Guys,

I'm desperately needing/wanting some suggestions on cracking the "Deer Code". 5 years ago after hunting for 35 years in deep South Texas Webb/Zapata county line, I decided to buy a small ranch in Northwest Texas, SW Young county to be exact. For the past 5 seasons, I have been aggressively feeding corn from 3 feeders and at times spincasting both corn/protein combined, all year round. Though I have rarely seen some decent 120+ class bucks during shooting hours, much more of my activity has been nocturnal. Probably a 90/10% split, daytime vs. nocturnal activity. This past season, I tried to switch up things a bit by planting a 3 acre food patch, however the oats burnt out after a promising sprout but lack of rain in Sept..Anyhow, I am now thinking about dedicating a gravity protien feeder starting in February, hopting this will further entice the deer to show themselves more during daytime hours. In my 40 years of hunting South TExas, I've never been so challenged as these past 5 years. What says the forum?

I'm looking to have my place paid off this year, so am giving consideration to some long-term property enhancements which can further improve my hunting prospects too..

Without knowing more my first inclination is that the amount of hunting pressure surrounding your place would influence the nocturnal patterns of the deer. Just assuming, but you're likely surrounded by a grouping of small(er) ranches similar to yours.

If you took a snap shot of say 10,000 acres surrounding your ranch how many hunters are using that area? Compare that to a well managed 10,000 acres where hunter numbers (and pressure) are limited.

I may be completely wrong but it sounds good.

Pirate, it wouldn't class the hunting pressure as excessive or even heavy. The place (100 acres) to the east of me, about 1/4 mi. away is hunted by one guy. To the south (700 acres) is hunted by 2-3 guys, to the west (700) acres is hunted by 2-3 guys and to the north (1200 acres) is hunted by 1-2 hunters. Overall, it's low to moderate hunting pressure at the most. As far as shots, I heard maybe 5-6 shots around me all season and 3 of those were in succession. The deer simply seem to be very crafty and elusive and this is what others in the area have said.

I

i have gone over how my season went several times on here and have been reading a lot about this getting ready for some work this spring. i believe that i need to place more of an emphasis on both expanding my "sanctuary" and reducing the pressure on my place, which goes back to being super disciplined on hunting the wind and weather events, which i dont think i took serious enough.

i am planning on leaving the eastern half of my place, about 18 acres, in sanctuary bordered to the west by a seasonal creek that splits the property from north to south. i am gonna put in about a 1.5-2 acre food plot on the western edge of the sanctuary along the creek with 2-3 stands on it so i can play the wind. i want to thicken up the trees/shrubs/browse along the creek with hinge cuts and the removal of trees, to make them feel more secure on the other side as well as try to mask any movement being made by me going to and from stands.

i think i am going to be planting some switchgrass as a screen for neighboring properties and in small pockets throughout the sanctuary for bedding.

i have enjoyed planning all of this out and look forward to getting after it in a few weeks, getting burned this season really made me rethink how i went about things and i cant wait to get another shot next season.

it sounds like you have quite a bit of relativly unpressured land around you, i think maybe improving your food sources would benefit you greatly, especially if the neighbors arent. you need to be able to give them either "more" or "better" food/bedding/security to get them to come to and stay on your place.

hope this helps in some way, good luck

How far can you see from your set-ups?

I was initially going to say the weather this year was a big cause, and last years weather wasn't much better with the drought and all...but then I though back to my season, and even though we didn't get a wall hanger, we saw plenty if action and had several opportunities for taking a deer (connected on two doe, could have had a lot more doe if we wanted) and my son couldn't get a shot off on a legal buck.

You sound like me, in that I wan to draw more deer into my place and hold them longer through the hours. I don't expect the deer to live on my place, but if they come in the morning, eat, bed up during the day, and then eat again as they leave for the evening I would be happy. I believe I have some of this going on already, but with the use of protein, food plots, and better control of noise/wind, I believe I can see more deer next year. I think your plan is sound. Part of the fun is doing the work; however, getting the payoff is the other part of it so I can understand your frustration.

