Hunters per Acre

[ShooterToo]

 I have a small lease, 1700 acres, in the Coastal Mississippi area.  It is in the Pascagoula River Basin and is VERY thick.  I don't know of a single place I could shoot more than 70 yards unless I was shooting across the river or across a lake.  How many hunters per acre is normal or acceptable in the Southeast US?

[Graybeard]

It's NOT hunters per acre but acres per hunter. If you have more hunters than acres it's just plain dangerous and is not gonna be productive hunting either.

Personally I think 40 acres per hunter in the woods is a reasonable minimum for safety. If the deer population is fairly high that will also allow a good hunting experience but does pretty much make it mandatory that folks stay put and not roam around much again for safety reasons.

If you have a lot of hunters stalking around rather than sitting on stand I'd not want more than perhaps ten hunters on a tract that size.

[dks7895]

I completely agree with Graybeard. 
 
I've been hunting the family property (200 acres) for a long time.  We always use the 40 acre rule... no more than 5 hunters at a time.  Everyone has their stands and a specific safe route.  If you wanted to stalk, you had your 40 acres.  It's more about safety in my opinion. 
 
Now you really can't use the same rule on a place as big as yours...  1700 / 40 = 42.5   
 
That's a lot of hunters to manage.  You have to figure out what works best and safest for you.

[PowPow]

Our lease in Alabama with Westervelt Land Management defines a limit of 1 hunter per 100 acres.
The club I was in previously worked out to about that.
 
my opinions:
 
40 acres per family member, or other group who has to get along subject to the rules of a patriarch or other single point of decision making, would work out, becasue you don;t have any other choice.
 
If the club is a made up of equal equity members (like a lease), you may need to spread out more and have fewer members (100 acres per hunter).

[Land_Owner]

Google Earth for their satellite images and dirt time on site spent ground truthing for tree stand and blind locations will certainly aid your research for an appropriate number.  You can use 1:100 or 1:40 and depending on stand placement, still put hunters in harms way of one another using modern rifles. 

[mechanic]

It all depends on the hunters.  There are a few I've met that make me nervous just being in the same county......
 
Ben