Maybe it's time to quit

Just got back from my annual 2 week trip to the farm and did a lot of thinking on the drive home. In 27 sits I saw deer 5 times. Saw 14 does and 5 bucks only one which was a marginal shooter. I have kept records of this trip for about 7 years now and have watched sighting drop from over 2 deer per sit to .7 or so this year. This is on 320 acres of very diverse good deer habitat which had less than 20 sits on it all season until my trip. So very minimal pressure on my place, and also on another 600 acres surrounding me. I have spent years improving the place for hunting including timber mgmt, food plots including summer crops. I have just about concluded I am beating a dead horse wasting my time and money on my property.

Did a little cost benefit analysis and am seriously considering doing my deer hunting somewhere else. I figure I could get at least $7/ac or about $2400 if I lease it out. So I take on 2 guys and put $1600 in my pocket and keep the ability to hunt on family trips. Stop planting plots which gets me another $1500 or so in my pocket and work the two weeks I usually take off every year to plant which puts another $5000 to $6000 in my pocket. So I am guessing for $8000 to $9000 I could maybe get 2 week long trips hunting places that actually have deer, probably large deer. I am no trophy hunter I really just want. to see deer on a fairly regular basis and a good un every now and then.

Gonna have to think it over because this year absolutely was not worth the time effort and money invested.

Maybe you can lease me the turkey rights if it's got any

Where is the property located? We might be able to do the lease, give you a membership and you could hunt all the club land.

yeah where is your property and do you run trail cameras?

You are pressuring the property too much. 320 acres is tiny and if there were possibly up to 20 sits before you even got a chance to hunt that place was ruined long before you got there. Especially when you have no idea if said person hunted when the wind was right (doubtful this year with the warm weather we've had and southern winds), spooked deer, etc.

Do an off season camera survey starting on the 11th. Throw some corn and deer pellets out and collect the cameras in three weeks. I bet you'll be surprised at how many deer are still around there.

The OP didn't say that pressure in years past was the same but I'm guessing it was. The weather has been very poor for two seasons in a row now. It's just not cold enough to prompt deer to move during the daylight. Be careful trying to draw too many conclusions from the last two years.

I agree that 320 acres is very small and can be over pressured very quickly. You can manage small tracts, but you have to really limit the pressure. Lastly, there's somewhat of a paradox to QDM. Everyone thinks they want QDM but often fail to realize that it may involve lowering the population. Once that population drops these guys abandon QDM. If you truly want to manage for more impressive deer, it sounds like you're on the right track. If you want to see lots of deer, keep them hungry. A well fed deer in good health doesn't have to get up and look for food during daylight. Just one more reason to limit the pressure on the spot you're hunting.

You need to do a Camera Survey and figure out if you have any deer. That's the biggest thing. If the answer is low numbers then.... Not much you can do.

Maybe ask the neighbors to stop shooting all of them. With no season limits on does this is getting more and more common. I've got a couple tracts that I can't really lease because there ain't no deer. And I just don't do that to people, i.e. letting them figure that out after they paid. Billy Bob that lives down the road kills every one he sees.

I guess everybodys' idea of pressure is different but having a single hunter on 320 acres 10 days out of almost 3 months does not seem like a lot to me. My south neighbor with a little less acreage than me has not shot four deer in the last 6 years and there are several hundred more acres of totally unhunted property around me. Most years I may take 2 does. If that little pressure can totally shut them down I cannot figure out how deer are ever shot on a typical lease or public property.

As far as cameras go we did run them for the first time this year and no doubt there is a good deer population on the property including a couple of bucks anyone on here would love to put on the wall.I think that may be a contributing factor to my complete disgust with how this year turned out.I always figured maybe I just had a crappy place with no big bucks. Now I know that is not true, they are there.But it makes no difference whether ya got 10 deer or a 1000 deer on your property, if there is no daytime movement the point is moot.

After years of being very content to sit on greenfields I got into the woods and thick stuff this year because I thought my lazy man hunting might be the problem.I was glad I did because thats the only place I saw any buck activity at all.But even doing that every buck I saw was in one 24 hour period.

So I really do not know what else to do.Maybe get where I really like turkey hunting, because my Turkey flock is everything my Deer herd is not.Only problem is I would make a good buddy very very sad if I did that. On the upside there would be more competition in the Al Deer Turkey contest since my place has contributed 2 or 3 birds a year to the winning team for several years.Who the heck knows, its been fun venting and I will probably just keep on keeping on, but man this is frustrating.

You said less than 20 sits prior to your trip. That's pressure. Combine that with that fact that a deer's home range is usually a square mile (640 acres) or more and you quickly realize that your neighbors play just as big of a role in pressuring the deer as you do. It doesn't matter how many deer are killed. If these properties go 8 months with little human activity and then guys start showing up on weekends during bow season, that's pressure. Combine that with the very mild winter temps we've had and it's a bad combo.

It's just been a crappy last two years don't put much into it.

Rethink how you are accessing your stands. Are u using a climber? If so maybe buy some ladder stands so you can be more quiet. The most overlooked part of hunting is stand access. Done wrong and it brings about exactly what your experiencing. Done right and limited it can be very rewarding. You don't want to spook deer going in or out. Start hunting your property during the early season from the outside and move inward as the season progresses.

Solid advice here. It's amazing to me how many guys don't give this much consideration. We have some food plots at our club that I will not hunt because they are not accessible without driving or walking right through prime bedding cover. Our harvest records over the last decade also suggest these plots are not good areas but some guys keep trying it.