I do think the warm weather during our rut season really hampered a lot of our chances this year though...

Rifle, on two of mine, I can see out 300 yards or so in a semi-circle. On the other probably 200 yards or so in a 2/3rd circle. On that small of a place I wanted to keep the stands somewhat independent of each other, especially if I were to bring a guest out.

Thanks Buckeye, I appreciate the help.

Sounds good!

Similar set up to yours, some neighbors hunt but not too much. We are careful about wind direction and stand selection. We also use lifted golf carts for everything but filling the protein feeder, I have to use the tractor for that, otherwise we try to keep it quiet. As for protein since we put the feeder in and fed year around we have seen a significant increase in deer activity. Saw several good bucks this year but didn't get any shots at them. We did take 4 does, 2 spikes with another one of either on the hit list for this weekend.
Point is keep the pressure down don't drive around on atv's etc. and they'll show up. The feed mill in Graham has pretty competitive prices on feed.
Good luck.

DQ and I are buds and good info there 7A. I just bought me a electric cart. Getting mods done now. Will be using around the lease at almost all times. Will be great for corning roads.

7A, I will never drive an ATV on my ranch or leases, way too much noise IMO. I am anxiously awaiting to see how the introduction of gravity protein feeder does...

DQ, I hunt close to the Throckmorton/Young Co line in Throckmorton Co. We have 4 hunters on 640 acres. Our property has a 300 acre wheat field on the south east corner of the property and we have mesquite trees that are pretty thick. This past season was our 2nd season on the lease. We have a good deer population in the area with very little hunting pressure around us. We all feed corn year around and we all feed protein out of gravity feeders from march to September. Last season the hunting was pretty tough. We had a lot of very good bucks on camera until early October and then it was like the deer disappeared. We had very little feeder activity most of which was nocturnal. I wound up shooting a 135" 10pt at my feeder and my buddy shot a 135" 10pt off the wheat field. That was the only deer seen on the wheat field last season during the daylight. I will also add that was the first time that buck had ever been seen. This season was pretty tough too. We had several very nice bucks on camera during the daytime hours until the second week of season. During the first 2 weeks do season we shot a very old 9pt cull and. 146" 10 pt! After that all of the bucks went nocturnal. We saw very few deer on the wheat field and feeder activity was very slow. I was the only one who had bucks and doe coming during the daylight. I generally had the same 4-6 doe coming and 2 or 3 bucks including a very nice 10pt that I passed on. From what I can tell from our trail camera pics they were rutting at the end of October thru the first 2 weekends of rifle season. Other than my set up the hunting was very slow. Next season I'm going to focus a lot of my time hunting during the first 2 weeks of archery season, because that seems like the best opprotunity to kill a mature buck.

209

We must be very close to each other . I am in Young and by your description a little east of you. Sounds like you took some nice deer. I am coming off my first year on my half section and feeding both protein and corn year round. Adding 2nd PF this weekend. I have 240 acres of cover and 80 acres wheat. Wheat never popped this year with no rain. Never saw a deer on it. Took one doe but saw no shooters. Thanks for the input.

4W

Good stuff 209, I totally agree with your assessment. I had good buck activity at feeders from Oct. until about mid-Nov. Most was at night but even some nice bucks early morning, 7-8 AM. After about Nov. 15th, much fewer bucks and fewer nighttime pictures as well. That seems to be a pretty consistent pattern for the county or at least at my place the past few seasons. Like you, I will focus a lot this next season on Oct. and first week or two in Nov.
I never saw great sign of the rut but did see buck and doe pics at feeders nocturnally in late Oct.-early Nov. so I can see your estimate on that too. You, me and 4W need to meet up for a bite of lunch sometime, maybe in Woodson. 4W and I have become pretty good friends during this past season hunting and on the forum.

