How Many Deer Do You Expect to See in One Hunt?

[SwampCat]

Our pictures have really taken a dive last four weeks. I have a corn feeder - a spinner - 400 yards from house - that sits in the edge of a two acre food plot. Have not had a deer visit that feeder in three weeks. Had a dozen everyday does there. Not a blade of wheat has been eaten in the food plot. 100 yards away, you could not throw a quarter down without hitting a deer track - eating acorns under the oak trees

 

[Mortenson]

Easy for me to say as an outsider from a non bait state (although some neighbors likely bait), but I feel deer baiting should be banned across the board. Never going to convince me a planted apple tree or wildlife plot is the same as dumped bait either.

 

[SwampCat]

Easy for me to say as an outsider from a non bait state (although some neighbors likely bait), but I feel deer baiting should be banned across the board. Never going to convince me a planted apple tree or wildlife plot is the same as dumped bait either.

I agree 100%. No telling what percentage our deer harvest would drop. I have 30 acres of food plots, so would help me immensely - except after a couple years, probably couldnt drive down the road without hitting a deer.

 

[BenA]

I agree 100%. No telling what percentage our deer harvest would drop. I have 30 acres of food plots, so would help me immensely - except after a couple years, probably couldnt drive down the road without hitting a deer.

Do you believe if you didn't bait, you wouldn't have as many deer even with that many acres in food plots? I'm starting to think prolonged baiting on a property can trump anything for holding deer.

 

[SwampCat]

Do you believe if you didn't bait, you wouldn't have as many deer even with that many acres in food plots? I'm starting to think prolonged baiting on a property can trump anything for holding deer.

I believe I would have as many deer with just the food plots. I dont believe they would spend quite as much time on my land without bait. I primarily bait to keep more deer on my place for more time as opposed to them spending as much time at the neighbors feeders. For me, bait is utilized far more by deer in summer and early fall and bait use gradually diminishes throughout the fall. Our hot, dry southern summers are our stress period and deer, including mature bucks, readily come to bait in summer and early fall when it is usually dry as a bone here. As acorns start falling late Oct, deer frequency - and especially buck frequency - diminishes on bait. Usually post rut is when the deer start really getting on the green food plots - with frequency of use increasing up through mid winter. Doe use on feed increases again after acorns are eaten or sour. My ten to twenty acre neighbors rely strictly on bait to get their deer. None of them have food plots. The more deer I can keep on my place with food plots and bait - the more deer likely to make it through the year.

I have been baiting for nine years. I do hunt on bait some. I have hunted maybe 20 times this year for two different bucks coming to bait. One never came during season to bait - almost shooting light, but not quite. The other has visited a bait site in shooting light twice this year for a few minutes at times I was not hunting. I have killed one deer on bait. By far the most deer we kill are in food plots mid to late season. I could kill deer on bait - just not the ones I want.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Deer have been hitting my one feeder hard that still has some food in it. I won’t refill it after this but I’m sure they would be like a moth to a flame this time of year with the lack of food and cold weather.

 

[Kdog]

On our property in Morgan county we average ~5 per sit (morning or afternoon), my property in Jackson we average 3 per day (morning and afternoon combined).

 

[BenA]

I believe I would have as many deer with just the food plots. I dont believe they would spend quite as much time on my land without bait. I primarily bait to keep more deer on my place for more time as opposed to them spending as much time at the neighbors feeders. For me, bait is utilized far more by deer in summer and early fall and bait use gradually diminishes throughout the fall. Our hot, dry southern summers are our stress period and deer, including mature bucks, readily come to bait in summer and early fall when it is usually dry as a bone here. As acorns start falling late Oct, deer frequency - and especially buck frequency - diminishes on bait. Usually post rut is when the deer start really getting on the green food plots - with frequency of use increasing up through mid winter. Doe use on feed increases again after acorns are eaten or sour. My ten to twenty acre neighbors rely strictly on bait to get their deer. None of them have food plots. The more deer I can keep on my place with food plots and bait - the more deer likely to make it through the year.

