|
|
Post by harmonist34 on Dec 7, 2017 23:52:19 GMT -5
What's the smallest amount of wooded land you'd consider purchasing if it's surrounded by good farmland? I do gun hunt, but my primary interest is archery hunting land.
I've got my eye on a couple parcels that are in the 20-25 acre range, but each is only 7-10 acres of woods. I have a feeling I'll regret not having spent my limited capital on a larger parcel (or at least one with more wooded acreage) if I jump on one of these...but they've got several things going for them, not least is that they'd be less than an hour from my home or workplace.
Basically, I need somebody to talk sense into me...because every time I look at these parcels, I end up wanting one/both of them that much more.
|
|
|
|
Post by htownhunter on Dec 8, 2017 5:13:25 GMT -5
I just bought a house and 19 acres of land. It has about 7-10 acres of woods. It buts up to woods on two sides that connect to a lot acres.
It all depends on the surrounding area and if deer are moving through the land your looking at.
I'd scout both the propertys to get an idea if deer are moving through. If the unwooded areas are grass. It will be easier to plant food plots.
|
|
|
|
Post by duff on Dec 8, 2017 5:17:28 GMT -5
I live on 10 acres and kill deer out back so it would be possible.
Things I would consider.
1. Neighbors. I had it made for 3 yrs then neighbors son began racing dirt bikes...then the neighbor built a new house right on property line. My hunting has been much less enjoyable.
2. Connection to additional cover, I like drainage ditches or creeks or old rail beds to give deer cover to travel in between woods if you are talking about pocket woods.
3. Is there cover to hold deer or can you build cover in the spots that are not in the woods. Crp type habitat
4. I would also consider leasing a property that you can't afford to buy. This give you many benefits and flexibilty to walk away if conditions change. But land ownership is a great goal too.
|
|
|
|
Post by featherduster on Dec 8, 2017 5:40:36 GMT -5
I live on 10 acres and kill deer out back so it would be possible. Things I would consider. 1. Neighbors. I had it made for 3 yrs then neighbors son began racing dirt bikes...then the neighbor built a new house right on property line. My hunting has been much less enjoyable. 2. Connection to additional cover, I like drainage ditches or creeks or old rail beds to give deer cover to travel in between woods if you are talking about pocket woods. 3. Is there cover to hold deer or can you build cover in the spots that are not in the woods. Crp type habitat 4. I would also consider leasing a property that you can't afford to buy. This give you many benefits and flexibilty to walk away if conditions change. But land ownership is a great goal too.  |
|
|
|
Post by beermaker on Dec 8, 2017 5:54:21 GMT -5
Duff makes a good point about leasing. I lease and it does not make me particularly happy when I write the check, but It makes me very happy to have a good chunk of land to myself and guests.
I finally had it with public land. It was too far to drive and too many other hunters gradually began showing up. On the opening day of firearms last year I was shined twice on my way to the stand. That was it, period, and I never went back. And yes, I do fully acknowledge that other hunters had just as much right to be there as me.
I did some simple math and quickly realized that land ownership is just not in the financial cards for me. For example, 50 acres at $5k/acre (probably not even realistic) would take almost 100 years to pay off (no interest) at my current lease cost. That does not include property taxes and insurance. Also, like Duff said, if I don't like the place or the neighbors, I'll just find another lease. You can also recruit a few like-minded friends to chip in and get more land. I am trying to recruit 2-3 guys to go in with me next year. I have two verbal commitments already from business associates. One of them just gun hunts and the other one talks about hunting, but only hunts maybe three times a season.
Just my thoughts.
|
|
|
|
Post by swilk on Dec 8, 2017 8:39:53 GMT -5
You could own 5 acres, the right 5 acres, and have be very successful hunting it and have a blast.
You could own 500 acres, the wrong 500 acres, and never see a deer and be miserable hunting it.
Open land does not need to remain open land. Wooded land does not need to remain wooded land.
If you buy something in the right place there are infinite changes that can be made.
|
|
|
|
Post by tynimiller on Dec 8, 2017 8:59:41 GMT -5
I currently hunt only 1 place over 35 acres....technically the smallest parcel I hunt is about 4 acres. However, last year I purchased just shy of 23 acres...here are my thoughts:
-Wooded areas take much more money, time and energy to really make tremendous deer habitat. Some of the best habitat is overgrown fallow fields or young woods thick with understory herbacious vegetation. One of the main reasons I went for my property despite it not being in a location I wanted was because it had roughly 15 acres of land which were at one time ag fields. One section had about 10 years of growth and another about 5. Mother nature had done better than I could ever attempt to create in a time frame under 5 years. Personally speaking I'd rather have 20 acres of no trees than 20 acres of fully mature woods void of understory (all things relative)....granted depending on type you could get serious coin for the logs...but it is gonna take a long time and lot of work to make those woods viable and highly desirable deer habitat.
-Size. In my opinion IF I was looking to buy land I'll want 10 acres minimum or so. I'll ask to hunt as little as 3 if the right 3 though. Acreage size while great I wouldn't let sway my decision. I'd take my 22 over many a friend's 75 acres.
