Yeah I agree it would be case by case. I can get financing with Texas veterans land board but the current rate isn’t great (7.25%). I’ve seen a few owner finance deals worse and a few better. For sure wouldn’t take one with early payoff penalty.

I’d sure check with one of the Farm Credit System (FCS) or Farm Credit Bank (FCB) lenders.
Part of the FCA network.

Capital farm credit
Lone star ag credit
Texas farm credit
Heritage land bank

The problem is I don’t have 20% down. I have 5-10%. VLB will take 5%.

Working a purchase with capital farm credit right now our rate was under 5%.

Took a mulie buck off a 12 acre piece last year.

Yeah most that want owner finance ain't got a lick of credit., But if land you'll get it back if they don't pay.

I used to shoot deer on 11 acres. I can shoot deer on 5 acres if I want to. Just make sure it's legal, bang/flop and quiet.

A few deer from my twenty acres.

I have hunted on property as small as 9 acres. Had a buddy that hunted on 18 acres for about 20 years. He took 1-2 deer a year without fail. I have hunted, and continue to hunt on as much as 1200 acres. If I had my choice, I would hunt larger acreage. However, I have been blessed with opportunities that are way above my pay grade! If I didn't have the opportunities that I have, I would buy the best property that I could, which would likely be under 50 acres, and be happy as a pig in slop!

Our area is mostly smaller ranches ranging from 80 to 200 acres. We're in an AR county, and I have pretty good relationships with my immediate neighbors all having similar styles in management. If anything, we do not harvest enough deer in the area, especially does, but even mature bucks. Really, the only limitation to my property is the number of hunters it will support - at one time. I will occasionally invite a guest to hunt, but only one at a time, and if I have a guest hunting, I will either join them in the blind or not hunt - just trying to limit the pressure.

The downside, this could all change if one of my neighbors sold and/or changed their hunting behavior. If a group came in and started shooting everything that walks, life would change dramatically.

Success on small properties depends a lot on the neighbors

All these deer were on an 8 acre spot I had

I just bought 19 acres an hour north of Plano and I see lots of deer and was seeing lots of hogs until recently. I did harvest over 20 hogs since December.

I have all farmland to my north and south and woods to my east and west. Being only an hour from my house means I can go there any day I want to hunt. So distance is something you also need to consider. I could have purchased 50 acres for the same $'s but it was over 2 hours drive. And I would have had to put much more into setting it up to hunt. This smaller plot is easier to manage and I have already been very successful in bringing home some great meat.

Like this guy does?

https://www.affordabletexasranches.com/

Check out USDA / FSA first time farmer/rancher programs. All types of assistance

Will do. Thank you

About 30 years ago it was a time period in between my Dad and I having our own deer lease. For several years we would hunt the Trevino Day Lease off Highway 77 outside Victoria where we lived. We'd hunt most weekends of the season there so got to know the Trevinos. The larger land where they conducted the day lease was on the East side of Coleto Creek. On the West side closer to the homestead (Where Aunt Jo's BBQ is now) they had 20 acres that they would hunt themselves, it wasn't day leased. We hunted there a few times with them. I've never seen so many dear on such a small area.

I purchased 50 acres 8 miles south of Junction in August 2018. My neighbors vary in size, 18 acres, 100acres, 300 and 1000 acres. The South Llano River is 800 yards away. I have seen as many as 18 WT and 14 Axis at one time. With my brother in my other stand, we were looking at 26 WT deer at one time. The WT are abundant but no trophies seen on my place but the 18 acre spot had a very nice 12 point taken in 2018. The Axis are what makes this place amazing. Do your homework, talk to the neighbors and do not buy 50 acres in a subdivided ranch just because they offer 5 or 10% down. Texas Farm Credit was excellent to do business with.

I've got a little 10ac place with some flood plain around it. See some real nice deer. Mostly at night. They show up in the daylight some on peak days for rut and movement. If I hunted harder I could probably catch up with one. It's not so hard to find small property that has deer as it is to find small property where you can also do enuf shooting to hunt. I have a backstop where I shoot and don't worry about it much. Other than that I'd need to be careful. No houses or buildings behind me or to the sides but there is livestock and such sometimes.

Our little place is 32.5 acres

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7785069/my-personal-best-ever#Post7785069

I have a buddy that owns 3 acres with an old abandoned family farm house on it. It has 2 acres of dense cover on it. There is a lot of surrounding property that holds a lot of deer. He bow hunts from the house. He put a feeder up on the edge of the cover 20 yards from the old farm house and that is his shooting house. It works great, he can drive in, park in the garage. He has all the comforts in there, can get in there as early as he wants and relax, sleep, whatever. He killed a 140 typical 2 years ago, and several doe.

The deer don't know how small your property is. They will jump into a 400 sq ft feeder pen, they will jump into your yard. Just create the environment they are comfortable with and stick em.

My cousin and I both killed really nice bucks on his 2 acre tract of south Texas brush. These two acres were not in City limits and happened to be just off a county road. We had a tall deer blind and the feeder was only about 30 yards out so our shot was angled downward to avoid bullet "fly-away." We made sure that we took "neck shots" only to drop the deer on the spot. His two acres was a "big buck" bedding area. The local game warden had no problem with us hunting this property as long as the shots were opposite from the road way.