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Forty Acres:

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loneranger

Well-Known Member
I read the descriptions of vaious hunting lands in the past thread. I am wondering who hunts on 40 acres or less? I was able to purchase 40 acres in Iowa ,five yrs ago. I have 4 stands on it. Some small food plots and fruit trees. I see mostly 2 1/2 yr old bucks cruising thru during the rut. Saw one 3 yr old,,and got him. I have come to the knowledge that if you can own, and keep quiet, more acreage, you will see more than 2 1/2 yr olds, more often, than on 40 acres. Most all of my neighbors hunt, or disturb their lands in some way. I am not complaining though. I see alot more than I used to see on Northern Michigan public lands, I used to hunt. Just curious who hunts small acreages?
 
I have hunted TONS of pieces that were smaller than 40. I will admit, I only hunt one that's smaller than 40 now.
From my experience, the problem is NOT that the big bucks are not in the area or on the land. My experience is, the PROBLEM comes down to 2 things:
1) the neighbors ruining the hunting, putting too much pressure and just doing stupid stuff (like getting to their stands an hour after light or driving up to it with a 4-wheeler, I could go on and on). Big bucks are just too smart for that retarded stuff AND 40 acres isn't big enough to insulate yourself from idiotic neighbors (or just neighbors who hunt way too much).

2) "IF" I only hunted the 40 acres and had even 6-7 stands, no matter how good a hunter I am, I'd burn the stands out- even in the rut. IF I owned 40 acres, I'd get additional permission OR hunt state land to give the land some rest and rotate stands far more. Too much pressure is again a killer for seeing mature bucks, they may be there BUT they are too smart for that too.

**Oh, and FYI, I don't care if you found me the WORST 40 acres in the state, it's still better than MI!!!!!! I grew up hunting 180 acres in Michigan where 22 acres was woods and FACTUALLY 18 guys hunted it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It taught me how to hunt smart though!!! :)
Just my experience and opinion. I'm sure there's plenty more :) ..........
 
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Sligh1 said:
40 acres isn't big enough to insulate yourself from idiotic neighbors
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This is pretty close to the truth. 40Acres in my neck of the woods, if left untouched may hold deer from the idiots, running everywhere in Orange banging away at whatever moves come November, if they can make it to your 40acres. But it better be 40acres of THICK woods. Short of that, a deer in general is going to live on more than a 1/4mi x 1/4mi. I would be truely impressed to see a deer stay in a 640acres of IDEAL habitat. And by stay I mean 80%< of the time. I read somewhere years ago that a normal deers range is somewhere around 2miles. Well if your 40 is the DEAD center of that 2miles, thats a lot of different pieces of property in its range.

I guess that is why, people now are seeing the importance of try to make your property/hunting area the best "habitat" possible for the deer. Food, Water, Cover. The three essential things.
 
The way I look at it is we all hunt a tree and a 40-50 yard radius around that tree with a bow. That is well under 40 acres. For me, I won't hunt a tree unless I know or have a gut feeling a big buck could walk through my little area. Whether it is in a 10 acre woodlot or a 1000 acres of rolling hills it doesn't matter, I won't be in an area where I don't have any confidence. If your happy with 2.5 to possibly 3.5 year olds, your place is perfect. If you want 4.5+ year olds, I would find somewhere else to hunt. That is the hard part, pulling out of a spot due to convenience. Sounds like you have a great spot, just down on luck with the neighbors.
 
I grew up hunting my grandpa's 40 and I currently own 21 acres. My 21 acres isn't my only ground to hunt and I think that is why it produces alot of action for such a limited space. If you own thousands of acres you can afford to screw up and hunt wrecklessly and it will still take a good amount of time before all the resident deer know that the jig is up. On a piece of ground 40 acres or less you have very little leeway to screw up....let the resident doe family group know that they are being hunted and you can rest assured that every mature buck in the area will sense the does level of tension, and it all snowballs downhill from there.
I can only speak from my experience but what I have seen is this; If I reserve my two stands on my 21 acres for all the stars to line up I have a great shot a taking a mature deer. If I get anxious and hunt it too early in the season my chances of catching a 3 1/2 or older buck during daylight plummet. Last year I hunted it 4 times throughout the season and I had close encounters with 2 different 3 1/2's and shot a mature doe. I'm not in an area that practices alot of management but a few of my neighbors are selective in what they wrap their buck tag on.
Here's a pic of a buck that I had within 50 yards of me the year before last on my 21 acres.
picture.php
 
