Honestly - how do you rank your hunting property

[Moog5050]

So Biz posted something earlier that made me question. How do folks think of their home hunting ground.  When I had Mendon, it was A+.   Guarantee to kill a decent buck if patient and hunted smart with a fair chance to kill a really good buck year after year.   My current place is an A with a good chance to kill a big buck with patience and more doe than I could count.  Not as easy as mendon but better than many places. 

i hear guys here that see few deer and feel for them.   

I don’t think I am a great hunter.  I can seal the deal when the opportunity presents but have been blessed with good land. And in 12 years of hunting  have a pretty good wall of mounts but again I don’t take special credit just fortunate. 

I wonder how many others feel the same way.  It is probably harder to admit that your property makes you more successful than others but I think for a decent hunter it’s the number 1 factor. 
 

 

[Moog5050]

And I get that some of us work hard to improve our hunting grounds.  So that means something.   Not taking away credit to those that put that work in.  

[escpen]

I've been very fortunate to take some good bucks over the years but, if I'm honest with myself, my main hunting property is likely in the C+ to B- range.  This is after many years of management in terms of habitat improvement, food plots, trying to create more consistent / predictable movement, etc.  One of our biggest challenges that I've alluded to in another thread is that we don't have any real consistency in the location of doe groups.  This is likely due to overharvest on our part.  The second major factor working against us is the amount of hunting pressure, both on the property and around us.  We still have some good bucks running around but they are quite difficult to catch up with.  It's probably 50/50 on whether or not we'll see a deer on any given sit.  

I can't complain, though - we've taken a lot of deer off this property over the years.  I should look up the exact number but we have records dating back to the early '90s for every deer that has been taken.

Good thread, @Moog5050!

Edited December 19, 2024 by escpen

[corydd7]

I would say area, size of property and hunting pressure change the grade for any property and expectation but i say C for my property. 

I can kill doe whenever I want, most properties around me don't see much. That said buck sightings are rare. I think ive pushed bucks off my 40 acres because of the food sources the doe and fawns enjoy. 

Im in 5h and any food source is a good food source. I need more shooting lanes, more stands and edge cover to food sources to increase buck sightings.

As i said in the forestry mulching thread i made i want to clear a couple acres for numerous reasons. After that i think the property goes up to a B (for my area).

[Wolc123]

As a pure meat hunter, I’ll give my place and my parents (on opposite corners of wmu 9F) a B.  Both were C’s before the early antlerless gun season started a few years back, when it was much harder to fill dmp’s due to heavy nuisance permit pressure from local farmers.  
 

I’ll give my in-laws place, up in wmu 6C and 6F, an A minus, mostly because of the scenery and solitude, but the deer numbers up there (especially antlerless) are also pretty good.  

[NYRturkeycall]

F! I think my home hunting ground has too many hunters and the island and state needs to give it to me exclusively! 

Edited December 20, 2024 by NYRturkeycall

[mowin]

I'm lucky to hunt a couple farms that hold a lot of deer.  Hunted it for 30+ yrs, so I no the deers patterns.  No it's not a producer of P&Y bucks, but I enjoy hunting it. 

[G-man]

Honeslty i look at my property as a b-

We have lot of deer. Success rate for bow hunters is 80  to 90% every year. Almost 550 deer shot  in 31 years off it. 

But am missing many components for a prime piece  

Thermal cover is lacking. 

Proper access for wind  is very difficult 

Steep hills sides make lot of it  non hunted  because who wants to walk up and down it. 

Constantly trying to thicken  up areas

Dealing with lot of invasive shrubs / trees  is constant battle.

Don't like that a road divides it.. makes road hunters an issue.

 

 

[corydd7]

2 minutes ago, G-man said:

Honeslty i look at my property as a b-

We have lot of deer. Success rate for bow hunters is 80  to 90% every year. Almost 550 deer shot  in 31 years off it. 

But am missing many components for a prime piece  

Thermal cover is lacking. 

Proper access for wind  is very difficult 

Steep hills sides make lot of it  non hunted  because who wants to walk up and down it. 

Constantly trying to thicken  up areas

Dealing with lot of invasive shrubs / trees  is constant battle.

Don't like that a road divides it.. makes road hunters an issue.

 

 

I think lots of us would rate your place an A without even visiting it. But i love the humility. 

[Moog5050]

4 minutes ago, G-man said:

Honeslty i look at my property as a b-

We have lot of deer. Success rate for bow hunters is 80  to 90% every year. Almost 550 deer shot  in 31 years off it. 

But am missing many components for a prime piece  

Thermal cover is lacking. 

Proper access for wind  is very difficult 

Steep hills sides make lot of it  non hunted  because who wants to walk up and down it. 

Constantly trying to thicken  up areas

Dealing with lot of invasive shrubs / trees  is constant battle.

Don't like that a road divides it.. makes road hunters an issue.

 

 

Then on the curve I think I am a c+.  Lol

[escpen]

35 minutes ago, Moog5050 said:

Then on the curve I think I am a c+.  Lol

I think I'm probably a solid D on that same curve.

[Bolt Action]

Tough question and good thread moog.

I'm fortunate to have access to land in 8a. It's surrounded by farms, and the region holds plenty of deer. The piece that I hunt is totally flat, and mostly wide open. It's  comprised of app. 200 acres  that run north south, with app. 20 acres of woods above and below. The property line is essentially the field edges along both sides. This makes accessing the woods tricky at times.

Seeing that I don't  own the property,  there's not a lot a can do to improve habitat. I've put in a few stands and cut clearing lanes, but that's the extent of what I can do. 

There is strong hunting pressure all around me. Last year, for example,  the neighbor south of me hosted 15 guys on 30 acres during opening weekend. Also, trespassing is a constant concern. Neighbors are mostly good people, but at least one likes to push his luck. Also road hunters play into trespassing concerns.

I've shot plenty of deer out there, mostly does. I rarely see mature bucks during the season, let alone with an opportunity to shoot them. I realize that my success has a lot to do with the environment, and not much to do with how capable of a hunter  I am. 

Im grateful to be able to hunt there, but with that said I think I'd grade the place a C. There are usually plenty of deer, and lots of food for them. But not being able to improve the habitat has limited It's potential.

[Rob-c]

So my first year on state i had a better year of archery than on our  last lease . Actually last few leases .  So during archery its a b+, during firearms its a f  just to much pressure . 

[Moog5050]

56 minutes ago, escpen said:

I think I'm probably a solid D on that same curve.

Gman and his crew kill more 3yr olds plus than most for sure. 

[grampy]

Honestly a C+ on our property. Been roaming that land for almost 60 years, with my hunting partner. It's changed a lot. We have altogether around 750 acres, divided by a couple roads. Plus State land bordering. But we have way more thick cover that is almost impossible to hunt, than we'd like. It's a double edge sword. All that cover allows bucks to get some age on them. But hunting them can be a constant game of zig and zag. Hunt here, they show up there. Go there, they show up here. So we hunt a lot of bed to food, and edges of the thick. We have over 30 stands and blinds. And sometimes just go sit wherever the hot sign is. We add more plots and improvements each year. (Thanks mostly to my partner being retired now.) Got what we think is a decent buck to doe ratio for our area. And usually 2 - 3, or more, mature bucks are killed on the property each year. It's my heaven here on earth. And my happy place. No matter if I choose to shoot a deer or not. We usually see a good number of deer. So we are very fortunate as moog said.

I'm also no better than just an average hunter. With many years of experience. On decent land.

Edited December 20, 2024 by grampy