How Much Land to Build a Deer Camp

[1-UP]

One thing I've always regretted is the lack of any substantial "Land" in my family. As such, I've been putting some serious thought into biting the bullet and buying a tract with the intention of my family and the rugrat's future amilies having a place to camp and, if anybody catches the bug, hunt. I'd like to put a cabin on it - nothing too fancy, but maybe drill a well and possibly electrical at some point, even if it's only a generator.'

Anyway, what are your thoughts regarding how much will function well for hunting/camping? And please no "as much as you can afford" type answers, as that's really not useful for planning. Right now it's looking like I can get 40 acres or so at a reasonable price/location (i.e not having to drive 6 hours to get to it). 60 acres maybe if I sacrifice distance/desirability. 100+ if I plan a 10 hour drive and dickall for civilization.

Also, what are your thoughts on property butting up against state land? I'm hearing that being next to that kind of property is good for game but it seems like most of them have easements against development and I'd be worried about people straying onto the land (well, actually, I'm not sure if it's something to be worried about or not as the land will only be used a few weeks and weekends out of the year most likely, but it's on my mind.)

Of, to phrase it another way, what would YOU look for if you were in the market for hunting property? Let's use an arbitrary $50,000 budget for realism.

 

[Wild Bill Bucks]

Most of the time, the worst land for cattle ranching, is the best land for deer hunting. Cattle Ranchers really don't like a lot of trees and mountain type terrain. It doesn't grow grass well, and is tough to round up your cattle in the spring for their shots, cutting, ect.
Here in Southeastern Oklahoma, there is a lot of that kind of land around. The price will range between $500.00 per acre to as much as $2500.00 per acre. The biggest problem is that most people who are selling this land, want you to buy large amounts ( 500 to 1000 acres). If you look hard enough you can find smaller acreage, but the price will go up considerable.
About 5 years ago I wanted to find a small parcel of land, and wanted to spend about $30,000.00. All I could find were places that had acreage of 500 acres or more, and I simply could not afford it. After a while I finally found a place I could get 20 acres from, but wound up having to give $2300.00 per acre.
The larger plots of land I found could have been bought for $750.00 per acre but I couldn't afford to buy that much.

All that being said, in answer to your question, I would figure on about 20 acres per hunter, as long as no one does much stalking. I pull in a lot of deer every year with my feeders on my 20 acres, but they will leave quickly if there is a lot of activity. I only use this acreage for bow hunting, and use another larger lease for rifle and powder season, and it works out well.

There really is no perfect land to hunter ratio, or a perfect size, or location. It mostly has to do with how much effort you intend to put into the land once it is purchased. If there are deer readily available, they can be drawn to feeders almost over night, and if you want them to stay in the area, just keep the feeders full. This only becomes a problem if you have to drive very far to fill them, but other means such as food plots, salt plots, and the such, are a little easier to use, and tend to last a little longer and are a lot less trouble than feeders. A couple of trips per year to the property will generally keep those kinds of things in pretty good shape. Feeders (50 gallon type) will take about 4 or 5 trips to the property, even on the lowest feed settings.

 

[daisey53]

I have a small tract of land next to the 170,000 Sam Houston National Forest here in the Piney Woods of S.E. Texas and we love being so near all the acreage for us to play in. We are lucky that the closest forest road is 7 miles away so we never see another human being while trapsing through the woods on our side of the private road. We have done just as you are trying to do and built a small 2 room cabin, storage barn and water well. It's a small, self contained weekend place and we decided a long time ago to not have a telephone or TV on the place. Our two weekend neighbors across the road are friendly and we all know where each others deer blinds and sleeping quarters are located so no one shoots in the wrong direction. Luckily we did all this in the early 1990's when the land was cheaper. The same amount of money put into the stock market may eventually make you more profit but the land will give you a lot more pleasure in the long run. If I had to do it all over again I would. In fact I have...twice!!!

PS- Be proactive, locate the area where the terraine is what you prefer, then go to every real estate agent to introduce yourself and let them know exactly what you are looking for in land. Then call them every month or so to show them you are really interested and serious....they will remember you. We also built a cabin about 400 feet above the valley floor in the Texas Hill Country near Utopia, Texas and only found the land because we were persistant and friendly with the local real estate folks. As it turns out one of them heard of a local fellow who had not paid his school taxes for 5 years and needed to sell a portion of his land to pay for them. It was a win/win deal for all of us. Below is a picture of the plateau looking down to the valley floor in Utopia, Texas, this is where the other cabin sits now. Drilling for water was impractical at this height so I did some investigating and we now have a rain water collection system and and two 1100 gallon tanks for storage....

