We've been on our lease for four years and have harvested very few deer. The lease is low fence located in Stonewall county. In four years we've seen only a few deer from one year to another. Other than neighbors killing deer, disease/natural causes or predation what else can be keeping deer from returning? We feed year around and put very little pressure, so I'm looking for thoughts on reasons why this happening.

Bad location

Had a place NW of Aspermont with very few deer. Also fed year around. Just not many deer where we were at all. Agree location makes a huge difference in that county

+1

How many acres? Cattle on the property? Hunting pressure around your lease? Water sources? Food sources? Bedding areas?

Do properties near yours have deer? IF not....."bad location".

there are simply areas with very low density - after 4 years I would look elsewhere - good luck

I wouldn't make it 5, probably not gonna change.

Lots of variables here. Location, deer population, bad stand placement, activity around the place. Several other things to consider as well. Was on a place in east Texas that was mld at one point and got a lot of tags a year. Never could fill them. Somehow the biologist said we had x amount of deer. With 3800 acres and roughly 20 people on the lease I rarely saw deer. Hogs that's another story. But it had traffic on it almost daily. Deer population wasn't great. Other hunters not letting young deer grow. Another place I was one not far from there same thing. Very few deer. My dad stayed on and I think he said 3 deer have been shot this year. All small young deer.

Yep!

I think the two most important questions are:

How are the neighbors hunting?

Do you have enough cover, browse and water to hold deer on the property?

I would also be very curious as to how this was hunted before you got it. A question that might not be possible to get a truthful answer on.

The county your hunting has the potential for very good hunting. But you acquired this lease right after the drought. If it was miss managed before then you would have a uphill climb.

I'm sure the TPWD biologist who is assigned to your area could give you a good perspective on why you're not seeing more deer. After all, he or she is paid to know such things.

You said that you are feeding the deer year round. Are they eating all the feed? Do you have game cameras set up? Is there deer sign on the land? Tracks and trails that they use?

I was going to ask the same things that EddieWalker asked. I would ask how many acres is the lease and if you had pictures of deer on game cameras. Sometimes if small acreages don't have anything to draw them to it you won't see any.

I know that certain areas of the "Rolling plains" have many more deer than others. As a matter of fact, 30 years ago you'd be hard pressed to find deer in Stonewall county. Some places, especially along the salt fork are going to be close to carrying capacity. Get a biologist out there if you feel its worth it. I know some areas in Stonewall are BIG BUCK havens.

j.f.g. go to your lease at an odd
time when you wouldn't usually be
there. you may see some things that
surprise you. i've caught neighbors
trespassing, hunting, using the place
for partying out of sight from mom
and dad, etc.
one place the neighbor kids would ride
their 4 wheelers through the meadow at
night and spook deer for fun. (on their
side) deer won't stay anywhere they don't
feel safe even with food.

Where is your lease?

We hunt a private ranch near aspermont. 6 miles down the guthrie highway. We had few deer after the drought but have seen more deer the last couple years. Covered up in pigs. May have been that fire a few years ago too. That pushed a lot of deer around.

If it were me, I'd be looking for another lease.

I have a 5 acres lake near my hunting area, a 110 acre wheat field 400 yards from my stand and plenty of cover. Cameras are up and show some very nice mature deer and I see good numbers for this area. My problem is, big bucks have shown up every year, but don't come back the subsequent years. Regard pressure, we never venture anywhere but to our stands and feeders. We stay out of the areas we believe to be bedding areas a well. As others have mentioned, we came out of an extreme two years ago so maybe things will improve. Fingers crossed.

I'm in Rule not to far from you. It's fairly open country. You must must hunt quite. On our lease if you blow the deer out coming in it's over cause it's so open that all the deer in the area will push out.

We don't fill feeders till the end of our hunting trip. All our stands are on the outskirts of the place. All the feeders are in the heaviest cover in the place. We don't ever drive through the middle of the property. Our feeders go off a little later in the morning so deer are not staging by in the dark. We have 900 acers and it has more cattle this year then in the past. It's showing in the numbers of deer we are seeing. This is the best time of year though..you should be seeing deer. From my bow stand I watch my neighbors feeder. It out in the middle of an open field. His blind is in the cover. Every season I sit in my stand and see twenty or so deer at my feeder. I only see a few hit his in the open field. They are usually young deer also.

Location, Location, Location!

Sounds like you are doing things right. But we still don't know the total acreage or the shape of the land holding. Its possible you don't have enough acreage (of the right kind) to keep bucks from traveling off of it. Their 'home range' is typically larger than that of Does and they will travel fairly long distances in search of estrous Does.

IF the property you hunt is relatively small or IF the areas you hunt are on the outskirts of the place, then naturally the deer (bucks or does) are venturing onto neighboring property. If your neighbors don't share your same desire to let the bucks reach maturity, then the ones you have seen are simply being killed on another property and you don't see them again.

I think this really can be whats hurting yall.... the deer know when and were to avoid. that's just me though everyone has different ways of getting to and from the blind and what time and such

What has your group killed in 4 years? How many bucks vs doe?