Percent of your land you actually hunt

[BSK]

Ever wondered how much of your hunting property you actually hunt? That question came up among the hunters in my family. We have a 500-acre property, but how much of that acreage are we taking advantage of? Now I completely agree every managed property needs "no-go" sanctuaries. But beyond those designated areas, are hunters spreading themselves out or just hunting the same places over and over?

In fact, this idea is how my thread on road maintenance came about. One of my brothers and I were talking about how currently, all of our access roads on our property are on ridge-tops (old logging roads we converted to all-vehicle access). And as we get older, we tend to set up stands and hunt fairly close to these ridge-line access roads. Hunting near the bottoms of the valleys is just too much of a chore. Climbing 20-30 stories down very steep slopes, carrying all of our gear, and then back up, half the time in total darkness, is not appealing to 60 and 70-year-olds! So, I got to wondering, how much of our property are we actually hunting? To test this, I plotted every stand we've used for the last 10 years on a map and drew a 75-yard buffer around each one (approximately the average maximum visual range from a stand on our place). Then I measured all of the property outside of those 75-yard circles. Turns out, over the last 10 years, we've only hunted 54% of our property (46% unhunted). That blew me away considering how many hunters we often have on the place, especially during MZ season. And the vast majority of the unhunted property is unhunted simply because there is no easy access into those parts of the property. Hence the need to build new roads - so we will actual use all of the acreage we have available.

Do you know how much of your property you are actually using?

 

[backyardtndeer]

Do you know how much of your property you are actually using?

The majority of our hunting is done on about maybe 12 acres out of 55. Most of our property is rolling hill cow pasture in front of and to the side of the house, we don't hunt where our cows are with the exception of the bottom. I usually close that off about the time I start feeding hay, or when it starts getting too wet. I kill more coyotes in the bottom than anything else, but my wife has killed a couple pretty decent bucks down there.

 

[Antler Daddy]

I estimate about 15-20% on land we own.

 

[Ski]

I've got 100 acres and hunt just a few spots. While I don't have any designated "sanctuaries" i do have areas in rarely go into and almost never hunt. My property is purposely set up so bucks move through "nothing" zones of mature hardwoods in order to get to "hot zones" like plots and bedding cuts where does congregate. I hunt inside those nothing zones and avoid the hot zones. So really of 100 acres I'm probably only hunting single digit acreage, less than 10% of the property.

 

[Andy S.]

Very little, likely less than 5% (me actually hunting). I've oftentimes thought of this, as I typically can only see couple of acres in my hardwoods setups with leaf on, little more with leaf off. For hardwoods/cutover, which I much prefer, most hunters do not "utilize/hunt" near as much as the hunters who can see/hunt/shoot in open areas (ag/pasture/CRP). When thinking off the odds I have of seeing the mature buck I am after, I oftentimes think "you can only see 2 acres of the 200 acre block of woods, you better have guessed right today". Which is oftentimes not the case. I log a good many hours on stand for each mature buck seen in the hardwoods, and even more hours for each mature buck killed.

 

[BSK]

I log a good many hours on stand for each mature buck seen in the hardwoods, and even more hours for each mature buck killed.

If I combined all our hunting hours for all hunters, the average time on stand to see a mature buck is crazy high. Probably in the neighborhood of 150 hours. The time to kill one is even higher.

 

[deerhunter10]

I haven't thought about it. Probably 20 to 25 percent.

 

[Volbuck777]

Maybe 5-10 acres out of 100. 15 out of the other 100. Also on another spot I hunt 1 tree. I've noticed the more I move the worse my hunting is. It took me nearly 20 years to realize this. Less is more.

 

[vanleerbuckbuster]

I have thought of this many times. Mainly because I have never had large tracts to hunt so it made me better at identifying the most productive areas of a small property. On the 30 acres I own. We hunt an area about 200ydsx200yds. On the 12 acres that a friend allows us to hunt we are probably hunting less than a 1/2 acre. I would take that 1/2 acre over almost anything though. It's a very special place

 

[Ski]

I would take that 1/2 acre over almost anything though. It's a very special place

I hunt a local property that's 4.5 acres. It's entirely open ag except for a 1/4 acre bunch of woods next to a creek, and is sandwiched between bigger ag fields. I regularly kill good bucks and tom turkeys inside that tiny patch of woods. The right spot is is the right spot regardless of how much acreage it lies in. I've hunted several hundred acre properties that don't produce as well as that 4.5 acre place.

 

[deerhunter10]

The right spot is is the right spot regardless of how much acreage it lies in.

This

 

[Boll Weevil]

Interesting responses and I imagine lay of the land might have alot to do with the percentage hunted. I've got alot of bottomground tillable fields so believe my percentage hunted is likely a little higher than average. In other words, I can cover alotta ground from any given shooting house or stand. So maybe 25ish % or so.

 

[DoubleRidge]

For deer hunting I'd say <10% of the property. We've hunted this farm for decades and there are 3 or 4 travel corridors that bucks cruise during the rut. We walk in and hunt these locations and walk out. Most of the time, hunt all day sits. Keep intrusion to a minimum.

For Turkey hunting we will expand the area we hunt as needed....but even then there are areas we will work around or avoid.

 

[Boll Weevil]

For Turkey hunting we will expand the area we hunt as needed....but even then there are areas we will work around or avoid.

Yeah for turkeys it's more like 50, 60, 70%.

 

[BSK]

For deer hunting I'd say <10% of the property. We've hunted this farm for decades and there are 3 or 4 travel corridors that bucks cruise during the rut. We walk in and hunt these locations and walk out. Most of the time, hunt all day sits. Keep intrusion to a minimum.

That's amazing. I guess our situation is somewhat unique in that we put FAR more pressure on our land than our neighbors do. The only way we can get away with that at all is by have the best habitat in the area (by a factor of probably 10). And even then, we have to constantly come after the bucks from different directions each year. Because of our limited visibility from stands, it doesn't take bucks long to learn how to avoid us by deviating a short distance.

 

[DoubleRidge]

That's amazing. I guess our situation is somewhat unique in that we put FAR more pressure on our land than our neighbors do. The only way we can get away with that at all is by have the best habitat in the area (by a factor of probably 10). And even then, we have to constantly come after the bucks from different directions each year. Because of our limited visibility from stands, it doesn't take bucks long to learn how to avoid us by deviating a short distance.

Little more detail....powerline ROW access plays a part...where it intercedes the travel corridors mentioned...slip in and out in the cover of the dark....shooting houses or enclosed blinds...only one ladder stand....muzzleloader and rifle hunts...and basically in November.
Also....we are majority timber with thick areas....with some big Ag to one side with cattle pasture to other side and mini farms/residential to another side...we have the cover and try to navigate it very carefully.