So I’m looking for suggestions/help for “eastern” Travis county/rural Pflugerville area.
A little backstory. I have lived in this spot for all of my life (40+ years) and so has my dad (70 years) and never seen a deer or deer sign. Every once in a while I hear people saying they saw a deer or 2 around the area with some of them bucks. About 10 years ago we found a nice ~130” deer skull but never did anything other than think about how cool and odd it was. Additionally, as the crow flies I am less than 5 miles from the Manor golf course (on the same creek system) where I’ve heard of some monster deer being shot. So, the potential for a few deer is there.
Anyway, fast forward to late last November. I finally set up a feeder after talking about it for years, put out some Big & J and a trail camera just off the creek to see what happens and have a place to sit. I checked the camera a week or 2 later and nothing which was expected. Then I checked the camera on Christmas day and holy cow. There were 3 different bucks on the camera with one of them in the 130’s easily. That was the good news. The bad news was about a week earlier I had a picture of the deer fighting and they knocked over the feeder and no more corn. I set the feeder back up and hunted often and checked the camera often but the deer never came back. It wasn’t a total loss as I had a group of 4 hogs come in consistently and so far I have gotten 2 of them. I couldn’t be happier to have shot something 2 minutes from the house even if I never see another deer or pig there.
But, I would like to see and potentially shoot a deer so I’m looking for suggestions to draw them in and keep them there. The questions are, what would you do to try to draw the deer in and keep them coming back? I was thinking about planting a little half acre food plot for the spring and then fall but I have no clue what to plant for each season, etc. That’s really all I have room for given the trees and creek but that would cover my hunting spot. The soil is good black dirt farmland so I think just about anything should grow. I’m not sure I can get a disc down there to plow it but I may be able to. I know that would help. So, what would you plant and where would you get it? I guess I’m looking for suggestions for throw and grow and planting something since I don’t know about plowing it yet. Cost for seed isn’t really an issue since it isn’t a large area. I’m thinking whatever I plant will only take 1 bag so even high dollar stuff won’t be that expensive. I don’t think I have to worry about it getting over eaten since the deer density is very low and there is a chance nothing ever comes in to it. This area is also surrounded but 100’s of acres of corn fields as well so there won’t be a lot of pressure on whatever I plant. OR would ya’ll not plant and do something else? If so, what besides corn and Big & J that I have already done? The reason I did Big&J is because they advertise how far the scent travels to attract and I thought I could use all the help I could get there.
Sorry for the long post but any help/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
A little backstory. I have lived in this spot for all of my life (40+ years) and so has my dad (70 years) and never seen a deer or deer sign. Every once in a while I hear people saying they saw a deer or 2 around the area with some of them bucks. About 10 years ago we found a nice ~130” deer skull but never did anything other than think about how cool and odd it was. Additionally, as the crow flies I am less than 5 miles from the Manor golf course (on the same creek system) where I’ve heard of some monster deer being shot. So, the potential for a few deer is there.
Anyway, fast forward to late last November. I finally set up a feeder after talking about it for years, put out some Big & J and a trail camera just off the creek to see what happens and have a place to sit. I checked the camera a week or 2 later and nothing which was expected. Then I checked the camera on Christmas day and holy cow. There were 3 different bucks on the camera with one of them in the 130’s easily. That was the good news. The bad news was about a week earlier I had a picture of the deer fighting and they knocked over the feeder and no more corn. I set the feeder back up and hunted often and checked the camera often but the deer never came back. It wasn’t a total loss as I had a group of 4 hogs come in consistently and so far I have gotten 2 of them. I couldn’t be happier to have shot something 2 minutes from the house even if I never see another deer or pig there.
But, I would like to see and potentially shoot a deer so I’m looking for suggestions to draw them in and keep them there. The questions are, what would you do to try to draw the deer in and keep them coming back? I was thinking about planting a little half acre food plot for the spring and then fall but I have no clue what to plant for each season, etc. That’s really all I have room for given the trees and creek but that would cover my hunting spot. The soil is good black dirt farmland so I think just about anything should grow. I’m not sure I can get a disc down there to plow it but I may be able to. I know that would help. So, what would you plant and where would you get it? I guess I’m looking for suggestions for throw and grow and planting something since I don’t know about plowing it yet. Cost for seed isn’t really an issue since it isn’t a large area. I’m thinking whatever I plant will only take 1 bag so even high dollar stuff won’t be that expensive. I don’t think I have to worry about it getting over eaten since the deer density is very low and there is a chance nothing ever comes in to it. This area is also surrounded but 100’s of acres of corn fields as well so there won’t be a lot of pressure on whatever I plant. OR would ya’ll not plant and do something else? If so, what besides corn and Big & J that I have already done? The reason I did Big&J is because they advertise how far the scent travels to attract and I thought I could use all the help I could get there.
Sorry for the long post but any help/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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