Where are the deer?

[Anthonysince94]

I've been throwing corn all year more or less to keep deer activity on the property I hunt. I know it's hot and there is still plenty of forage for deer from the heavy spring rains this year but should I be worried about the lack of deer I'm seeing? Pigs are plenty thick and come through every evening but it's rare that I ever see a deer on the game cameras.

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[Antlers86]

Put a dent in the pigs.

[Take Dead Aim]

My guess is pigs are keeping the deer away.

[muzzlebrake]

Move your cameras and put them in thick cover on trails. Throw a little chum corn down on those trails and you will see some deer. You will even get pics of deer you have never seen before. A good many deer never visit a feeder especially smart old bucks.

[Anthonysince94]

I guess I should include last november we hung 5 feeders total on about 50 acres and that's when we got a whole bunch of pigs coming in. The idea was to give the deer reason to be on our property and not hang out at the neighbors. Should I pull a few feeders and kill pigs?

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[yotethumper]

Start shooting hogs, hogs will keep deer away from feeders.

[SFAbowhunter]

Put a dent in the pigs.

My place in Oklahoma only has about 7-8 deer living on it, but come season time I'll have 10+ new bucks show up. I'd hand throw corn in some spots too. My feeders don't seem to get a lot of deer action until it gets cold.

[Anthonysince94]

Move your cameras and put them in thick cover on trails. Throw a little chum corn down on those trails and you will see some deer. You will even get pics of deer you have never seen before. A good many deer never visit a feeder especially smart old bucks.

So should I plan on hunting this thick cover places and leave my feeders more as a sanctuary feed spot?

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[roughneck266]

As mentioned above. If there are pigs hitting your feeders, you are going to have to at least make them nervous. Deer are still going to hit green stuff alot more than corn, alot more nutrition in that green stuff. When that starts dying off you will see more.

[EastTexasMan]

You're putting out a lot of feed for 50 acres so the pigs are just making their rounds....

What we do is we hand corn all our setups, then leave 1 feeder in the bottom for a community pig stand. See many more deer on the hand corn then you will the feeder

[Anthonysince94]

The amount of pigs that are coming through kinda make me nervous about deer season. Is there still time to push the hogs off a bit and see more deer activity before season?

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[Anthonysince94]

I appreciate then input from all of you. I'm more or less looking for some direction. My neighbors always kill good bucks overlooking a wide open pasture that borders our property. That's why we put up so many feeders was to hopefully keep the deer traffic on our side of the fence but it has been to no avail. Every season we see at least one or two shooter bucks. But another question I have is where do all the young bucks go? I know they dont typically establish a home range until the get a little older but it seems every year we have new bucks. Never any hold overs from the year before. Any ideas?

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[yotethumper]

Is there still time to push the hogs off a bit and see more deer activity before season?

Yes. When I shoot hogs off a feeder that is predominantly frequented by one group of hogs I see more deer coming into that feeder within 48 hours.

[yotethumper]

Never any hold overs from the year before. Any ideas?

Deer change their pattern from the summer going into the fall. I have "resident summer bucks" and "resident fall bucks". I am able to hold lots of the summer bucks into archery season by feeding protein and fencing off protien/feeders with hog panel.

[Fargus]

Where are you hunting? Did I miss it in the post? There's a pretty significant anthrax issue going on around Sutton and ValVerde counties. Not sure if that would hit the pigs, but deer numbers are suffering pretty good.

If not in the affected area, either kill the pigs or put up a feed pen. I finally got one up this off season and my deer numbers have dramatically increased.