I have been baiting for nine years. I do hunt on bait some. I have hunted maybe 20 times this year for two different bucks coming to bait. One never came during season to bait - almost shooting light, but not quite. The other has visited a bait site in shooting light twice this year for a few minutes at times I was not hunting. I have killed one deer on bait. By far the most deer we kill are in food plots mid to late season. I could kill deer on bait - just not the ones I want.

If you stopped baiting, but your neighbors continued, what would happen?

 

[SwampCat]

Deer have been hitting my one feeder hard that still has some food in it. I won’t refill it after this but I’m sure they would be like a moth to a flame this time of year with the lack of food and cold weather.

Wh have acorns so thick you cant hardly walk. Annual rye grass and clover are coming on in farmers pasture. Summer is our stress period on deer - I think that is why they will tear feed up at that time of year. Spring they wont hardly come to a feeder because everything is green. Right now, with the acorns in a good year like this year, is a time of plenty.this us everywhere right now. I have to turn my spin feeders off or way down because the corn piles up from no use. My land is a stones throw from close to 60,000 acres of contiguous bottomland. Much of it that looks like this right now, even though this picture was taken on my place on the ridge above the river bottoms.


When the acorns are gone or soured - in another few weeks, they will start hitting my food plots. They have not touched the wheat or clover in my plots. Wheat is approaching ten inches tall. USUALLY, they will return to the food plots in a few weeks.

Depending on the acorn crop and the “severity” of the winter - deer may get back on bait fairly hard in winter. I am the only person I know for several miles in either direction who plants a food plot. To my knowledge, there is no ag row crop land in my county

 

[SwampCat]

If you stopped baiting, but your neighbors continued, what would happen?

In my opinion, they would kill more deer because they would not be competing with my baiting - and most would be young bucks or does. Each one of my feeders has a large doe group that locates their home range around one of my feeders. One had 12 does and fawns - the other two have fewer - from four to six. I believe the feeders keep the does on my property more where they are less likely to get run over by cars, fawns are less likely to be killed during hay season, they are less likely to get poached, etc.

About 12 years ago, my sept cam survey showed six adult does. I invited the state head deer bio, asst state deer bio, and the area bio to my land for a ride around. I had been whining and griping to them for several years to reduce the doe harvest. Grilled them some burgers and we took a ride around. Almost untouched soybean plants, little to no browsing on preferred deer plants. At the end of the day, they all agreed I had a noticeable lack of deer - but in the end, they said they could not manage every corner of every county.

That is when I decided if I wanted deer, I waa going to have to do it myself. First thing we did was immediately stopped killing does. Did not kill one for eight years. Not even the 8 yr old grand daughters. A year or two after that, we started putting out a couple bait piles for the grand daughters to hunt. I noticed that the more consistently I provided supplemental feed, the more my does were seen in the area. I even had an adjacent landowner tell me he wasn't consistently seeing nearly as many deer at his feeder as normal. I didnt tell him, but I was seeing a lot more deer on my place.

None of my neighbors feed outside of hunting season. I provide high protein, high fat feed for my does all summer and corn the rest of the year. I would do this if a buck never showed up at supplemental feed. I want healthy does, that stay on my property a lot, and produce a good crop of fawns. I now normally have about 30 adult does on my camera surveys - up from six.

Interestingly, even when I only had six does on camera survey, I had quite a few bucks - usually around 15. My theory is the bucks moved to my place because of the food plots and it became their home range. They did not stay around during season - I think they bred the few does and headed out looking for greener pastures. Now, I usually have around 20 bucks and many of them stay here year round.

I have a spinnfeeder 400 yards from the house, on the edge of a 2 acre food plot and fifty fruit trees. There is a doe herd there, that we see almost daily. There are a couple does we can identify - one because of a limp - who has lived in that area for at least six years. On average, this doe group gains one deer a year. Before season, they were up to 12 in number. I am not sure how many are still in the doe group - they left the feeder three weeks ago and are in the woods eating acorns.

