Don't want to be a pest,,,But,,,

[loneranger]

Thank You Men so much for your advice and experiences.I am new to the Iowa Hunting experience.Here where I live 85% of our bucks are yearlings.They don't know what Rattling,or grunts are.I have just twomore questions.Is 40 acres sufficient for any decent hunting? I know what is on it,and surrounding property,big factors.This 40 has lots of brush choked ravines,young oak thickets,and cedars.Surrounding land is woods and crops. It looked good to me last Jan. when out there,,lots of beds and trails. I plan on planting some clover in openings and have local farmer plant the only tillable spot with corn or Alfalfa. Guy that sold to me said I should see 10 to 20 bucksa season crossing a 40 like that? Also,,what are the State and County Wildlife refuges like for Bow Hunt pressure out there? Do the city hunters pile onto them?My land is Se of Ottumwa and there are several refuges nearby.Thanks again, for your generous help.Loneranger.

 

[Limb Chicken]

loneranger,
I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised at the number of deer you will see on that 40. You are in a great area. Everything is relative to what you are used to I am guessing your definition of pressure and mine are different as mine is different from what Saskguy's is... My guess is you are in good shape.

 

[muddy]

i agree with Limb, you're going to be happy with what you'll see. you probably won't hold deer in your ground but they'll definately be moving through it, especially during the rut!! good luck!!

 

[GunnerJon]

Don't worry....you'll see plenty of deer! To tell you the truth....I have permission to hunt quite a bit of land here in Central Iowa, but I always end up on my family's properties.....much of which has little to no timber (less than 50 acres timber). I always see tons of deer, and never seem to have trouble filling my tags. This year I shot a doe early season muzzleloader with the farm tag, 2 does during shotgun season, and filled 2 more antlerless tags during late muzzleloader. All of those does (minus one) were shot on our property (not much timber) not to mention my brother-in-law's 2 does during shotgun, my Dad's bow, 2 shotgun and 1 late season does & buck and my cousin's buck.

To make a long story short....you don't need a ton of land to be successful deer hunting in Iowa.

 

[Liv4Rut]

40 acres is perfect, sounds beautiful the way you described it. right now i got too much land to hunt, yes too much, i know that most think you can never have too much land, but when you have thousands of acres to hunt, and dont see deer one day, you second guesss yourself and move, where if you were limited to a small amount of land, you would stick with it and be successful, sooner or later, than constantly moving and getting frustrated because you have soo much land and know somewhere is killer, but finding it is hard. my dad and I both shot our biggest bucks on 56 acres, with less than 15 acres of timber, i think if i would of stuck with that 15 acres of timber instead of roaming around in 1000 acres of timber, I would of shot more too

the only reason i never did, is because i get sick of hunting the same area from day to day, i like to see different view from my tree once in awhile

 

[mole]

Ditto to Gunner. His farm lies right next to my families farm and has less than 10 acres of timber, the rest is alfalfa and crp. The number of deer is amazing. It doesn't matter how much ground you have, but how the ground is managed. In my case the quality of deer is starting to look better. More neighbors are shooting does and letting the young bucks walk. I alone filled all but one tag this year, 5 does now are in my freezer

No matter where you're at, you're bound to see deer.

Be patient and the big ones will come.

mole

 

[River1]

It doesn't take much ground at all as long as it's got good habitat in and around it. When I look for new hunting area, I take into account the surrounding land just as much as I due the ground I'm hunting.

 

[Windwalker]

Those brushy pockets are golden.Better than hundreds of acres of open timber! you'll be very happy' A idea might be to make some paths deer will follow them. Let the farmer that lives next to you run cattle in for a week to make the paths. Late im the summer before Laborday 3weeks before maybe that helps out a bunch.Then place some feeders and pull them out to establish deer.Will work try it !

 

[jdavis]

loneranger- sounds like you'll have some deer to chase around. You said something interesting, that 85% of your bucks are yearlings. If you let those yearling go another 2 1/2 years those little bucks will be big bucks. You can still get your meat be taking does at least until the bucks are 3 1/2 years old. If you practice QDM (quality deer management) from the get go you will see a difference in the size of your deer. Remember you must harvest does also! Right now the average buck on your property is between 90-115 inches, if you QDM in couple short years your average buck could be 125-140 inches. Then you can move the bar up a few notches and only take 3 1/2 yr.old bucks or 140 + class bucks. Hope this helps!