Posted: 11/17/2014 8:43:35 PM EDT
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My FIL and I hunt on his co-workers land that is 60ish acres. Half is very dense woods and half is rolling hills.
We put up cameras over the last several months and see plenty of bucks, atleast two 8point bucks and a 4point buck but only 2 small does. During the rut this year (season ended today) we saw no deer at all. The thought is that the bucks are off land looking for the booty. We put corn, salt blocks at each of our stands and within 3 weeks my camera caught more than 400 pictures, mostly bucks. My question is how do we get the bucks to come on and stay on the property? Would a timed feeder be the best bet? I believe this would get them used to eating at a specific time of the day all the time. Any help is greatly appreciated. We have more or less full reign of the land save for cutting down trees. thanks, Craig |
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Listen,let's be realistic.
Your little 60 acres is like just one little part of those deer's natural range. Their range extends much farther than that little place. They may be on your place on Wednesday and Joe's 100 acres on Friday. Sure feeders and such will keep deer in the area if the natural browse is depleted due to winter etc. But expecting those deer to make that 60 acres home is just not in the cards. |
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I hunted the last couple years on a 170ish acre plot surrounded by farms and recently clear cut pine forrest. I did a bunch of off season tromping around in there and trails were old and established. Water is not a problem in the area so it's not a draw nor is it the best available cover. A quick look at the old areiel photos cross reference to Google earth and you can see pretty clearly that the deer were passing through, hitting our food plots and moving on. Guys were gettin the odd deer but they were all ambush kills on the trails. So I bring all this up to the club president who's trying to push a half-assed version of QDM on a frickin postage stamp property surrounded by neighbors who are either hipsters who feed and photograph deer or, decreasingly, old timers who shoot off the porch and throw anything without spots in the freezer-as is their right.
Without a high fence you are not gonna keep deer on a 600 acre plot-thats a square mile mor or less, much less a 100 acre plot. You have to make them want to pass through and catch them on the trail or maybe layed up if a wind blows up. |
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Quoted:
Habitat, habitat, habitat. Focus on habitat. For a small 80 acre piece we use plantings of forage foods and thinning overgrown browse. This property has water 24/7 so the deer really have no reason to leave. This more closely resembles what I have experienced. We only have 600 acres, and it is by far the best place I have ever had, with the highest deer density. We have several thickets, travel corridors in timber, water, and feed like crazy. If you have what they need, they don't go far. |
| With 60 acres I'd be looking for the travel corridors through the property. You can figure it out by looking at where they have good cover going to or from the property and Where they'r likely to go when they leave the property. if there is no good cover there's always a likeliest way a buck will generally travel, it will tie in with where they'll go as they come and go from the property with what's on surrounding property. Depends partly on safety provided as they travel and where and why they're headed where they're going. If you have any bedding areas on the property don't hunt them and leave them alone. Having seen plenty of bucks on camera earlier and then not seeing them I wonder if you're overhunting any of your stands or possibly not taking wind direction and thermals into account where you have stands. If you can't do anything with regard to improving habitat your only recourse is to provide food as a draw and hunt smart. |