In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
05-14-2009, 10:14 AM
#33
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: On an Island in Vermont
Posts: 22,605
RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
ORIGINAL: Lanse couche couche
13 acres per person, assuming folks are somewhat evening spaced. That's actually quite a bit of ground if you ever spend any amount of time hunting a plot of that size. Lot's of times hunters think they are covering a hell of a lot of ground, especially if it is hilly with a lot of cover,and it turns out that they have pretty much been within an area the size of a football field.
I guess it would depend. During Fall bowhunting when there is so much brush that your individual hunting zone may be measured in feet instead of yards, I would not see much problem with it, other than the fact that a running wounded deer may cause trouble for the other hunters. Dunno about being in that close of proximity to folks with rifles, though. Of course, my frame of reference is southern Illinois where it is pretty commong to have several people hunting relatively small pieces of ground with little or no problems.
Would you really have all six people there at the same time. Maybe for opening weekend. If so, there could be some sort of arrangement where some folks hunt mornings and others evenings. The rest of the time, I would think that fewer people would show up at the same time to hunt.
13 acres per person, assuming folks are somewhat evening spaced. That's actually quite a bit of ground if you ever spend any amount of time hunting a plot of that size. Lot's of times hunters think they are covering a hell of a lot of ground, especially if it is hilly with a lot of cover,and it turns out that they have pretty much been within an area the size of a football field.
I guess it would depend. During Fall bowhunting when there is so much brush that your individual hunting zone may be measured in feet instead of yards, I would not see much problem with it, other than the fact that a running wounded deer may cause trouble for the other hunters. Dunno about being in that close of proximity to folks with rifles, though. Of course, my frame of reference is southern Illinois where it is pretty commong to have several people hunting relatively small pieces of ground with little or no problems.
Would you really have all six people there at the same time. Maybe for opening weekend. If so, there could be some sort of arrangement where some folks hunt mornings and others evenings. The rest of the time, I would think that fewer people would show up at the same time to hunt.
05-14-2009, 10:41 AM
#34
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Southwest Ohio
Posts: 10,277
RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
You might change your mind if youever find yourself sitting ina little plot of Illinois woods and some cornfed monster 16 pointer comes strolling by.[:-]
05-14-2009, 10:52 AM
#35
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: On an Island in Vermont
Posts: 22,605
RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
ORIGINAL: Lanse couche couche
You might change your mind if youever find yourself sitting ina little plot of Illinois woods and some cornfed monster 16 pointer comes strolling by.[:-]
You might change your mind if youever find yourself sitting ina little plot of Illinois woods and some cornfed monster 16 pointer comes strolling by.[:-]
05-14-2009, 12:58 PM
#36
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location:
Posts: 122
RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
That's done in Michigan all the time. I know of plenty of camps that have a half dozen hunters on 80-100 acres. When you get 700,000 hunters out in the woods on opening day, that's a lot of people.
In my opinion, guest issues/limits are the biggest problems with any deer camp. A one guest per owner policy sounds fine, but I've seen friendships tarnished from non-owners not following rules, an owner making exceptions for himself and his guests, some not carrying their weight with work and expenses, etc.... Even the best of friends, with the best intentions, seem to struggle with this.
I've seen rules that only owners can hunt the first three to five days of deer season, and after that limited guest rights are allowed. Those types of rules, when strictly enforced, seem to work somewhat....
I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but it's just from my experience. Hope it goes well for you though, and that you have a lot of fun.
In my opinion, guest issues/limits are the biggest problems with any deer camp. A one guest per owner policy sounds fine, but I've seen friendships tarnished from non-owners not following rules, an owner making exceptions for himself and his guests, some not carrying their weight with work and expenses, etc.... Even the best of friends, with the best intentions, seem to struggle with this.
I've seen rules that only owners can hunt the first three to five days of deer season, and after that limited guest rights are allowed. Those types of rules, when strictly enforced, seem to work somewhat....
I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but it's just from my experience. Hope it goes well for you though, and that you have a lot of fun.
05-15-2009, 08:31 AM
#37
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1,462
RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
I think it totally depends on where you hunt in the United States. If you hunt WI and MI, You most likely hunt with a number of people that is unimaginable in other parts of the country. Ive hunted a 40 acre lot in MI with 2 other people and didn't feel too crowded but thought in the back of my mind it was too many. Ive hunted Illinois on 400 acres with 4 guys and thought it was just right because of the large lots of land around me. Guys that hunt out west would think your crazy hunting more than 1 guy per thousand acres but thats where there are 5,000 acre ranches everywhere (I hunted a ranch with 12other guys that was 65,000 acres and the ranch manger thought that was pushing it with too many people. I think its all a matter of where you hunt and what you are used to. I wish I could hunt WI or MI with 1 guy per 80 acres, that would be a dream. Reality though, for the high pressure areas 2 people per 40 is pretty much average. Everywhere Ive hunted in WI of MI Id say the average is 2 per 40 acres and that is all the deer camps ive visited.
I agree with the guy who says those deer will be pushed to that swampy area, you hear countless stories every year about people pulling big bucks out of public land swamps and pressure private land as well. When deer are pressured they go to the thickest areas possible, they know where humans don't want to go and they head there and laugh at us hunters (like me). My buddy hunts next to a 100 acre swamp in Michigan and everywhere within 5 miles a basket 6 pt is a nice deer and he consistly sees and kills nice 8 pointers and sees even bigger deer during bow season that he can't get shots on. Deer love swamps. If I were you and you do hunt this property I would pick a stand site closest too that swamp. Wow, I just ran off topic!
I agree with the guy who says those deer will be pushed to that swampy area, you hear countless stories every year about people pulling big bucks out of public land swamps and pressure private land as well. When deer are pressured they go to the thickest areas possible, they know where humans don't want to go and they head there and laugh at us hunters (like me). My buddy hunts next to a 100 acre swamp in Michigan and everywhere within 5 miles a basket 6 pt is a nice deer and he consistly sees and kills nice 8 pointers and sees even bigger deer during bow season that he can't get shots on. Deer love swamps. If I were you and you do hunt this property I would pick a stand site closest too that swamp. Wow, I just ran off topic!
05-15-2009, 09:11 PM
#40
Spike
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 6
RE: In your opinion , is 6 hunters on 80 heavily wooded acres too crowded?
Its a small area and I think to many,safety an issue even if you know where the others are suppose to be also u have that many shooters in a small area and a few shots will soon clear the area of game.