Yep! And if possible, use a Creedmoor.

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Got to the middle of the pines, Cut the lower limbs so you can see down the lanes in all 4 directions. Put a feeder on the ends of the 2 of the lanes opposite each other. Put a ground blind in the middle of the X and have fun. Your good for all wind directions.

I hunt a small property most of the time. 22 acres bordered by 2 roads, a cow pasture, and a small neighborhood.

3 most important things are wind, wind, and wind. If it ain't right, go back to bed. Trust me, the deer can tell the difference between the normal stuff and you sitting in the woods for hours. And the only thing worse on a small place than the wrong wind is no wind at all.

What benefit does thinning the pines provide? Allows some brush growth?

Yes, once sunlight can hit the ground again you will get all kinds of natural woody browse, legumes, etc for the deer to browse on. If it is currently thick mats of pine straw on the ground, deer have no reason to use it except crossing from one spot to the next, or maybe bedding depending on how thick it is.

It is as you say.... thick pine straw. Would you put a feeder out?

I have 2 feeders, a pond, and mineral sites at both feeders on 22 acres. Interesting thing is that while I have deer that show up on both feeder cameras, I always have bucks that will only be on one camera, never the other.

I have had more success not putting up feeders on small tracts of land, I usually just scatter feed out on the ground from time to time, never a lot........

FIFY

Lot of good advice here. I have 15 acres I live on that back up to a number of acres of timber co land. The deer really only use about 1/2 the acreage to move around on in daylight, though we see em in the front yard or close by from time to time. Wind and pressure are your two enemies on a small tract of land. I came real close to killing a really mature buck on my piece this year. I’ve passed a few 3.5 year olds the last two years. It’s taken me a solid 3 years to figure out the right conditions to kill deer crossing my property. If you can find crossings in the SMZ that are huntable, that’s where I’d start. The setup you have sounds awesome. Run some cams early season and you may be surprised what is hanging around one of those small tracts.

Thanks for the encouragement! Was starting to get a little discouraged.

Have it burned, and enjoy it next year. Get rid of the pine straw and get new green stuff.

Would need to be burned AND thinned, right?

Thinning would definitely help, but burning all that old stuff would help the soil and give room for plants to grow.

I've done several burns on old small tracts that had just been sitting for years. Burning all that old crap improved every one of them.

You get a timber company to handle this?

If your lease is with a timber company, they won’t thin the pines until whenever they want and likely won’t do any burning. You definitely can’t do it yourself and they are not going to give you permission.

Yep! I've been lucky that our Paper Company burns ours about every 2 years. Looks great afterwards. They're actually getting ready to burn ours in a week or so.

Maybe they’ll miss nesting season

I know. They typically burn around the end of deer season. This is the latest they've done it.