Build a doe factory to create a buck factory

[Backspasm]

I'd like to know how he's sustaining at least a deer per 6 acres. What are they eating? Is it fescue alone in the pastures or is it mixed with something?

Sounds to me like he sustains that by having neighbors who ARE focused on food and habitat

 

[SwampCat]

I'd like to know how he's sustaining at least a deer per 6 acres. What are they eating? Is it fescue alone in the pastures or is it mixed with something?

There is a variety of vegetation. But he does spray 24d or pasture-guard or somehing similar to keep broadleafs beat down. A lot of his clover probably survives because he sprays about this time of year and clover is already beat down. Our Game and Fish private lands bio even came to his place last year - and did recommend reducing the population - but did say the deer appeared to be healthy. Obviously, there is a browse line with 270 cattle on the place. Deer are commonly seen - as every evening - in he middle of the pastures grazing on whatever is out there. And obviously, also, a lot of those deer share neighboring lands. I might have 15 in my clover one day, and the next day, they are across the fence in his pasture.

I worried about it to the point I recommended to him to bring the g&f bio out there. But they saw nothing overly worrisome as far as visual appearance. And my deer actually have increased body weight over the past ten years - but I do supplemental feed six months out of the year. No row crop within 7 miles

 

[Triple C]

Love my doe factory. Come November the bucks always cruising.

 

[Ikeman]

You are actually NW of me, I’m near Tyler. I will be dove hunting somewhere near Bonham the first of September. (In 100* temps like the idiot I am)

That is actually my hometown… haha.
The family place is south of Bonham near Bailey.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PatinPA]

This is one thing I dont really understand - neighbor has a ton of deer - and they are "tamer" than mine. Bucks much more predictable. I have 400 acres next to him and bucks are much more nocturnal. He is out and about all over his ground five times as much as I am - someone drives the entire perimeter fence every other day - plus eight to ten hours a day within internal acreage hauling feed, checking waterers, checking and repairing internal fencing, etc - almost everyday. Hunting pressure is probably more days on his place than mine - but obviously spread out over more acreage.

Do deer recognize the difference between work activities and hunting pressure? Human activity by itself cant be the determining factor on neighbor's place or on mine. One difference is some of our hunting activity is done with a firearm and none of the hunting is done with a firearm on his place. We shoot maybe twice a year at deer. There are a couple of deer killed a year off his 1200 acres with a bow and a couple of deer killed a year off my 400 with bow or rifle. He has no hesitation about shooting at coyotes, hogs, or black vultures (with permit) with a rifle - anytime of year. My deer habitat is much higher quality than his - but he has much more marginal habitat. That is the only real glaring difference.

I think they most certainly know the difference. I bet they can even tell the difference of who the person is by the smell. I mean my dogs know so why wouldn't the deer. I'm surrounded by a small farm with very active neighbors. They're constantly working, riding bikes, atv's, horses. Doesn't bother the deer one bit. I try to do the same so the deer get used to my scent as well. I've even thought of just washing my hunting clothes with my normal clothes so that I just smell as I would when I'm just there working on stuff. I had a big non-typical one year let me drive right by it checking cameras. I got out, walked all around pulling cards and then got back in the truck and drove out. That's when I spotted him laying about 40 yards off the road. I had walked to within 40 yards of him at one point. Never spooked. Had pictures of him for 2 weeks before he disappeared.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I think if the deer get used to a routine, whether it is from a farmer or people walking or riding bikes, they eventually become accustomed to human presence. I've seen deer feeding in a bean field right next to a walking and running path that paid no attention to the people walking or riding bikes on the path. If you stopped for any reason, nearly every deer would be watching you, and if you took one step into the beans, they would all be gone.

With that said, I think mature bucks will do the same. It's when you break the routine that will freak them out.

 

[drycreek]

I hunted a place in the sho ‘nuff (as us rednecks say) Pineywoods of Deep East Texas for three years. I was told to just find myself a place where I was a good distance from anyone else and hunt there. I pulled up my HuntStand app and found an opening in the corner of the 5,000 acres that my friend had leased. It turned out to be about 3/4 of an acre so I put my stand on the W side so I could hunt a N or S wind. It was also the very best direction that I could enter and leave the stand. Woods surrounded the opening but there was a dirt road about 150 yards from me on the S side. Four wheelers, pickups, and side bys went down that road as hunters used it to access other parts of the acreage. Many times I had deer feeding in my plot when vehicles traveled that road. I have seen bucks move to the N edge but never leave the plot, but the older does would just follow the noise just as though they could see the vehicle. Fawns paid no attention whatsoever. Whenever the noise faded, it was business as usual. That plot attracted a lot of deer because there wasn’t all that much to eat in those woods until acorns dropped.

