The author arrowed this magnificent 141" 12 point on his 45 acre West Feliciana Parish property during the 2007-2008 deer season.
I’ve owned a 45 acre tract of West Feliciana Parish property for 8 years, and have been through the ups and downs of trying to properly manage such a small piece of land for quality deer. I’ve made significant progress since acquiring it, but it certainly did not come without sacrifice. Many people might scoff at the idea of being able to manage such a small piece of land effectively for excellent deer hunting, but the results I’ve achieved point out that it certainly can be done, and done well enough to reasonably achieve whatever results you desire.
When thinking about managing small acreages, you have to realize that what you do for the good or the bad affects all of the land surrounding you. What your neighbors do affects you. Unless you form a co-op, each land will have its own management plan. When you let a deer walk, you will have to be satisfied that someone else may be the one to kill it. It is a two way street. The deer your neighbors let walk may be your trophy of the future.
Deer management can be described as creating conditions to obtain a reasonable goal with your herd. By reasonable goal, I mean that you cannot achieve world-class deer where the genetics, nutrition, and minerals are not available for them. So in your management endeavors, try to focus on what a normal, mature buck in your area would be. You can improve this only marginally. Here is the decision: Do you want trophy deer, shooting a buck once every few years; a reasonably good buck, shooting one or two almost every year; or do you want to kill deer by the numbers no matter what they are? You cannot have it all. I will break down the various types of management plans into three basic groups:
Option 1: Managing For Trophy Deer
Bucks like the author's 140" 10 point are difficult to hunt, even on well managed property. You can expect to arrow a buck of this caliber every 3-5 years on acreage managed for trophies.
This is where you try to harvest excess does, and only bucks 4.5 years or older. On bigger properties, you may consider 5.5 or 6.5 year old bucks as your management target, but this article is in regard to small acreages. In most areas you can only expect to harvest a trophy buck every three to five years, unless all of your neighbors implement this plan as well. A thing to remember here is that even though you succeed in your management plan, these bucks are more nocturnal than younger bucks. They are more difficult to hunt. During the rut they may completely move off of your property to an area where there is an estrous doe. What I do know is that starting in mid December, I lose more than half of my older bucks. Most do not return. Some may be killed and some may just relocate. I have seen this year after year on my land. Trail camera pictures verify their absence. In very late December through February, I can see many new bucks showing up. Some are mature deer while others are juveniles.
This system offers the fewest in deer sightings for three reasons: the first being that there are less deer present. The second is that there are less does, which are your most visible deer. The third reason is that the age structure of the deer contains more mature bucks, which are your least active deer until the rut. The good part is that you will see more mature bucks, but these sightings won’t be everyday on a land that has hunting pressure. I would only consider this plan under a cooperative management system with your neighbors.
