What do you consider a small property?
Medium size property?
Large size property?
I hunt some small 150 acre spots and some big stuff, 27,000 acres but I find the birds in the same areas year after year. All public land.
Smallest I turkey hunt is 150 acres. Largest is around 70,000 acres.
Dang, where I live small is under 10 acres, medium would go up to 100...anything over that is big.
Natl Forest in area is huge though.
2015 Old Gobbler contest Champions
The smallest farm I hunt is 88 acres. That farm has given up 4 mature gobblers over the past three years and 3 of them were limbhangers. Never heard more than 2 gobblers in a day there and there's a lot of local hunting pressure in those woods.
The mid-sized farm I used to lease/hunt was 370 acres and it had lots of turkeys. The most I ever heard there was 6 gobblers.
The biggest land I hunt is 8,000 acres of public land and you're most likely to see or shoot a 2 year old there. I've only seen one other turkey hunter on that land beside my buddies. The most birds I heard there was 7 gobbling at the same time. I'm sure others were calling, but too far away or too windy to hear.
Jim
250 and under small.
250 - 1000 medium
1000 + large
I hunt a couple 20 acre farms as well as a 5 acre piece and all have produced semi-consistently. However I do hunt a few 500+ acre farms that I would consider large here.
I hunt all private and most are small. The smaller properties around me don't get asked as much as the bigger ones. The smallest property I hunt is 40 acres the biggest is 200 continuous acres. I do have some areas where we have permission from 2-3 people in a row giving us 4-500 acres.
I'd say dirt road ninja has the numbers right. Not much farming in my area. We have cattle and we have pine trees. LOTS of pine tree and big timber company land around.
I've got two small farms I can hunt here that are roughly 100-200 acres. There's a larger farm I can get on so long as the landowners son in law is with me. It's not continuous but it is about 1500 acres and it's good turkey ground. Finally, I belong to a club with an ungodly amount of ground. Fortunate there. Just need to start deer hunting it too I guess. Seems a waste to just turkey hunt it.
Quote from: fallhnt on February 24, 2016, 12:37:07 PM
I hunt some small 150 acre spots and some big stuff, 27,000 acres but I find the birds in the same areas year after year. All public land.
I had to laugh right out loud! One of my spots is about 30 yds. by 50 yds.!
I call 'em in from neighboring property that I've never asked permission on...My biggest place is about 60 acres and I think that's HUGE!
Man, I envy you guys that have ACRES!
small is 250 acres, largest is 256,000 acres.
Quote from: dirt road ninja on February 24, 2016, 03:53:32 PM
250 and under small.
250 - 1000 medium
1000 + large
Agreed
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Lease of about 720 acres and then public WMA that is 150,000
It all depends.... I only hunt ground hunted by myself, my brother and maybe 1 other person.
For the two of us I consider acreage to fall into the following categories:
Small: 150 or less
Medium: 150-400
Large: 400-1000
Huge: 1000+
Quote from: M Sharpe on February 24, 2016, 08:29:25 PM
small is 250 acres, largest is 256,000 acres.
:agreed: Same here, though may have access to a new farm that's 60 acres wooded this year. :smiley-char092:
So I look at this from the private land side, live in WI where most of the farms are a bit smaller. Out west the term changes to ranches and biggest I hunted was 61 squares.
In my area...
Small is 100-200 acre
Med is 250 - 500
Lg is 500-1000+
I have private access to about 3,000 acres of prime turkey ground
To me everyone has the access on "public" ground so I would have millions of acres of access...
MK M GOBL
Here in southern Michigan the deer hunting influences everything else... EVERYTHING is posted and folks are fiercely protective of even 10 to 20 acres. My 6 acre property has produced 5 gobblers in 12 seasons which is pretty good for a small woodlot. The lease we had in Missouri for 12 years was 450 acres, just about right to get to know the land intimately but still have some room to move around.
So in this area:
Small- 40 acres or less
Medium- 120 acres
Large- 300 acres+
I can see where both large and small areas can force you to become a better hunter for the situation. In a very small area you've just gotta sit your butt down, you don't have a choice. In a very large area, you have to go find the birds as sitting in one place all day can be a waste of time. It's all huntin' and it's all good!
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Small to me is anything under 500 acres medium is 500-1000 and large over 1000, with that said I don't hunt land around here less than 700-800 aces i know you can kill birds on small land but I just don't like it I like to roam and I can cover than many acres easily myself. Thats the reason I love to hunt large public land spots 5,000 to 500,000 acres plus. I just acnt see myself going sitting under same tree or at edge of same field every year and killing birds
Love the big tracts of public. ....don't run into boundaries too often that way. I have picked up a couple of smaller tracts of 30-40 acres close to home and that could be a good thing.
One of our best tracts has been a 40 acre piece. I lucked into permission and even can stay in the owners cabin. First year hunting it we roosted a bird in a small clump of pines. Next morning dead. That night we go all over checking more areas thinking well this spot is done. We pull in after checking several spots to no avail. I tell my buddy I'm just going to walk down the trail and owl hoot for kicks. Boom..one gobbles in almost the same exact spot. Next morning boom done. 40 acres...if it's the right 40 acres I have learned it can be great.
Last year we killed birds on a 68 acre tract, 113 acre tract, 130 acre tract. The 40 I mentioned above was dead last year but this fall we saw a group of 5 toms so hopefully they stay close.
My time is very limited in the spring. I average 7-8x a field. Not to sound arrogant, but I hate bumping into people especially with limited outings.
my deer camp that I turkey hunt on is a little over 600 acres, but the birds are there every year
Most consistent spot I got is 13 acres. It has produced a nice bird every year for the past 5 years. Me and my daughter call it the "Honey Hole".
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My land is 33.5 acres. Last year was the first year we owned it during turkey season. One hunt lasted 10 minutes from the time I made the first call till 3 long beards were on me. So I bought a second tag. Next time I heard probably 300 gobbles but they were on a hillside on trust land nobody can hunt. The next time I went back it took an hour to kill a gobbler. I have a trail cam pic from 2 days ago of 24 hens with 2 of them being bearded. Can't wait to take another bird off of my place.
Deer leasing is rampant here and it is hard to get on private. We do have a section and a half to hunt, I just got tired of being turned down. Got 16k acres of public close to the house but it gets hammered. Secret is out on Kansas.