 

[SwampCat]

I hunted a place in the sho ‘nuff (as us rednecks say) Pineywoods of Deep East Texas for three years. I was told to just find myself a place where I was a good distance from anyone else and hunt there. I pulled up my HuntStand app and found an opening in the corner of the 5,000 acres that my friend had leased. It turned out to be about 3/4 of an acre so I put my stand on the W side so I could hunt a N or S wind. It was also the very best direction that I could enter and leave the stand. Woods surrounded the opening but there was a dirt road about 150 yards from me on the S side. Four wheelers, pickups, and side bys went down that road as hunters used it to access other parts of the acreage. Many times I had deer feeding in my plot when vehicles traveled that road. I have seen bucks move to the N edge but never leave the plot, but the older does would just follow the noise just as though they could see the vehicle. Fawns paid no attention whatsoever. Whenever the noise faded, it was business as usual. That plot attracted a lot of deer because there wasn’t all that much to eat in those woods until acorns dropped.

Deer get used to a lot. My acreage starts on a ridge and spreads down into the bottoms. My far corner in the bottoms is a mile from the nearest dead end gravely road. It is quiet down there. The front side of my property is on a two lane county blacktop. I have stands up there I can hear kids talking while waiting on the school bus, dogs barking, chickens - noisy as heck. Most of our biggest bucks come from the ridge near the road - not way down in the bottoms. The biggest buck I ever killed - I was sitting on the ground sixty feet off a busy US highway. We legally have to be fifty feet from edge of rightaway. The deer was 34 yards from me. Big trucks going by felt like they vibrated the ground. I watched that deer for 20 minutes - he came and went once - and finally committed. He stared intently in all directions - except the highway. It is like he understood danger would come from the woods behind him - not the highway in front.

 

[SwampCat]

My home ground - about 350 acres is kind of long and skinny. I have five dedicated deer plots approximately 1.5 to seven acres spread from one end to the other. They are each over a 1/4 mile from the next. There is a group of individual does that center there life around those food plots. Usually six to eight in number - except for the seven acre food plot which has a dozen or so. I dont see the individual doe groups invading each others territories. This is the text book example of creating a doe factory - summer and winter food - and it has worked to perfection.

 

[drycreek]

My home ground - about 350 acres is kind of long and skinny. I have five dedicated deer plots approximately 1.5 to seven acres spread from one end to the other. They are each over a 1/4 mile from the next. There is a group of individual does that center there life around those food plots. Usually six to eight in number - except for the seven acre food plot which has a dozen or so. I dont see the individual doe groups invading each others territories. This is the text book example of creating a doe factory - summer and winter food - and it has worked to perfection.

I wish I had the acreage to do that. I have 80 acres here at home and my plot is pretty well in the middle of it. I just try to keep them something to eat so they can give me something to eat !

 

[Native Hunter]

The doe factory standoff is over. They decided to kiss and make up. The buck became a social media influencer and fell in love with the fawn who was a community organizer and social justice warrior, and they all lived happily ever after.

 

[drycreek]

The doe factory standoff is over. They decided to kiss and make up. The buck became a social media influencer and fell in love with the fawn who was a community organizer and social justice warrior, and they all lived happily ever after.

View attachment 56927

Detente !

 

[TreeDaddy]

The doe factory standoff is over. They decided to kiss and make up. The buck became a social media influencer and fell in love with the fawn who was a community organizer and social justice warrior, and they all lived happily ever after.

View attachment 56927

That buck looks like a trannie to me

bill

 

[Native Hunter]

That buck looks like a trannie to me

bill

We will never know. They moved to the city, and I’m afraid to go there.

 

[T-Max]

Is that another trail camera back there? And here I thought I had a bunch!

 

[Mtyhunter]

It looks like one, good eye!

 

[Native Hunter]

Is that another trail camera back there? And here I thought I had a bunch!

Yes, you can never have too many.