How much land, and how much control?

[BowGuy84]

On your primary PRIVATE hunting land, how much acreage do you have (lease, own, land owner agreement) that is under some type of QDMA management?

On mine I am just at 104, but I'd say a defacto over 1000 acres is under QDMA/Non hunting to limited hunting managment.

More specifically, my 104 is strict QDMA/trophy managment, the bordering 150 is recently timbered and hardly hunted (combined best 250 of cover around, the surrounding 150, 400, and over 1000 are hardly hunted. I can hunt the two other 150 tracks...

Combined it is over 1000 acres for bucks to get age on them. There is just one track of 70 acres that is brown and down and I'm ok with the odds of them not killing older deer bc they hunt the same stands all season for years and years.

Currently, I'm not doing good at seeing them, but I'd say that has more to do with not hunting it than anything. I have hunted it once this year and maybe 7 times last year. I will be on it a lot more in the coming weeks/years as my weekend schedule frees up.

 

[BSK]

488 acres. One neighbor along my northern border doesn't shoot yearlings (or small-antlered older bucks), and another neighbor in my southwest corner holds out for 3 1/2+ bucks. But about 65% of my property line is adjacent to "brown it's down" hunters. The interesting thing is, these brown-down hunters virtually never kill any of the older bucks I know are crossing onto their properties. Just one more example of why success killing older bucks is just as much mind-set as hunting skill.

All that said, the most critical aspect of our management success has been our ability to control the habitat. By creating many patches of good sanctuary cover, we definitely draw older bucks to our property during the highest pressure MZ and gun seasons, even though our managed property receives much more hunting pressure than the surrounding properties.

 

[BowGuy84]

I too see an influx of bucks due to avaliable cover in and around the KY gun season.

 

[muddyboots]

500 acres on one lease and 900 on the other.

 

[tellico4x4]

3300 acres under QDM for 10 yrs.
Another 3500 lease joins us to the South that is on the same QDM page as us and has been around longer than we have. The adjacent 5000 acres to the west has not been legally hunted in 3 years, while the 500 acres on our north is owned by borderline anti-hunters. The 700 acres on our east side is a club that has been around for a long time and supposedly shoot mature deer, but when we use to check deer in at local store, they always had a 4 or 6 point on board....

 

[Chaneylake]

2600 acres, all select cut hardwoods, on the southern banks of the Hatchie River, been on a management program since 1992, 600 acre club on the east, 1000 acres on south, 3000 acre club on the west, the 600 and 1000 acre clubs do a decent job of deer management, the 3000 acres on the west have a 1960 style management, aka they do not shoot does

the timber on Chaney is in all stages of growth, 260 acres cut this year, 300 acres cut in 2007, 150 acres cut in 2005, 350 acres cut in 2000, 300 acres cut in 1999

 

[BowGuy84]

Can a mod move this to Serious Deer forum? I think it would be more representative there...this is an example of sampling error!!!

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I own 140 total but in two tracts. In Morgan Co. my 55 acres is basically stand alone, not very many QDM oriented folks there, alot of brown/downers. Its sort of hopeless. In Fentress, I have my 85 acres, a neighboring 1300 that I can hunt and has been taken great care of for the last 15 years, a neighboring 89 only I hunt, neighboring 157 only I hunt, 228 acres my best friend owns just a property away QDM, 500 acres a good friend owns QDM, 1250 acres some family owns QDM , and 30 acres my Dad is closing on soon. The big tract of 1300 just has alot of poaching problems. Theres actually very few brown/downers around me there, most are ashamed to bring in a 1.5 yr old to be honest.

 

[Truedouble]

Around 1800 and then another probably 6000 that is pretty much under the same management plan as us which is somewhere b/w QDM and trophy managed. Only down side is the south west side of our property borders a very large management area where most likely a high percentage of the hunters shoot all buck ages. Good thing is the this land is only open on certain weekends and days so while it's not ideal at least it's not a club that hunts hard 3-4 days a week. Also very little habitat improvement on the public land so I'm hoping everything we do to improve our land just keeps a lot of the bucks on us or neighboring private land where they are safe until at least 3.

 

[jbow]

I just leased a 250 acre piece of land in Hardeman county on the south side of a WMA. The property is private and the 600 acres to the south is private but, hunted by others that lease. As far as QDMA the land owner did not know what the last leasee did. She did not have a clue as to what was killed on the property.

I ran into the guys that lease the property to the south and they said they pass on younger deer. Not a real friendly bunch. I think they probably were hunting on my lease side too but now are a little pissed because someone is there.

I will be out there constantly this year to see who else thinks they can be on the property. I have it posted and a pretty good lay of the land right now.

