Gettin that way around here too RSB. Try goose hunting in good areas-all sewn up-- In some cases its guides who have bought up the Leases- I have issues with that.
 BTW like your response on the landowner/poacher too.

That my thing - nice Bucks, and a few states each year too ,for over 50 years  --Suzie
( hope to @ell you were tryin to fire up somebody else an I mistook your last- if so Ill recind the Suzie thing with a lol too---if not- whatever brought that rant on?)

The farmer may, in some cases, agree to lease his property in order to get some needed cash BUT MOST people who are leasing the property are doing it for the purpose of controlling access and perserving and increasing deer for their own benefit. MORE leasing has been done (at least in areas I hunt or know of) in the last 7-8 years than in the previous 60 years.

I gotta ask ya, how much land do you think it takes to EFFECTIVELY manage and control "your own" deer herd?

Ironhed

That's a hard question to answer without knowing your definition of Effective or knowing the makeup of the land or the size of the deer herd you wish to manage.

If the land consists of a lot of crop fields and minimal cover it could be many hundreds or even thousands of acres. More if you consider the rut.

If the land consists of prime bedding grounds interspersed with crop fields and/or hard and soft mast it could be considerbly less.

If your definition of Effective means containing 80% of the bucks in your own area it is again at least seveal hundred acres of prime bedding feed areas.(even more during the rut). Again depending on the size herd you want.

I consider Reasonable Effective control as having the proper amount of bedding/feed areas to a keep set number of deer coming in and out of your area and spending the majority of their time bedding in your bedding grounds.
The actual number of animals and time they spend depends of the time and money you are willing to spend improving and increasing your land.

I would only need to control enough to harvest 3 bucks each year, so my needs would be way less than a large group of hunters. It could be less than a hundred acres for legal bucks, considerbly (way) more for booners.

ORIGINAL: Ironhed

MORE leasing has been done (at least in areas I hunt or know of) in the last 7-8 years than in the previous 60 years.

Yep. Almost everyone has a price.

I gotta ask ya, how much land do you think it takes to EFFECTIVELY manage and control "your own" deer herd?

Ironhed

 
I would say a lot of factors come into play when considering size, with one of the most important factors being not the size of that particular property per se, but what surrounds it.  My neighbor owns two acres, but because of the posted ground, developed ground, etc. around it, it is like he has control of 1,000 acres.  Another posted area I know consists of about 500 acres, but with the neighbors posting and having like philosophies, they in concert control about 3,000 acres.

Nah the goon/thug can only research conducters.

Whole different set of rules for PGC research projects, they use their new math.

Gheeeeez thought you all knew that.

I'm in northwest PA. Some of you downstate where deer numbers are much lower than around here............i would imagine landowner and hunter philosophies on this issue are different. So you could get many correct answers to this discussion based on what area you are from.




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