Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Swollowing my pride. Help needed.

I hunt 400 acres. I don't put out any corn, but all my neighbors do, and i have no problem seeing deer. Corn, is not a fix all.

Y'all must be down there past the minner farms. I've always told my wife if we ever move back home I'd like to live out that way. Pretty little area.

I agree with what several have said.....Too much pressure on a small property. Best thing you can do with a property like that is fix it up and then limit your hunting until the time gets right. Allow the deer to get pressured from surrounding areas and move into the non-pressured land. Wait until a good cold snap hits around rutting time and then move in and hunt stands with good winds. Less is more on a small property. I love to hunt too but there's a trade off for spending lots of time in the woods when the time isn't right.

I know you're going to want to hunt some before the rut though so something that will help you out is to have "low impact stands" to hunt that allows you to slip into the property and out of without disturbing anything. The wind should be considered in this as well. Have some stands that you can get to on the edge of the property that are just simple in and out without having to walk way into the property jumping deer.

Also....start looking at your entry and exit routes that you take into the property. If you're continually jumping deer going in and coming out that's not good. You want to be able to access your spots without disturbing the deer around you. The best looking spot is no good if you run everything out on the way to get to it. You may need to change the way you go to your stands or even modify your trails with some hinge cuttings to hide yourself.

Patience. Control your sent as best you can, give them good food and just enjoy the outdoors. I know you want to see deer and shoot a TV show quality buck. Believe me I know about not seeing deer. Mix it up a little bit. I'm sure you'll get one this year and if not just think of all those young bucks that will get to grow another year.

How many deer a year do you normally kill out there? Do you have exclusion cages in your green fields?

No cages. We only put out corn at the end of the year to see what made it and we've killed one deer a year. Its not like I jump deer all the time. I got frustrated and got down early and sure enough I had one coming right to me, another time was last week during the monsoons I figured itd be a good time to pull cards and jumped 2, then Friday the wind changed on me and I walked up on a big wide 6 in a field. I don't shoot young deer but I kind of wish I had cause the chances I see another deer are slim to none

CNC nailed it. 200+ acres is a small enough property that it does not leave a lot of bedding area, transition area and feeding areas combined with high hunting pressure.

You want to avoid jumping deer at all costs and will need to change the way you access stands and hunt the property. Deer should never know you are on the property when you are checking cards or hunting.

Here's a plug for an awesome book "Whitetail Success by Design" by Jeff Sturgis. He addresses these exact issues on small acreage property and completely changed the way I hunt. Its my first year using these strategies but I'm optimistic it will pay off in a few years.

The flip side is you can manage your property to the point that you are scared to access it at all. Find a balance that works for you while meeting your hunting goals.
Good luck and don't miss when you get an opportunity at a monster (like I did!).

Same thing for me north of you. I have hunted my 200 acres about 5 times and have seen a total of 5 deer, three being young bucks. My deer are not on cameras, getting pics of one or two per week, last week and a half I had a total of 7 pictures. They are just not there, all the food and cover they need. They put down scrapes and rubs two weeks before Christmas and I have yet to get a picture of a deer using them. Just a terrible year for me.

I hate to say but I bet this is the problem. I hunt a place that has been managed forever. Ive hunted it for 11 years and have shot a ton of nice bucks there. You could see deer every am and pm hunt and pass younger bucks and wait for mature ones. Best place Ive ever hunted. In some green fields youd see 15-20 deer everytime you hunted it.

2 years ago..that all changed. the new "feeding" law came into effect. a neighbor that had hunted there as long as me has an 80 acre piece. last year four of them were hunting it. They shot everyday...am and pm..and killed over 25 deer off the piece.

I could see them from my stand go get 55 gallon barrels of corn and pour out 2 ft high/4 ft wide giant piles of corn in their land..which was all clearcut. You might remember me bitching about it last year. They even put stands up on OUR land since they had no trees.

Just before the end of the season the warden busted all four for multiple charges: hunting over bait, no orange, hunting without permission for being on our land, no hunting licenses, hunting while under the influence ( one had 3 beers by 530 am..and more in his pocket.)and a couple other charges.

This year...they come back again..the one guy and a new friend or two. Same thing 55 gal barrells of corn...shooting every doe, fawn or young buck coming to that corn. over 20 deer so far and counting.

Those greenfields that we saw so many deer...empty. Lucky to see a doe and fawn..and they eat a few minutes..then head to the corn.

All around us I had found blinds , stands, feeders and corn just poured on the ground.

Our only sightings seem to come from KNOWING where the neighbors pour their corn and hunting travel routes TO IT!

Hard to kill mature deer too...as I think they died last year..when they were 2! I used to shoot 1 -2 trophy bucks a year here...havent killed one there since the law started.

By the way..this is a very big piece with only 2 of us hunting it. It is also very expensive.

We dont want to put out any corn as we dont hunt over it or around it. we ended up putting up two feeders in some thick areas just to hold deer.

This new law is screwed up and I guarantee it is corn puling your deer away. If you hear alot of crows every am in the same spot...and turkeys heading in and out ..its probably corn.

My feeling is either make it LEGAL or ILLEGAL to have corn out. If it is out you CAN hunt over it.

This GREY area bullcrap just profits Fish and game ( the wardens I know are issuing more baiting tickets then ever) and it benefits baiters, as they ARE going to hunt over it.
The LEGAL LAW ABIDING hunter who manages his property for game and doesnt break the law is the big loser with this joke of a law.

Sounds like to me human pressure is definitely a factor. Just my .02

Some more advice would be to stop running trail cameras during hunting season except for maybe one camera on a major food plot that you can easily check on your normal comings and goings. You don�t want to just go out checking cameras during hunting season.

Another thing you could do to help yourself out would be to invest in a silent ride type buggy or something similar (even a bicycle) and drive right to your hunting locations. Try to have as many of your hunting locations as possible located close to interior roadways. At my club, the interior roadways themselves are mostly what we hunt. We rarely ever actually walk through the �woods�. The less you can walk around on the property the better. Every footstep you take puts human scent on the ground. Long walks through properties just puts down long lines of human scent that alert the deer to human presence when they cross it. You don�t have to shoot at deer to pressure them. They will adjust their behavior due to lots of human intrusion.