I leased it in early Oct and so far have 100s of pic of does and only two small bucks. It has plenty of cover, a spring that runs down both sides meeting in the south central area of the property and 10 million white oaks that are covering the ground with acorns.

No work has ever been done as far as food plots or minerals.I am planning to get some work done and food plots in after the season but am just going to hunt it for now.

Not sure exactly the route I am going to take with the QDMA.

What are your thoughts? Do I have a prayer in hunting mature deer on 250 acres next to a WMA and other hunters or is it going to be a lost cause?

Right now only my brother and I are leasing it. We may open it to two more folks next year just to help in the cost. Four guys on 250 should be ok. It is defianly a project I am looking forward to.

 

[Bayou Buck]

We own 351 acres, lease the 565 acres adjoining us, and have 200 acres to our north that is owned by people in Florida who never come see the place. All together thats about 1100 acres in my control. Only downfall is 1600 acres of public hunting ground that surrounds me.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

488 acres. One neighbor along my northern border doesn't shoot yearlings (or small-antlered older bucks), and another neighbor in my southwest corner holds out for 3 1/2+ bucks. But about 65% of my property line is adjacent to "brown it's down" hunters. The interesting thing is, these brown-down hunters virtually never kill any of the older bucks I know are crossing onto their properties. Just one more example of why success killing older bucks is just as much mind-set as hunting skill.

It is amazing what you can see when don't shoot the first deer you see. Sounds like your neighbors haven't figured this out!

 

[BSK]

488 acres. One neighbor along my northern border doesn't shoot yearlings (or small-antlered older bucks), and another neighbor in my southwest corner holds out for 3 1/2+ bucks. But about 65% of my property line is adjacent to "brown it's down" hunters. The interesting thing is, these brown-down hunters virtually never kill any of the older bucks I know are crossing onto their properties. Just one more example of why success killing older bucks is just as much mind-set as hunting skill.

It is amazing what you can see when don't shoot the first deer you see. Sounds like your neighbors haven't figured this out!

One of my neighbors, in his 60s and has hunted deer since deer could be hunted, actually told me he was going to give up hunting his land. As he put it, "There aint nothin' out here but fork-horns." Of course I didn't show him the pictures of the 5 1/2 year-old monsters crossing back and forth across our common property line!

 

[Truedouble]

488 acres. One neighbor along my northern border doesn't shoot yearlings (or small-antlered older bucks), and another neighbor in my southwest corner holds out for 3 1/2+ bucks. But about 65% of my property line is adjacent to "brown it's down" hunters. The interesting thing is, these brown-down hunters virtually never kill any of the older bucks I know are crossing onto their properties. Just one more example of why success killing older bucks is just as much mind-set as hunting skill.

It is amazing what you can see when don't shoot the first deer you see. Sounds like your neighbors haven't figured this out!

One of my neighbors, in his 60s and has hunted deer since deer could be hunted, actually told me he was going to give up hunting his land. As he put it, "There aint nothin' out here but fork-horns." Of course I didn't show him the pictures of the 5 1/2 year-old monsters crossing back and forth across our common property line!

Amazing! there is a 120 acre tract located inside the western part of our property and another neighbor's property. Us and our neighbor, as well as 4-5 other properties manage the land and are selective in what we shoot. We also put out cameras and know that a 130" deer is somewhat common of those that make it to 3 or 4 and that a 150-160 isn't unheard of by any means. Funny thing is the family that owns the 120 in the middle of all of this well managed land has no idea the caliber of bucks that are on their property on any given day. They killed a 100" 8 point last year and from the way it sounded it was the biggest buck they had ever seen or killed. I was happy for the guy that killed it although it would have been great if he had let it walk. Point is these guys hunt right next to us and 3 sides of their property borders us and they honestly have no idea that there are a lot of bucks much bigger than what they shot.

Just another example of how QDM/ awareness and game cameras have opened the eyes of a lot of hunters.

 

[BSK]

Just another example of how QDM/ awareness and game cameras have opened the eyes of a lot of hunters.

Back before trail-cameras hit the general market, I would have clients swear there was nothing larger than a 2 1/2 year-old 80-class buck on their property. They would want to bet me large sums of money I couldn't photograph anything older/larger. Then I would bring them the trail-camera pictures of 3 1/2 and a few 4 1/2 year-old bucks from their place. Their jaws would drop. A couple of times they didn't believe the pictures had been taken on their property and I had to actually take them to the camera site to prove it.

 

[Wompuscat]

Cameras have made it more exciting for that reason!

 

[Boll Weevil]

620.

I've got big landowners to the north and east with common management goals, and a couple of smaller landowners to the south but they seem to be generally respectful of property boundaries. The bottom ground is all in row crops while the high ground is about 60% big hardwoods and 40% 7-year old planted pines.