Was out hunting my sub 100 acre ranchito in SW Young county this prior weekend and started pondering this question. Yesterday morning while hunting the rear setup of my place and seeing nothing, the front setup had a nice management buck and friends showing up, none of which made their way back to me. Candidly, I prefer hunting the rear side of the property, farther away from FM roadway, slightly heavier cover, away from my trailer, etc.etc., however starting to think much of that makes little to no difference to the deer traversing my place. What say THF??

And before we all go there, no I do not believe the deer are overly patterning me. Don't go out there enough for that, don't make much if any ruckus while out there, basically walk to and from setups only. No ATV cruising around. Please dig deeper on this than "patterning"

Lots of blinds set up within 200 yards of IH10.

In Boerne at dark I see axis feeding under the lights from the parking lot at Champion High School with constant traffic 150 yards away.

That being said, no matter how remote the property, and maybe even more so if remote - I wouldn't set up any blind that's visible from a public roadway.

Several years ago one of my best blinds was set up on the fence line with a county road running next to it.

I hunt 2 small properties with one blind each. Because of the property configuration, both blinds can be seen from the roadway under certain conditions, however the feeder pens cannot be seen. Deer don’t care. The smaller 70ish acre property has produced the best bucks.

We have 2 blinds 50 yards from road that tanker trucks use to haul sour water from frac wells, sounds like a freeway at times. We kill deer there consistently; they don't pay any attention to the trucks or any other traffic.

Bar ditch sees lots of deer after dark and they have to be somewhere before dark. Usually more to eat and I have seen deer bed on opposite side of road, cross road and come to feeders within 100 yards of road plus, I like to hunt where the deer are. If they are closest to the road and house, I think I would hunt there. Who knows, after a couple of days, they may decide to move to the back of your property.

I have owned 133 acres of heavily wooded land in Montague County for about 40 years. Not sure I know the answer to your question. Some years I’m butt deep in deer and other years not so much.

I started to see more deer when I ignored the permanent blinds the previous owner set up and scouted my property for deer trails. I started setting up closer to the deer trails in a pop up blind. Those pop up blinds work really well. I’ve had bucks walk right by me at 10 yards and didn’t know I was there.

I think consistency is one of the keys and when they consistently hear vehicles, dogs, doors, tractors etc. they get used to them. Also, the consistent feeders, relative safety, other deer and animals that helps. The thing I'm not sure about is hunting pressure on all the bordering sides of small properties. I hunt a sub-100-acre property and in 2023 had deer on camera at night but didn't see one during a hunt until the last weekend of the season. This year totally different in 6 sits I've only had one sit where I didn't see anything.

They definitely get use to the traffic I hunt a small 50 acre property, behind me they run atvs near every day of the year.

DQ, have you considered going down to one blind with multiple feeders?

^^ This....and also be careful not to push deer off of the property when walking, I have accidently done this a couple of times on my 160 acres, slowly walking in to a blind in the afternoon or a little too late in the morning and BOOOOM across the fence from me a little later

Irrigated alfalfa… no till/drop seed forge oats in winter

Yeah tossing this actual idea around, hard to be at two places at one time but not watch two opposite direction feeders from same blind.

Provide what they can't find on the nearby neighbors. Could be water, a food plot, free choice protein, minerals, maybe even cover depending.

Best way to successfully hunt a small property?
These are things that work for me on small property or any set ups I have.

I like to run 2 feeders at 1 spot. 1 feeder in a feeder pen (10 panels) and 1 not in a pen. I've had many hunts where a young buck or aggressive doe runs off does from one feeder to the other. It keeps more deer in my area. Also if 1 feeder quits working for some reason I still have corn throwing. I like to throw 3 times in the morning and 3 evening. My first morning throw I like to set about 15-20 minutes before good shooting light. I've had really good luck with mature bucks coming in early to eat and staying just long enough to shoot if I wanted to. If I have a good buck coming in after dark I'll set a throw time for midnight or 1am. If he's in my area I want to keep him there. Sooner or later he'll mess up and come in at day time.

I really try to limit the time I'm around my feeder and blind area. The less pressure on a spot the better. I get in my blind at least 1 hour before sun up and around 2:30 in the evening. I park really far away too. 1/2 a mile at one spot. One of our spots hunts way better if you're dropped off at it. I use 600# feeders or bigger so I don't have to fill them as often. I've started using cellular game cameras so I'm not around the feeder as much. The cell cameras also help during season to see what's coming in. If l have a big buck show up on camera during the week there's a good chance he'll be there that weekend.

We hunt 120 acres (2 hunters). I`m a firm believer in having as little of footprint on the property as possible (don't walk around). We have 30 acres of heavy oaks and underbrush across a creek at the back that we never enter until February or March. I only do it then to check the fences and check for any evidence of trespassing or dead deer. We park at the gate and walk to one blind that is 200 yards and the next is 300 yards. We have 2 feeders running for about 6 months per the owner's lease agreement. Hand corning is a huge part of keeping the deer on our property. Roughly a gallon for each sit starting during bow season. Hand corning a big area will let the deer feel more comfortable than being around a feeder and only the dominant deer eating. I`ve literally had deer follow me many times or be waiting near my ladder stand during bow season for hand corn. We never use feed pens either, even though I have considered it in the past when pigs were bad. During hunting season... get there early in the a.m. and the p.m. Also sit longer in the a.m. (10-11) than your neighbors the first 2-3 weeks of the season. You may not see many deer, but the quality will be better. I have a friend who only hunts from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. early season and always kills nice bucks.

Sage advice! It works.

IMO, year-round feed is a game-changer, especially if you're in areas where food sources are challenged by heavy numbers or poor range conditions. I've noticed that I now have a lot of deer actually living on my place, and they don't stray that much. 9/11 notable bucks made it through the season. Neighbors kept reporting low sightings of bucks (they were at my feeders daily). I'm about to also add a water trough to a remote part to go with the feed.

The best thing we did was add a water tank by the feeder. It's 1000' from the house complex, but 200' lower with cedar and oak providing cover. It's amazing how many animals come to water.

I hunt 100 acre lease (bowhunting) I have two feeders and multiple stands based on wind. I can access different ways depending on wind. I think this is huge because if you walk in and your scent blow to 80% of your lease you are scaring them away.
Food and water are probably most important like mentioned above. I'm adding food plots and persimmon trees so deer will travel to my small 100 acres and hopefully hold them. Then I have stands to hunt IE 2 feeder stands, edge breaks, clearings, pond...etc

We have 130 acres (archery only). I think the setup that had the most consistent deer at it was actually closest to the LO's house, that said it was hard to get into without being scented because deer used the same roads we walked in on as well and were usually keyed up by the time they hit the area. The setup we had the most success at was an elevated blind that was about 50 yards off the road that ran through the property. It was near good cover/bedding area and a conversion point for a handful of different game trails. I had deer come from every direction throughout the season.

The latter part I think is crucial, if you can find a spot with lots of trail and cover, you'll have success no matter where it is in relation to the human footprint. I'm also a believer that less is more on a small property. Deer will find feeders and having too many of them may split up your efforts. Suppose there's a case to be made if you want to spread deer out more, but that wasn't our intent.

Lastly, I agree with jayb, multiple winds to hunt on the same setup is very helpful. So to that end I'd probably invest more in blinds/stands than more feeders on a small property.