Remember the good ol days?

When the feeder would go off and deer would come? Hunting has sucked this season..my question is that if this happened this year it could happen again. What can we do to improve our odds other than cut down all the oak trees?

If your answer is food plots....we have a nice looking wheat field the deer hit at night.

deer corn

Your in San Saba County?

Maybe try the apple flavor.....if that don't work, try the Indian corn?

yes sir

I put out apple flavored corn and I think I ran every deer off. that stuff piled up for weeks. Then I added some record rack golden nugget and bam. They ate it up. Glad I experimented early in the season

"Buck Crack"

Get buck corn instead of deer corn.

Rain and I loved every inch that fell this fall and winter so far. Greened up the forbes and grasses along with my oats plots. Deer have plenty this winter and they needed it. They win this year and I have no problem with it. If it happens again then I will be okay with it again. Right now if we get a good spring it is setting up for a great year for antler growth. Lot of bucks survived the season and the rut due to the rain.

It ain't the acorns folks, remember that summer from hell in 2011 and the following drought, we are now just seeing the aftershock from that, total lack of 3.5 yr old deer.

Learn how to hunt? The deer are all still there, figure out where and when and go get them.

I remember those days. Last weekend. The weekend before. Yeah, those were all good days. Dozens of deer at the feeders.

We have lots of oaks, too. I guess they just don't prefer the live oak acorns as much as corn, though.

Haven't hunted from a blind or anywhere near a feeder in a month, seeing deer every sit.

Yep, the deer are there. While I think there are a few less deer in the woods, some folks have been wanting to argue that the deer are all gone. There's this fella over on another site that's been harassing us for going on two years now that the population is decimated from the drought. Says he used to see "100s" of deer in a field and now he's lucky to see just a few. He chastises anyone who dares to even talk about shooting does.

But I agree with stx. The abundance of food has moved the deer off the drought patterns we've been used to seeing the last few years. They win, and I'm good with it too. I drove over 1,200 miles round trip to my place and hunted for 10 solid days. Never shot a deer. And other than not being able to shoot a deer with my kids, I'm OK with that.

I agree with STX, rain came at the perfect time, combined with a very heavy acorn drop, at least in N Texas.

Yeah next year should be a good one unless it rains a ton again then there will be some real monsters out there the year after! I agree with the abundance of natural food being available, but one huge factor nobody ever mentions is line of sight. I couldn't see over 50 yards in any of my stands this year because it was so leafy. It took until the first week in Dec. until the leaves dropped in Young County. Once they dropped you could see well over 100 yards which in turn almost triples your "kill zone". I'm a bowhunter so this does not affect me too much, besides having more time to get in position to draw back, but I'm sure most gun hunters were handicapped by this. Where I'm at it's all mesquite so it was probably worse than an oak woods, but non the less I think this was a factor in the season as well. I'm sure plenty of deer walked by me at 100 yards for the first two months of the season that I didn't even know were there.

It happens around here every other year most Oak trees are bi annual and we seem to have heavy acorn crops on even years resulting in hard times for hunters. This season if you didn't get one during the rut the odds dropped tremendously the first two weeks of general season were awesome but since then activity has almost stopped.

I also hunt San Saba county, the south side and the hunting is terrible. They are not coming to feeders at all, it is like the deer just disappeared. In walking the pasture there is very little deer sign. Have gone 30 days without seeing a deer. Maybe there will be bunch next year.

You have to get off of the feeders and get in the woods, hunt the travel routes to and from the oaks or hunt the oaks all together, this happens every year at our place, and we're just across the river from you in Mills county.

Buck corn, I like that. PERSISTENCE! Dont give up. Many untouchable nocturnal monsters have bit the dirt, in the last day/last hour/last minute of the season. I went out on the last day of archery with my crossbow, nice 8-point crossed in front of me at 100 yrds. Next day moved down below where he crossed with my .270, he came in behind me and vanished. Watched the weather and went back on the 12th. of Nov. 9:05am guess who walked right below my climber, yup mister 8-point w/ 2 mature does in tow. Bang, fell over, end of story. And I hunt in the SNForest, no cameras, no bait, no 4-wheeler or guide. The Lord has been good to me, and He sometimes makes me wait for my blessing, so dont give up, ask God for help, He will listen. That was all free of charge, LOL.

While this may be true in some cases it is not true at our place. As mentioned there is practically no deer sign in the pasture. We are on 216 acres...maybe if the place was larger??? We are closer to Castell in Mason county and have heard similar reports of few deer being seen.

