Snoogsdad

We have 400 acres and have found that we can keep one or two bucks on our place and the other ten or so that we see wander about and are shot on neighboring properties. If we don't supply them with everything they want we even have trouble keeping one or two on our place if someone else gives them something we are not.

timbercruiser

While you can surely hunt and enjoy a tract of land that size I wouldn't go crazy about trying to grow trophy deer on a 160+ acre tract. 36 deer per sq mile is a good population.

alsaqr

The point that i am trying to make is this: No, you cannot "manage" a deer herd on a small place.If your place has good deer cover, you can make it so attractive for deer that they will run to your place forrefuge when hunting pressure is put on them. We have proved that on our place for several years: First of all ithas good stuff for deer to eat.Secondly, we only hunt there a few days during deer season. Thirdly,it has good places to hide. Lastly, it is posted.

Currently there is a ten pointfrequenting the place that is a 160 class deer. There is also an eight point that is about 140as well asa good young six point.They survived deer season by hiding on ourplaceand the neighborsplace. A 168 point (typical), 186 point (non-typical) was killed on our place by a good friend with a bow in 2004.

USFWC

The most critical thing you can do is to see what your neighbors are like. They can make things miserable if they are trespassing on you all of the time or shooting every deer that walks off of your property.

npaden

Thanks for the input. I actually just got off the phone with the neighbor who is currently leasing the property to run cattle on it.

He sounded like a decent guy and said the property is a nice piece of land but they are just asking way to much for him to even think it could pay for itself by running cattle on it.

He said he would be willing to work with me and continue to lease the land for grazing or work with me to plant some of the larger acreages. He has the cultivated areas planted in winter wheat right now for his cattle to graze on.

He said he had never seen any deer on the property, but that he had seen deer on his property which is the 1/2 section to the east. He said the pond held water this year in one of the worst droughts in our area in decades. He said the owner of the property basically used it for recreational use only and stocked the pond with fish and hunted it (basically what I would like to do).

He mentioned that there are "pigs all over it" so not sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. I've heard they are good eating, but I know they can be a real nusiance and tear stuff up really good. He also mentioned that he has called plenty of coyotes out of the place and shot them on his land but he said that he has really never been much of a deer hunter. He said that there are turkey and quail on the place and plenty of dove. He does lease his place out for hunting but I forgot to ask him how much he charges or if he has a long term deal with some hunters. It might work out well if I could swap out some grazing on my place to have exclusive hunting on his place or something like that.

The place has an oral offer on it right now, but they have never put anything in writing. I'm going to try to get by to look at it by the end of the week and see if I can pull the trigger on a written offer with some earnest money if I like the way it looks.

Thanks again for the input.

Nathan