Deer are gone

[Wyldeman]

This is the third year of leasing this property and for the first two years it was great. We saw deer just about every hunt. Had plenty of doe on camera and nice bucks. We are surrounded by a hunting plantation that didn’t seem to affect our hunting.
This year the deer aren’t eating food plots or corn. We aren’t seeing does at all, hardly any on camera. Opening day as we are pulling out a guy pulls up and introduces himself as the guy that runs the plantation. He was cool and just wanted to say hello and wish a good season. He did say however the week before opening day they had shot a bunch of does.
Now I’m thinking they put corned us and shot up a lot of deer and that is the reason we aren’t seeing any. I’ve seen 2 does all season and one young buck. Any ideas?

 

[glynr329]

I am seeing the same thing. I have no deer very few at night food plot looks great. I haven't had this problem in over 10 years. Always had plenty of deer in food plots. No acorns to be found anywhere I have walked. Hope it gets better soon.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Are you hunting anywhere besides food plots and feeders? Maybe they're still in the woods on the acorns.

 

[Spotlite]

Are you hunting anywhere besides food plots and feeders? Maybe they're still in the woods on the acorns.

Yup. Our deer are hitting the acorns right now. Saturday morning I watched a yearling buck under an acorn tree and on his way to it and away from it he never even gave the food plot a glance.

 

[bobbyleroy]

Am I missing something ? How were they able to take does before opening day ? Do they have a crop damage permit ?

 

[nmurph]

They are still there, you just need to adjust your strategies. Deer herds are like sand; they will fill any void in the available habitat. I run five cameras on 300ac and place them in the same location each year. Only one camera had consistently good numbers of pics this year. It is not one that usually has the largest number of deer walking by on an annual basis. However, it also was not where I saw the greatest number of deer during my hunts.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Yup. Our deer are hitting the acorns right now. Saturday morning I watched a yearling buck under an acorn tree and on his way to it and away from it he never even gave the food plot a glance.

I would hardly ever kill a deer if I hunted only food plots. We plant them, but very rarely see a deer in one during daylight hours, or early in the season. You can go into the woods and see deer daily, though.

 

[northgeorgiasportsman]

I don't know what the acorn crop looks like where you are, but if the deer are hitting acorns hard, your corn is going to sprout in the ground and your food plots will grow up until late winter.

I don't know how you hunt, but I do know that "hunting" to a whole lot of people is sitting over a feeder or a food plot and really doesn't involve any actual hunting at all. It's more ambushing than hunting. If you fall into this category, and you really want to see the deer, get into the woods and find where they're leaving sign.

 

[Wyldeman]

We have 460 acres, 90% pines...I have stands in the woods too, The deer I have seen where in the woods. The plantation said they were using crossbows the week before rifle season when they shot a bunch of does.
I think one of the problems is a 100 acres of the property was clear cut about 4 years ago and now the trees are 6-10 feet tall and the underbrush is also grown up. You cannot see 5 feet into it. I think a lot of the does have taken up into the short pines.
Thank you all for you input

 

[Josh B]

Our neighboring property put in some huge 30 to 50 acre fields. I can see on google earth. They pulled a lot of our deer but were still killing a few. I would say just be patient.

 

[mizuno24jad]

You said the first two seasons were great, how many deer did y’all kill in the first two seasons?

 

[transfixer]

You said the first two seasons were great, how many deer did y’all kill in the first two seasons?

This ^^^

And yes, when the clearcut gets to the point they can seek refuge in it, it will definitely cut down on what you see, we've gone through that pattern many times over the years, but if you'll walk the edges of that grown over clearcut you can find where they are coming and going from it, we currently have about 70-80 acres of grown over clearcut, trees are maybe 5 or 6 ft tall, but underbrush is just as tall as the trees, we've found about 4 major trails in and out of there, set up about 60 or 70 yds from the edge and watch the edge of the thick stuff.

 

[elfiii]

Yup. Our deer are hitting the acorns right now. Saturday morning I watched a yearling buck under an acorn tree and on his way to it and away from it he never even gave the food plot a glance.

I would hardly ever kill a deer if I hunted only food plots. We plant them, but very rarely see a deer in one during daylight hours, or early in the season. You can go into the woods and see deer daily, though.

Yep. You got to hunt where they are, not where you want them to be.

 

[Wyldeman]

We killed 7 total the first year and 8 last year, 4 does and 4 bucks. We were real selective in our kills. We saw a lot of deer.

We have a couple stands on a couple well worn trails out of the clear cut.

We’ve noticed our doe population appears to be down but again a lot of them could have taken refuge in the over grown brush.

 

[mizuno24jad]

That is a lot of deer killed on 460 acres, there is one reason why you’re not seeing as many deer this year, it takes deer to make more deer

 

[spurrs and racks]

the deer

are not gone....

s&r

 

[Miguel Cervantes]

We have 460 acres, 90% pines...I have stands in the woods too, The deer I have seen where in the woods. The plantation said they were using crossbows the week before rifle season when they shot a bunch of does.
I think one of the problems is a 100 acres of the property was clear cut about 4 years ago and now the trees are 6-10 feet tall and the underbrush is also grown up. You cannot see 5 feet into it. I think a lot of the does have taken up into the short pines.
Thank you all for you input

That is a best case scenario actually. It means you have a monster bedding site on your property now, a sanctuary away from hunting pressure. You can actually hunt those small pines too and pull some really good bucks out of them, it just takes a 180° tactic and way of hunting most aren't used too.

 

[elfiii]

We killed 7 total the first year and 8 last year, 4 does and 4 bucks. We were real selective in our kills. We saw a lot of deer.

We have a couple stands on a couple well worn trails out of the clear cut.

We’ve noticed our doe population appears to be down but again a lot of them could have taken refuge in the over grown brush.

There are 640 acres in a square mile. You have 460 acres. That's .72 square miles. Assuming your local population is 35 deer/sq. mile you have 25 deer on your property regularly (35*.72). Assuming an equal distribution by sex that's 13 does, 12 bucks of varying ages. Do the math from there. Killing bucks isn't hurting you but you might be killing too many does.

 

[mizuno24jad]

There are 640 acres in a square mile. You have 460 acres. That's .72 square miles. Assuming your local population is 35 deer/sq. mile you have 25 deer on your property regularly (35*.72). Assuming an equal distribution by sex that's 13 does, 12 bucks of varying ages. Do the math from there. Killing bucks isn't hurting you but you might be killing too many does.

And 35 per square mile is being generous depending on area land is in

 

[mizuno24jad]

Oh and don’t forget we are not the only ones out there trying to eat the deer