East Texas land purchase

[Jack Ryan]

Apology my rear. An apology doesn't have an excuse tacked on the the end of it.

May be it doesn't seem like an apology to you because it wasn't addressed to you.

 

[andre3k]

I apologize for jumping to that conclusion after not reading your post closely enough. I'll admit I only skimmed through it and didn't re read it as I should have instead of asking about it.

No worries here.

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[andre3k]

Any of you deer biologists feel free to chime in.

I've had my game cam up for almost two months now. Deer are hitting the feeder like clockwork, all does, and I've only seen one buck. It's a small spike buck at that. I'll get a good sounder of hogs come through, but they are unpredictable and are liable to show up at random times. I guess thats a good thing.

I expected to see more bucks and everything visiting the property seems to be on the small side. How can I attract larger deer and increase the size of the ones that are already on the property?


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[Axxe55]

Any of you deer biologists feel free to chime in.

I've had my game cam up for almost two months now. Deer are hitting the feeder like clockwork, all does, and I've only seen one buck. It's a small spike buck at that. I'll get a good sounder of hogs come through, but they are unpredictable and are liable to show up at random times. I guess thats a good thing.

I expected to see more bucks and everything visiting the property seems to be on the small side. How can I attract larger deer and increase the size of the ones that are already on the property?


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You could plant some small food plots of items that attract deer. Clover, rye, and other crops attract deer. Supplement feeds, salt and mineral blocks as well.

Also, you might point your game cameras away from the feeders, and point them at areas around the feeders in the opposite direction. The bigger bucks may be around, but not approaching the feeders.

 

[Haystack]

Don't worry too much about just seeing doe. This time of year the bucks are running together in what is called bachelor groups. In October they will start fighting amongst themselves and spread out searching for doe. If you have does, the bucks will come.

As for the size, you can feed protein and that will help a little. It's also possible the place has been over hunted in the past.

 

[baboon]

Neighborhood deer herd are all does with fawns which is common. You have to remember whitetail are not people, bucks pretty much needs does only to breed. Does ain’t making them sammichs!

 

[jordanmills]

You could plant some small food plots of items that attract deer. Clover, rye, and other crops attract deer. Supplement feeds, salt and mineral blocks as well.

Also, you might point your game cameras away from the feeders, and point them at areas around the feeders in the opposite direction. The bigger bucks may be around, but not approaching the feeders.

Plant cowpeas too. If you're not running cattle on the land to eat them all, then the deer will go ham for them. Or that's what I hear. The only places I have to try it have cattle running on them.

 

[Axxe55]

Plant cowpeas too. If you're not running cattle on the land to eat them all, then the deer will go ham for them. Or that's what I hear. The only places I have to try it have cattle running on them.

Many times deer will eat pretty much the same things as cattle.

There have been times when I observed deer grazing with cattle in pastures at night. They will mingle with the cattle.

 

[EZ-E]

I mainly had does, with the occasional buck, the 1st year at my place. The bucks never really came out of the woods until earlier this year. About the time the does were having fawns. Now I'm seeing 6 different bucks running in a group together. On my place. Before that it was a hoe down with 9 does running around in a group.
I think adding food plot, then throwing protein & corn all year helped out. Also having a water trough made a difference the last year.
The bucks just started coming from the back feeder, to the front feeder, about 60yards from the house.

 

[VNK971]

This article was reprinted in the TSRA magazine: https://www.texas-wildlife.org/resources/publications/fawn-production-a-south-texas-perspective

Of course it is talking about conditions different than east Texas, but there are things to think about. I haven't seen the drought report recently, but we were in severe drought here until late spring/early summer. While I saw several pregnant does in my yard this spring, I've only seen one fawn so far this year. I do have two six point bucks coming up regularly, and a spike came up once last week.

 

[Vaquero]

 

[andre3k]

I will try supplementing with protein and see how that works out. I'm researching pellets vs cottonseed. Seems like cottonseed might be an affordable alternative. I saw some decent game trails while mowing last weekend and I'll probably move my camera closer to one instead of focusing on the feeders.

You can see one of the stands in the picture. Its about 35 yards away from that feeder. Theres also another feeder within a hundred yards. I'm not sure why the previous landowner had it setup like that.

I'm still trying to find time to take a few days off so I can rent a skid steer to start filling in ruts, getting some grading done and eventually get my road put in. Luckily right now its dry enough to drive to camp but once it starts raining again I'll be back to using the atv to get there.

 

[Haystack]

Plant cowpeas too. If you're not running cattle on the land to eat them all, then the deer will go ham for them. Or that's what I hear. The only places I have to try it have cattle running on them.

On them cowpeas, you'll have to plant a bunch to really have any food for the deer. Otherwise, as soon as two leaves pop up they will bite it off and kill the stem. It's amazing how quick they find them and bite off the stem top. Been there, done that.

Also, the time to plant the peas is about the 1st of May. I'll be planting my fall food plots as soon as it cools off. Usually around the end of September is a good time, but it depends a lot on the weather.

 

[EZ-E]

Clearing up some of the game trails should help. I know once I pushed a trail to the back of my property line, from my feeder, that helped to get more traffic.


The previous owner might have bow hunted. That's the only idea I got on the 35 yard stand.

 

[Axxe55]

Clearing up some of the game trails should help. I know once I pushed a trail to the back of my property line, from my feeder, that helped to get more traffic.


The previous owner might have bow hunted. That's the only idea I got on the 35 yard stand.

That would be my guess as well.

 

[jordanmills]

On them cowpeas, you'll have to plant a bunch to really have any food for the deer. Otherwise, as soon as two leaves pop up they will bite it off and kill the stem. It's amazing how quick they find them and bite off the stem top. Been there, done that.

Also, the time to plant the peas is about the 1st of May. I'll be planting my fall food plots as soon as it cools off. Usually around the end of September is a good time, but it depends a lot on the weather.

My mental image is hand-spreading them from a mostly full five gallon bucket or grain sack. A dozen prized pea plants won't be doing you a whole lot...

 

[andre3k]

 

[Sam Colt]

Nice!!! Happy memories will be made at that property. Congrats, sir.

 

[Brains]

Oh you just have to love those little voices.. "Daddy!" Never, ever, gets old

 

[andre3k]

Oh you just have to love those little voices.. "Daddy!" Never, ever, gets old

He loves it out there. My daughter stayed in the truck most of the time because she said it was too hot. But she does like to ride the ATV. My son did ok as the camera man, I had to edit a few parts out because he got a little too chatty.