I wanted to get some input from others that have hunted this area over the last 5 years and see what the overall opinion is. I have been on my lease for 6 seasons now and it seems that the last 2 seasons the deer counts have went down tremendously. We are right on the county line for a location reference to everyone. The first 4 years I could go to any stand on the lease and see 8-15 deer and at least one or 2 mature bucks a hunt. We are MLD level 3 and have only taken select bucks and most of the time not all our doe tags were filled. Anyone else in this area seeing this? Kinda wondering if we could have had a die off or something out of the ordinary...
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Same problem everyone else has had - acorns and no rain to rot them. -
Obviously I don’t know your place, but at my place in the hill country, my neighbor once got 57 deer in 1 picture. Dang near every time the feeeder goes off, 10-20 deer within 5 minutes on a normal year.
This year I had corn piling up at times. 2-3 deer seen per sit.Comment
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This is true IMO, the feeders have spoiled allot of us. When the wildlife has a good acorn crop they don't have to move much for a food source.Originally posted by BitBackShot View PostComment
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Been in this area for a good while now and i have to say our deer numbers have went up quite a bit over the last 5 years.Comment
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We aren't far from you and our numbers seem to be down as well.
We have shot fewer deer in the past 5 years on our lease than ever and the numbers seem to be down as well. I don't know if its predators, lingering effects of the drought or being surrounded by MLD property hammering the does. Maybe just a combination of all.
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The sightings are way down on the Montgomery county lease I’m on.
We all hope it’s acorns keeping them shy.
No deer carcasses have been found so doubt it’s a die off.
I also doubt it’s poachers- these deer aren’t gonna stand there and stare at anything odd (spotlight for instance). At the sign of anything out of ordinary-They run first , then run some more.
So that circles us back to - acorns- hopefully.
Btw, plenty still on the ground at an oak tree I visited last week, no holes, not sour looking- just plenty of them.
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I'm about 6 miles west of Crockett, and even though I managed to kill a buck this is the worst year I remember by far. 2k acres, 15 members, and I think we've killed 7 bucks and 3 does. Does are back on feeders now so I'm sure we'll take a couple more in the late youth/muzzleloader season. Bucks have gone mostly nocturnal now. So not looking good. With that said we've had pics all year, just not many in the daytime. I'm starting to wonder if the longer doe season they implemented with the AR's a few years back have led to too many does being killed.Comment
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We thought it was acorns 2 years ago when the numbers started dropping so we started putting cameras on trails in bottoms and also hunted in bottoms where acorns were falling and still not as many deer. 3 years ago i would have 5+ deer waiting outside my feed pens for the feeder to go off and this year i have not seen the first deer at a feeder other than random trail cam pictures. There are 5 hunters on 1600 acres so we do not pressure the deer at all. On 1600 acres this year we have killed 3 bucks and 1 doe. What is really weird is early in the season we had multiple hunts where every member was on their stands and NO ONE saw a deer. We did find a doe dead in a creek last weekend with no apparent cause of death is the reason i question a disease or something...Comment
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I talked to one of the TPWD biologists from Gus Engeling WMA a couple weeks ago and he mentioned that their numbers as well as Richland Chambers have been down quite a bit since the flood of 2015. They have started to rebound but aren't back to where they were before the floods.Comment
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I'm just north of Trinity on the Trinity/Walker county line ... deer are ghosts. Too much food laying around, no reason to come out in the open. Not that I ever see Hill Country numbers, but even for my place, they have all but disappeared
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With respect, the “too many acorns” theory is given way to much credence. Does an increase in the availability of forage change the way deer react in that fall, yes. But so does rut and hunting pressure. It’s also possible for one tract of land to show a decrease in deer numbers while another nearby tract shows an increase and this could be the effect of pressure and more likely change in habitat. My place in Polk County seems to have less deer now than in previous years and some of that is because a 25 acre pine plantation is now in year 9 and it no longer provides browse or cover and another reason is a 500 acre clear cut to the north of me that has yet to “take hold” (herbicides when replanted). When I thin the pines and the 500 acre clear cut comes in, things will change. East Tx is very dynamic, you can’t exoect the same results from the same stand year after year for the most part.Originally posted by BitBackShot View PostComment
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Oh and I have to add, Even when I feel I have lots of deer on my place, December (up until Xmas) is always tough hunting!Comment
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I wonder about the effects the last couple years of flooding have had. We are in Bellville, in Austin Co, Mill Creek is our back property line. After the spring flood last ear, it took 6 months before the deer started coming back in. This year, I have seen very few deer since the flood.
Before Harvey hit and flooded us even worse than last spring, we had several mature bucks, and plenty of doe coming in fairly regular. After Harvey? Not so much
just a couple of young bucks, and the doe just started showing back up over the last 2 weeks. I had 15 doe stroll through last Saturday tho, so I'm hoping some of the mature bucks return home over the next few weeks 
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Their just flat out not as many deer as their used to be.Comment
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