THE $30 MANAGEMENT PLAN

Get Your Neighbor's Buck

Editor's Note: Pru McLelland of Livingston, Alabama, operates Trussells Creek Lodge near Boligee, Alabama.

To improve the size and the number of deer you have to hunt and for your property to home more and bigger bucks than your neighbor does, you must have more food available for deer than your neighbor does and provide sanctuary for those deer. More than likely you'll pull in the older-age-class bucks that your neighbors have run off their properties. "I plan my hunts so that my hunters have the best chance for taking the biggest bucks when they hunt with me," McLelland says. "I don't allow anyone to hunt my land the last week of deer season so that the big bucks on the surrounding properties that are subjected to heavy hunting pressure will have a place to hide out at the end of hunting season. Too, I make sure that I have plenty of food on my property. Then when the bucks move in at the end of the season, they'll have no reason to drift off my property. I don't start hunting my land until the middle of December, although gun deer season opens in mid-November. All the properties around me will have heavy hunting pressure. I not only keep the bucks on my property from the season before, but other deer from neighboring lands will move in at the beginning of hunting season to dodge hunting pressure.

"By not hunting the first three or four weeks of deer season and not hunting the last week of deer season, I know I'll have the most big bucks on my property to hunt in the middle of deer season when most other hunters can't find a big buck." Developing a deer-management program for 1,000 acres for a cost of $30 a year not only includes what you do with the $30 to manage your deer but also how you use the hunting pressure around your lease to your advantage. You can have an expensive or inexpensive deer management. These suggestions for a $30-a-year deer-management program will help you on your way.

To learn more about Mossy Oak BioLogic or the NorthCountry Whitetails Habitat Development Center, contact Neil Dougherty at (866) 677-9625 or visit www.mossyoakbiologic.com or www.northcountrywhitetails.com.