Trophy bucks, Small land

When managing for trophy deer on small acres you can still think big. You just have to manage it differently. Planting the right food source and having food there for them year round. There are many ways to take care of the small land parcels that we hunt each year.

With so many timber companies now owning land and we as the hunter having to lease the land it can be hard. But it can be done if properly cared for. See the good thing about company land is the timber is already being taken care of and managed for you. A friend and I have just recently leased 78 acres in Butler County,Alabama to hunt on for the first time.

The good thing about this land is it’s small and it’s land locked. The hunting land around it has been managed for some years now in more ways than none. The one thing I like about this land is it is close to home. The timber is being cut as I write this article and bow season starts here in like three weeks. So even though it might not be the best bow season on this tract gun season in early January will be great.

Scouting: #1

When scouting small tracts of land it is a lot easier than you think. The less land you have to scout the more chances you have at actually seeing deer. Check for bedding areas but stay out of them. The less pressure you put on the deer the better you are. Try and use a game camera to take pictures with or even get high on a hill and scope it out and find where deer are coming and going from fields to woods.

Maps: #2

Use maps to you advantage you will never go wrong by using them. A map can be your best friend. If you are leasing new land at the last minuet try and go online and use Google Earth it works great. There is no telling how many times I have looked at it over the last couple of months at the land we just got. It will really pay off for me in the end.

Hunt the Trails: #3

When hunting trails the wind can be a factor. Always use the wind to your advantage. Make sure that when you hunt deer will not detect you coming in to an area and also leaving out. If you have someone to  come and pick you up after dark,  you don’t spook any deer left around you.

Food Plots: #4

I always say plant a food source where you and your deer will only be the one’s to know about it. A 2 acre food plot can be good for feeding deer but there is a very big chance you want see deer using it in hunting hours. A hunting food plot should be no larger than a half acre in size. Even a 1/4 acre plot could be the best food plot you ever hunted over. People take this for granite and think that in order to kill and see lot’s of deer you must hunt over one to two acre food plots. Yes these plots are good just not good enough for hunting. Food source play’s a large factor when hunting small tracts of land.

Know when and where: #5

Know when and where to be when hunting for a trophy buck. Check your local states Boone & Crockett scores. If you are planning on hunting for big bucks then you have to be where the big bucks are. More than likely most of the big bucks in Alabama have been taken from the woods or swamps and not on a food plot. In my area where I hunt there are some great bucks taken each year. It is not uncommon to see some 120 to 150 inch bucks taken each year off some of the land around me. These bucks didn’t get this way by being stupid or growing over night. It takes years to produce big deer not day’s.

I enjoy the small tracts of land cause I control the pressure that is put on the herd. For every 100 acres on small tracts there should be two hunting plots and one feeding plot that dose not get hunted. As I said before hunt small tracts and you too can grow big deer.