Cherokee County - where are the deer?

Hi everyone, I've been lurking for a while, but here goes for the first post.

I'm hunting a small lease near Alto, in Cherokee county. I was over run with hogs on the camera daily, and had regular sightings of deer every day or two. About 4 weeks ago everything disappeared. This is my first season to hunt, so I don't really know what to expect, but assume from reading other posts that it's all about the acorns. I've moved deeper into the woods and am hunting game trails instead of the feeders now, but still not seeing anything.

Is there anyone else hunting this area on here? How long do the acorns last? Is anyone else seeing deer around here?

Welcome to the forum, I don't hunt east Texas so can't help much.

I hunt in east Texas. It's the same everywhere with this years bumper acorn crop. You will start seeing movement late season when the acorns are gone. They have no interest in corn at my place, even the pigs.

I hunt in Wood County and deer are not coming to the feeders. See Deer feeding on acorns. Did see couple of young bucks working a scrape yesterday. Hope the acorns disappear soon and the rut kick in...

Even the pigs are avoiding the feeders!

on my 13th sit and have only seen one deer this season. That's East Texas hunting

Good luck. Lots of good experienced people on here. You ask, they will answer with their experience.

For me. Best east texas time is rut. Bruisers dont come out much.

Acorn crop this year is of record proportions. East Texas deer don't need to come to feeders like cattle to feed like they do in West and South Texas. That is just the challenge of hunting East Texas - you have to HUNT them!

Sometimes I miss my leases in Sterling and Baylor Counties, but hunting Marion, Gregg, and Rusk Counties has gotten me some great bucks, just not as "regular" as the days I hunted over feeders out west.

I would suggest finding travel routes, staging areas, and ACORNS and hunting those. Then, when the rut starts, be set up on field edges and be ready for them to pop out very suddenly and unexpectedly.

I love hunting East Texas - it definitely takes alot of time and effort and HOURS in the stand, but I think it is worth it.

I hunt in Morris County. We have taken 3 deer so far this season. None of them were shot at a feeder. There are so many acorns, that not even the hogs are eating the corn. I suggest finding where two trail cross, or where you have good visibility, such as a field edge. Hunting near a stand of oaks would seem to make sense, but if there are oaks spread all over, that may be hit or miss. Before the season started the land owner said I was wasting my effort with a feeder. He was right.

Thanks For the replies. Today I moved a pop up blind to a staging area next to a creek that has a field on the other side. The banks are torn up in this area, but only one set of new tracks since the rain. Looks like they are moving up and down the cover of the creek bed. I'm hoping for some action there in the morning. Heck, at this point I'd be happy to just see a hog.

Zelphor - good move on the creek crossing. Don't forget to look for rubs a little earlier in the season - those are the "sign posts" for travel routes and you can get a relative idea on the size of the buck by the rub he makes. Hunting over feeders can kind of make you forget some basic deer scouting skills that years ago before box blinds and timer equipped feeders we all had to know. If you can identify deer sign then you can be successful in East Texas! Good luck!

Thanks Millerliteliker, Newbie here though. I'm still trying to learn all these signs, and get in the right place. This is my first season to ever have a lease, or hunt whitetails. Sounds like east Texas might have been jumping in a little over my head, gotta learn and make it work now though.

I manage a few tracts of hunting/timber land not far from Alto towards Wells and you have got some good deer in that area. Have patience, you might be surprised what shows up before season ends.

I am not on Facebook, but my son showed me a real neat Facebook page called "903 Outdoors". It is strictly about East Texas hunting. You'll get some inspiration from that page I can promise you.

903 Outdoors on FB will show you that there are some great bucks coming out of East Texas. I'm just North of Tyler and I have more hogs then deer, but there are some decent bucks in the area. My neighbor has a nice ten point that he is seeing near his house that is all swollen up and chasing does. His wife wont let him shoot it because it's close to the house and she likes seeing him. They take pictures of him with their cell phones, he's that close!!!!

Acorns are everywhere. If I'm under an oak tree, I'm walking on acorns and not touching the ground. The only activity I'm getting at my feeders and food plot is from animals passing through it on their way somewhere else. Nothing is holding them there. If we get a few more good storms and some cold weather, things might get better.

My boys and I found a fresh scrape today and hung a stand near it. Made a mock scrape a little ways up the trail. I plan on hunting it by the weekend.

Had two does at the feeder eating corn just after dark tonight. They only stayed for about 5 minutes and left, but returned a while later and ate corn for 30 minutes. This is the first pic of a deer I have at the feeder since the season started. Hopefully this is the start of everything returning to the feeder on a regular basis.