Ideal maximum number of hunters on 31 acres?

F

FrontSight

New member
My dad & uncle have 31 acres they bought together in NY...how many (a) bow season and (b) rifle season hunters would you guys say is the ideal max for that? It's mostly hardwoods, a little hilly but mostly flat, and about 2 acres is open grass. I've never had to think about that before...

Thanks!
 
31 acres is not enough to be turning a lot of folks loose with guns. 1 hunter at a time, 2 or 3 if they are in deer stands with shotguns.

Bows??? Your choice, but it's not a lot of ground. I would say no more than 2 or 3 bowhunters. Remember, broadheads don't know the difference between deer and people.
 
Well, we usually use treestands, or hunt from one spot on the ground (no still hunting). You guys are really lucky to be able to have one hunter per 30 acres. Like I said, where we bowhunt from treestands: it's 3 of us to 1.2 acres.
 
When bowhunting from a treestand i would suggest that you could take as many guys as you like. Shots are down and arrows shot at a deer on the ground arent going to hit buddy in the tree across the clearing.

Rifle hunting though is going to take coordination, wear orange so you dont get shot. Make sure everyone knows their area and shooting lanes. My best suggestion would be to sit and wait beside the clearing and absolute maximum three guys.
 
That ain't much land really

I agree, if you're asking what's *optimal*, either 1 hunter or maybe 2 to cover a particular hotspot in there. The fewer the better in terms of leaving scent around and making noise througout the day.

If you're talking about what's SAFE, then you could put up to 10 or so bowhunters, and between 3 and 7 rifle hunters, I'd imagine, depending on what direction they're facing (towards interior or out towards other lands, if safe), and how many trees/foliage, and how hilly and location of slopes.
 
Jseime & FF - thanks, that's pretty much what I was thinking too, with safety in mind, that is.

For coverage: Do you guys really think that 1 person can cover 30 acres and harvest deer better than 5 or 6? Was thinking 5 or 6 would provide better coverage & more chances of getting deer, but if you think it woud saturate the place with scent & noise & spook them out then of course that's worse...
 
Difficult to find one answer that fits all terrains.

I've got 320 acres with a mixture of crop, pasture, and timber. Two chunks of timber makes up about 20 acres. On each of these ten acre wooded parcels we can put 3-4 hunters and no one is in view of anyone else. Does it affect our success rate?....no, depending on how picky people are, but we can fill all tags in a couple of hours. What works in our situation may not work for someone else.
 
1 gun hunter, or 2 bow hunters is what I would call maximum. 31 acres isn't that big a plot, and ducking lead is not one of my favorite pastimes. I have 260 family owned farm land to hunt, and we set a limit of 4 hunters at a time just so we can keep track of who is where. Mostly we set up ambush points where the deer go through, and wait for the right one. Some years it's a long wait, believe me. Enjoy. CB.
 
one rifle, two bowhunter...I'd shoot an SXT/ballistic tip type bullet on that small a property...You don't want that thing wizzing around where you can't see it. If you hit a limb, it will start to desintegrate instead of ricochet.
 
One rifle is enough.

I'm alone with a rifle on 64 acres but there are two of us when I hunt a buddies 120 acres.

PS: That's with both lots surrounded by hundreds of more acres.
 
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Depending on the number of deer and the hunting pressure on adjacent property, I'd say one or two hunters is about right unless you are sitting near the property lines. Probably three in bow season if there are a good number of deer in the area or they come on your property to feed.

I often hunt 400 acres by my lonesome. I feel a bit lonely at times.
 
I hunt 40 acres with access to 40 more bordering it. The whole 80 is bordered by 1000 acres or more. There's usually only 2-4 of us on the whole 80 acres. It's mostly woodland with hills and gullies, a few fields from 2-10acres and a couple of small ponds. We're usually at least 1/4 mile apart and know pretty much where each other is.
 
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