Just got on my first lease and we need to do some maintenance and feeder/blind stuff. We are also planning on some dove and hog killen. We have talked about not hunting hogs at least 2 weeks before deer season to allow the place to cool down. Just wondering if just being out there has a big effect on deer and how long would it take to "cool down" the area if we did a little recreation there. It 250 acres in East Texas. It borders a river which is dry so it hunts like 350-400.

I'm just afraid Im going to be out there to much planning and enjoying and push the deer off.

As long as you dont hire 2 mexicans to cut ceders for the whole month of september. My dad did that at our place to "open" the lease up and no one shot one bucks that yr. However the next yr spoke for itself lol. But in other words it will be fine if you are just cutting lanes and what not.

We like to leave our place alone for at least 3 weeks before the season. No activity allows the deer to get comfortable and into a routine.

This strategy has paid off for us during bow season.

If you are at the place on a regular basis the deer will get used to it. Anything out of the ordinary the deer will spot it and be on guard. Like oil field pumpers, the deer ignore them, because they see them almost everyday. They can even tell the difference between the sounds of the pickups, if the usual truck is a diesel, the gasoline trucks may put them on guard because of the different sound it makes.

My thoughts are that deer almost certainly can immediately detect the change of activity that comes with hunting season-work being done,feeders being moved and fed,stands being tended to,and just general camp noise. I agree they get used to "regular" year round activity that always follows a specific pattern.

And,during season,I can't help but believe deer can pattern the comings and goings of hunters to and from stands pretty easily-especially if vehicles are used. I am certain this especially applies to mature deer. Sometimes I hunt in places where there are no stands just for this reason.

But the only way to escape this is to make superhuman efforts to be "Ninja" which means walking most places,working only during the middle of the day,etc. I have encouraged more walking to the stands on my place but am not rabid about it.But we do our work the "easy" way by driving or riding 4 wheelers where we need to go.

It's just up to the hunters how "stealthy" they want to be and what extremes they want to go to. I suspect most are like us and mostly take the path of least resistance.

IMO, this is true only for doe and lesser bucks. As many have learned by using game cameras, mature bucks are much more sensitive to human pressure and will change their movement patterns after a single encounter. Consider too that over 90% of the harvest in any given season will occur during the first two weeks of the season as deer catch on quickly that hunters are after them. And all of this points to why hunting the rut brings the most luck when mature bucks let down their defenses.

Since controlling hunter pressure is so often impossible, one of the best approaches is to use it to your advantage. Look for those places where frequent hunter movement creates safe zones and escape routes and let them drive deer to you. I took the buck below on public land in East Texas by using hunter movement on a nearby private lease to drive him my way.

I had a large pecan orchard in Jack County leased for several years. Ran my equipment on a daily basis in the pecan bottom and saw deer on a regular basis. They would look up at me and go on about their business. Let any other vehicle enter the area and they were gone. An interesting group of guys had the hunting lease on the place for awhile. They would begin to show up at their camp a couple of days before the season opened, spend a lot of time in the bottom "zeroing in" their guns (their description), and having beer bottle target practice off the back porch of the camp house. Then they would raise cain with me because my harvesting equipment was running off the deer :-)

According to my wife, no.

Good thoughts. Thanks men

First of all, get at least 300 lb feeders and that way if you fil them in mid September they should last almost through November.

I bow hunt, so I check my game cameras for the last time around mid September and then I leave them alone.

Like someone said above, if you have to work now, work during the middle of the day when it is the hottest and the deer will be moving the least.

You can not be so careful and still see plenty of young does and young bucks, but if you want a chance at harvesting a mature buck you need to be careful about running around and being seen alot before October 1.

That first week can be really great as long as you plan ahead from now until October 1. Good luck!

This year I've had to take hay out in the pasture almost everyday.As soon as I cut the engine I here the cows bawling,then they come running.They have excellent hearing as do deer.I've noticed this year the deer here my truck and don't run off,I've brought them water and alfalfa and they know I mean them no harm,these are doe and fawns however-no bucks.But yes I think some of them get used to a certain vehicle and don't pay it much attention.

You are a wise hunter Nogalus.

We have 10 hunters on our 3000 acres and once they stop seeing mature bucks, from over hunting at the feeders, it is usually around the seeking phase of rut. I hunt the thick areas and pinch points down wind of the feeders and between feeder set ups. This is where the mature bucks are during rut and they do pattern our hunters movements. Try hunting mid day during the rut in these areas, it has worked great for me!!!


[quote=Nogalus Prairie]My thoughts are that deer almost certainly can immediately detect the change of activity that comes with hunting season-work being done,feeders being moved and fed,stands being tended to,and just general camp noise. I agree they get used to "regular" year round activity that always follows a specific pattern.

And,during season,I can't help but believe deer can pattern the comings and goings of hunters to and from stands pretty easily-especially if vehicles are used. I am certain this especially applies to mature deer. Sometimes I hunt in places where there are no stands just for this reason.

I have seen hogs shot from under a feeder and deer come up to the dead hog sniff it and get onto eating corn. Just depends on your place and how much pressure you put on the deer.

it really depends on your expectations for the place. On our small acreage place, I expect to have a really good shot at shooting a mature buck so the place sits like a refuge b/c we don't live there to let the deer see daily activity.

We go to our lease, 2 times a month as soon as the snow melts to cut wood and check the cabin.

Then once a month to cut the logging roads, check game cams and mineral licks. About a month out we put out our ground blinds and/or tree stands.

