What would you consider an ethical number of deer to harvest on a very small piece of land. Something like ten acres or so.

A guess- probably less than one animal per year?

Or would you not take deer at all on a piece of property this small? Plenty of other hunting to be had in the specific area and especially predator/varmint and small game.

It is 10 acres heavily wooded with a house.

A TPWD biologist once told me it takes roughly a minimum of 100 acres of good, East Texas hardwood bottom to support a harvest rate of 1 buck per year. This number is based on the number of does and lesser bucks that can be sustained by that acreage. Obviously, the number is going to differ for habitat in other areas of Texas.

IMO, your question can quickly move the discussion to that of deer being owned by the State of Texas until they are harvested by a hunter. And from there it often quickly moves to hunting fence lines and the need for high fences.

Depends on where the 10 acres is and what is going on / hunting pressure on surrounding properties.

In an area of the hill country with a deer overpopulation problem, probably be able to tag out, every year.

Don't know about the number, but if shooting for horns, 'better be opening morning.

I hunted a 40K acre ranch west of Kermit for mule deerir a couple of times. The Game Warden stopped by once. Someone had sold a bunch of 10 acre tracts on eBay, just over the west fence. He said it was nuts.

I wouldn’t be afraid to hunt it

Depending the circumstances...

A friend of mine has a 170 on the wall from 10 acres

He had saw it in the area and asked a landowner if he could hunt his land

Like I said, I wouldn’t doe hunt it but...

That's an eye opener, for sure.






Definitely the East Texas scenario. But the landscape nearby varies from other small tracts with homes, up to individual tracts as far as I know upwards of 1,000 acres.

I am pretty sure that if every homeowner shot a deer a year they would be wiped out in a couple of years, based on 100 acres per harvest per year.

Whether there needs to be deer culled or not I don't know anything about it. I don't know shizzle from shineola about managing a deer herd.

1 deer. I wouldn’t waste my time on small properties. It’s ok for some, just not for me. I’d rather pay more and spread out.

It's not a potential lease I am looking at. It is a home I want to buy, and I think potentially a good spot for my daughters to harvest their first deer.

Look at the county specific regulations about hunting in a subdivision and minimum acreage to hunt in that county. Some have regulations on size and then if in a subdivision check the restrictions in that particular subdivision. Density(acres per deer) is going to be the important determining factor to be successful every year. If you are in an area with a deer to 15 acres and 3 doe to 1 buck ratio then you will not see many deer. So one buck for every 60 acres. 6-10 acres tracts are all hunting that one buck. Less deer will be seen if there is hunting pressure around it. Saving grace would be antler restrictions. As a general rule, land in subdivisions is going to be hunted very hard and very few deer to be seen. Places there go on the market every few years after someone realizes what they bought.

Thanks for the speedy replies and advice. Got my hamster wheel turning good now. Fat old hamster needs some exercise.

We'll just have to table for now how much hunting effort is needed to cover an area that's roughly a couple hundred yards on any side.

I assume this 10 acres is heavily wooded or great cover? The 300 acres that borders 1/2 mile of our fenceline was bought and now these guys broke it up into 10 acre ranchettes. Zero trees and cover. It's open cattle pasture. I hope they don't try and kill stuff but I have never seen a critter over there anyway. Most of our hunting is 1/2 mile+ away luckily.

It's a little over a hundred yards wide by a quarter mile or little bigger in length. I forget exactly how long the property is. I don't imagine it would be particularly hard to hunt, this is not the kind of place you go looking for a challenge to hunt. More like a nice place to call home, not far from my job, but outside the city and thank God. But if I could put these girls in a deer stand and just get a spike a year, taking turns every other year, that would probably be perfect for us. And a good opportunity to learn a bit about land management and teach my kids about conservation.

I can't deal with a subdivision if I am gonna buy a piece of land to live on. Gotta be honest with myself. I may very well be the reason some people prefer to live in a HOA.

Definitely not the mini ranchette subdivision kind of deal. I would not fit in a place like that, and they are way too expensive.

That 10 acres isn't really ten acres unless it is HF. There are no walls for a deer to know if they are on your ten acres or the neighbors 2500 acres. Shoot what you desire, they don't live there only, just pass through or maybe they stay for a bite or a drink or a nap but you are hunting a bigger area than you think.

You sound like a guy who wants his kids to learn as much as they can about the bigger picture, rather than someone who feels they need only know how to sit and wait for something to show up and eat.

I started taking my girls with me to the woods when I spent a lot of time hunting public land. The first lessons were how to find and identify deer sign and tie it to deer behavior. They learned how to look for rubs and scrapes and why bucks make them and at what time of year. They learned that picking a spot for a stand that puts the morning or evening sun at your back rather than in your eyes can make it easier for you to see a deer that can't as easily see you. They learned what deer look for and enjoy eating most at different times of the year, and how everything they know about deer and deer behavior is their best tool in being able to fill an ice chest. It was only after they learned all these things that they became ready to learn how to shoot and shoot well, so they need not depend on their dear old dad to make good shots.

Yes, teach them all you can about the bigger picture and they will surely admire you for it. And knowing how much they worked at learning how to hunt and shoot will make their first deer, no matter its size, a trophy that no one can deny.

Did I mention my uncle is a bigamist & has 4 wives & 17 kids. They all get to shoot off their own tags, right?

AAANNNDDD, THEY'RE OFF!!

Well it was a good thread. Thanks for the advice and comments. I am sure it will be locked soon.

Lol

So your gonna be greedy & bogart all that private land for your own personal hunting?

You don’t even own it yet, & your already a greedy landowner, just like you USED TO despise.