How would you hunt my 20 acres?

[joejo20]

Hello,

I am having a bit of trouble where I hunt.

I am on 20 acres across the rd from a non hunting state land parcel which is surrounded by water on three sides and is about 300 acres. The only way for the deer to leave the state land is to cross the rd to my acreage.

I typically hunt 70 days out of the 90 day season and only see deer the last five minutes of daylight if I am lucky. I always try to play the wind and hardly ever get busted by a deer so there is not much pressure on them.

Is there anything I can do to lure them over?

What would you do?

Thanks for your input.

[rad_112176]

Do you have any arial photos of you land? That would help us to come up with what we might do.

[joejo20]

Everything to the right of the diagonal road in the middle is mine (between the two houses). The group of thick trees is a swamp with a stream running through it. To the east of the swamp is a clearing and then a steep hill.

[matthewjr83]

I would say hunt any food sources (which you probably already now), but wait until the rut starts picking up. If the road is not busy then i would get about 20 yards in the woods near the woods and try to rattle and grunt... this will hopefully bring the boys over to look for what is going on... that's what i would do

[wtnhunt]

Don't know, kind of hard to say without seeing the property and being able to identify the food sources in the area. May not be what you want to hear, but my initial thoughts are that the deer will cross the water from bedding in the thick stuff on state ground if there is a food source opposite your property.

[joejo20]

The only food I have on the property is a handful of apple trees. I see a lot of deer beds on the property though from the night time.

I did plant a small oat and turnip food plot this year. Maybe that will help?

[fly]

Question to answer is:

Why would the deer want to leave the 300 acres of state land to get to your 20 acres?

Do you have something the deer need?

The basic needs for deer include food/water/cover.

Looks like about 5 acres of your 20 is timber (in the swamp). It also looks like the 300 acres is mostly timber.

If the 300 acres already has water (which you say it does) I'd concentrate on providing food. Especially food that will be available when other food types are not.

I'm not into food plots, but I've heard late season food plots work great. I'd also suggest allowing at least a narrow strech of thick cover to grow from the road to the swamp area. That might bring in deer before darkness hits.

Good luck!