2021-22 east texas season

[GarGuy]

I decided last minute to hunt a new spot on a big creek crossing. Got in makeshift ground blind at 530. Four big pinoaks on my side of creek. Thicket on other . First deer in was one of my hit list deer we call Betterboy. He stayed inside 20yd for 20 minutes. I had the crossbow on him totally unaware but I have two bigger deer on the property. Ended up seeing four deer. All bucks but he was the best. Did see an old ten that barely had brows. Great hunt.

[EastTx]

My son stuck a hog. He's turning into a little killer. 2 hogs and a doe so far this season.

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[mudkat]

i have one feeder set up in the woods it’s on legs but you could hang it up in a tree too it’s called a ghost feeder it uses a trap door instead of a spinner so it just dumps corn and it will flat out pour out the feed if you set it long enough works good and battery last a long long time
it works good for piles of corn and you don’t have to go put out feed every couple days

[Pstraw]

My son stuck a hog. He's turning into a little killer. 2 hogs and a doe so far this season. [
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Congratulations to your son!

[U.S.ArmyRetired]

I was reading stories on here about mature bucks not liking traditional feeders and hand corn pens worked much better. But I live so far away, wanted to see if it is possible to hand corn in a feeder pen and how often / how much.

If you hang a feeder high in a tree the mature deer are not as skittish of it as a traditional feeder.

A few years ago I made a Pig Pipe from a 5 gallon bucket by cutting a few 5/8 holes in the side and attaching a short staked chain to the bottom. A few screws in the side of the lid and the hogs couldn't open it. They would stay there for hours rolling it around.
What I didn't expect to see was how the mature bucks went after it. I have bucks that won't go near a feeder but will spend many hours kicking that bucket.
Hogs will empty it in a few days but it will last about a week if only the deer are hitting it.

I live 4.5 hours away from my place in Waskom. I have 2 feeders on a pipeline. Never see deer at the feeders. I have thought about hand corning but I live so far away I would not be consistent about keeping the feed out. The only good thing about this season is my buddy came down and we planted 2 food plots on the pipeline this year. Hopefully, the hogs didn't get in it and there is no-one there to watch if people sneak in from neighboring properties to hunt it.

[dirtybay]

I dump at least 100lbs of corn up and down my pipeline the day I get there to hunt and the day I leave for home. Has worked well for me

[SaltwaterSlick]

i have one feeder set up in the woods it’s on legs but you could hang it up in a tree too it’s called a ghost feeder it uses a trap door instead of a spinner so it just dumps corn and it will flat out pour out the feed if you set it long enough works good and battery last a long long time
it works good for piles of corn and you don’t have to go put out feed every couple days

Kyle, is that something you built or is it a commercially available feeder dump? Sounds like something I could use on my East Texas place too!

[Native Texan]

Kyle, is that something you built or is it a commercially available feeder dump? Sounds like something I could use on my East Texas place too!

https://www.quietfeeder.com/feeder-infopictures.html

[Javelin]

So here is my question to all y’all that have these big ( over 130 inch deer). Why do you think parts of East tax has great deer while areas not far don’t have anything big. We have deer and we have old deer in the north east corner of polk co on the river but no deer over 130. We have good browse and cover ( 6,000 acre surrounded by nothing but more land). According to a biologist who I feel is correct it’s because we have too many deer and even though we have good browse it gets hammered. Most lease members feel we don’t have too many because we don’t see as many as we did 5 years ago and certainly not as many as 20 years ago. However our field dressed weight has increased a lot in the last 20 years. How dense do you think your deer herd is and how many do you typically see at one time. I know right now I have not got hardly any pics of deer on corn or alfalfa which I hope is due to acorns. My pics stopped abruptly about 2 weeks ago

[Anvilheadtexas]

So here is my question to all y’all that have these big ( over 130 inch deer). Why do you think parts of East tax has great deer while areas not far don’t have anything big. We have deer and we have old deer in the north east corner of polk co on the river but no deer over 130. We have good browse and cover ( 6,000 acre surrounded by nothing but more land). According to a biologist who I feel is correct it’s because we have too many deer and even though we have good browse it gets hammered. Most lease members feel we don’t have too many because we don’t see as many as we did 5 years ago and certainly not as many as 20 years ago. However our field dressed weight has increased a lot in the last 20 years. How dense do you think your deer herd is and how many do you typically see at one time. I know right now I have not got hardly any pics of deer on corn or alfalfa which I hope is due to acorns. My pics stopped abruptly about 2 weeks ago

We hunt fairly close and have talked back and forth. Do you really think east tx is over browsed? I am debating, not calling you out. I know my place in north east polk county could support deer, I hardly have any. And as you pointed out, I did 5 years ago and 20 years ago… we had alot. Seems like the biologists answer to everything is to kill more deer. There will be a time folks when we are squirrel hunting again in East Tx. Based on what I am hearing and personally seeing, folks are starting to sit up and take notice.

