Who hunts on small properties?

I’m talking less than 50 acres. Anyone?

Never have as my only hunting avenue, but I have hunted and killed deer/hogs on several different properties 20 acres or less.

Looking to buy our own land but it would be 15-50ish acres depending on location.

I'm about to buy a 57 acre piece, all wooded

What area?

We close on 25 acres end of may. Its almost all costal, like the properties to either side, doubt ill ever shoot more than targets or dove on it.

Same 50 acres all my life and I'm not a teenager although I once was.

I hunt on only 34 acres that I own in Houston county but the land is surrounded by the Davy Crockett National Forrest. Last season was my first season and while I captured shooters on my camera up to about the end of October, they all disappeared or became nocturnal. This year I bought a crossbow so that I can try bow season and have a better chance at a good buck. My youngest son did kill two does. There are tons of squirrels, hogs, raccoons and some coyotes and bobcats as well as wood ducks although I'm not a duck hunter. Smallest place by far that I've ever hunted though.

I own 33 acres that has been in my family since the mid 1970s when my dad retired. It was surrounded by a very large ranch on 3 sides with little to no hunting pressure within a pretty good distance. That large ranch is now part of a national wildlife preserve with only draw hunts happening occasionally. We are over run by hogs!!! The other fence line is about a 100 acre place, not hunted with out of country owners that only go out a couple times a year while back in country during the summer months. My dad had cattle that I took over to maintain the ag exemption, during the drought back in 2010-2012, the hogs demolished the fence to get into the artisan springs for water, so I converted the place over to a wildlife improvement management exemption and been pampering the wildlife every since. I have my management plan set up for song birds, small animals and turkey (no mention of deer as that throws a whole set of additional requirements) ... I go out at least once a month, most of the time twice a month to check on things and/or work. The past 7 out of 8 times I have seen turkey and about every other time I see hogs (which are shot on sight). We have deer coming back into the area after the drought and over populations of hogs being reduced (but they multiply faster than we can keep reducing) and haven't taken but maybe 3 deer since my dad passed away in 2004 as he wanted to save that hunting for his grandkids and later their spouses, and now would be his great grandkids coming up to an impressionable and teachable age.

to me, it all depends on the neighbors and size of the surrounding properties ... ours is about as perfect of a set up as I could imagine with 3 sides as national wildlife preserve and non-local/non-hunting on the other side.

One of the tracts that I hunt is roughly 80 acres but only about half of that is deer-holding habitat. I've found small tracts surrounded by heavily pressured areas can be big buck hideouts, especially when they include thick cover that would make a jack rabbit cry.

I have, in the right area it can be great, if there are a lot of small properties in the area, it will likely suck.

I have a 17.5 acre property I bought LF that I bought a few years ago within a mile of my house. If I wanted I could probably fill my license the first morning of the season. But I have not taken a WT Deer off the place since I have owned it. I do take an Axis off it every year. It all depends on the location and what others in the area are doing. It is only about 2 miles from town and if you want it $170,000.

Not any more but I used to own 28 acres that was just completely overran with deer. The land north and west was a lease, the place on my east was not hunted as was the 100 acres across the road to the south. I had cover, water (two ponds), food plots, corn feeders, mineral/salt sites and limited hunting pressure. The guy on the lease whose area adjoined me hunted my fence line, he said every deer in the area just loved to be on my place. Make it attractive to the deer and plant some cover trees and they will come if there are any around the area.

15 acres outside Columbis Mo. Most of it has trees, neighbors have row crops with trees also.

We live on 50 acres and I could sit on my back porch and shoot a deer or hog almost any day of the year.

I own 28 acres in east texas that is all densely wooded. My place is a little unique in that it juts into a large tract of state land that is also wooded. My one neighbor is like minded and we both know we have to be wise with the wildlife. The hunting is mainly to keep the sport going with the next generation, so the goal is more to make it exciting for young folks than to actually bring home a lot of deer. That said, many years we usually can take one nice sized buck. We end up with very few locations to put a blind, but that’s life. It’s 85 miles from my house. I can sit and watch fireflies and listen to coyotes at night. We see a few hogs and an occasional bobcat. ‘

I managed to pay cash for this place so it’ll never be taken by the bill collectors. Only way to go.

archery (crossbow) hunt 30yrds all around stand less than an acre...
Does place have creek or water on the it ? Could be bedding area 50 acres tis huntable...
congrates, have hunted 50 & less acres

We’re just getting started researching but I’m seeing a lot of 20-75ish acre tracts in Edwards and Menard counties but they’re are part of a larger ranch. Was afraid It would suck having that many small places around.

It may or may not suck having a small place. The smaller your property, the greater the influence of what goes on with the neighboring properties, which can be bad or good. If you hunt 500 acres and the kids next door ride their dirt bikes on the opening day of deer season, it may not be an issue for you. If you hunt 25 acres and the kids next door start riding their dirt bikes, you may end up like some of the folks here, claiming how the neighbor ruined opening day of deer season. So the deal is that you only get to somewhat control what goes on inside of your fence, but you are at the mercy of what happens outside of your fence. Your neighbors may decide to high fence, for whatever reason, and partially or mostly cut off a lot of your game traffic. Just because you find a perfect piece of property with great neighbors does not mean you will still have great neighbors down the road. That is the reality of owning a small property.

25 acres, and take deer off of it every year. Mostly does, but a few shooter bucks also.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

I bought 20 acres in Central Texas and have had some nice bucks come off of it.

This seems shady but have y’all seen this before:

Owner Financing. This lot is being offered for sale with financing. Simply make the small down payment, and the land contracts and coupon books will be emailed and hard copy mailed to you immediately. You can start using or building your land while you are making payments.


Seems a little easy

Yeah, it actually works really really well. If you can do owner financing, you can save a lot of money by not paying nearly as much on interest on the loan. You set up an escrow to ensure that everything is above the table and is secure while the contract plays out. It can work out great, if you write the contract correctly.

I guess it can go both ways I have seen people buy owner financed at rates higher than market. I almost bought a place several years ago but the seller would only sell it owner financed for 20 years because they wanted an income stream for retirement, so they also wouldn’t accept prepayment.

cbump - Cass County

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.