Just got back from working at the lease

[Wil Taylor]

I have a question and I know it’s a broad question but I’m looking for that little advantage over others that hunt our pasture. I hunt a pasture that’s just under 1400 acres with six other people. I have great success every year and kill some nice deer I’m looking for something more. My uncle and I do feed protein during the off season (soybean or pellets, tried Cotten seed) and a lot of corn. My uncle and I are the only ones doing this trying to improve the deer heard. I use to feed about 4000# of protein every year with others benefiting from my efforts and I know that’s hunting. But every year I watch good deer coming to my feeders but about the second week of bow season they go somewhere to not be seen again and as far as I know they are not being killed. We do have cows and I do not use feed pens but it is an option. What do you guys do to help pull deer into your set up and keep them coming back. I hunt in Menard and have a water source within a couple hundred yards from two stand locations. I feel one stand location is about 200 yards from a stock tank where people hunt doves and I can tell because when dove season comes around my better bucks leave.

So what do y’all use.
Thanks

[RattlesnakeDan]

Bucks start traveling around then and go where they go. Some will go many miles away and stay there for the rest of the year. You can't really change that unless you increase the amount of does by your stand and eliminate all the does every where else which of course is not going to happen. I have a dozen bucks out my window right now and I know I have about 2-4 weeks of bowhunting before a handful of them disappear. There are maybe 4 of them that I assumed were killed last year yet here they are.

[WillowCity2506]

I have the same issue on my lease in Gillespie County. We start feeding protein in Feb and have fed 8500# this year on 700 acres. We usually have a bachelor group that lives on the property all summer of 5-6 bucks. All mature deer that hammer our feed. Late Sept and early Oct they bust up and few are ever seen again. I do have better luck setting up a couple cameras in our "sanctuary". Its about a 50 acres on a creek bottom that we do not Hunt. I tend to get a few pics of some of these guys after Thanksgiving and around Christmas cruising through this non hunted area. Have actually had 1 buck (buck in avatar) live in this 50 acre space for an entire year. Pics all summer at protein and saw him on 8 different sits from Bow opener to Thanksgiving. Several guys hunt within 400-500 yards in all direction and never had the first picture. I think the good ones just get smart, or have other home areas in the fall.

[Jamesl]

Maybe the other hunters start feeding right before season begins. Makes sense if you are the only one feeding during the off season.

[JLivi1224]

That’s one of the reasons we will sit in the sweltering heat opening weekend. In an attempt to catch them before patterns change.

[Smart]

You can feed them everything under the sun and water them all summer and some deer just move on to a different area every fall. I've seen it time and time again on my lease of 12 years.....Some deer stay and some deer move to other places when they go hard horned. They then either show back up next summer or have been killed. Sucks because I have summered some really good deer.

[jason86]

Oreos and skittles seem to work good

[rtp]

It is tough to keep bucks from roaming as that is their nature during the breeding cycle. A couple things that might help is to build feed pens where you are feeding and I would definitely feed the protein all year long. Bucks will return at some point to where they know they can get good groceries to recover from their running the ladies. Late season feeder hunting is usually pretty good in most well run places. Good luck!

Im trying to figure out how you are able to feed protein with cows and no feed pens.

[BDKett]

I'm no expert in deer behavior, I'll just share what I have observed from our "neighborhood" deer. I have a feeder in the back yard (year round) that feeds 10 seconds in the morning and 10 seconds in the evening. We normally have a minimum of two dozen deer show up at each feeding. These deer rarely move when they are eating, they aren't scared of me mowing the grass or my little yapping dog in the back yard. We have several fawns right now that bed up in our flower beds each night, I guess they feel safe around here. But something starts to change around October, the deer begin to act like they don't want to be seen during the day. Come November and December we won't see deer during the day, ever. This is the pattern until about March, when the deer mysteriously begin to start showing back up. These deer aren't being pressured by hunters to flee from the free food source in the back yard. Maybe there is another food source they like better than the one I am providing? Maybe the animals react to the changing seasons, or the shorter days, knowing winter is coming? I wish I knew the answer, just sharing what I have noticed after watching deer every day (for years) up close in my back yard.

[hpdrifter]

High fence.

[Wil Taylor]

I know deer will roam. I’m trying to figure out what everyone is using for an attractant. Like Big and J, orange corn, apple corn, cottonseed, soybeans and on and on.

[Throwin Darts]

You said you feed protein in the off season. Maybe try not stopping and keeping it out year round and see what happens.

[byler11]

I like to keep my does happy year round. Does=Bucks

[hunt247]

You have to hunt the deer and not the food source once they break up from the bachelor heard. I don't think there is a magic attractant that will bring in the big bucks. They are big for a reason.

[axisbuck]

I thought hunting pressure and more human traffic did that but with the neighborhood bucks doing that..there goes my theory out the window!