I recently bought a two acre piece of land that I'm going to build a house on. It is heavily wooded and in the middle of about 20-30 acres of thick woods and adjacent to a state park that is also heavily wooded. I've been watching the deer patterns in the area and found that several trails come through the middle of my property. So this fall I plan to put a stand out there and bowhunt. I've told some locals who hunt and they got all worked up saying how unethical that would be, even referring to it as a turkey-shoot. I guess I must not be seeing the light. Their reasoning is that it's only two acres which is a pretty confined space. But the two acres is in the middle of a much larger area. I guess it would be different if it was the only piece of woods in the area that the deer holed up in all the time, but best I can tell, I'd be lucky if they pass through once a day, more than likely, every two or three days (from seeing the pics with my scouting camera). Any thoughts?

Even if it were their business what you do with your land , which it isn't , the deer will probably change their travel route once you put up your house . If you had fenced the property with 12' fencing without expunging it of all deer they might have been right . Ignore them .

A friend of mine bought some land a few years ago , and after getting very tired of trespassers posted his land . The locals were outraged because they had "hunted that land since they were kids" , and wouldn't listen to reason . It took getting the local Conservation Officer to stake out the property and make several arrests before the worst of it ended , and my friend was forced to sell the land because of vandalism and threats against his family . Country-assed idiots like that are very hard to explain anything to . [:@]

No there is no fence. There are a decent amount of houses in the woods and from what I can tell, the deer have gotten used to the people being there. I'm hoping they'll settle down and come back after construction is completed. The house will be a good 800-900 feet from their trails.

If it were me , I would leave some kind of barrier between the house and where you plan to put up the stand. A feeder if it is legal would draw the deer in. Also you could plant feed for them , such as winter rye , corn, etc. As far as the locals that hunt there , they are just trying to run off any compition and may very well have hunted there themselves. Don't be surprised if you have some vandalism or sabatage of your set-up. One yr when I put up a new stand on some newly purchased land , one of my good neighbors decided that my area was a good place to throw his fresh deer hides. My plot was surrounded by hides , so much so that the buzzards were coming to them. Don't let that deter you though as they will soon give up and realize that things are just the way they are. Many very nice deer are taken every year right in folks own back yards. I have some stands on 11 acres here now that have been way more productive than where I go to hunt when I have the time off. One thing about a set up like your thinking about , you don't have to have a lot of time off to crawl in the stand and spend a few hours doing what you like to do.

chucker,

Who the heck cares about what they think? If that were my land, part of the reason I'd be buying it was because of the hunting opporunity. One thing that I would suggest...is to keep your hunting experiences on your land to yourself in regards to your locals. The 1st time you start talking about this "big buck" that you've been seeing and patterning....someone will be in there trying to screw it up for you. Mums the words when it comes to that in my opinion. Have a fisherman's attitude when it comes to what your seeing out there. Good luck.

I can vouch for the fact that building a house won't deter the deer much, if at all. I live on 15 acres which I also hunt and have one very productive stand literally 70 yards from my house. They did go a bit nocturnal during contruction, but they'll be there. Just don't let your dog run loose (if you have one). That was the worst mistake I made regarding the deer hunting. They'll run deer off more than anything.

Thanks for all the comments and advice. I'm really not too worried about what they think, just interested in seeing if I was a member of the minority in my thinking. In any case, I live in Minnesota so feeders aren't legal. Right now, I have a salt and an apple block out there which get used pretty good. I will have to remove the apple block during hunting season. I might try to plant some forage out there but not much light get in. I'd probably have to cut a small clearing.

Yeah, I have kept pretty quiet about it. I just mentioned it to some friends of friends while we were duck hunting this fall who didn't like the idea but luckily, they don't really know where my land is.

On another note, our new neighbor showed me pictures of big bucks he's taken the last three years on his land. He has gun hunted there for as long as he's lived there. In my part of Minnesota, we have a four gun day season. I know he'd be out on his land and fairly close to me so I've decided (unbeknownst to him) that a peaceful compromise would be for me to try bowhunting. Plus I'd get an early jump on him : ) and have a 3 1/2 month season instead. I'm pretty excited to try it.

Also, the new neighbor said that someone was down on our land or near it last year as he heard shooting close by so I'll have to post during gun season to be sure.

Chucker, who cares what they think? It's your land (no matter how big or small) so you can do what you want on it. Good luck hunting!

Chucker who do you think you are? Why would you think that you have a right to buy land and find that it might be good deer hunting included? Did you check your deed? I know mineral rights are known things to be bought up front but now a days deer rights are negotiated up front too. I'm sorry you found out the hard way and better not hunt.

On the other hand, I would shoot the biggest buck ever and buy add space in the local gazzette. Congrads on your choice of land

your land... your choice...