I know this is a long answer for a short question. I am fortunate to be retired and live on my property. I have killed one deer in the past six years and did not kill it on my property. I live for this stuff. Not many days out of the year I dont do something to maintain or improve my property.

 

[BenA]

In my opinion, they would kill more deer because they would not be competing with my baiting - and most would be young bucks or does. Each one of my feeders has a large doe group that locates their home range around one of my feeders. One had 12 does and fawns - the other two have fewer - from four to six. I believe the feeders keep the does on my property more where they are less likely to get run over by cars, fawns are less likely to be killed during hay season, they are less likely to get poached, etc.

About 12 years ago, my sept cam survey showed six adult does. I invited the state head deer bio, asst state deer bio, and the area bio to my land for a ride around. I had been whining and griping to them for several years to reduce the doe harvest. Grilled them some burgers and we took a ride around. Almost untouched soybean plants, little to no browsing on preferred deer plants. At the end of the day, they all agreed I had a noticeable lack of deer - but in the end, they said they could not manage every corner of every county.

That is when I decided if I wanted deer, I waa going to have to do it myself. First thing we did was immediately stopped killing does. Did not kill one for eight years. Not even the 8 yr old grand daughters. A year or two after that, we started putting out a couple bait piles for the grand daughters to hunt. I noticed that the more consistently I provided supplemental feed, the more my does were seen in the area. I even had an adjacent landowner tell me he wasn't consistently seeing nearly as many deer at his feeder as normal. I didnt tell him, but I was seeing a lot more deer on my place.

None of my neighbors feed outside of hunting season. I provide high protein, high fat feed for my does all summer and corn the rest of the year. I would do this if a buck never showed up at supplemental feed. I want healthy does, that stay on my property a lot, and produce a good crop of fawns. I now normally have about 30 adult does on my camera surveys - up from six.

Interestingly, even when I only had six does on camera survey, I had quite a few bucks - usually around 15. My theory is the bucks moved to my place because of the food plots and it became their home range. They did not stay around during season - I think they bred the few does and headed out looking for greener pastures. Now, I usually have around 20 bucks and many of them stay here year round.

I have a spinnfeeder 400 yards from the house, on the edge of a 2 acre food plot and fifty fruit trees. There is a doe herd there, that we see almost daily. There are a couple does we can identify - one because of a limp - who has lived in that area for at least six years. On average, this doe group gains one deer a year. Before season, they were up to 12 in number. I am not sure how many are still in the doe group - they left the feeder three weeks ago and are in the woods eating acorns.

I know this is a long answer for a short question. I am fortunate to be retired and live on my property. I have killed one deer in the past six years and did not kill it on my property. I live for this stuff. Not many days out of the year I dont do something to maintain or improve my property.

This pretty much confirms my suspicions about my area. There's so much baiting being done and so much cover, that if you're not baiting, you're not going to hold many deer in relation to the people who are. I'm about to bump the food plot portion of my property out the roof. I'll also start running bait.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

On a full day of actually hunting, I'd say 1 to 6 deer in the NC Pa. mountains. The days of seeing groups of 20 to 40 deer are long gone - but the bucks are bigger, body & rack-wise since AR began. Once the shooting starts, food plots, apple trees, and corn play no role at all. Nocturnal is what 90% of the deer become. Our camp has put on drives all day long and no one saw a deer. The very last days of the season can have deer show themselves - maybe.

 

[SwampCat]

This pretty much confirms my suspicions about my area. There's so much baiting being done and so much cover, that if you're not baiting, you're not going to hold many deer in relation to the people who are. I'm about to bump the food plot portion of my property out the roof. I'll also start running bait.

