
Sounds to me like you should get your coffee, use your porch as your stand and have it 'em.

Tee hee.

Ladder Stand #1  (I've popped several coyote and a woodchuck or three from this spot).