 

[Bitmap]

The problem with 40 acres is that it isn't as big as you may think for hunting.

If it borders state or federal land that you can hunt on then you are probably set. If not, then you have to worry about your bullets leaving your property. Depending on the layout and terrain 40 acres should be plenty for a shooting range where you know you have a safe backstop but you don't always have that when hunting.

With smaller acreage you also have to worry about wounded game leaving the property. If you get along well with your neighbors then retrieving wounded game may not be a big issue. If your land borders a state park where hunting is prohibited or if the neighbors don't want you on their land for whatever reason then it is a big issue.

Another thing about small acreage for hunting is that it will probably limit you to one stand or blind for deer hunting. You have more options if you are bow hunting instead of gun hunting.

You certainly can hunt whitetails and mule deer on 40 acres but the hunting may be limited. Small game hunting and dove hunting can be great on 40 acres.

Among the options you listed I would probably go with the 60 acres and sacrifice some distance. I'd probably sacrifice the wide screen tv and cut back on the cable tv package, cell phone use and the internet connection at home to help out. 10+ hours to get to your land is a pain.

Best bet is to start looking at smaller places closer to you and at the bigger places farther away. Everyone can give you advice on how to pick your first house but you didn't really know what to buy until you started looking, right? Buying land will be the same.

 

[HOGGHEAD]

Land

IMO the property you buy is important. But the property and the neighbors you have is just as important, if not more important. And it also depends on if you are just wanting to hunt, or are you trying to improve the deer herd(quality wise).

I have one 55 acre tract that is in the middle of several farms. It is the best hunting in the area because of the terrain and surrounding farms. I have another 300 acres that is good on our ground, but we have so many neighbors that will shoot anything they see. For them if "Its brown its down". It is hard to control a deer herd like that.

If I were you, and I had the time, this is what I would do. By the way I also do this alot.

First determine how far you are willing to drive for a one or two day trip or hunt. After you have done this you should fill your gas tank and take a trip. Look for large farms(large for the area). Then look for small wood lots or swampy areas with small woodlots next to it. Then just start knocking on doors, and ask if they want to sell. You will get a whole bunch of NO'S. But you are only looking for one YES.

Some people use realtors, but I don't. Once a realtor has access to the property the price goes up. You will buy more land, and better land for less if you do the leg work yourself. It just depends on if you have the time.

To answer your question. 40 acres is plenty if you have the right kind of neighbors. It is not nearly enough if you have the wrong neighbors or the wrong "lay of the land". Tom.

 

[Art Eatman]

To be extreme: If only ONE acre happens to be on a travel path between a bedding area and a food/water area, it's gonna provide a lot of opportunity to kill several deer. If a LARGE tract doesn't have travel paths, bedding areas or food/water, the hunting will be poor.

If you're going to buy a house, you look through it for the features you want and need. You explore the house, right? Okay, if you're wanting land on which to hunt, first you must look through it for trails, bedding areas, food/water. You search in order to determine if it's actually "deer country". You also try to learn about how the overall area is used by both locals and transients, insofar as "traipsing through". In some parts of the country, laws and customs have casual trespass as part of the local culture. "When in Rome..." A person with an attitude of "Keep Out! Private Property!" can wind up crosswise with the locals in a heartbeat.

You can create "deer country". In a low rainfall area, water supply augmentation. Food plots. And, you can use a year-around feeder to attract critters.

A cabin soon becomes part of a deer's landscape. It's the infrequent human use and associated noise and racket that spook deer. Odds are that in daytime, the area within one to two hundred yards of the camp will be a dead zone, if in wooded country.

Drifting: It's funny what whitetail get used to. I put a pan under the drip of a window A/C's condensation line. At night, I could hear the click-click of hooves as deer would sneak up for a drink. During the day, quail came in.

That area all around Utopia is good country. It's a shame about all the Oak Decline fungus between there and Bandera, though.

 

[BoilerUP]

My parents have 105 acres right on the Washington/Anderson County, KY line. About 30 of that is open river bottom, the rest is wooded in a mix of hardwoods and cedar.

