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Old 12-02-2019, 12:34 AM
  #2  
Ultradog MN
Spike
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 22
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Perhaps more important than what type of land yours is, is what are you surrounded by.
Any farms or fields or is it just more woods? If farms and crop fields is there any kinds of natural features to yours to make a desirable bedding area? Maybe you are closer to a water source?
I would say you want to look for something that makes deer want to bed in or migrate through your property and hunt near there.
If there are no natural features like that then you would want to create something that make the deer want to pass through your land and not the land next door.
That's where deer plots come in.
Are there any areas on your property that are open that you could develope?
I also hunt a small parcel - 17 acres. I'm surrounded by a few hundred acres of woods that gets minimal hunting pressure. That part of the country used to be a lot of small farms but they are all gone now and the area has mostly gone back to forest. The closest farming is a hayfield about a mile from me.
My main hobby is I have a couple of old Ford tractors which I like to fart around with. So for me it was natural to start doing deer plots.
I usually keep two of them planted. One is about an acre and the other is actually tiny - about 50' x100'
Of course they aren't enough to feed many deer but they pass through every day to find a tasty morsel or two.
If you have ANY open areas that you could develope into a plot it would bring deer in. Even a sunlit strip that was 10' x 50' would help you. Or a 25' opening between some trees. You just want to give them a reason to cruise through your little slice of paradise. I don't know you and your circumstances but a larger garden tractor or a 4 wheeler would be adequate to get an area tilled up. Heck, even dragging an old spike tooth drag behind a Prius would do it.
You just want something that draws a few does and fawns in because where the does are the bucks will follow.
PS,
I have really enjoyed getting into the plotting thing. It is a hunting related thing that I can do in May when the rifle opener is still months away. Then I'm like a real farmer who hopes and prays for rain - but not too much of it - so my 'crops' will grow.
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