* came back in to add… why the river produces only 130 deer where you hunt is as interesting, but I have not a clue why.

[Snowflake Killa]

So here is my question to all y’all that have these big ( over 130 inch deer). Why do you think parts of East tax has great deer while areas not far don’t have anything big. We have deer and we have old deer in the north east corner of polk co on the river but no deer over 130. We have good browse and cover ( 6,000 acre surrounded by nothing but more land). According to a biologist who I feel is correct it’s because we have too many deer and even though we have good browse it gets hammered. Most lease members feel we don’t have too many because we don’t see as many as we did 5 years ago and certainly not as many as 20 years ago. However our field dressed weight has increased a lot in the last 20 years. How dense do you think your deer herd is and how many do you typically see at one time. I know right now I have not got hardly any pics of deer on corn or alfalfa which I hope is due to acorns. My pics stopped abruptly about 2 weeks ago

Genetics is a big part and age

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[corps2010]

So here is my question to all y’all that have these big ( over 130 inch deer). Why do you think parts of East tax has great deer while areas not far don’t have anything big. We have deer and we have old deer in the north east corner of polk co on the river but no deer over 130. We have good browse and cover ( 6,000 acre surrounded by nothing but more land). According to a biologist who I feel is correct it’s because we have too many deer and even though we have good browse it gets hammered. Most lease members feel we don’t have too many because we don’t see as many as we did 5 years ago and certainly not as many as 20 years ago. However our field dressed weight has increased a lot in the last 20 years. How dense do you think your deer herd is and how many do you typically see at one time. I know right now I have not got hardly any pics of deer on corn or alfalfa which I hope is due to acorns. My pics stopped abruptly about 2 weeks ago

Here's my $0.02 so take it for what that's worth... My short answer is genetics. Certain areas/pockets in east texas have better genetics than others. Across the board, nutrition isn't the limiting factor around here. There's plenty of first and second choice browse anywhere you go in east texas for the bucks to eat all they want. I can show you a property in Nacogdoches (Hayters) that's 6,000 acres and strictly managed..granted the place has good deer, but not great deer. I can take you to another tract in San Augustine that is virtually the same habitat and management practices are the same, and day in and day out, the SA deer are much bigger in body and antler size. The only difference is genetics. A 4.5 year old in SA will rival any 5.5 yr old on Hayters and I've seen a lot of 3.5 yr olds do it.
Deer density at Hayters is 1:13... I think it could be 1:8 and not be over populated. Density in San Augustine is 1:13 as well. I've never been on a place in east texas that was overpopulated with too many deer. (I actually think we kill to many deer at Hayters but it is what it is)
Lastly, I routinely see 6-8 deer each sit with multiple buck sightings. (Saturday morning I had 8 bucks come to hand corn). Any less and I would consider it being a bad hunt.

[Javelin]

Genetics is a big part and age

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I know it isn’t age. We have had strict age restrictions for years and my last several deer were all 6.5 plus. We do flood but the same deer come back I have camera proof of deer for 4 plus years. Here is an example of a “good deer” at our place

[97JeepGuy]

Dang we have some land just out of Livingston on the north west part of town and wouldn’t get excited about any of those deer pictured. Only 500 acres low fenced but typically get quite a few decent deer in cam. We are along the long king creek and shoot most of our good bucks within a couple hundred yards of the creek.


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[ElfEyes]

Have any of y'all read/listened too the MSU deer study on nutrition vs genetics? I hope it's more nutrition than it's genetics even though common sense tells me otherwise. It's all my deer can do to hit 130 and we watch them multiple years before we end up killing them. I realized a few years ago that I couldn't keep up with the Lufkin boys when it came to score so I became contempt with trying to kill the biggest/oldest buck I had on camera on a given year. MSU study says the complete opposite though.