Southern Indiana Whitetail: Property management

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Property management

I read an article last night about managing for big deer on small tracts of land. It got me wondering about southern Indiana deer management. How little acreage is too little acreage to manage for big bucks in southern Indiana where hunting pressure is high and most terrain is big hardwood?

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Properties

My only property in the Cincinnati area right now is a 50 acre tract on the Great Miami River that I call "The Sanctuary". 50 acres does not sound like much, but the setting of this property is what makes it great. Sitting adjacent to a park, it is protected from hunting pressure and receives deer traffic from the vast amoun of wildlife habitat in the park. The 50 acres is about 1/3 native grass field and 2/3 wooded area and thick burr patch. My first year hunting this property was 2008. Though I filled my tag on Thanksgiving morning on a different property, I saw a good amount of mature buck activity on this property that fall. Having worked hard all summer to get ready for the 2009 season, I was able to arrow a mature buck on Halloween.

The Dream 80 is an 80 acre tract in southern Orange county that is surrounded mostly by Hoosier National Forestry. We started our lease at the beginning of December, 2010. Dad had lusted after this property for many years, so it is now called The Dream 80 and referred to as TD-80. At this point (12/12/2010) we are just beginning to make plans for TD-80. We are beginning to map out sanctuaries and food plots that we will break ground on early in the spring (map seen here http://siwhitetail.blogspot.com/2010/12/preliminary-plans-for-td-80.html). The innitial goal for this property is to make it home to two mature bucks a year. That seems like a realistic goal that will push us to want more out of the property. If this property produces one mature buck (four of us will hunt it with bow only) per year, I will consider it a major success.