We still cut the logging roads all season, mosty because the property owner has been for 20+ years and now we take care of it for them. I think all the deer in the area would freak out if the roads got too long. But the property has farm fields on 2 sides of it, including an alfalfa fields that will get cut 3 or 4 times before they go dommant for the winter.

I know all that is different for me up here, but it goes with the trend, deer get used to things. As long as they don't see major changes they will be fine.

Absolutely! Too much pressure on a property will shut down all of the mature deer. We have experienced it numerous times on our 2000 acre lease. Four wheelers activity means hunters on the property Beware!!!
I patterned an early season buck in 2008. His core area was close to a gate that was only used by us hunters. When that chain rattled and that gate clanked, no pictures of him for 2 to 3 days.
I waited until mid week, stopped one mile short of the lease and suited up in my camo and rubber boots. Parked in the entry across the road on another piece of our property. Did not slam any car doors and climbed over the gate without making a sound. Circled way downwind of my 10' tripod and only had to cross one deer trail that led into my food plot.
Got in my stand 30 minutes early and had 2 bucks at 20yds before daylight. It was the 10 points scouts who were always in the pics with him. Feeder went off just breaking daylight one of the young bucks went to eating corn but the other one stayed back and kept looking around. Finally he looked to the SW down my food plot and made a semi grunt/bawl. His buddy was on the way I could not see him from where I was positioned in the big oak but just knew it was him. Sure enough he passed me at 10 yds and circled down wind of my stand. I was already drawn just waiting for him to stop. He was staring me right in the eyes as I let that arrow go.
He is my biggest P&Y to date @ 145" harvested in Palo Pinto County Wednesday October 1, 2008. That was the year the season opened in late September for archery.
I truly think that I had to catch him off guard in the middle of the week to harvest him. When activity was on the property he did not go nocturnal, he went dormant.

Makes them all the more special when you pattern and plan for a specific deer. Congratulations!

I try to avoid bedding areas and stick to main roads. I had a buck last year that was a 130 class 10 pt that hung around my stand. He got very comfortable with my truck and me. Once, after corning my senderos, I parked and walked right past the buck on my way to the stand. I walked within 20 yards of him and he just stood there watching me. After getting in the stand he stayed for over an hour eating corn.

I even shot a cull 8 while the 10 stood less than 10 yards from my stand. I literally shot directly over the 10's head and he never ran off. He was a permanent fixture at my stand all season.

250 ac in east Texas can be easily over pressured. All depends on your deer herd. You have work that has to be done. I would fix stands, lanes and feeders. Skip the doves. Wait on hogs till deer season unless you are just over run. I hunt on two places near Lufkin. One spot the deer are not pressured and it just doesn't matter what you do you will see deer. The other is polar opposite. I have about 4 hunts and deer are on to me. They just know I are there and go nocturnal.

So, being your first year on the lease you are not going to which type of dear you have. I would be cautious about over pressuring them.

This has been my experience over the years and I've hunted both large and small ranches and they are pretty much the same in that even on a large ranch you can push the deer too much if your not careful.

On the places I've hunted I try to get together with everyone and we establish an area that is pretty much no mans land. It is an area that nobody goes into at all during most of the season, unless we have to track a deer, but no stands, and no walking and scouting. We spook a deer walking up to the stand we want him running into the undisturbed area on our place and not across the fence into the neighbors pasture.

We scout the entire area right after the deer season or if it's a new property right after we get it and establish our sanctuary area, and then say starting in September, we no longer set foot into the area or even drive into it with a vehicle.

You can do this even on a small acreage by just limiting your hunting and blinds, to it's fringes, but well off the fenclines, which we do our best to avoid.

As for shooting hogs, If you have a lot of them, I usually start shooting them right after deer season and into the spring, slack off when it starts getting hot, and then pick up again about August and try to quit after the first week or two of September.

As for being on the place too much, the deer get used to you if they know you are there all the time as long as you stay out of their sanctuary which is the purpose. I think also you can show up not enough, and this will alert the deer that somethings different which will put them on high alert! Again another good reason to have that santuary!

Big or small, you want the deer to feel safe on your side of the fence, and not across the fence in the other guys place.

That's for sure. A very similar thing happens every year on leases all over East Texas. Once the deer have been pressured for a couple of weekends and the rut is winding down, hunters will often claim the deer have all but disappeared.

I've had very good success during the middle and later half of the season by taking time off and hunting during the middle of the week. I'm sure there are others like me who have said that deer must keep a calendar because they always seem to know once the weekend arrives.

I might also suggest leaving the ATV at camp until you have something to load and walk more. It was after a long walk that I took the buck shown earlier as he came from the direction of ATV traffic that could be heard on a nearby lease.

If you do not have pens around your feeders. The 2 weeks that you are not there is when the greazers and squealers also come back and take over your feeder and run deer off. If you do not plan on hunting with feeders then I would stay out until season.

We stay off the last two weeks of October and then traffic is pretty constant during season. We limit travel to and from stands, no joy riding. Our animals seem to adapt pretty well

For the last 12 years I have been in Real Estate and I had to work on the weekends which meant I had to hunt during the middle of the week.

I agree with the others on this post that the mature bucks pattern the hunter's movements during hunting season.

Those big bucks are big because they are smart but they can still be tricked!!!

You just have to get into their heads...

like jcoutdoors. Good job on figuring out that buck!!!

I think you should be there as much as you can. All of a sudden showing up after 3 weeks or more is going to scare the hell out of them.