I have seen deer spook from dove hunters at over 800 yards away and seen them come into the pond that we were shooting at. Just because you are shooting and see deer doesn't mean that you didn't push others away. Heck, we were blowing up tannerite and had a doe and yearling come by at about 400 yards down range.

We shoot on our place in a designated area, but I wouldn't want the range to be set up near my stand and wouldn't feel confident hunting a stand that someone is shooting 3-400 yards away at targets. Our place is 10k acres, but I wouldn't like it, during deer season, if I was on a smaller place.

Not saying that it does scare them away though and with enough shooting, the deer will get accustomed to it. I used to hunt down around Proctor over some peanut fields. The ranchers would set off cannons in regular intervals to scare the deer away. While they could sure make me jump, the deer got pretty used to them and wouldn't even flinch. Step on a branch and they would run like the wind

I would say "do what you feel comfortable with."

Absolutely no target shooting during deer season on the places that I hunt. I do have a mock range on one of my places, but it is only for emergencies.

No shooting at my place from Sept.1st until the end of deer season unless it's at a deer, hog, or predator.

The change in human activity has does more than the shooting. The more time and activity we have at our place the less skittish are the deer. When the actual hunting starts they know it, but like the farmers pickup, they recognize it and don't pay as much attention to it, let a strange pickup show up and they might be gone for the day or weekend.

No shooting at my place from Sept.1st until the end of deer season unless it's at a deer, hog, or predator.

Ours is like that year-round. If the gun goes off it's bc something needed to die. Surrounding places shoot like crazy and when they start hammering away the deer start fleeing from their directions to the thickets.

Any of y'all shoot targets at your deer lease during the off season? I could get some 500 yard targets up but I am concerned it will scare the deer off.

Been hunting on 1300 acres for 23 years. There is a 250 yd range with a couple of shooting benches. It is at one corner of the ranch. It gets used periodically throughout the year. It has thick cover on 2 sides. I began corning it years ago. Never put up a feeder, just dumped it out of a sack as I drove down the range. More quality bucks have been killed at that spot than any other spot on the ranch,, which includes 8 corn feeders.... Go figure ????

Really??? Relatively small is ONLY 2,000 acres. that's almost like saying I "ONLY" make $300,000 a year.

Was it the shooting or the corn that drew in the quality bucks?

Really??? Relatively small is ONLY 2,000 acres. that's almost like saying I "ONLY" make $300,000 a year.

I live on 55 acres. 2 kids 2 dogs 4 cats running all around the propert. I shoot all the time. I lay off from end August through deer season. Deer and hogs are always around. We took 7 deer this season. They adapt just fine. Shoot away