landman
Well-Known Member
what are the adjoining landowners doing?
If you was in KY I would say the neighbors are out feeding pulling the deer off....
If you was in KY I would say the neighbors are out feeding pulling the deer off....
DIfferent Verse, Same Song
- Thread starter landman
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Mike Belt
Well-Known Member
If you have food and cover then I'm stumped. If all you have is food then that may be your answer. I'd much rather have cover than food. At this time of the year when bucks are shifting ranges, hunters are tampering with the woods, and acorns are on the ground food plots may not draw the deer as heavy as they might later on in the season. Deer may use them but bed elsewhere during the day. Are you running any cameras and not getting pics either?
sharpshooter
Well-Known Member
This, or just concentrate on the late season on your place.jb3":1nyvb3y9 said:
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csi-tech
Well-Known Member
I have four hundred acres loaded with nothing but brush, bedding and oaks. It is bordered on the North and South by professional food plots. Huge plots owned by elite hunting clubs. It sounded like hail in the woods as the acorns dropped. We have killed two nice bucks in two years. We have some whoppers on camera, but that hasn't equated to shot opportunities. It's just making your own luck and being in the right place at that magic moment.
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
I will say that anyway.landman":3a63ee5p said:
Seriously, the corn baiting is rampant, and many of those doing it really don't even seem to realize it's illegal. Certainly all the stores selling deer corn and feeders are doing their part to promote in-season baiting. Just go to Wal-Mart and look how much "deer corn" they're moving weekly during October & November --- but don't even stock it most of the year. Yes, I'm talking in TN.
Some will blame TWRA for allowing it to happen so widespread,
but the blame is more on those doing it (feigning ignorance), and the sellers of feeders & deer corn.
To TWRA's credit, when an outstanding buck pic hits Facebook or draws any public attention,
let's just say the hunter is at high risk of losing his trophy if he was hunting over bait.
And, it's certainly possible no one bordering this property is currently baiting.Mike Belt":3a63ee5p said:
There may be a tremendous amount of both food and cover around this property, especially with recently harvested corn & soybean fields, not to mention, just a few scattered oak trees can provide a lot of acorns for a few weeks. While Doc is most aware of what's immediately bordering him, the deer likely are more aware of everything within a mile or two (every direction), simply gravitate to the areas less disturbed, and still having everything they want to eat.
Speaking of this "less disturbed", it is possible that what little hunting you've done has "disturbed" your area more than the surrounding area, and little as it seems to you, it was all it took to make "your" deer move over just a few hundred yards, off your property. Seriously, forty acres is a relatively small portion of even a doe's weekly range. Wouldn't take much activity on it to be more than much of the surrounding hundreds of acres (where the deer would normally already be spending more of their daily time year round).
landman
Well-Known Member
I will say that anyway.TheLBLman":1m5f9kl0 said:
Seriously, the corn baiting is rampant, and many of those doing it really don't even seem to realize it's illegal. Certainly all the stores selling deer corn and feeders are doing their part to promote in-season baiting. Just go to Wal-Mart and look how much "deer corn" they're moving weekly during October & November --- but don't even stock it most of the year. Yes, I'm talking in TN.
Some will blame TWRA for allowing it to happen so widespread,
but the blame is more on those doing it (feigning ignorance), and the sellers of feeders & deer corn.
To TWRA's credit, when an outstanding buck pic hits Facebook or draws any public attention,
let's just say the hunter is at high risk of losing his trophy if he was hunting over bait.
That did cross my mine as I was typing my post.....and it come be his neighbor doesn't bow hunt but is holding deer on his land during bow season by heavily feeding and not hunting around it at all
Buzzard Breath
Well-Known Member
Plant acorns..... and have your wife hunt Madison County until they grow.docpoco":7n7cdlmq said:
diamond hunter
Well-Known Member
Plant Sawtooths and wait about ten years.Or just plant corn and let that golden magic work.Why not do both? Sawtooths need room to produce well IMHO.
