Hunting Land

[MJBaldwin]

Question for you experts. I have been hunting with my buddy and his dad for about 8 years now they own 80 acres in NE MN. I am wanting to branch off on my own since its quite the drive over there and would like to take my son in the near future. I am wondering how much land a guy needs to hunt gun season. Although the closer I might be able to get it to home the more I would like bow hunting..
 

On top of that how does it work hunting public land? leave your stand there or bring it each time? (I am near F/M area)

Thanks for all your information!

[nofishfisherman]

I've rifle hunted on a 40 acre private property and I think that might be as small as I'd personally go with.  You have to figure that part of that 40 is the road in and building page for the house/cabin/garage.  Then depending on the property you may have neighbor buildings close to the property line or roads bordering the property that you'd want a little buffer from.  That can shrink the actually hunting acreage down pretty good.  Then factor in more than one hunter on the property and you could start feeling the squeeze.  Obviously it does depend on the property, terrain, whether there is public land bordering, etc but I think 40 is a good starting point.  If bow hunting you can go with less.  I will be bow hunting on 10 acres next season that I just got access to.

As far as public land goes I've spent most of the last 5 years hunting public around Paul Bunyan State Forest.  We use climbers.  We pick out our spots ahead of time and then hike the stands in on our backs opening morning.  We'll then lock them to the tree when we leave that night and leave them in the woods until we end our hunt mid week.

If I were to use a ladder stand I'd probably set it up a couple weeks before the season and lock it down to the tree.  Be mindful that if someone comes across a stand on public land its fair game so you have no claim to your stand if someone else is there first.  Thats why I use a climber, I can lock to the tree and lock the upper and lower piece together to make it unusable unless someone has the key or carries large bolt cutters with them in their hunting pack. Also the harder the stand is to get to the better odds you have of people leaving it alone.  On public land you need to plan on hiking in at least a half mile before you start losing people but further is better.

Edited October 15, 2015 by nofishfisherman