Any given Saturday during modern gun season, there are 3-5 hunters in the woods. Terrain and the lay of their land is such that up to 6 folks can be in their "normal stands" and be at zero risk from another's shot.

The downside to that many people on a very irregular shaped parcel is a couple of our guys hunt near property lines, where hunters on other land occasionally like to hunt. Another concern is shot deer crossing onto somebody else's property. Thankfully we are on great terms with both adjoining landowners and neither has been a safety or "territory" issue.

 

[daisey53]

"Art Eatman", There is a ranch below our property that has spent tens of thousands of dollars trenching 15 feet deep around infected Live Oaks trying to keep the infection from transferring to other Live Oaks through root comingling. They have also injected fungicides into the infected oaks with moderate success. In the long run it looks pretty bleak as there are infected trees in areas that are hard to get to and controlling the beetle that passes the infection on would be almost impossible to control. A lot of locals are more worried about the infection getting into the native Texas Red Oak population which provides cover for the wildlife on the hill sides, acorns for food and great Fall color when the leaves turn yellow, red and orange. The deer population near Utopia is rediculously high not only from the White Tail but the exotics that have escaped from some ranches years ago and have over run the area. Last Winter we saw a flock of 250-300 Angora goats in a pasture and there were 40-50 deer grazing right in the middle of the herd. Some folks even weld "brush gaurds" on their cars because so many deer get hit on the highways. Bambi is out of hand in parts of the Texas Hill Country!

 

[bclark1]

My two cents - the only private land I hunted on was 25 acres. Always had the chance to shoot as many deer as I wanted, although shooter bucks weren't exactly flooding the place because there was massive pressure in the area and people would run around shooting forks all season. All real estate is location, location, location - if the deer aren't there, you're boned - but if they are, you don't need a huge estate. Now granted, when I was on that land, I was glad I didn't have hunting partners. If we'd had to run 2-3 stands at once, instead of one, the deer probably would have been pressured off the land. I'd usually set up 4 or 5 in draws and over a field, so I had more than one option for whatever way the wind was blowing that day, and then rotate them mornings and afternoons for the 2-5 days I'd set aside for hunting. I think if you're talking about a wife or kids, who you'd be co-located with while hunting, that's no big deal. But if you want to bring "the guys" out and work different areas for several days, you might want to go bigger. Best of luck - for those of us that appreciate the outdoors, it sounds like you're well on your way to "living the dream."

 

[Art Eatman]

Going back to the OP: If I was going to commit to some $50,000 for a chunk of dirt, I'd wait until at least the middle of next year, and possibly even longer. This present recession is worsening, and the inflated prices of small tracts of land are beginning to drop some. In south Georgia/north Florida, tracts of five to twenty acres were actually selling at some $5,000 an acre--but buying has about stopped. The next phase will be some drop in price.

daisey53, I have some close friends who live toward the back of that Hondo Creek "estates" deal--where you drive across the one-lane dam to cross the creek? Anyhow, driving from there to Bandera, there is the Live Oak Ranch--which several years back was seriously losing its name.

Ever seen the dinosaur tracks, in Hondo Creek below Tarpley?

 

[shortwave]

Hogghead stated a very important thing. The neighbor problem. I know I have it. Never seen a group of people so uncaring about wildlife and property. Poaching,trash,no septic its crazy. If you find a piece of property you like check out surrounding areas thoroughly.

 

[Hayduke]

Just for reference 40 acres is 1/4 mile squared.

 

[guntotin_fool]

first off, find a good realtor who works the hunting sports lands...... Thats what we did and our story is already in here....


BUT I just was up at a buddies new lot, all of 3 acres, which backs into some 35,000 acres of paper company land which is open for hunting unless leased out. so far there is no leases in his area, so he should be good for a while. I helped him make a sound box for a generator and ran some Number 6 underground to his trailer so he will have good hook ups for power... He found the lot thru a realtor who listened to what he wanted and did not push until he found what my friend wanted. This is about an hour west of Duluth, and an easy 2 hour + drive from his house.

He paid 9 grand for the lot, which was split off a larger lot. He is at the county minimum for lot size and no one can break up the adjoining lot any smaller.

An alternative is leasing paper company land.... this can be great hunting and fairly affordable. I know of 157 acres rented for 1500 a year. you can do anything but cut living timber. dead falls, small plantings, etc are all ok, but every 40 years, they are going to come thru and cut it down.

Check potlach, and other paper companies.