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Any luck in Decatur County last couple years?

BBD Big Buck Down

BBD Big Buck Down

Member
Just bought some new property by Osceola and Grand River. The area looks really nice but wanna hear from you guys if you've seen any monsters or had any success in this county.
 
Any county in southern 1/3rd of state would be awesome if you're in the right neighborhood with guys that are managing for mature animals, balanced ratios and premium deer habitat & food. Decatur included along with about 20 others. Give me a crappy neighborhood that gets blown to pieces in those same 20+ counties and it will be night & day difference though.
 
Grand River and Osceola are two different counties, but as ^ stated it all just depends on how your neighboring properties are managed. But the area definitely has the potential to grow monsters.
 
Nope, no big deer there! Ill give you $1000 an acre for it right now, just to spare you the wasted time of hunting it :D
 
Decatur County, IA

I have a farm in that area, and as a NR I was not able to hunt the farm, but trail cam photos showed plenty of nice deer, but there were also a few trespassers!
 
The hunting is very good in that area. I have two farms within 15 miles of there. Trespassers during hunting season are not too bad if you keep an eye on your property but the shed poachers are out of control. Load up on food and keep the people out and you will have a healthy number of 150 plus deer to choose from every season. How good are your neighbors?
 
I haven't really talked to any of my neighbors yet. Hopefully they will respect my property and have the same deer management that i have in mind. But really? Theres that many people in the area that trespass and shed hunt on others property? I'll be setting up some trail cameras with some sort of GPS tracker in it in case they take my trail camera and i'll catch those bastards
 
trespassing

Trespassing seems to be a real problem in many parts of Iowa. The main reason is that fines are very low and no long term punishment. Another factor is that many farms are owned by NR, like myself. I don't have a lot of incentive to be @ my farm, knowing that I cannot draw a tag for three years, locals know that and take advantage of it, and they shed hunt your farm before you can get there.

The alternative is to let someone in the area hunt it, which I have, and that helps limit the trespassing, but in my case, it didn't eliminate it.

In 10 years of farm ownership in Minnesota, i have only encountered one trespasser--a cross country skiier. So it is much worse in Iowa from my calculations
 
Hard to beat Decatur County, its has it all when properly managed. Many of the big names hunt there for obvious reasons.
 
I live here by Chariton now ( from Pennsylvania) and I'd be happy to help ya keep an eye on your property.;):way:
 
BBD Big Buck Down said:
I haven't really talked to any of my neighbors yet. Hopefully they will respect my property and have the same deer management that i have in mind. But really? Theres that many people in the area that trespass and shed hunt on others property? I'll be setting up some trail cameras with some sort of GPS tracker in it in case they take my trail camera and i'll catch those bastards
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Some folks won't respect your boundary. In my opinion you would be better off to make friends with the landowners around you... if they are local farmers all the better. I keep an eye on several guys farms down where I live, they let me shed hunt them, but I don't bowhunt them as I have plenty of my own... If you start a good relationship with the locals it can go a long way, they are there a lot more often than you can be!
 
We just bought a farm in Decatur County and withing the first month we had a trail camera stolen. Since then we have made every effort to meet all the neighbors and surrounding folks. We have hired locals to put in a ditch crossing and gate as well as help out with our food plots. We have even paid to use another farmers equipment to work the ground. We feel that the more locals that know who owns the farm and our intentions, the better. I work in both Iowa and Missouri so whenever im driving down 35 I try to stop into the local bar and say hello to various people that I know and know me. I want whomever that may want to trespass and hurt the farm to know that I am around now and then and that there are a lot of locals watching the farm for us. May come back to hurt us but so far the folks have been very nice and we haven't had anymore issues.
 
With the overpopulation of meth babies southern iowa is turning into nothing short of the inner cities of detroit. I had three tractors and 5 trail cameras stolen out of my back yard and they even took the copper pipes out of my basement. I'm beginning to wonder about the heartland.
 
BrewCrew said:
With the overpopulation of meth babies southern iowa is turning into nothing short of the inner cities of detroit. I had three tractors and 5 trail cameras stolen out of my back yard and they even took the copper pipes out of my basement. I'm beginning to wonder about the heartland.
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Yup, we have our fair share of meth heads (our share and then some...), however, generally I think we are good people. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else :)
 
I hunt 40 acres south of Osceola and I get real good hunting, have real good deer on their but its surrounded by corn on every side and no one that i have seen is hunting around me.
 
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