I don't know, really. I never have much luck in the field the kids hunted, but I expected to see more deer than I did. Had we been able to hunt their stand and the other side of the farm I think the outcome would have been much different, but I can't say for sure why other than we see and kill most of our deer on the west side.
That Creek bottom is very heavily hunted, but is a highway once they settle into pre-rut and rut. That being said, most tracts up and down the creek are smaller and and are hunted heavily, the pressure may very well be a factor in increasing movement when MZ sets in. Very few bowhunt seriously around there.
I think we've hit the "October Lull" where deer transition from summer patterns but have not settled into fall patterns yet. Second week of MZ is usually pretty good if weather isn't too warm and windy. I've learned from you that the best hunting is the week I return to Texas from Ohio.
Who knows....
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That Creek bottom is very heavily hunted, but is a highway once they settle into pre-rut and rut. That being said, most tracts up and down the creek are smaller and and are hunted heavily, the pressure may very well be a factor in increasing movement when MZ sets in. Very few bowhunt seriously around there.
I think we've hit the "October Lull" where deer transition from summer patterns but have not settled into fall patterns yet. Second week of MZ is usually pretty good if weather isn't too warm and windy. I've learned from you that the best hunting is the week I return to Texas from Ohio.
Who knows....
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megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
40 acres can be pretty small... and extremely vulnerable to pressure. One of the main reasons my properties are so good for mature bucks is the very fact that I DON'T bowhunt them. The neighbors push deer during bowseason onto my land, and I take them during the early rut with a ML. Aside from 1 weekend of juvie season, I leave my hunting land hands off until the mature deer start moving during daylight and are killable (right now, all the mature bucks I'm getting on camera are between midnight and 2am).
another possibility is that the deer just aren't using your property during this time of the year. One of my farms is like that.... very, very few deer during November, but it's prime and loaded during late December. Been like that for over 25 years. I've added foodplots in the past 5 years, hasn't made a difference (except there are even more deer on the property during late December). There are some oaks, but seems like only the does and small bucks hit them in November.
another possibility is that the deer just aren't using your property during this time of the year. One of my farms is like that.... very, very few deer during November, but it's prime and loaded during late December. Been like that for over 25 years. I've added foodplots in the past 5 years, hasn't made a difference (except there are even more deer on the property during late December). There are some oaks, but seems like only the does and small bucks hit them in November.
If you can plant corn I would plant it. If you have some good oaks that it is very thick around I would clean out from around them. It is hard to compete with acorns but we seem to see deer on our plots even when acorns are falling. I bet noone hunts your bordering properties until gun season, part of the reason for the late season push of deer your way...
bowhunterfanatic
Well-Known Member
I'll play the devils advocate here. IMO, corn isn't the answer. I know each farm is different but the main farm I hunt has probably 300-400 acres of cut corn on it as we speak. We've seen very few deer in the corn this year. However, our green plots have been absolutely destroyed, and that's with a bumper crop of acorns on this farm like I've never seen before. I know a corn plot would outperform a harvested corn field, but I think you'd be much better off clear cutting 4-5 acres to create some great cover and maybe select cut that much more area. Cover over food every single time, and if you don't believe me I'll invite you to come hunt the farm I'm speaking of for a day or two. We might get lucky and kill 1-2 nice bucks off ~1300 acres full of food each year, but our neighbors who have all the cover kill that many and more off much smaller farms each year.
I think planting corn will be of limited benefit. Any ag field around there can be planted in corn at any given time. The beans are cut already and there will be plenty of them scattered for the rest of the season as an easy food source. The cover crop has already germinated and is basically a winter food plot with all the clover, wheat, rape, turnips, and raddish.
I'd take heavy cover over ANY food source, especially in an area with a lot of hunting pressure.
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I'd take heavy cover over ANY food source, especially in an area with a lot of hunting pressure.
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I think you answered your own question. This time of year they are after the acorns and you don't have them. Once the acorns are gone they will be back. I don't really see a solution short of substituting corn for the acorns which may or may not work. I can tell you I have 3 places to hunt in 3 different counties and all 3 places I am set up on white oaks for the next two weeks