kurtish said:
I grew up hunting my grandpa's 40 and I currently own 21 acres. My 21 acres isn't my only ground to hunt and I think that is why it produces alot of action for such a limited space. If you own thousands of acres you can afford to screw up and hunt wrecklessly and it will still take a good amount of time before all the resident deer know that the jig is up. On a piece of ground 40 acres or less you have very little leeway to screw up....let the resident doe family group know that they are being hunted and you can rest assured that every mature buck in the area will sense the does level of tension, and it all snowballs downhill from there.
I can only speak from my experience but what I have seen is this; If I reserve my two stands on my 21 acres for all the stars to line up I have a great shot a taking a mature deer. If I get anxious and hunt it too early in the season my chances of catching a 3 1/2 or older buck during daylight plummet. Last year I hunted it 4 times throughout the season and I had close encounters with 2 different 3 1/2's and shot a mature doe. I'm not in an area that practices alot of management but a few of my neighbors are selective in what they wrap their buck tag on.
Here's a pic of a buck that I had within 50 yards of me the year before last on my 21 acres.
picture.php
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This post hit the nail on the head imo. I don't have access to any large areas to hunt so I have to hunt smart on what I do have. If it's a big buck your after, I'd leave those small tracts alone til November rolls up and get after em when they are most vulnerable.
 
I hunt a couple places that are 40 acres or less. I agree you definitely need to make sure it's right before you start putting pressure on them. It also helps to have the right forty. If it's located in the middle of some bigger timber with a few good funnels for stand locations you can have a great rut. I just like to hunt so I chose to find a few places that I can bounce back and forth between and not put to much pressure on them. If you've got some state close by, I would look into finding a couple stand locations in that just to give yours a break.

Having good neighbors helps a lot. I passed a 3 1/2 year old buck last year that has 15 scoreable points. Everyone told me I was nuts but I just couldn't waste the potential. I heard later on that a neighboring group got him during shotgun season. I was sick but what do you do. Come to find out it wasn't the same buck and the other neighbor found 1 side of his sheds and said he passed him November 2nd (5 days after me) in his foodplot right across the road. I was hunting on 40acres and he owns 34 acres.
 
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I totally respcect you guys that hunt small acreages as alot of thought and caution surely has to go into such circumstances. I don't really have any isolated spots that are surrounded by places I can't go so counting chunks bumping into other chunks I can go my smallest parcel is about 800 acres.

I do however think Liv hit the naill on the head with his assessment that we're all hunitng a 40-50 yard radius type chunk.
 
I am the only one that can hunt a farm thats around 600 acres, but i still wont hunt there till late October. During the early season i just hunt other small chunks and shoot does. I started doing that two years ago and my mature buck sightings on the 600 acre piece has went way up. I cant even imagine how frustrating it would be to hunt a small piece and practice good managment just to see the 2.5 year old you passed on be shot as soon as he crosses the fence. I too respect all the guys that hunt small acreages. I would get way to pissed off lol.
 
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It just dawned on me, the buck in my aviator (my picture right there to the left) is from a 38 acre piece of timber (on the field edge). I know for a fact the giants are there on the small pieces, it's an issue of pressure (from neighbors and yourself).
 
My brother has 40 acres of riverbottom land near Fremont Neb. It is a deer highway. It is part of a 160 acre tract of timber. Him and the other landowners (3 total)took these 5 deer with bow all on the same weekend a couple years ago.

2 off my brothers 40.
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2 off the neighbors 80.
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heavy mass off the other neighbors 40
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A good friend of mine owns 6 acres in the middle of a section that is prime deer habitat. He and his son have taken numerous big deer in that piece, and routinely see giants in that area. It can be done if the piece is right.
 
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