-Area. Many times what makes a property good is not the property itself but the area around it. Does the property sit in a natural pinch point between roads and back yards, or butt up to parcels owned by an industrial park that has a thick 9 acre jungle around their retention pond that will be a bedding area for ya...
-Neighbors. Good neighbors are worth their weight in gold x2. Bad neighbors are worth their weight in troubles x10.
-Money. We all have restraints or limits....hunting land seemed well out of our reach and I had just set a 15 year plan in motion for solid down payment when the deal for mine came across me....stay vigilant and tapped into land around the area. Ask owners if looking to sell that "scrub" non tillable 30 acres of theirs....worst they say is no.
-Be grateful. I have to force this into memory at times....my acres are not ideal, or large or what some would call great hunting...but it is a tremendous blessing to have. Similarly it is an amazing and tremendous blessing to hunt anywhere....even when I am hunting a spot we have hunting rights too but it doesn't see a lot of deer...it is a blessing to just have to opportunity. We deserve nothing.
Blessings.
|
|
|
|
Post by ukwil on Dec 8, 2017 9:13:53 GMT -5
I'm in the same boat as you. We are also looking to buy, mainly for my kids to have a place to hunt.
I couldn't agree anymore with what swilk and ty said. My parents place is 7.5 acres about half is over grown pasture, but it sets between 2 major bedding areas. So we have a major travel corridor. A couple small, less than .5 acre, food plots and bam we have a honey hole. This year alone on my cameras I had at least 4 different bucks over 150" and took a mature 8 point that we hadn't ever seen until I shot him. Our key is we hold and feed a lot of does, so come the rut it's game on. So it's not always bigger is better.
|
|
|
|
Post by bill9068 on Dec 8, 2017 9:19:21 GMT -5
Agree with all prior posts. I hunt a 10 acre plot, 60 acre plot and 240 acre plot. If you can hold does on any piece of land you will see bucks.
|
|
|
|
Post by dbd870 on Dec 8, 2017 10:00:21 GMT -5
Normally I'd agree but on the 3 different properties we hunt so far this season JDUB saw that 12 point and I saw one 1.5yr old buck. We've seen plenty of does. Ideally we should leave the bucks alone and work on the does but they are all 10-15 acre kind of properties and the places around them get hunted too so we can't influence things very much. Still I'd rather take a doe at this point.
|
|
|
|
Post by colts1888 on Dec 8, 2017 11:05:40 GMT -5
Me and my wife bought just over 10 acres a couple years ago. 8 of it is woods with a 2 acre hay field up front. We just had a house built in the field part this summer and fall. Ive had several bucks and does use my property including 2 shooters. One was a giant 8 pointer the other would have been a 12 but he had broke off some points..i found out last weekend he was shot about a half mile down the road. Our 8 acres connects with the neighbors so its really more like 20 acres. She split it up to sell to us. Ive got many pics of deer walking right thru what will be my backyard just yards from the deck. The house has not bothered them at all. I hunt another property that is just over 3 total acres and have killed bucks off it and had a cam pic of the biggest buck i have ever seen out there about 4 years ago. Its a travel woods that lays in between 2 large blocks of timber.
|
|
|
|
Post by subzero350 on Dec 8, 2017 14:05:38 GMT -5
I just bought a house on 7.5 acres of woods and a field earlier this year and I have 2 does and a button buck regularly walking up to within 20ft of the back door to eat acorns at night. This summer, they were eating clover in the field 50yds from the side door. They don't seem to care that the house is here and if the outside lights are on or not.
My dad owns 5 acres of woods and swamp (which is part of a larger swamp) in Steuben Co.. His property is on the edge of a larger swamp which is between a pond and corn/bean fields. We started hunting it over 10 years ago and saw multiple deer every year. That land has produced 1 deer for us every season since with the exception of the past 2 seasons - possibly due to the fact the neighbors who own the larger part of the swamp started hunting it hard - carpet bombing style. Since they started doing that the deer sign has dwindled significantly and no shooters have presented themselves during recent hunting seasons. We still see deer there, just small ones and not as many as we used to.
Luckily we have other places to hunt since our Steuben honey hole has dried up. Maybe it has dried up for the carpet bombers too and perhaps they will go elsewhere and the property will recover.
The takeaway from this is a property that is a gold mine today could turn into a desert tomorrow depending on what happens with the neighbors. I used to be of the mindset that I would never pay to lease hunting land but recent experiences have changed my views on that.
|
|
|
|
Post by jman46151 on Dec 8, 2017 16:23:35 GMT -5
Agree with all prior posts. I hunt a 10 acre plot, 60 acre plot and 240 acre plot. If you can hold does on any piece of land you will see bucks. I agree with most of the posts so far. I hunted a small piece of land that had a small maybe 10 acres of woods surrounded by ag but was connected to a larger slough by a creek bed. That creek bed followed the slough to a river and every year we would see different bucks come up into the small woods. And there is always a few does in there. Except for the one year we killed 3 does and then the next year we didn't see any bucks. Once we started seeing does back in there the bucks started showing up. |
|
|
|
Post by griswold on Dec 8, 2017 17:16:37 GMT -5
All the prior posts are sound advice. I'll offer this: Land is expensive and they arent making any more of it. Majority of us arent independently wealthy or stand to inherit large tracts of land. Life gets in the way. If you own 10 acres - youll never lose permission to hunt it. If youre lucky enough to buy a larger piece - even better. Do your homework and make the best deal you can and make the most of it. I own two separate 7 acre tracts of land. One is a farming situation and the other is all woods. We plAnt food plots on both and take deer on both. Never have shot a monster - yet - but it is pretty satisfying to build a stand and plant a food plot and then take deer off land over the years when the deed is in your safe at home.
