Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 10 acres enough?

Looking at retiring, central Missouri in particular. Seeing several nice houses but only 10 acres. All wooded and surrounded by more wooded land. How much land is "enough" I know, more is better..

10 acres being "enough" depends on your use and your wants. It's a lot if you're in the middle of KC or on the lake. Not so much in the middle of the Ozarks. If you want your own shooting range and don't want your neighbors pissed all the time, that's a little light. I'd think 20 minimum. If you want to protect yourself from incoming windmills, it's hard to get enough.

There are worse places than central Missouri. So there's that. Also, 10 acres is a lot better than 1.

buy the most you can afford & feasibly build right smack in the middle

wish'd I had more

Do your damnedest to not have close neighbors.

You'll thank me later..

Well this is rough carpentry because of location, location, location in real estate, but having owned house and land from 1/4 acre to 202 acres, can speak from some experience and reflection.

For country living I'm kinda in the camp that says 10 acres is an absolute minimum. Ideally 20 acres or more, way more, even, because I'd want a barrier against development encroachment and some breathing room to hunt and do some target practice.

I'm tired of moving after a lifetime of it, so our next move may be our last before hospice (yikes!). That being the case, and to remain true to your question, I'd say 20 acres plus. YMMV.

We live in town, quarter acre lot... Have thought about someday building a house out in the country.



The more open setting the more acres I would want.

It would range from 5-40 acres on the river bottom to 640 acres in the hills.


Neighbors and future development would be major factors.

I would like to get a wooded piece of acreage and put about an 800 sq ft cabin in the middle of it. I don't want a lot of yard work so I would clear just enough to feel like a tree can't trash my home in a heavy storm. I was thinking 10 acres would be a nice size but if the surrounding land has homes that are away from my property line, 5 acres would probably be enough- for me.

Three homes all 10 acres each off the same road. Houses are placed away from the property lines. Large property (farm open hay fields with woods) on two sides. Deer in the photo's, but.. I have hunted in 1000 acre areas, and normally concentrated in a 2 or 3 acre area. Crap shoot, I hate looking and buying long distance. Thankfully there are some relatives in the area.

It depends. If you’re mowing the lawn, 1 acre is enough. If you’re row cropping, raising cattle, selling timber, or deer hunting, the more the better.

I live on 40, on a private road with a friend for a neighbor who owns 180, and good neighbors around who all own 40 to 60. 40 in that situation is almost enough. I can’t see a neighbor, but I can still hear them drive by!😂

The only thing I dislike about my place really is the gravel road at the bottom of the hill that forms the border of my property. It gets too much traffic. Of course, I would only be really happy if I never heard a car at all.

Where fo you live now? That will color how ten acres feels to you. A guy moving from an area of low density and large landowners will find it small. A guy moving from a subdivision in the suburbs or a loft in the city will think its heaven. Until the neighbors are revving their four wheelers at ten p.m.

It really depends on the neighbor situation. I grew up on a 5 acre plot. It is surrounded by other parcels, some lived on, some not, but all immediately surrounding neighbors are good people. We had free reign of a few 100 acres as a kid, and we all worked together during deer season. No other seasons were really hunted, so I had them to my self. This was a good way to grow up and a way I am trying to get back to.

(As I type this from the 7th floor of a down-town apartment 🤢)

My Ex’s family bought ten acres south of town. Tall flammable grass giving over to mesquite. Impossible for them to keep up with and the small house on the lot is subject to burglary when they aren’t there because it cannot be seen from the road.

The elderly brother of another friend lives alone on a cattle ranch, hard to imagine but he ain’t really a firearms kinda guy, never has been. Wouldn’t be hard for a miscreant or three to take him out. Might not be found for a week or more.

Actually, I don’t mind having close neighbors, we watch each other’s stuff.

My place in north Idaho is on 11 acres with neighbors running 20 - 50. There are thousands of public land acres ten minutes away. That said, short of the annual pig hunt Dan does, I do not hunt Texas.

Only a 7 Acre RANCH here. But we're surrounded on three sides by public land and the neighbor has an empty lot across the street besides the one his house is on down the street a bit. And another empty lot next to his. We're in a county that's slowly losing population, so I doubt many of the multitude of vacant lots around here will be developed. If they are I'll be supremely bummed.

If I had my druthers, it would probably be a 700 Acre RANCH, but I don't have that many druthers to buy that much land.

smith, if you're worried about some of those wooded areas being developed in the near future, 10 acres might not be enough if you want to live in the country. Good luck with it.

Our humble place in Ontario is , tiney, 321/2 x 102, we are not there a lot, good friends, and close neighbors keep a close watch for us.

As noted above it depends on where it is and what might happen as time goes on. I live on an 80 piece of farm ground and woods and have only one house I can see from mine. Hunting is good but my house is smack in the middle of the ground and if I were building it today it would be on the edge closer to the county road. Less snow to plow and the less disturbed the balance of the land is the better.

Don't buy a place with a bridge or a creek unless when the creek floods you can still get out.

The advice to buy as much land as you can afford is good.

Do you want to hunt off of your back porch, garden, or keep neighbors at arms length?
Some people are blessed to have a national forest or cemetery joining. Others end up with a trailer park or poacher moves in next door.
It all depends. Ten acres is plenty to mow garden and do a lot on.

"Enough" can depend on how much land you are prepared to handle -- taxes, liability insurance, time to maintain and proper equipment to maintain, etc.

Lay of the land per access and usability.

Things change. Good neighbors now may not always be good neighbors. People sell out and move or die and heirs either move in or sell to whoever.

Neighbors houses are not in the sight line. Don't really know the situation with the larger plots that are farmed, with no houses around. Unless one of those gets broken up I don't see much that can change. I am currently in the subdivision with about a .2 acre lot and mine is a large one.. It would be nice to hunt the land, deer are by the pond in the pictures and yes they could be taken from the porch. Not that I would plan to do that.