The Hunting Ground Walk
Everybody wants to see the trail cam pictures first. I look at those last. This is the list I use on every walk, whether you are buying a tract or making the one you own better. Tap a box to check it off. Your checks stay on this phone.
The five that decide it
Access
Legal, deeded access. Not a handshake with the neighbor. If you cannot legally get in, it is not worth what you paid.
Income potential
What can this ground pay back while you hunt it? Cash rent on the tillable, a conservation program, timber down the road. Ground that carries itself is ground you can keep.
Food plot potential
Is there a spot with enough sun and good enough soil to grow something? Not every opening will. Find it before you buy, not after.
Cover
Where do the deer bed, and will that cover still be there in five years? Cover is what holds them on your side of the fence.
Neighbors
Who hunts the ground around you, and how hard. You can do everything right on your side and still lose it at the fence.
Before you drive out
On the ground
About the neighborhood
The question that matters most: what will this ground be in ten years if you do the work? Price it on that, not on the trail camera pictures.
Already own ground?
I do a Ground Walk. I spend a morning on your place and leave you a written plan, so you know what to do first and what it does for the value of your land.
- Where the deer bed, feed and travel, and where they are getting pushed out
- Food plot spots worth planting and cover worth protecting
- Timber, invasives, and access in and out
- Programs you are in or could qualify for, like CRP or CSP, and income from rent, a lease or timber
- You get: a marked aerial map and your first three projects in order, with rough cost and timing
Cost depends on the size of the property and the drive. Text me the county and acres and I will give you a straight number.
Send it to me.
Text me the listing link, or the county and acres. I will tell you what I would look at first. If you already own it, tell me the one thing you would fix first.