East Texas help needed

[Rick]

I would focus your management efforts on your large south texas lease. And just enjoy your small East Texas place for what it is.....a close place to go and enjoy spending with your dad.

[Russ79]

What fbchunter said. You do know that a buck's normal home range is around 640 acres, don't you? On 43 acres about all you can do is make it attractive enough for them to slow down as they are passing thru.

[E.TX.BOWHUNTER]

I am south of you and I have tons of acorns. I just set my feeders to feed 3 seconds because corn is piling up now. I plant very small plots. Leave natural trails. I put cameras now in small trails and thick woods. I have few picks at feeders, deer or pigs. All mature animals are in cover now. They will be more visible when food supply drops and leaves fall. I will see more after Thanksgiving. The bigger deer I will as in September, January and February. They are very elusive the rest of the year.

[Drycreek3189]

Big year 'round food plot in the middle of your place. Does will come, bucks will find the does. Don't blame it on the neighbors, with only 43 acres, you are killing the neighbor's deer if you kill anything. I have 217 acres, and I'm killing deer from all my neighbors and they are doing the same. I just wish they would keep their **** hogs

[Mexico]

IMO you have over worked the place. All the work you have done in your mind has made the place better. I think it's also driven the mature deer out of your 43 acres. That's a really small place to have any real management program. I'm not saying don't feed the deer, but all the feeders, blinds, senderos, and hundreds of man hours spent out there has caused the mature deer to seek better shelter away from you.

X2

[Capt.Bryan]

If you have not read it yet search the Pressured Deer are Easy to Kill thread by GarGuy. Lots of useful info in that thread if you put it to use. Go dump 2 bags of corn in a pile near your best thicket that you can hunt on the prevailing wind and set a camera on that pile and give it a week. And see what you have on camera.

[sharkhunter]

Sorry to say but your raising bucks for your neighbors to shoot. Untill everyone gets on the same page or you have a ton of land it’s going to be hard and frustrating.

[Capt.Bryan]

I only have 13 acres and keep feed poured to them. Have hunted every day since gun opener and have passed shooters every day. 8 acres of my property is a sanctuary with no human activity, no mowing or buggy traffic.

[Cajun shooter]

Need help brothers and sisters of the green screen.



I'm failing as an east Texas hunter / land manager; I learned a lot and applied it very successfully on our large south/west Texas lease but this small east Texas place I bought is kicking my tail. I know I may just need to be patient and wait for my plan to produce but based on my cameras (feeders, food plots, scrapes and rubs) I feel like the place is worse than when I started, literally thousands of $ spent and hundreds of man/equipment hours later. Very frustrating!



2015:

I had a 9 to 1 buck to doe ratio on our place.

I had 4 regular shooters in the 130-140 class 5+ yo and a lot of young potential bucks in 2015.



2018:

Now no shooters, only young guys and my potential has gone down (as if, my good genetics left and crappy genetics replaced it)

We have taken 7 hogs off place and one scrub buck last year. Before that I only worked it and left it alone.

One neighbor hunts - shoots only hair and could care less about horns but only takes 1 doe per year. The road gets 2-3 per year in my general area. No sign of illness in my herd. A lot of twins last two years. Coyotes and bobcats are minimal. Pigs are frequent but not in high numbers and have appeared to affect the deer population.



43 acres - hardwoods - primary oaks (lots of acorns usually but not this year)

3 Corn feeders spin cast (year round)

2 protein gravity feed (year round)

1 one acre food plot (odd shaped with structure inside the plot)

2 half acre food plots (" ")

2 acre pond (spring fed)



3 acres where house is at is mowed but the rest is hardwood with senderos and foodplots. We intentionally created pathways but have done our best to leave the natural appearance to the property. Lots of fawning areas, only myself and occasionally my father hunting. We are very mindful of our impact anytime we are there.



Parts of the place flood but maybe 10-15% of total land in real bad weather.



Place was not hunted before we bought it in late 2014/early 2015.



Any suggestions I'd really appreciate.

Is your property loaded with big oaks dropping tons of acorns? If not and if other properties around to have lots of acorns, that’s where the deer are.

I also have 250 acres in east tx and feed a ton of protein per month year round. When the oaks start dropping we do not see a deer any where around feeders. They are all deep in the woods where the oaks are. That’s where you have to go.

[30-30]

5 feeders and multiple food plots on 43 acres is overkill, IMO. It sounds like you would have to be on and off the place all the time with a truck/tractor to keep up with all that. As others have mentioned, you may be pushing the mature deer off the property. I would put a big perennial food plot in the middle of the property and a smaller annual hunting plot with a fenced feeder elsewhere. Add a protein feeder if you want, or a second corn slinger, but honestly protein won’t do much for you on small acreage. Put hog panels around any/all feeders and the food plots too if you can afford it.

[lovemylegacy]

Put a couple of mineral sites out in the Spring. If you have oaks especially White Oaks, fertilize a couple of them that you want to hunt. Fertilize the natural browse and bush hog it every 6 weeks or so. Maybe a small plot of an acre or so. Reduce your intrusions to just walks and not work. Have a section as a sanctuary. The work mentioned above can be done in one day.

[toledo]

Im in the likely over did it camp. Mature deer in east TX are going to want to be able to move around without being forced to cross a bunch of openings. If there's a road or shooting lane every 200 yards, they're going to find somewhere else for their core area. Very common mistake. The prettiest properties typically don't hold the best deer.

[Grizzly1]

I think you may have bought a small piece of property that probably was their sanctuary to get away from the neighbors when you bought it but with all your work, noises, human scent, feeders, etc you have pushed the deer away. They were there when you bought it and you became active and now they are gone. We have a 73 acre place in East TX BUT it’s surrounded by large personal properties that for the most part aren’t hunted or hunted very little. We put up two box blinds and all we do is spread corn a week or two prior to opening day along our fence lines and open areas that the blinds overlook. This year made the 6th year that we have killed decent legal bucks on opening weekend. Usually my dad or I take one legal buck and the only way we will shoot again is if a monster walks out. We have never killed does just to keep the population up and let the does bring the bucks in. We’ve had the property for 25 years and used to see a random deer every once in a while, now we see a lot. In 3 hunts last weekend I saw 35 deer, was averaging 11-12 deer a hunt and the rut wasn’t even in full swing and the weather was ok but real windy.

[Chew]

43 acres to a deer is like a big game room to a human. It's all about the neighbors, bedding areas, etc.

[EastTx]

Got an aerial of the place and surrounding tracts that you wouldn't mind posting? Can PM me it if you would like.

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