Shooters per property or per acre?

[huntn2]

How many shooter bucks do you average on the properties you hunt? Do you find you get only one big boy per property or do you have multiple shooters? Obviously acreage, food, cover, water, hunting pressure, etc., can and will impact the number of deer and their patterns, but in general for those of you who get it done year after year, do you have multiple shooters you are after each year? How many properties do you hunt? How many acres? Ultimately how many of the "right" acres do you feel is needed to allow more than one shooter to call it home?

 

[Diablo54]

Out of the 780acres or so that i hunt i can think of 8 different 130+bucks that we had laid eyes on. although i garuntee theres more hiding. I can think of 19 that were 115 and up.


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[hickslawns]

First define "shooter". For me it is close to 140". On one property I would say there were two regulars, and a couple others that occasionally visited. On the other property, I have seen three which were solid 130's. One was harvested, the other I have seen. There were supposedly 2 others which were bigger on the property and this came from a good source. We never caught them on camera and I personally never saw them. Both properties were 70-80acres. My third spot is where I took my buck this year and I would say it does not "hold" any shooters. During the rut if luck is on your side you might see one visiting for a few days here and there. For example, look at my avatar picture. lol For what it is worth, the buck I took this year was also on trail camera at one of my other two properties in early September. Not sure where he spent most of his time. I killed him the first time I saw him on the hoof. I believe (from what other locals had seen) he resided on a property in between the two mainly.

 

[CJR123080]

On a piece of property that is just shy of 2,000 acres, I personally saw 11 different three year old bucks or older on the hoof ranging from mid 130's to 150. Also got trail cam pictures of bucks I never saw. I hunt the property with two other guys and they saw mature bucks that I never saw. Needless to say, there are a lot of mature bucks on this property year after year.

I also have a much smaller piece of property that I hunt (less than 80 acres) that has been very productive.

For me, it comes down to location. I'd rather hunt the right 40 acres than the wrong 4,000. If you have a small piece of property with ideal habitat, the property will attract bucks and will be within the home range of more than one mature buck. I firmly believe that.

 

[huntn2]

First define "shooter". For me it is close to 140".

Phil, I purposely didn't define shooter because I know the term means something different to everyone. I like how you, Diablo and CJR have placed a count for a range of antler size (x number over 130" or 140" for example).

 

[cotty16]

I hunt about 180 private acres. In my early season photos I had 4 shooters. All were 140 or better. I got one. The neighbor shot one (the drop tine). To my knowledge there is a great 9 and 10 point still there although the last time I saw the 10 was the eve before the gun opener. Neither have showed up on camera in a good while.

 

[huntnfool]

Couple of the places I hunt that average 400 acres I would say I see 3-5 shooter through out the year. These 2 places are hunted by a few others so seeing them on the hoof is hard sometime.

The other place you can see 8-10 deer that wold go over 130 and maybe 3-5 of them would go above 150 mark. Takes alot to hold big deer and to get them all on camera. I read an article one time that even with trail cams you will only pick up half of what is living on or using your property.