Hunted week of thanksgiving and youngest harvested a nice 8 point. That was one of 4 deer we saw that week. Just got back from hunting since Christmas. Didn't see a single deer. We had a nice wide 8 which was a 3.5 year old deer on our cam couple days before and then he vanished. Every morning heard rifles going off all around us. Acorns were still thick. When deer did hit the feeders it wasn't for very long. After only having a handful of single older male hogs on the cams sporadically a sounder showed up. Hit for two days but we missed them both times. Time on our camera was an hour ahead of our clocks! Attention to detail. Still ticked about that. Anyway we had an awesome time. Our feeders had only been up for 3 months on our place. Place has never had feeders on it before ever! Looking forward to the years to come. Can't wait till Oct 2015! Getting our bows tuned in and changing our tactics!

I don't understand why everyone complains about not seeing deer at feeders! The deer are still there we had one of the best season in years. We killed four mature bucks, one during youth season and three during opening weekend. And I still see deer every time I go out, some good prospects for next yr. I hunt in erath county and don't even focus on the feeders. Ya of course we have feeders but they are there mainly to bring does in and to just feed the deer. I have never killed a BIG buck under a feeder. You have to hunt where the deer travel, live and feed. The neighbors across the fence complain of never killing deer but when I go to their stands they are in the brush where they can only see about 20 ft around feeder and about a 50 yard clearing. I hunt fields around creeks and woods where the deer live and the bucks will come out in the fields to feed. Bucks are smart and they figure out real quick where the most activity is which is at your feeder, and by activity I mean you feeling it up, clearing limbs, checking camera, and checking on feeder, and every time you do this you are putting scent every where around it. And you wonder where all the deer are!!

i hear golf is fun, fishing is a blast. sound like some need a new hobby that is less frustratin.

Vanilla

Heck this was my first year to ever deer hunt. I live on 150 acres and decided to give it a shot. I was excited when lots of bucks were showing up on camera in Sept and Oct, but after the acorns fell they seemed to dissappear. Then the rut came and nothing. I just about gave up until last weekend when I checked the camera and to my surprise they all came back. The only thing that kept me hunting was the few tracks I would see here and there. Luckily I finally got one and now I'm hooked. Long story short, they were always there. I think the combination of my pressure and all the natural forage kept them from being where i wanted them to be. Just my two cents!

Blueribbons: I had the BEST season I have had at my ranch with several nice bucks and a couple does in the freezer. I think that deer hunting is like real estate..Location, location, location..

We're in west Texas and had more rain this year than the previous 2 years combined. I think the deer had plenty of graze and didn't hit the feeders. I never saw a deer at my feeders until this past weekend. The lack of graze and cold weather finally pushed them back to my feeders. Shot a doe, buck and my son in law missed a doe.

I've hunted TX 2 seasons now. I bought a feeder and stand and camera, etc. I've sat that stand countless hours and I've seen a lot of deer. In 2 seasons i've killed 2 good bucks…..neither at my feeder.

Last year was one my way in to hunt. This year was on my way out. Definitely changing some things up next season.

These were the good old days. I believe they are still here. [img]https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/pics/...of_truck_wtrmrk[/img]
[img]https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/pics/...h_deer_sideview[/img]

Same way in Arkansas deer are there just not moving during day

I use Indian corn....they seem to really like it and will stay around longer

just have to hunt different. deer habits and movement change along with the conditions. I know some leases don't always offer a lot of flexibility on how to hunt...but do the best you can.

we hunted a place in the hill country where there were so many deer and namely so many does...that when the feeder went off...you'd have 30 or more deer show up. few bucks. and not many bucks with any age. sure its neat to see that many....but they were there because they were starving. when you think about it like that....that's not real neat.

so we took to shooting LOTS of does. all the does our license would allow. we'd kill 15-16 year. shoot no bucks. eventually the numbers were beat down. you'd no longer see that many deer at feeders. deer didn't always come to feeders. some other hunters nagged...that we'd shot too many deer and killed them all out. but in the years to follow....the biggest bucks ever taken off the place were shot. a place where a 12in 8pt was the norm....to a few deer in the 140 class taken.

on this lease we were not allowed to hunt anywhere except in our assigned location. so we couldn't move around much to the acrons and such. you just have to hunt harder. and know that if the deer aren't storming your corn feeder its because they are in good shape.....and when you do see them...they will be that much bigger. its a better feeling than seeing them starve.

do something different if you can. I've hunted my whole life in a blind with a feeder as well. its different to get out....but its adventurous. do some rattling...make some bush blinds on trails...might surprise the hell out of you what you'll see.

I've learned to never with the deer to be hungry though. take all the rain and acorns and native browse you can get. the deer and the hunting will be better for it.