How To Hold Deer On Small Property
If you are like me, i don't have tons and tons of acres to hunt on. We are the average hunter after all.
Most people that you talk to will say its impossible to hold deer in small amounts of land. I agree with them to a point. lets break it down in simple terms and i will give some tips and my thoughts on the subject. Deer like to travel, during the rut a buck will travel several miles in search of a hot doe. Bucks typically have a core area they like to spend most of there time as long as they are not pressured and have water and food.
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You obviously need many many acres of land for deer to actually stay there. You simple cant hold deer in 5, 10, 15 acres plus. But there are ways we can hold them for longer periods of time.
Speaking of water and food, deer eat anywhere from 5-7 pounds of food per day as long as its available. Deer also need a close by water source to stay hydrated. With that said, deer will feed 3,4,5 times a day. Food sources change throughout the year and they actually can be very picky (like myself haha)
As hunters i do believe it is our job to help as much as possible so all wildlife can not only survive but thrive as well. This boils down to management! as years go by food sources are getting less and less. With new houses being built everyday and pushing deer into areas where the land just cant handle the amount of browse pressure. I live in Maryland and some areas around here we have close to 100 deer per square mile and if you walk in the woods there is a browse line as far as deer can reach. This is not good! You can see how unhealthy they are, ribs showing, poor hide, skinny ETC.
Its hard to throw a number on how many deer a square mile of land can handle. Around my area they say roughly about 30 deer in a square mile is considered safe. We have way more then that and that is why you see a browse line. Obviously a square mile can handle many more deer if you have enough quality food for them to eat.
Now that i broke that down and put in some general statements this is how we can help and how we can attract deer to small properties. In this example ill explain how i attracted deer to a 2 acre piece of land. This 2 acre lot was surrounded by several hundred acres and i only have permission to hunt those 2 acres. Thin woods and a 1/4 field, that's it. The main key to success on these small pieces of land is to have the BEST and healthiest food around and not pressure the area.
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75 percent of my hunting is done on these types of land. Yes it is very difficult to hunt but that is what makes it fun. So i do have lots of experience with this type of hunting. As mentioned earlier Deer eat many times a day. With other hunters in the area deer will begin to pattern them and start to avoid there area. If you can have the healthiest food source around deer will avoid other areas and come to you. As long as you don't over hunt the area you will have success!
Buck that i killed on a small property. I used antler grow to create a healthy food source and trail cameras to help monitor him.
How do you have the healthiest food around? well its focusing on natural browse and food plots. I talk about it all the time deer are browsing animals This is what they do on a daily basis as nature intended. Deer are not meant to be crowded together nose to nose feeding on something you dump on the ground. Will they eat it sure they will. Just like we eat snacks they like to as well. But to stay as close to nature as we can get its natural browse and food plots.
Create the healthiest food plot by taking a soil sample, correcting the PH and adding the correct amount of nutrients to the soil as you can. Plant what you want and once its about 4-6 inches tall spray it with a product called ANTLER GROW
A doe that i killed over a antler grow sprayed food plot. little less then 2 acres of land. freezer full of delicious venison!
Antler grow is a micro nutritional mineral that is a foilar spray. It can not be washed off and already has a sticker and surfactant in it. Its adding the nutrients to the plants that the soil is lacking making them super super healthy lasting months. Doing this will create the healthiest food in that area and attract many more deer and help hold them as well.
Visit www.antlergrow.com for more info.
Also here is a few youtube videos to check out for more detailed info.
Good luck in your adventures and let me know if you have any questions.
See you next time!