My family has a couple of hundred acres in Mexia and we have never seen any sign of deer - and I've walked the entire place. There are 3 tanks, so I know it's not a water issue and there's plenty for them to eat. For some reason it's like there's an invisible boundary that has kept them off.

This year we've had some dozer work done to seal up a about a 15 acre area that was quarried long ago so that it would hold water. So far it's holding well and the dove and duck population has increased and I found my first track not to mention a hog track. The only new addition is the small lake. I assume that's bringing them in.

This season, I'll probably sit in a woodline just to see what comes around. The land has cows, horses and mules running free and I doubt our grandfather would want us putting up feeder pens and it would do no good to throw oats or put up a feeder without. Any other thought or ideas?

Could anyone attest to the quality of deer that are around that area? I've never hunted that piece of land or anywhere near there - I sure hope we can get some deer coming through.

We own property in buffalo and I hunt all around there from Huntsville to Fairfield and there's always been good amounts of deer in those areas. Also know a guy that hunts in mexia and has a lot of deer and pigs, you may have to just sit and see or put out a game cam and some corn somewhere the cows don't hit to hard.

Sounds like to many animals on the property...is there a spot thats trapped off from them? Mules and horses are a deer hunters worst enemy in this area. Mexia in general though can offer some good deer

Only one field is running with horses and mules, the rest is cattle, 100 head or less. I'll have to look at some areas less frequented my the cows, maybe I can corn it in a couple of areas.

Growing up in Limestone county I have seen some big deer over the years here and there. Never really seen large numbers of deer in any area of the county except lake limestone. This year I have seen exponentially more deer than usual. I think this is largely due to the surrounding, expanding rock pits pushing them more on our property. Inversely, I am seeing less pigs than usual this year. Some successful trapping must be going on at the neighbor's places.

Put the bottle down and step away from the keyboard

Welcome Starsranch. Big ol'Texas howdy to ya'.

Growing up in Limestone county I have seen some big deer over the years here and there. Never really seen large numbers of deer in any area of the county except lake limestone. This year I have seen exponentially more deer than usual. I think this is largely due to the surrounding, expanding rock pits pushing them more on our property. Inversely, I am seeing less pigs than usual this year. Some successful trapping must be going on at the neighbor's places.
X2 ON THIS ONE !

I, personally, would ask your grandpaw if he minded you putting up a feed pen and feeder for the deer. Put it on 1 second, until you get a few deer coming in, then turn it up. Don't hurt to ask.

you could also try and hang a feeder from a tree high enough so the other animals cant reach it, eliminate the need for a pen so hogs can come in as well

i would say ask to build a feed pen. It doesnt have to be huge. Something the deer can get in and keep the cows out. There are a lot of pigs out that way. I see them every time I drive through. Best of luck to you.

The hanging feeder is a good idea; I didn't think of that. It would be good to get the go-ahead to put up a feed pen and feeder, but the hanging one might be a good starter to make sure we'll get plenty of deer on the property. I'd hate to go to the trouble only to find that only a few hang around and it's hit or miss.

I'm pretty optimistic though below is the tank I was talking about in my initial post. Before the work was done to seal this up, we only had 3 small tanks w/o much water. This new one was once a 15 or so acre rock quarry last year, dry as a bone too. When I went the other day, I noticed a significant increase of all wildlife, so I'm sure we'll get more deer coming around. I'm not above stuffing a pig in the freezer either.

I would put a pen around that feeder. I hunted at Groesbeck last year and fed all year. I never got a picture of a deer at my feeder even though there were a lot if deer on the place.. I think the cows and hogs kept them away from the feeder.

For sure. I haven't seen alot of hog sign, only a tracks here and there; but the neighbors cows would do it for sure.

Once you put that feeder up you will amazed at how many hogs you see. That area has one of the highest concentration of hogs in the state according to a TP&W report I saw about a year ago.

Thats interesting, I didn't know that. I oughta be going back in a couple of weeks, I'll have to rig up some kind of hanging feeder for starters. I might grab a buddies game cam that he isn't using, I just hope it doesn't fill up with cows. I have some thicker places in mind and hopefully, the main body of cattle won't be a problem. I'll be sure to post any results if any pics snap off.

We've got land on the Navarro/Limestone county line.

I pulled the trigger on a nice 11pt non-typical in 08 and have taken several 8pts over the years.

My brother in law got a gamecam pic of, what appeared to be, a 14pt a few years back, in 03 or 04. Nice looking buck. I've seen a couple that were probably 140-160 class(not the greatest judge) but big ol racks, just too far to risk losing with a .30-30.

Here are couple that I have the pics of. The TX rack is the 11pt. The other is an 8pt that came off of our other property about 5 miles away.

Nice looking pond. I would be stocking some fish if you fixed the dam.

Nice looking deer, I hope we can get deer like that coming around. As far as stocking, we do plan on that soon. Our granddad wants to get it stocked, I suppose with the standard Large Mouth and Channel Cats, but he also wanted some bluegill for the kids to fish for. I told him about the hybrid bluegill, those are always fun to get into when you can get them up to Crappie size.

I'm just glad to see so many ducks on it, I'm hoping for a good duck season. I dont really hunt ducks very often based on the premise that if I freeze my butt off, I'd like there to be a deer on the ground. ha ha. May have to give it more of a chance this year.

Looks like a great place to start building the population up!

In Texas they're always around. Last year they were drinking water from a dish pan by the back door. It was a timeshare thing between them, an owl, the squirrels and the hawks.

Looks like a couple of pretty fat doe. I'd stick 'em in the freezer.

Don't bother with a hanging feeder,get a tripod feeder and build a pen around it...At $10 a bag all you'll be feeding are raccoons and cows...Trust me on this. I know there will be people that say,"Just put up a hanging feeder"-no need for a feed pen. WRONG! The question is, Do you want to see deer or not? I'm not trying to come across as a know-it-all. However I have mucho experience in this...Don't try and buck the system,it won't work. Good luck,the place looks like it has potential.

Erathkid, thanks for the heads up. I believe I agree with you. For a moment, I thought about finding a thicker area to hang a bucket with hopes that the cows wouldn't bother with it, but I'm sure they'd get in there somehow. I'm not a cattle expert, but these are mostly Brahmas and seem more agile than the Beefmasters or Angus that I've been around in the past so I think the pen would definately do better, and I've got a better chance of talking my grandad into checking it and filling it if he can easily get his tactor to the area. I hope the lake continues to hold water, unless we have a drought like last year, I'm sure it'll stay up. As soon as I can get back out there, I'll try to check it out and post the results. I've certainly enjoyed everyone's comments and experiences with this area as I have none, but hopefully will build a reservoir over the coming years.