Managing Your Deer Property: Sometimes Less is More

Over the years I've read a lot of articles about managing your hunting property to enhance its potential to hold more deer: Food plots, supplemental feeding, bedding areas, creating water sources, planting trees and even fertilizing the natural browse have been covered thoroughly. Usually these articles end like some kind of commercial; giving you the opportunity to purchase the newest secret to make your property teem with deer come Fall; but I have accidentally stumbled upon a land management system that has had proven results long before hunting became a major marketing industry.

For years my brother Jacob and I have taken great pride in trekking up to our hunting properties in Georgia before the season opens to work on the land: Food plots, feeders, trail cams, shooting lanes, fertilizer, etc. We share our bigger lease with 18 other members and many of them drive up throughout the year to work on the property. In recent years there have been more food plots, more feeders, more mineral licks, more stands and more shooting lanes, yet less deer seen. What is going on? Maybe we need to stop asking Bass Pro Shops what deer want and ask the deer. But that is not easy. Whenever I get close to a deer on my hunting properties  they blow and run away as fast as they can before I can ask them a question. It's almost like they don't want me there. What a lack of appreciation for all the work I've done for them!

It's time to burst our bubble as land managers; deer don't want us and they don't need us. The best hunting property we could acquire, at least in my neck of the woods, is not a property that has been extensively managed but a property that has never been hunted. Native Americans understood this and they would move their entire tribe to find the illusive, untouched "Happy Hunting Grounds" rather than start planting food plots and putting corn feeders up to attract more deer. Sometimes the best thing we can do to enhance our property is just leave it alone.

Bucked out in the early years of hunting small lease

Besides our big lease, my brother and I also share a small lease. It started out as 250 acres owned by a farmer and leased by 4 of us. The farmer had not allowed hunting on the property for many years before we acquired it and the first couple years it was banging. I took 5 - 6 deer every season for the first three years. One of the members lived near the lease and he would routinely walk the property, check out all the stand set-ups as well as fill feeders and check trail cams. The hunting quality of the property slowly declined. Last year the farmer sold off all but 60 acres of which my brother and I continued to lease. I hunted the property one evening in September but besides that we neglected it, didn't even touch it.

Last week we went up for a final turkey hunt and to move my stands off the big lease; as I am dropping it. When we arrived to set up my stands at the small lease we were amazed at the amount of deer tracks on the fields. It looked like they were using the fields as a race track. We talked to the farmer and his wife and they have been seeing deer everywhere. He had sweaty t-shirts hanging around his blueberry field to try and keep the deer out of them. We walked down a little creek bottom to hang a lock-on stand and as I was half-way up the tree screwing in steps, a big bodied buck with his first nubs of velvet came tromping down the creek bottom right towards us. It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon and he was walking like he had thrown caution to the wind. When he finally looked up and saw my brother and nephew standing at the base of the tree at 15 yards he about jumped out of his skin! He felt secure because this spot hadn't any human activity in years.

On the ride home we had time to reflect on how human activity effects deer activity. I do still believe there is a place for food plots and supplemental feed stations but the pros must be carefully weighed against the cons  of disturbing the deer's sense of security. I know there have been times where I find an awesome spot for a stand with plenty of deer sign and I try to enhance it only to ruin it. There was a reason the deer liked to frequent that spot and for me to put up a feeder, cut shooting lanes and set up trail cams might ruin the reason they felt safe to come there in the first place.

I realize that land management methods work differently around the country, but here in the Southeast I am dealing primarily with swamp deer that want above all else cover and solitude. The best stand set-up I can find is the place that is most untouched by human activity. With that in mind I will have a lot less work to do this year before the season starts as I am taking a less is more mentality on the little piece of property I have to hunt in Georgia this year. Besides that, I will be hunting Florida Public Land and the same mentality most certainly applies there as well. These are just some personal thoughts about land management that you can feel free to agree or disagree with. I can hardly wait for Fall to put this theory to the test!