# wondering



## coup (Feb 28, 2007)

i have about 50 acres and my son and i don't shoot does,spikes 4pts,,,if want a doe we have a couple of places to do that several miles away.....i know some poachers that are bound to sneak in because i work 6 days a week and my son lives 2 hours away....sometimes i wonder if i shouldn;t just shoot the legal ones i want and then quit.. it seems like you can't keep them out(poachers) they draw disabilty and have time to wait you out............


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## Chief Cook (Apr 24, 2011)

Coup, sorry to hear you are having to deal with this. We do the same thing as you, we hunt somewhere else and leave the deer around our place to make more deer. Some years people circle our place like a pack. Makes us wonder the same thing, shoot or don't shoot. Keep doing what makes you happy and hope for the best. Your right, you can't keep a poacher out if they want in. But you don't have to make it easy for them either. If I am around and see "hunters" hanging around I go out and stir up the deer. They head for the deepest, thickest cedars! Takes hours and hours for them to come back out, and by then the you know whats are gone. Good luck and happy hunting.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

You won't hurt your local population by shooting a few.

In the last 10 years here, my wife and I have killed about 70 deer and haven't gone more than about 3/4 of a mile from the house

There are still deer walking through fields within sight of the house


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, you cannot manage a deer herd on that small of a tract unless you go with a high fence (deer pen). You may have a doe that spends all her time on your 50 acres, but any 2 1/2 year old or older buck is going to jump the fence chasing those cute does down the road. My advice would be to go ahead and take a deer or three as the opportunity presents itself.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

OkieDavid said:


> I hate to be the bearer of bad news, you cannot manage a deer herd on that small of a tract unless you go with a high fence (deer pen). You may have a doe that spends all her time on your 50 acres, but any 2 1/2 year old or older buck is going to jump the fence chasing those cute does down the road. My advice would be to go ahead and take a deer or three as the opportunity presents itself.


Got to agree too small an area.Take all the Deer you want off it.You might consider putting in couple Food Plots.

big rockpile


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Yep it's hard to manage such small acreage so long as your neighbors don't pich in and help out also. You'll end up doing like me, just pass them up for someone else to shoot and then the hunting doesn't get any better. That's what I've been doing for the last few years and I'm giving up. Next year I'm out to fill my freezer as fast as I can.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

OkieDavid says fence and that's the only way that you can become the sole manager of the deer. Even when on your property, they do not belong to you. And, deer habitat usually isn't figured in acres but in square miles. Depending upon the available forage, a square mile may support only one deer or twenty.

Martin


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

I'd say - just hunt your own land and be done with it. As others have posted 50 acres just ain't enough to control the deer. As with my property I just consider any wild animal as just passing through trying to get somewhere else.....
Example: During an early snowfall this year, the SIL shot at a good sized buck while bow hunting on the property. Well, he missed but was determined to get another shot at that buck, so he tracked that deer across my +50 acres, my neighbor's +65 acres and the lost the track in another neighbor's sheep pasture. 
The SIL got a doe the next day.........


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## Izitmidnight (Oct 22, 2011)

Any deer on my parents farm is safe. Any two legged critter is liable to lose a leg or an arm... (not really) but the two german shepherds do not allow strangers on the land.


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## CCCC (Nov 21, 2011)

Is this 50 acres used only for hunting? What is there to attract deer and protect them?

I would agree that it is going to be tough to keep any amount of deer in 50acres, but if you are trying to keep some around you could make it more attractive to the deer. Add specific trees, food plots, a small sanctuary of some sort if that is your goal.

I hunt where I can find deer the easiest and get meat in the freezer and have a couple of areas that I just enjoy hunting, because they have been in my family awhile and one I purchased myself. I always enjoying taking a deer off of that ground, because that is what my family has done for years with it besides farm it. I also enjoy not having to start up a vehicle to walk to a deer stand from my front porch as this is not something everyone has the opportunity to do.

As for road poachers/trespassers-These people really make my blood boil and as suggested I would make it as tough for them to get in as possible and make them think twice. Trees on the edges of your property if it permits as well as no tresspassing signs or even signs that might say video surveillance even if there isn't. Unfortunatley if they want in bad enough they will go in and you can't stop them if you aren't there to catch them. I feel for you on this one.


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## Chuck R. (Apr 24, 2008)

Coup,

Iâm in a similar situation, Iâve got 80 acres, and access to an adjacent 70 that isnât hunted. I have 2 acres in food plots, a mineral lick, and a feeder that I run from SEP to May. Iâve also been planting pear trees, crabapples, sawtooth oaks, and I clean up any oaks I find to enhance habitat. I have a mix of CRP and hardwoods that Iâve âfenced offâ (no fence, just donât go in there) as a sanctuary during the fall. I also run two deer cameras, so Iâm getting a pretty good idea of their patterns and when the bucks show up.

Bottom line is, as the other guys said I just donât have enough land to manage a deer herd. Iâve got 2 does and their kids that seem to be permanent residents. The bucks move through pre-rut and during the rut. I figured that IF I keep my resident does happy, the bucks will swing by to visit. So far itâs worked âokâ. This year I made the mistake of passing on several small bucks during the ML and rifle seasons, now my freezer is empty and Iâm waiting on our late doe season. I wonât make that mistake again. The years I have taken does, theyâve been quickly replaced by more does, so I donât think harvesting them hurts. As for trying to save the small bucks, itâs pretty futile because my neighbors will tag them anyway. 

Next season, Iâm going to tag a doe as soon as possible and then spend the rest of the season lounging in a stand waiting for âthe big oneâ with the knowledge that thereâs meat in the freezer. 

Chuck


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