RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
After reading in detail all of the previous posts, I came back to my ownand edited it.
What was interesting to me were the wide variety of opinions. I did not make a count, but I think most were like I am on this ... 6 hunters on 80 acres are to many.
The most interesting posts were from folks who are Ok with this. Most state that similar arrangements to this have and are"normal" in the area where they hunt. I cannot imagine that. One guy posted that someghint like 2000 acres/hunter was crowded to him.I cannot imagine that either !! Wow !!
Where I hunt, the estimated population of deer per square mile is about45. That means that on the 3150 acres that I hunt, there is an estimated 250-300 deer.We have killed about 75 - 80 each season for the past 7 years, of which 75% - 80% weredoes.
Our group consists of 15 guys who went together and bought the land.We do allow a 1 guest/member and all dependents. We seldom have more than 15-20 guys in camp at any one time. So that is about200 acres/hunter.When we are going to have 12 or more, or a pile of folks start rolling in, I skip hunting there and go to a place where I have exclusive permission to hunt about 660 acres of swampy woodland. It is just too crowded for me.
Another influence that I think is a very different driver sown this way from some places maybe up north or out east is thathave don't have "opening day" rush because our season is looooong. It runs from Oct. 15 to Jan. 31 , unbroken. Archery first 6 weeks or so, thengun kicks in Saturday after Thanksgiving. Because there is indeed usually alarger number in camp on opening day of gun season,I usually skip that weekend altogether. I cannot tell you when I have hunted opening weekend of gun season. Many of my buddies do the same. Funny thing last season ... no one was in campopening weekend !! Last tiem I made a special effor to go opening of gun season was maybe 5 years ago ?
In addition there is no urgency to putmeat in the freezer. The limits in Alabama are very liberal. If one were to maximize the limit allowed in the area I hunt,he/she could legally put well over 200 deer in the freezer.
So back to the 6 on 80 acres question? Even if there were only say 2 folks on this 80 acres,I'd be reluctant to go for it. More from a safety point of view than any single other consideration.