Sounds good to me! I will also add that the deer love the protein we feed. We have 4 55gal gravity feeders and they will sometimes empty all 4 feeders in two weeks. We even put protein in during the latter part of the season to see if it would draw deer in and we didn't see any evidence of that.

This season was weird for sure. Half on our lease seen deer every hunt the other half didn't. The guys that seen the deer made sure their feeders never went down all yeast other half didn't and every time they came down were messing around the feeder. We also park a long way from our stands. Plus when we had to fill feeders it would be after our last hunt. The other thing that helped for us was taking a huge amount of pigs off the property. At our place we only took 2 bucks and 1 doe. Big problem on our place is the coyote population. Last time I was in the stand I had 4 bedded down by my feeder.


I think all of us that hunt the area need to get together and discuss any ideas that will help each other get more deer on our properties.

Jeep

Agreed . That would be cool. Yotes are a big problem. I have got to figure out how to thin that herd. I too walk way in to my stands. Only time I drive those roads are to corn them. 209, what protein are you feeding? I am feeding rack plus. Deer are not crushing it. Thanks in advance for sharing that info.

4W

I agree, we should get together some before/during season and share what is/is not working. I unfortunately have to concur on the coyotes as well. I back up to about a 500 acre pasture field and they seem to hunt it pretty hard. In fact there is a hill with some rock outcroppings on it that I could swear is a den for them. I hear them and what I think are pups pretty much throughout deer season.
In the past, I have mixed Pro Rack Plus from Academy with my corn in spincast feeders; better luck prior seasons with it than this last one. This next year, I will give Farmers Milling Company's protein (FMC - 16%) a try. It's formulated there by their biologist and it has some cottonseed blend to it which supposedly the deer really like. It's $10.50 per 50lb. so that seems reasonable as well...I inserted 2 trophy rocks in my feeder pens mid-season this year but think I missed the rut period so no real sign that it worked either.

Farmers Milling Company is in Graham on 6th St. if anyone was wondering.

I have to be honest with you Young/Throckmorton county fellow hunters, I really enjoy the challenge of hunting the area and particularly like the 2 hour drive from my home door to the ranch gate. Most people on this forum do not have that same convenience if they live in the metromess. If I can start consistently attracting the mature bucks during shooting hours, it would be a huge bonus and really up the value of my property investment plus making my hunting a lot more enjoyable!

4weight, we feed Record Rack Professional 20%. We get it from the feed store in Throckmorton and I believe it's $12 per 50#. I will agree with the coyote problem. We hear them every hunt and we have a shoot on sight rule. We have killed 8-10 coyotes this past deer season and most of them have mange. My brother and good friend Chris are predator hunters and film all of the night hunts for the tv show Carnivore. I am going to get thin to come out several times between now and summer and see if we can't thin out the herd. What about y'all's fawn crops?? The 2011 season we had zero fawn survival. We put out cameras out at the beginning of June and all of the doe were pregnant but we never saw the fawns, not even during season. We don't have any pics of ANY 1.5 year old doe or bucks from this past season. We have seen some fawns this past season but not near what we should have. I blame the drought and our coyote population.

Hunted this area my whole life and grew up running around and working most of Young county and I'm telling you there's more hunter pressure than you think around you. When I was a kid, and I'm only 35 now, we seen a few hunters around but most ranchers didn't lease a lot and still ran cows but the days of me gettin to hunt for a little ranch work or just because guys are nice are gone. DQ hit it on the head when he said the proximity to the metromess was nice. That combined with ranches being split into small pieces every generation and then that smaller piece being leased has pretty much took what used to be good hunting with little pressure to average hunting with what I consider a lot of pressure. I hunt mostly Jack now but still have a few places in Young county I can hunt. I've never paid for a lease in my life but the day is coming soon thanks to people offering more than a rancher can refuse. Don't blame the rancher or the leaser really just sucks for guys like me that grew up on these lands and now get pushed out with money. Sorry, back to topic, its getting tougher and tougher every year and the age of deer is getting younger with more hunters every year.