northwest refugio county area....I have a little place north of refugio off 183. about 250 acres. Some hunting pressure to the north of me (4 blinds on 40 acres), not much to the east of me at all... and a 460 acre place to the south of me isn't hunted at all. I have a shortage of does, and for the past 3 years I keep thinking the numbers would come up but they're not. This year I have logged 13 different bucks on camera, and 3 does, plus a doe fawn. What I see every year is bucks at the feeders all through the spring and summer, then about this time of year, they start to peel off (to where???).

anyone have any advice? I have two free choice protein, 3 corn feeders, 2 mineral block feeders, lots of water on the place... just can't figure out where the hell the does are. There are a lot of pigs, and I keep an unpenned feeder by one of the stock tanks for a pig blind. The other two timed feeders are in a hog panel pen... hogs come by but usually don't stay long.

Sounds like they're taking off to find the does. Rare problem. Most people have too many does. I would do what I could to bring in more does. You have feeders. Do you have any food plots? Any good bedding areas? A sanctuary? Deer need shelter, food, and water. Provide these things, and I don't see why you wouldn't have and keep deer, provided that you don't pressure them too much by over hunting it. They have sanctuaries next door that they will run to as soon as they feel pressured.

I am north of you not to far in western Goliad and have AR's. I have bucks and does on camera year round. My ratio last year was about 1 buck to 1.8 does and appears to be even better so far with what I am seeing. As of this morning I had been seeing the same 20 bucks on camera or in person. I did see at least one new buck this morning that I had not seen before and there could have been 2 new ones since it seems like they are starting to travel. The bucks I have on TC in late summer/early fall tend to stay all through the rut the past 2 yrs. I do have new bucks move in starting late October till late Dec. The does never leave it seems since I am seeing the same ones every day right now. One thing I have seen is that not every buck will jump into a feed pen. I have 3 bucks right now that will not jump into a pen and one has been here 3 yrs. Pretty sure some does are not jumping into pens either. Every year the numbers get less and less that are not jumping into pens. This is my 3 rd season on this place.

The neighbor and me are thinking about buying some TTT does and HFing the west border of the two places.

I started going out twice a week and feeding the roads but after a couple weeks it was solid pig activity. I dunno. Going to start whacking and trapping pigs and see.

One thing I have done in the past 2.5 years now is kill every hog I can. I rarely see sign or a hog now. I did get some pics about a month ago a couple of days and those were the first pics since last winter of any hogs. It has made a difference in the amount of deer I see now compared to the first year at my feeders. I also use feed pens on every feeder but one spin at the house. My neighbors do not use feed pens

acorns all over the ground out there... might be part of it. Seems like the deer numbers went way down after a put my hog blind up. I think I'm going to take it down, or build another pen around it. freaking pigs... I'm about to launch a jihad on them

I have very few acorns at all. The trees that have them you either have to see the few there are on the ground or spend a long time trying to see them in the tree. The deer aren't camped under the Live Oaks just pass by and eat the few on the ground then move off. Never seen it like this with only a handful on a tree. Some have them and some don't also. Deer are pounding protein right now and hitting corn pretty good also.

Oh sure. Keep rubbing it in! Last time I filled the protein feeders was July. Sure do have some fat coons though.

Yeah but you have been getting all the rain the past 4 months and I haven't
Oh and I have caught 90 coons the past 2 yrs also. They are right below hogs on my hate list.

the coons.... I replaced all my spinners with those spring loaded ones, then they started ripping the wires off the solar panels. still have them hanging off the protein feeders though.

there's a rumor on the street that they drank some Dr. Pepper and killed right over though. must have been the mafia.

Interesting. I'm a complete county north of you, in southern DeWitt, just west of US183. What about the habitat? After a decade on my place, I know that does prefer spending the first nine months of the year in places the bucks don't. Feeder pens tend to be dominated by bucks during the off season and I don't think the does like spending time with them. For that reason, I don't think feeders are a good place to measure their count.

I'm with STranchman, hogs and coons are consumers and I don't think I would bring anything in or fence anything without seeing if killing them will influence your conditions. I had several years of killing 100 to 125 hogs a year on my place, end of deer season into the summer, and it made a significant impact on the hogs, two years now and we have had few but we still put a bullet in everyone we see. I've noticed with the demise of hogs, coyotes are few and far between. I think they depend more on piglets as a food source than realized. I haven't seen a hog or coyote (or heard) in three months. I'm lucky in that I live on my place, a lot of those hogs where killed on full moon nights in the middle of the night. I've killed as many as 13 in one night the old fashion way, without night vision or a noise suppressor. I just ease up on them and kill them.

I keep cameras up on the known accesses to my property, a group of hogs entering the property tend to come from known directions. Once they are here, I know where they are and what they will be doing and I eliminate them. I start with the big targets first and work my way down in size as you eliminate the experience of the sounder pretty quick and they become easy to kill over the course of a couple nights.

I haven't kept a count on coons, but they are a source of trouble for deer at feed locations in that they eat what should have gone to the deer. I've been live trapping them at feed pens as I'm a little bit leery of using other types of traps where deer, particularly fawns, might encounter them. I have a small pecan orchid and they pretty much strip the crop each year. I'm constantly thinking about new ways to approaching their removal but they are a bit tougher to remove as a whole. I think if we knew how many were really out there in the brush, we would be aghast. I was sitting in a tower blind in August while doing stand counts and say a coon carefully coming through the brush as he approached a sendero. I carefully raised up and looked both ways for several seconds and decided not to cross. He had been shot at before for sure.