What occurs on your deer hunting place?

Hello folks,

I was hoping you all could offer some insight into what occurs on your deer land during deer season, specifically rifle season. I hunt on family land that doesn't do cattle anymore. However a recent close family member bought a skid steer and other things to start clearing land at the place. I am conflicted with this, as I know we have a lot of brush and cover, it is in the hill country where cedar is everywhere but I do know cover is good. This member likes to go out there when the weather is nice aka the fall, during the summer it is too hot and they do not go out there. I am going down this weekend, as I am coming into the place they will be essential leaving the place. Will this or does this mess up the deer hunting? I personally think it does but I was wondering if there are people who lease a person's land, where the owner lives out there to do whatever they want. I know one problem is this person does not really care about hunting. They will shoot 2 deer opening weekend that are legal to get their hunting out of the way, not really for sport like myself. I am really considering bow hunting just so I can get a month early start where they won't be out their.

I hunted land that land owner always lived and ran cattle on for many years. I don't think it had much affect on the hunting and some will say the deer get used to it if done year round. I think it depends on the land and where somewhat. I would be glad if they cleared cedar. The landowner we leased fron did a ton of cedar clearing pretty much whenever they could, deer season or not. The hunting actually improved but he had a well thought out plan and the deer still had cover and on the hills and nice brushy funnels running out into the pastures and it turned out great, even when he was working while I was there to hunt.

Anything the landowner wants

I've got game cam pics of me shredding a trail with a tractor and brush hog, 45 minutes later there were 2 does checking out the spot I mowed. A few years ago, we were assembling a blind, using a generator, saws, drills, etc. when a buck jumped into the feeder pen less than 200 yards away and proceeded to eat his fill. I don't think noise like that makes a big difference.

Now, a car that suddenly slows down on the highway? Somehow they know that one... The click of a safety at a hundred yards? That too...

WE own our place, but lease the farm and pasture to a local that lives near the place. He can do anything he wants to before, during and after the season except hunt, we have that in the pasture lease agreement. Even if he did hunt, I wouldn't have a major problem with it, but his place has better hunting than ours, and I trust him.

We have hunted while he plowed the fields that is next to the pasture land, we so no difference when that happens. If he drives through to feed his cattle, we see no change in the deer activity. There is more change on the deer activity when a new pickup or a car drives one of the roads. The deer know his vehicles, and a couple of ours, as long as we are in them, bring a strange pickup and the deer will take cover in the cedars.

How large is the place? IME a piece of equipment running will not effect the deer much at all. They are curious and will check out what is going on overnight. If you think it is hurting you hunting, move away from the activity to hunt. Corn some spots by hand and hunt from a ground blind.

The place I hunt has the landowner living on it, both of his sisters have a house on the land, and the ranch hand lives there. They run cattle year round. It has never bothered any of the hunting. Then again it is a very large place and they are very courteous to where we have our stands located.

Like ranchman said if you can move away a little it shouldn't bee too bad. We hunted while we had a dozer digging a tank and while we had a drilling rig drilling our new well. The drilling rig bothered them more than the doze. And you could walk down to the dozer work first thing in the morning and there would be fresh tracks all over.

Our place gets ranched 24/7, cattle/sheep/goats, although we will sometimes rotate them out of a pasture we want to hunt. Have had a cow stick her head in my box blind and 20 minutes later killed a deer.

I think any activity that occurs routinely is ignored. This year, the pipeline where my favorite stand was mowed by the company one afternoon. The next morning I shot a heavy-bodied 10-point on the pipeline. The deer don't seem to care about traffic on the gravel road that passes near my stand either. There are always trucks related to gas & oil or timber driving by the area.

I think it kinda depends on the size of the land and how often are they out there working. Seems deer will simply keep a safe distance from the activity until it winds down. I've done work with our skid steer during the day, then go right back out and go hunting.

Deer are curious. I think new ground disturbance with heavy equipment attracts them. A few years ago I tilled and seeded about a two acre foodplot, filled feeders, and was messing working on clearing brush around that location all day. I set a camera, and when I went back to check it there was something like 9 bucks at that spot just a few hours after I left. Not a single one of those bucks ever showed themselves on that camera for the rest of the season. This was a hidden spot that rarely gets any traffic, unless I am hunting or preparing for hunting season.

It'll be fine.

It seems what spooks deer is something unusual. The routine things they get used to. One year about three days prior to deer season I was at the gun range sighting in my rifle, when a couple of deer came to feed behind the targets. Think of it.....it was like WWIII there with a couple dozen people shooting, and here these deer were eating right where someone could hit them if the just missed the target a good ways. But then on the other hand, I've seen them spooked by small things in the woods that they're not used to.

Who knows. We go to S. Tex once a year where a stand might be hunted a couple times all year and they never even look up. If you get out and walk around they just watch and stare wondering what you are. At my lease where we are there a lot they are spooked by anything some times. Sometimes there will look like they are spooked 100 yards away watching non-stop and then they will walk 20 yards from you and not care as long as there is corn to eat. Sometimes they will blow and snort but not leave and other times they high tail it.

Where I hunt the land owner runs cattle. He has shot deer and hogs while clearing brush with the tractor and skid steer. Shoot them and scoop them. Predators do not go around making loud noises.
This year I had deer mixed in with cattle so I could not shoot for fear of hitting "white faced deer".

Mark