Deer are gone

Right now deer on our lease are in the tall pines and hardwoods. Only coming to the food plots and feeders at night in the 5 yr old long leaf pines tracts. Also, deer move later in the day this time of year try hunting til 11am

Get in the woods and off the openings.
Deer are staying close to cover with all the pressure.
Hitting acorns till those are exhausted then they have to use the plots

Those deer have moved into that thicket. It's more of a certainty than a probablility. It's what they do- even the ones who aren't under pressure. I'm readily assuming y'all are smart hunters, and am reading into what your neigbor said a little more than the rest of these guys. "we killed a bunch of does". ding ding ding! Not that you can do anything about it, but depending on what he meant by "bunch"- it would be at least part of the issue. Good luck.

Deer spread out like water. They fill the voids. Even if they are eating acorns, they still eat corn. Acorns is not the reason. The amount of acreage seems plenty large enough to not be affected this badly no matter what they do around you. Usually this is a sign of over hunting, however having the thickets you have, this usually does not cause them to leave, just go noctournal. Strange, they will be hard to see in this stage of the growth, however it tends to grow better deer because some deer make it that would have been killed. . This is my prediction..... I predict that your deer have indeed been killed out, not because of the few you have killed but because you share the same deer with the plantation, and they are driven by dollars to let their clients shoot something. And those clients came to shoot, not expecting a trophy, but a deer. Plantations go one of two ways, trophy deer where fewer hunters pay more or as many hunters as they can put in the woods paying less, but paying, adding up to more money, less deer. And since wildlife belongs to the state, nothing you can about them killing all the deer.

elfiii said:

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.

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I've always wondered how accurate that really is. I saw 9 in a one mile stretch this morning that didn't survive the interstate.

how accurate it really is

no truer words have ever been spoken

It's called a swag

s&r

1gr8bldr said:

Even if they are eating acorns, they still eat corn. Acorns is not the reason.

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Don't know where you hunt, but around here (and frankly, any place with large amounts of hardwoods) you can have deer and bears coming to feeders, food plots, cornfields etc. But as soon as the acorns begin to drop in earnest, everything disappears to the woods.

I see it all the time. Farmers and hunters comment that they're not seeing any deer. It's because they aren't coming to those artificial food sources anymore. If they'll get into the woods, they'll see the deer again.

I'm not saying that's the case in the OP's situation. Sounds like it's mostly pines. But it's definitely the case in most of the places I hunt. I've seen it from GA to NC to KY to IL to MI. If it's a good acorn crop, hunters that don't adapt their hunting style will be eating tag soup.

northgeorgiasportsman said:

Don't know where you hunt, but around here (and frankly, any place with large amounts of hardwoods) you can have deer and bears coming to feeders, food plots, cornfields etc. But as soon as the acorns begin to drop in earnest, everything disappears to the woods.

I see it all the time. Farmers and hunters comment that they're not seeing any deer. It's because they aren't coming to those artificial food sources anymore. If they'll get into the woods, they'll see the deer again.

I'm not saying that's the case in the OP's situation. Sounds like it's mostly pines. But it's definitely the case in most of the places I hunt. I've seen it from GA to NC to KY to IL to MI. If it's a good acorn crop, hunters that don't adapt their hunting style will be eating tag soup.

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It probably varies according to locations, deer density, etc. I have 50% hardwoods, LOL, like looking for a needle in a hay stack on good acorn years. The "big woods" as I call it are app 300+ acres of nothing but acorns. A waste of lease money in non acorn years, and hard to hunt on good years. However, for me, even on the bumper acorn years, they have always eat my corn. But I do keep corn at these locations by use of a feeder every day. I can see where a new corn pile or one that's often "out of corn" would be given up over acorns. I don't prefer to hunt over corn, it feels like shooting rather than hunting. But its great for doing inventory and selective culling. One year I decided not to put out corn, to just hunt after particular bucks. Worst year of seeing bucks ever. The does hung out at the neighbors who were feeding and the bucks went where the does were. So I can't disagree with you, but in my case they have always eaten my corn even on bumper years. But hunting the corn during an acorn year, LOL, that would be some disappointing hunts. I'm here because I enjoy the conversation...... LOL, so speaking of hunting acorns. The only way I have been able to see deer in my "big woods" during bumper acorn years is to hunt the terrain. My deer travel around feeding as if I would just out walking. They move along the ridges, staying clear of the gullies. And I have observed that often, if a ridge is near, they work that way. And the ridges are great about scent because it usually drafts upward

mizuno24jad said:

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

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I average 35 separate racked bucks on cam annually on 135 acres, with at least 25 being ongoing regulars. We regularly see a dozen deer from the stand and never hunt properties over 200 acres. Is the population in my area just that much better than the rest of the state?

Spotlite said:

I've always wondered how accurate that really is. I saw 9 in a one mile stretch this morning that didn't survive the interstate.

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At the county level and depending on the habitat it's probably pretty close. On your particular patch of dirt - maybe, maybe not. On my two patches of dirt it's definitely not. We're probably 15-20 deer/forested square mile. No way we're 35/sq. mile.

1 doe per 100-150 acres to maintain, more than that is decreasing your population. Every doe killed is 2-3 you won't see next year. We stopped any doe kills on our place several years ago due to over kills on adjacent property's. Ours is on the upswing again and the school teacher next door who was killing 6-8 does a year wondered why she wasn't seeing any deer. A buddy gave her a a biology lesson and she's seeing deer again too.

Thank you all for the thoughts and input. My conclusion is a combination of all the things mentioned has taken place.
I haven’t seen a doe recently but I did see a nice size spike that I let walk and an unknown deer (only caught the backside) this morning.

Killdee said:

1 doe per 100-150 acres to maintain, more than that is decreasing your population. Every doe killed is 2-3 you won't see next year. We stopped any doe kills on our place several years ago due to over kills on adjacent property's. Ours is on the upswing again and the school teacher next door who was killing 6-8 does a year wondered why she wasn't seeing any deer. A buddy gave her a a biology lesson and she's seeing deer again too.

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Did you see the real time harvest stats for Troup and Harris? Buck/Doe kill stats are headed the right way. People are starting to wise up a little bit.

Killdee said:

1 doe per 100-150 acres to maintain, more than that is decreasing your population. Every doe killed is 2-3 you won't see next year. We stopped any doe kills on our place several years ago due to over kills on adjacent property's. Ours is on the upswing again and the school teacher next door who was killing 6-8 does a year wondered why she wasn't seeing any deer. A buddy gave her a a biology lesson and she's seeing deer again too.

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I wished your buddy would come give my area a biology lesson haha they think deer grow on trees or something, most are the type of folks that can see the same three does ten different times and swore they seen 30 does

elfiii said:

Did you see the real time harvest stats for Troup and Harris? Buck/Doe kill stats are headed the right way. People are starting to wise up a little bit.

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No but that’s good news!!!