How many bucks per acre

Once you have walked the property and pinpointed the locations of these various cover areas, the next step is to mark them on your aerial photo. Water is the final major habitat element. Although surface water is not as important to whitetails as food or cover, in drier climates a lack of available water can prevent animals from using the landscape completely. Cattlemen have known this for years, and as a result, they distribute water sources to encourage better utilization of the available forage.

Again, using the aerial or topo map, indicate the water sources on your property. There is one final component to the initial analysis of your deer land: its "poachability.

If you have a similar situation, thoughtful analysis and assessment of the poaching potential is in order. Using your aerial photo, maps and an on-the-ground reconnaissance, force yourself to think like a poacher. In other words, if you were going to shoot a deer, how would you do so on land to which you have no access?

An example of a high-probability poaching area might be a powerline right-of-way that crosses your property. Setting up a property's habitat features to encourage deer to walk out in sight of the public also is asking for trouble. Yet, believe it or not, I have analyzed properties that had food plots planted in full view of public roads. Some poaching incidents are highly planned, but others occur when a person who is not hunting unexpectedly sees a buck near a road or other public area. Either way, the manager's goal is to keep deer from being seen by the public.

This is where a topo map can be of great help. If the elevation of a road is lower than most of the area, thus reducing visibility from a vehicle, you will have fewer problems. Also, by skipping a few hundred yards to put a hill in the way of passersby, I have had good luck planting food plots on rights-of-way crossing public roads. The next step is to do some high-tech "snooping" of your own hunting property, as well as that of your neighbors. For this reason, it helps to have a current aerial photo that includes a significant portion of the land around you.

That lets you see what neighbors are doing with their land and predict what it means to the deer using your property.

For instance, let's say one of your neighboring farmers suddenly begins planting soybeans where he never has. In such a case, his new bean field could both help and hurt your management situation. On one hand, he is providing the local deer with a high-protein food source; on the other hand, he is drawing them off your land, where you are powerless to protect them. Fortunately, soybeans are of the greatest utility to deer outside hunting season, so this planting might not have much negative effect.

On the other hand, a farmer planting corn can have a serious impact on the huntability of the herd; even after the harvest, corn continues to draw deer.

If you have nothing but native forage on your side of the fence, this can be a serious situation. Once you have this preliminary analysis completed, the next step is to overlay the basic management unit an acre block on your land. Of course, most properties are not square, so it might take some effort to fit an overlay of an acre grid on your map, but it can be done.

I like to show foraging areas in one color e. This simplifies viewing of the landscape and helps you to see how the areas relate to each other. Areas that overlap in utility can be given a cross-hatched pattern. You also might use red to show areas with known or potential poaching problems. The simplest analysis using this system is to ask yourself the basic question: "Does every one of my management units supply all of the needs of deer living there?

What this means is that every management unit should maximize the necessary landscape elements: food, cover and water. In our "Building Your Own Deer Factory" series in North American Whitetail , we often have noted that using simplified population models can help you determine the number of deer needed to accomplish your management goals.

When you combine these goals with a landscape analysis of your habitat, the result is more and healthier deer. Let's take, as an example, an acre unit that contains 35 acres of open-canopy forest, 10 acres of natural openings, 30 acres of dense hardwoods, 2 acres of food plots and 3 acres of rights-of-way.

From a forage standpoint, the area will support about 1, "deer-days" per year. Dividing this number by days , we see that in its current condition, this management unit will support approximately seven deer.

Cover provided by the two forest types exceeds the 30 percent level, so it is not a limiting factor. Of course, other deer will share the area, but the seven-deer figure is pretty accurate. This allows you to make sound decisions about the management of your land.

Other analyses you might conduct would include how the various units affect each other and how your units might be affected by what happens on neighboring properties.

In each case, however, you now have an effective tool for making your land the best place for deer to live. When I applied this concept to my own land, I happily discovered it could support many more deer than my neighbors' land, helping me protect more bucks from premature harvest. Because of the demands of research, years later we erected a high fence around the property; however, before we did, our deer population more than doubled each season. The reason lay in how I laid out the landscape and how we hunted it.

If it is a funnel, you could have a good flow through the property. If there is nothing funnelish about the land, you will still have deer wander through. They don't recognize property lines. You might as well shoot what you want. Trying to manage 50 acres makes as much sense as a football bat.

NCHillbilly Administrator Staff member. Nov 1, But there may be scads of them or only a few that use it, depends on the land, surroundings, and deer density of the area.

A friend of mine has a acre place in central SC that he probably gets pictures of fifteen different bucks a year on or more. I've hunted a 50 acre funnel tract in central NC where you may see ten different bucks and a pile of does in a weeks hunt. Here in western NC, you might sit on a 50 acre tract every day for the rest of your life and never see a deer of either sex. Dallen92 Senior Member Nov 1, I have run cameras though on tracts less than 20 acres here in WNC and have had 12 different bucks on cam in one area.

All places are different and vary based on pressure, habitat, resources, etc Before you can speculate about a property's potential you have to know your areas population density in the first place. Check the website below and zoom in on your area to find out the average deer density. Then, as others have stated already, it depends on the land itself.

Just because your 50 acres happens to be in a certain region doesn't mean it will have any deer using it at all, let alone "holding" them. What are your neighboring properties doing? Are deer traveling between feeding and bedding ares nearby?

What's the topography and water situation? All these things play a role in determining how deer are using your property. Now, that being said, taking that many immature bucks on such a small tract is going to have a negative impact on the remaining deer, regardless of how they're using your property.

Not only have you greatly diminished the future buck potential but without any smaller bucks to fend off, the larger, more mature ones are now free to breed at their leisure. This mean they can still find does while remaining relatively seclusive because it's the competition of the rut that brings them out, not just the doe activity. I understand future potential is not necessarily a priority in your situation but don't expect to see a bunch of Booners now just because the little ones are gone.

In fact, I would venture to bet that it will be just the opposite and you'll see less activity entirely now that there aren't as many boys pushing the girls around the property anymore. NCHillbilly is dead on, your 50 acres doesn't "hold" any deer, they may use it andsome may have a core that's in it but they were by no measn landlocked there. If you guys have and see does on or around there I wouldn't worry about it. If the girls go to a bar, the guys will show up there, even if it isn't the closest or nicest bar to their home.

Gator Done Senior Member Nov 1, Looking For Next Year by cgardner. Hunting club by Huntn2feed5. Key: Admin , Global Mod , Mod. Print Thread. For you guys that do or have hunted decent sized pieces of land. I would think 1 per acres would be a realistic expectation. I could be way off just looking for everyone else thoughts on this. We hunt acres and have the same buck on one camera on the south side of the club and the same night on the other north side of the club.

I always thought a mature buck's home territory was acres. And maybe on a good year 1 super dominant buck in that area.

On mine which is a little over acres , I think 2 would be realistic. We never killed more than 2 per year. I now set the minimum at 5.

It really all depends on the location of the land. I It also depends on hunting pressure and food sources On the property and bedding areas. I hunt acres and have 4; mature bucks that stay on the property. But there is big farm land all around the property. One per is actually more realistic for a lot of places.

One per or less is exceptional. On the great land I hunt. Not even that many deer on most land in alabama. This has little to do with Home range size. It has more to do with what is a reasonable expectation on a kill rate of mature bucks. A lot of mature bucks Home ranges overlap considerably. Originally Posted by Mbrock.