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- - Land size (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/whitetail-deer-hunting/188390-land-size.html)

Hello all... I'm going to be lookingto buya piece of land to deer hunt on and I was wondering if anybody could give me any ideas on how much land to look for. The most that would ever hunt at one time would be 3. I live in Illinois which is a shotgun only state and down here in southern IL the land ispretty rough with valleys and draws and such. The woods also tend to be pretty thick. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

It depends a loton the budget you are looking at and price per acre.

The average tract size seems to be getting smaller and smaller in my part of the state. Although there is the very rare large tract most of these are now controlled by Outfitters. It seems over the past several years that the anerage property is anywhere from 40 to 200 acres in size.

From all my experiences with hunting camps, I can tell you that you should have at least 50 acres per a person.

Your mininum investment should be about 200 acres if possible.

Now you do not have to own all of it, you can buy 100 acres and get a farmer to lease you 100 acres of his property.

A good farmer / hunter relationship is very important because you cannot afford to take off work to work your ground to maintain food plots and a farmer does it for a living.

But a farmers first job is to produce crops for himself and his customers and if the deer are damaging the crops then he cannot afford to stay in buisness.

If the farmer shoots the deer for crop damage, then you have to realize thatthey will not be there when you go to hunt it.

So if you could compensate the farmer some and help him out with his farm expenses and pay him for a small portion of his crops and ask him to leave some standing until the season is over. You could have food plots planted and properly maintained for less money than if you had to do them yourself.

The other half you have to realize is that today you only have 3 hunters, but if them 3 hunters are married and have kids. Some day that number might be 12 hunters. Then you will have a hunter in every tree in a 100 acre section of woods. Which is not a good thing.

If the land is available, then you have to strike while the brand is hot.

Land suitable for hunting is getting harder and harder to come by and the price does nothing but go up year after year.

My Uncle sold 106 acres of prime deer habitat in Pennsylvania with a large house - camp for $68,000.00 A6 years ago.

Now you cannot buy 20 acres for that amount of money.

I own 10.5 acres and have taken some really nice buck off it.Seen quite a few good ones too.I also see bear,alot of turkeys and grouse and other small game.I like smaller areas to hunt.It's easier to figure out where the deer are and where they're going

This is the mount of the buck in the attachment taken on my property.

I am with Jim on this. I hunt a 5 acre piece behind my house and it has produced some fine deer. But depends what is around it. There is farm land around it. I have seen some whopper deer taken in suberbs near baltimore on little more than 2 acres outside housing developments.

The more the better.

Deerdo 3 things-they eat,they sleep, andthey make little deer.That's all they do.If you find a place that provides those 3 basic needs,it doesn't matter if it's 10 acres or 1000 acres

The more the better for sure. I hunt on 410 acres and like the flexibility of leaving certain parts alone while hunting other areas. All depend on the type of hunting you want to do...

Thanks for all the input. Pretty much confirms what I have thought. Get as much as i can afford and find.