|
|
|
|
Post by griswold on Dec 8, 2017 17:42:17 GMT -5
I'll follow up my post by adding as a middle-aged guy whose been married a long time - get the land when you can and pay it off. Pass on the new truck or tractor and put that money towards the land. Your wife is going to want you to spend money on matching stainless steel appliances and bedroom suites and trips to Florida and other stuff you dont care about. The more time that passes - the more opportunities come up for other things to command your money. You can offset some of your expense by selling a little timber or leasing crop ground to a farmer. I have done both. Wont make you rich - but helps pay for taxes and insurance, rock for the driveway, etc. My dad helped me cut a lot of the initial trails on one of my tracts. Hes been gone 10 years and i think about us doing that work together every time i set foot on that place. Doesnt have to be 200 acres to make some killer memories.
|
|
|
|
Post by harmonist34 on Dec 9, 2017 18:05:27 GMT -5
Really appreciate all the good advice, guys. I think the bottom line is that it's stupid to buy land at this point unless I'm 100% sure it's killer hunting land...and in this case, I'm definitely not sure. I need to look into leasing so I can hunt closer to home next year and get a feel for how much difference it really makes. I'm lucky to have a good place to hunt now, but it's a 4 hour round trip, and that's just hard to love. But the comments about leasing allowing you to limit your investment and to just decide to walk away if it's not producing or if things change about the setup really resonated. I don't want to be stuck unloading some property I just bought 5 years before when I realize the purchase was a mistake...and if I "lose" a few dollars in the next few years leasing, at least I'll be more knowledgeable about what I want when I'm sure it's time to buy.
Maybe I should start a new thread for this followup, but...for those of you with successful leasing experiences, how did you find properties for lease to choose from?
|
|
daveo
Junior Member
Posts: 33 
|
Post by daveo on Dec 10, 2017 0:14:24 GMT -5
I spent 2years looking for land in Indiana. The further you go south the cheaper it gets so I followed the highway next to my house( I74) south on a map. Once I got into KY, started looking into Whitetail properties. I purchased 100 acres for 95K. All but 13 acres is wooded. Taxes are $140 annual and I couldn’t be happier. I built a 12x12 room with 2 beds in the old tobacco barn just to sleep in. Only draw back is $260 for 2 non resident deer tags. But they are good for any weapon from September through January. Have great neighbors that keep an eye on it for me. I could not be happier with my decision .
|
|
|
|
Post by featherduster on Dec 10, 2017 3:42:02 GMT -5
Two things to remember:
1. If you don't own it someday you will be without.
2. If you own it you will always have a place to hunt.
Someone will always have a bigger and better place than me but I am satisfied just to have what I have.
Don't procrastinate DO IT..............NOW.
|
|
|
|
Post by swetz on Dec 10, 2017 16:57:39 GMT -5
The wife and I bought 80 acres, almost all wooded, in southern Indiana about 3 years ago. Like anything, there are pros and cons.
We ended up going pretty far south to get something we liked that we could afford. It's probably my favorite place to go in the world. There's a lot of pride with finally being in a position where we were able to get our own place. It also enabled me to start hunting again and get my wife into hunting.
However, it would have been nice to get something closer. It's a 2.5 hour drive to get there so it's not exactly easy. We ended up putting up a building so we would have somewhere to stay there. That opened up our ability to enjoy the place a lot, but was another big expense.
Everyone has given some good points, but the only thing I would add is that you're never really done paying for your own land. Even after you've paid the place off, there's always taxes, equipment, or other unexpected expenses. For instance, there's a big invoice heading my way for 2 dead trees that were too close to my building for my comfort in taking them down myself.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
|
|
|
|
Post by steiny on Dec 12, 2017 14:05:29 GMT -5
The right 25 acres could be a sweet little hunting property. If some of it is open, that can easily be resolved by planting switch grass, evergreens, shrubs, etc. to provide additional bedding / cover. Woods can be hinge cut to thicken up. On small properties I think thick security cover will be much more important than food.
Probably most important is the neighbors. If your 25 adjoins several small single family home lots you are going to have issues with neighbors shooting the deer on your edges, dogs on your place, non stop noise, etc. If adjoined by only one or two large farms that would be much more desirable to me. My brother has 13 acres and you could easily kill a deer on it every year.
Lease if you can't buy, but buy if you can. Yes, it's expensive but it puts you in the drivers seat, and you can probably make a little money on the investment long term if you don't pay too much for it to start with or pay the bank too much in interest. My first farm was purchased at $750/acre, it's easily worth $5,000/acre now.
Good luck !
|
|