I think for feeding to be used as a management tool, it needs to be done more than just deer season. Our state calls it baiting 30 days before deer season and through deer season. They call it supplemental feeding other times of the years. I run three corn feeders year round and provide protein june through Sept. If I had the money, I would probably provide protein year round - or at least Jan - Sept. I consider it a long term commitment - but I wouldnt lose a minute of sleep if they banned it statewide.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

In '19-23' in Northern MN itasca county, i'd say about 1 deer per sit. The times of seeing 2 or three balanced with 0s got it there. At my property in central MN it depends.. If i'm sitting food and they are hitting my plots (as they have been the entire season and still doing it now), it's usually 5-10 per sit with potential for more. In the woods (which I didn't sit once this year) its fewer, usually a couple deer maybe?

 

[BenA]

I think for feeding to be used as a management tool, it needs to be done more than just deer season. Our state calls it baiting 30 days before deer season and through deer season. They call it supplemental feeding other times of the years. I run three corn feeders year round and provide protein june through Sept. If I had the money, I would probably provide protein year round - or at least Jan - Sept. I consider it a long term commitment - but I wouldnt lose a minute of sleep if they banned it statewide.

In Kentucky, you can't feed March 1 thru July 31. I'm going to supply high protein food plots during that time period to concentrate deer around me. Food, Food, Food. My native forage in cover, cover, cover plan didn't work out so well.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Adamantly against shooting does in my zone. We used to have LOTS more deer. Most I ever saw at one sit was 27. Saw around 20 several times back when our population was strong. Now its at 15-20% of what it used to be.

We used to have a lot more deer here in Pa. too. Then the Pa. Game Commission decided to print doe tags like there were deer behind every tree. Big doe kills happened for several years - then hunters noticed they weren't seeing any deer anymore in big sections of the state. I personally hunted in snow cover for entire days and didn't see a track. Other camps on our mountain saw the same thing. So .... most camps decided to make tag soup and let the herd recover. That was a very smart idea - no matter what the PGC said. Because of camps' trigger restraint, we now have a better deer herd. Not as many as in years past - but better balanced buck-to-doe, and in numbers that make hunting viable.

 

[SwampCat]

In Kentucky, you can't feed March 1 thru July 31. I'm going to supply high protein food plots during that time period to concentrate deer around me. Food, Food, Food. My native forage in cover, cover, cover plan didn't work out so well.

I know it depends on where you own property. Cover is everywhere here. It is the most common aspect of what a deer requires. Food is what brings them to my property - and semi holds them

 

[Native Hunter]

The pic below shows what the guy hunting on the neighbor to the south put out 30 yards from my property line this year. He hardly saw a deer and I know why. Every morning and evening they were stacked under my sawtooth trees, which I can easily see 110 yards from my blind. I even got pics of breeding going on under those trees. It was like a circus!

PS - I wasn’t trespassing when I took the pic. I also have permission to be on that land.



I thought the 5 apples were a nice touch!!

 

[SwampCat]

The pic below shows what the guy hunting on the neighbor to the south put out 30 yards from my property line this year. He hardly saw a deer and I know why. Every morning and evening they were stacked under my sawtooth trees, which I can easily see 110 yards from my blind. I even got pics of breeding going on under those trees. It was like a circus!

PS - I wasn’t trespassing when I took the pic. I also have permission to be on that land.

View attachment 86098

I believe it. I see that every year during a good acorn crop. A good acorn crop can last two or three months here - from Shumards - the first to fall, to the water and willow oaks which may not fall until December.

 

[Catscratch]

The pic below shows what the guy hunting on the neighbor to the south put out 30 yards from my property line this year. He hardly saw a deer and I know why. Every morning and evening they were stacked under my sawtooth trees, which I can easily see 110 yards from my blind. I even got pics of breeding going on under those trees. It was like a circus!

PS - I wasn’t trespassing when I took the pic. I also have permission to be on that land.

View attachment 86098

I thought the 5 apples were a nice touch!!

Holy crap! Shelled corn, on the cob, a block, and apples! Quite the pile!