I definitely agree with you guys on stand access as I know on a couple of my stands it could be problematic and I have really tried to minimize it. I put in a low water crossing in my creek and got my neighbor to allow me access along his north line which really helped I think, but I have a creek running diagonally through the place that makes things very difficult when it is up, which it was most of the trip.I actually used my climber this year for the first time in a long time, usually go with ladders or boxes, but I really wanted to get in the thicker woods and try something different I hoped would get better results.I did shoot my only buck this year out of it in an area I located, which was pretty satisfying. Thanks for the replies, there is a lot of great info on these forums.

I feel your pain. 70-80 sits this year in 4 states. Saw 3 120" or better deer. Could have killed all of them with a rifle. Stuck one that I lost. I only saw like 7 or 8 rack bucks all year. Very frustrating. Last year was much of the same. I'm seriously considering shooting 2-3 does in bow season then quitting each year, unless I can find some primo property to hunt.

I would invest in several cameras, and take a weekend in February right after the season while the deer are still in their winter patterns and do a whole lot of walking around before I leased the place out. After that if I wasn't satisfied I would make a decision.

This^^^^

I wouldn't abandon it. I would reduce the number of plots down to one or two to reduce costs, and make those the best I could with lime, seed etc. Then, to prevent wasted time, only hunt on days you know are going to be good weather wise and in the rut. Put up a few lockons in some new areas you haven't focused on before, and call it good.

Maybe spend some time jumping from WMA to WMA across the state depending on rut just for a change of scenery. I would hate to totally abandon property that meant a lot to me. Just cut the cost down to minimum and only hunt when you have the best odds. Just an idea

No clue where this land is but stay off it until the rut. Deer will move in bc of LACK OF PRESSURE. Choose the days you hunt wisely and only hunt when the wind is right. Have good, trimmed out, quiet entry and exit trails so you don't leave scent. If possible have a shooting house with Windows weather stripping to help contain your scent as much as possible.

Might take a look at taking out the predators

As i've gotten older(53), i've realized that its not about the quantity of sits, its about the quality of sits. Don't hunt with marginal winds, stay out of your prime area's until the seek phase of the rut. The first time you go into an area is when you'll have the most sucess.

Clear-cut entire property, cut a straight 10yard wide shooting lane around the whole thing and plant it. Box stand on each corner

Actually Slipin that's what my west neighbor will probably be doing. Just clear cut his entire 210 acres along my entire west line.

I have a similar situation but for other reasons such as I can't control people on the other side of the line I have chosen a different route. In the MIDDLE of the property I will clean up a "T". The bottom part will be a food plot. The top I plan to be able to bush hog. My thought is I've always had good luck on gas and power lines. Bush hog it late spring with hopes broom sage and such grows back thigh high by deer season. We shall see.

Wish I could do what several have suggested and put a big destination plot in the middle of my property. Unfortunately my only really good cropland happens to be along my west line. If my neighbor has half a brain he is going to benefit greatly in 4 years when his planted pines are gonna be butted up against my 6 ac of summer plots.Oh well watcha gonna do. Very well may put a deer proof fence along the line in the area of the summer plot to force them into crossing in more areas that are less easily hunted.

I think pressure is subjective. The property I live on is only about 30 acres and I have 2 green fields on it. One I rarely hunt and the other I hunt a lot. I see a lot more deer on the one I hunt the most. It's not unusual to see 10-20 deer in the plot on a regular basis.
The plot is on a big powerline and my shooting house is on the top of a hill overlooking the plot and powerline. I can get in and out of the shooting house without the deer ever knowing I was there most of the time. We rarely shoot a deer on the plot, we've killed 5 wallhangers on the plot in 25 years and a few does. Haven't fired a shot there in 4-5 years but my wife and I sit over there a couple of times a week during the entire season.
In my opinion, if you tread lightly you can get away with a lot without the deer feeling pressure if you're careful about how you come and go

Deer density where your place is at is pretty low. Ft. Rucker's population is on the upswing with their new regs, controlled burning and coyote control. This should benefit you substantially in the next few years. One thing you do have going for you there is quality. I've seen several 130" - 150" deer killed within a few miles of you in the last few years. You've got the habitat to support a good population, you've just gotta figure out a way to control the coyotes. I assure you, the coyotes are your missing link.

Coyotes are definitely on the hit list. I had seen a lot of sign in the north portion of my property this year and not unsurprisingly saw very few deer in that area. Actually had a virtually untouched green field in that area when every other one was chewed down to a nub.Do not know why those Rucker deer do not bee line it to my place, lots better food and not near as many hunters.My hunting buddy up there has some good friends who have Rucker dialed in and they kill some dang good uns.

You may not have what they like or are used to in greenfields. I planted the wrong thing and had the same results one year. You also have to have things they don't have or a better draw. Like better mineral licks, fruit trees, summer annuals, lower predator pop, etc

I assume that you're hunting the wind and paying A LOT attention to wind. Ya gotta hunt smart. Not sayin' you're not... just sayin'!

Somebody mentioned QDM... and I just want to say that QDM isn't about shooting every doe you see and I still don't know where that came from as when you read what QDMA says about QDM, it's about keeping the deer at carrying capacity. Not below it. But you have little acreage so I would not worry too much about carrying capacity.

On small acreage, it's about bedding areas.

Good luck