What am I missing here?

[Grandslam11]

I have around 200 acres that I have hunted for the past 4-5 years. I only get to hunt there about 5 times per year. The terrain is very rough, mostly all wooded. There is some bottom land (very hard to get to) and some ridges with plenty of acorns. It seems that I never find any deer sign. The deer sightings have really gone down the past years. I went out the other days and I didn't find anything. No droppings, no rubs/ scrapes, very few rubs from years past. When I acquired this land, I thought I had a honey hole. Now it is hard for me to even want to go at the thought of having better areas to hunt. I have killed one deer there in 5 years, have seen a few smaller ones that I passed on. What am I missing. Am I scouting the wrong areas? Surely there are some decent deer on a 200 acre wooded tract? What do you guys do when you are seeing no sign? I will attach a topo of where my stands are but any advise would be great.

 

[Omega]

Any food plots out, or open areas? You say wooded, can you not get it logged a bit (not clear cut), to open it up a bit. What about those two water sources, springs, pond, creek? Be a good place to also offer some forage.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Ours was much similar to yours - pretty much nothing but hardwoods. Over the last 8 years or so, we have select cut several areas strategically. This creates browse and cover, not only for deer, but also turkeys. We have seen a lot of benefits from doing just this. We are working to expand our food plots to 3 times the acreage. Hopefully we will have that done by spring. Doing this type of logging puts a little money in your pocket, as well as helping attract critters.

As a side note, we are not seeing much sign at all this year either. Neither is a lot of people I have talked to, including in your area.

 

[megalomaniac]

looks like you are missing habitat diversity... add that and the numbers of deer will dramatically increase

 

[bobbuck]

Some areas just don't have many deer. I have a farm in Fentress county with all the diversity a deer could ask for and very few deer. We have owned it since the early 90's and it's always been very low deer density. I just deer hunted elsewhere when I was living in State. I have killed one deer off of it and that was around 1995. Killed lots of turkeys over the years and unfortunately hogs started showing up about 5 years ago.

 

[Grandslam11]

Hogs have showed up here also which is probably part of my problem. The neighbor killed 33 this year alone. I dont own the land so I have no ability to log or do anything like that

 

[Omega]

Hogs have showed up here also which is probably part of my problem. The neighbor killed 33 this year alone. I dont own the land so I have no ability to log or do anything like that

Can you put out plots, mineral sites? Even micro plots can bring some deer in, and minerals have never failed to bring some in, even on some places I only had a few days to prepare.

 

[K-dub]

I hunt a similar piece of property. My suggestion would be find the thickest area on it and hunt the edges. Did this on mine and buck sightings went way up. With the amount of acorns on the ground right now, they don't have to move 50 yards before they are full and lay back down. When the rutting starts the edge of cover is a hot spot for all deer movement.

 

[Grandslam11]

The hardest part of scouting is that it it so steep in areas. I have mostly hunted the funnels but again, deer sightings are minimal. There really isn't a whole lot of thick areas with the exception of down in that bottom. In most areas, you have about 50 yards of sight before another hill or ridge interferes. The water noted on there is a runoff of a waterfall above the property.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

You could select cut those south and southwest facing slopes and create the biggest food plots you can on the ridgetops (or the flattest areas you have). Burn those select-cut areas every 3-4 years and you'd me in the money.

 

[megalomaniac]

Your stand locations look spot on from the topos to me.

 

[CheathamIceman]

Put out a pile of corn and a trail cam. DONT HUNT IT just use it as a scouting thing to see if anything is in the area and youre just not crossing paths with it.