40-acre woods

[IOWA DON]

My son is looking at making an offer on some land in Iowa. It would be a 50-acre piece composed of about 10 acres of farmland along a road where one could build a house and 40 acres of woods sort of over the hill.  It's close to where he lives versus making a 75-mile trip to hunt on lands away from population centers where he has permission.  The woods are more or less surrounded by farm land and I think there are a lot of deer and turkeys in the general area. There are some other woods in the same general ares. He figures it would be a place where he, his teenage son, a couple nephews and I could hunt. How much hunting pressure can a 40 acre woods stand? My experience growing up on a farm without any good cover for game was that if I hadn't walked around our and a couple adjoining neighbors land for a couple weeks I would likely see something to shoot at, but if I went out a couple morning in a row the few animals there pretty much disappeared. Anyway, I wonder if 40 acres is only good for one deer per year and if squirrel hunting ahead of deer season would scare the deer out and ruin it for deer hunting. Any opinions?

[dukkillr]

I live in Kansas so it's not quite the same, although I've hunted real open ag ground in South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Kansas and more mixed Ag like you find in Eastern Kansas and Northern Missouri.  It really makes a big difference.  Look at an aerial or the area and try to figure out what area will hold deer and what area will feed deer within a 2 mile radius of his place.  Then figure out how the deer will get from bedding to feeding and back.  Then figure out how your 40 acres plays into this.  If your 40 acres sits as a narrow creek bottom between a section of rough CRP and a section of corn you'll be able to kill a lot of deer each year because the deer will be passing through.  You won't necessarily be shooting, "your" deer.  If, on the other hand, you're 40 acres surrounded on all sides by featureless wheatfields with no big timber for miles in any direction, you'll only be hunting the deer that are already there.  You'll only be hunting, "your" deer.  If that's the case, probably only one or two mature bucks a year is possible, and maybe none.  It will also depend heavily on the neighbors and poaching pressure.  40 acres isn't a lot. 
 
I grew up on 7 acres and it laid just perfectly so that a small foodplot in one corner brought in deer every morning and evening as they traded between a creek bottom and ag fields.  We could take 2-3 great bucks a year off that 1/2 acre without changing the population, just because of the way the neighboring properties sit.  We were never hunting, "our" deer.  In fact, we never held any deer at all.
 
Now I live on 45 acres of creek bottom surrounded by grass and heavy timber.  There's nothing in the surrounding terrain that causes or focuses deer movement so whatever deer are there Sept 1st are the same ones I'll be hunting on opening day.  The rut scrambles things a bit, but even still it's just that "my" does are bringing in cruising bucks from neighboring places.  If I push those does too hard in October I'll have no bucks to hunt during the rut.  I'm also real careful about anything that would disturb "my" deer from about October 1st - December.  I quit driving the atv trails and I don't fire a gun in the woods for any reason.  Every bit of human pressure hurts.  I mostly just stay out of those woods and hunt other places until the rut.  As my various habitat projects mature this may change some.  In short, I sure wouldn't do a lot of squirrel hunting, particularly in October, if you're hunting a relatively resident group of deer.  I probably would error on the side of caution and stay out of there all together until you're ready to deer hunt.
 
If you can cut and paste an aerial photo from Google Earth I might be able to give you a better idea of what to expect.  When people buy a deer hunting property they often overlook the two most important things:  What the neighbors ground looks like, and who the neighbors are.  Both will ultimately effect your success much more than anything you could ever do, particularly on such a small piece. 
 
Good luck.  And be forewarned, managing your own deer ground is a black hole of time and money. 

[IOWA DON]

dukkillr - Thanks for all the good info. Sounds like a good look at an areal map is needed. I will pass this info to my son. Thanks again. - DON

[keith44]

In addition to the great advice from dukkillr, the key is to control the hunting pressure.  Four people spread over 30 or 40 acres creates alot less pressure than those same 4 hunting a 5 acre food plot, and there is also the pressure from trespassers (aka poachers) that show up while you are trying to rest the ground.  Most likely 40 will be plenty to take 3 or 4 deer annually.

As for squirrel hunting, a good hunt every two weeks, that gives the woods a rest of two or three weeks before you deer hunt has worked for me, on my grandfathers place.

[Land_Owner]

duk,

I have been a QDMA Member for 15 years, read their Journal end to end, own a small parcel that I plant and manage for wildlife, and hunt deer  - one of my Life's passions - in multiple states.  I have never read a more succinct and adequate description of pre-purchase Ag-land considerations for the deer hunter than your post.  Well done Sir.  Well done indeed.

Don,

I am the beneficiary of 10's of thousands of acres of adjacent pristine riverine flood plain with its pine/palmetto/palm/oak hammock uplands surrounding my 20-acres that I refer to as the Great Wildlife Pump.  There is no adjacent Ag land.  I am the only parcel that plants anything in a 5- or more mile radius.  What is available is the seemingly endless forest that is the meandering St Johns River flood plain and its abundance of wildlife. 

I hunt this 20-acres mercilessly.  There may be 4 of us there at once from time to time, but typically only myself and my 74 y.o. hunting partner watching the south and west perimeters every weekend from September through March.  We have come to the realization that practically nothing related to hunting pressure, planting activity, gun range time with family and friends there, practically nothing deters the hogs that frequent this land. 

I'm a passionate deer hunter at heart, who would rather hunt deer than eat, but with tremendous shooting opportunities for hogs, brought to us by the Spanish Conquistadors while searching for the Fountain of Youth, which by the way remains undiscovered!  I don't kill a lot of deer.  Probably a result of human pressure but most assuredly a result of hog pressure.  I kill a lot of hogs because they are there!

I occasionally lament not living where deer are immeasurably more abundant, big bodied, and large racked; places where you can see deer, a whole lot of deer, and CHOOSE to NOT SHOOT bucks of sizes that would make me wide eyed and excited every time.  I envy those of you that do.  However, I have the unparalleled opportunity to hunt hogs 24/7/365, even at night with a light, which takes the "sting" out of being a deer hunter with few opportunities (by choice) in my home range.  I could hunt Public Land...NOT!

I received an annual invitation (18 straight years) to hunt 324 acres in South Carolina specifically for deer, which gives me peace.  I have a few Florida deer mounts on my wall, which were taken off of this 20-acre parcel.  Nothing has been more satisfying.  That is a benefit of passionate deer hunting and property ownership.

Good luck on your property search!

[Rock Home Isle]

This is an awesome Thread....very Cool. 
 
I've been looking at land in a few different states for a little over a year now and I've found a piece of ground that I want to go and look at again. On Monday I'm taking my dad, my step mom and my wife to Kansas to look at that piece of land as both an investment and a hunting property of my own. This thread has been so informative.
 
Very Cool.

[keith44]

Just a quick after thought, make certain that the property deed transfers ALL timber and water rights, a bonus would be mineral rights.  Without ownership of the trees, you would not be able to do much.