Follow the steps below to manage small hunting properties for big whitetails.
Have you always dreamed of consistently shooting giant bucks on your small tract of hunting land? While you can’t technically “hoard” deer, you can increase property carrying capacity. This in turn can boost the number of deer that live in a given area, even pulling in more mature bucks. Here’s much of what you should consider.
Small properties pose big challenges for those who hope to hold more deer and mature bucks, but it is doable.
Understand Whitetail Needs Deer have specific needs for comfort and survival. These include food, water, bedding, and security. Fulfill these and you’re well on your way to attracting deer to frequent your hunting property.
Set Management Goals Know what you want to accomplish. It’s much more difficult to make effective change if you don’t have a plan. Sit down and make plans. Always have an annual one-year plan. This is for achieving short-term goals. It’s also good to have five-year, 10-year, and 15-year plans. These focus on long-term objectives.
Develop Relationships with Neighbors Everyone should get along with their neighbors. But for the sake of land management, it’s even more important for hunters who manage small tracts of land to be on the same page as others who manage grounds around them. If you have similar goals, everyone will be better off.
Remove Non-Valuable Vegetation One way to do this is to reset the habitat clock in areas that aren’t benefitting deer and other wildlife. Remove vegetation (big and small) that doesn’t serve a purpose. An example of this is to remove, or at least thin, young pines. These do nothing for wildlife. Replace these with something of more value.
Use Wasted Space Small properties must be managed more efficiently than larger ones. You need every acre to serve a purpose. Therefore, it’s crucial to find these oddball spots that aren’t being used and turn them into a place to bed, eat, or drink.
Create Bedding Areas (and Bedding Area Variations) Deer will bed down in a lot of places, including benches, brush piles, blow-downs, cedar thickets, cutover timber, drainages, edge cover, flats, hubs, isolated cover, leeward ridges, marsh islands, native grasses, oxbows, ridge points, small woodlots, standing crops, swamp interiors, and other attractive locations.
In addition to creating good bedding areas, it’s also important to offer separate bedding areas. Mature bucks don’t like to share bedrooms. Have several good bedding areas can boost the number of mature deer that live on your small property.
Another important factor is offering different types of bedding for different times of year. Whitetails prefer different types of bedding, depending on the temperature, weather, season, hunting pressure, and more. For example, deer bed down in cooler areas during warmer weather, such as north-facing slopes and near water. In contrast, they bed along places that receive more sunlight during colder weather, such as south-facing slopes. That said, if the property is very small, and there isn’t much room for bedding cover, offer the types they need during the times you plan to hunt them.
Deer need early successional cover to bed in. Offering that is a significant part of any land management plan.
For those who plan to offer better bedding cover, it’s important to do it the right way. Here are several methods:
• Create brush pile buck beds in strategic locations • Use prescribed fire on a three- to five-year rotation • Selectively harvest high-value timber • Hinge-cut low-value trees for pockets of bedding • Plant swathes of native grasses • Plant screening cover around beds
In some cases, you might even be able to enroll in a government program, such as CRP, to offer good habitat and gain some revenue, too.
Offer Ample Food Sources Food is equally important. You must assess what the land already offers to deer. Take inventory of the browse, crops, hard mast, soft mast, and other food sources on the property. Then, offer them something they don’t already have. On small properties, it’s also important to offer high-octane foods loaded with nutrients. You don’t have as much ground to work with, so be efficient with what you have.
It can be difficult to offer large amounts of nutritious food on a small tract, but a good plan will provide some food all year long.
Put in Strategic Watering Holes Oftentimes, small properties lack water, too. At least, it isn’t where it needs to be. Where this is the case, put in strategic watering holes. These can be small holes with inserted water troughs. Or bring in equipment and dig out a small pond. Regardless, place these close to each bedding area along the line of travel deer will use to go to food sources.
Find or Create Great Entry and Exit Routes You can’t tag deer that you spook on the way to the treestand. And smaller tracts are generally more limiting in how you can approach treestand and blind locations. So, plan entry and exit route perimeters. Line these with screens that shield your approach. Egyptian wheat is a great annual option. Giant miscanthus is a solid long-term solution.
Create Kill Sites Small properties must be even more efficient than larger ones. This makes it incredibly important to set up kill sites along funnels, pinch points, and micro plots. Place treestands and ground blinds in areas you know will produce.
Establish Sanctuaries Every property needs at least one sanctuary. It might be a few acres. It might be dozens of acres. No matter where your property’s sanctuary falls on that scale, it should never see human intrusion. The only exceptions include if a wounded deer enters it, and to do an annual scouting and shed hunting mission.
Manage Predators Another way to make your land more attractive to deer is to manage predators. Spend time trapping bobcats and coyotes. Removing an appropriate number of these will make whitetails feel more comfortable living on your land.
Hunt Smarter, Less Often Hunters with larger tracts of land have the luxury of bouncing around to different areas. Smaller lands don’t allow for that. Therefore, it’s very important to hunt smarter, which oftentimes means less often, especially if entry and exit routes aren’t 100%.
The author poses with a great buck on a property of just 50 acres.
Study Relevant Data Most small-acreage management takes place over time. If hunters want to see their efforts paying off, record relevant data. Study how average body weights of harvested deer change over time. If these increase, your efforts are paying off. Also, study trail camera intel. If you’re seeing an increased number (or quality) of bucks each year, your land is matching up with what they need. And that’s what land management is all about.
Article by: Josh HoneycuttPhotos by: Honeycutt Creative
