Neighborhood Deer..

A good friend of mine is building a house close to Canyon Lake, he sees a lot of deer there all of the time.
Always wondered if you lived in an area where a lot of deer run around almost like pets if that takes away some of a hunters enthusiasm for actually hunting them?

It's a great question - personally my internal desire to kill them continues to change as I get older. When I was younger I wanted to shoot every legal deer I saw. We have a feeder right outside the camp and deer come to it regularly which puts them 20 yards from the house. We would never shoot them. I love to watch deer, if I see a true trophy while hunting I will take it but I pass many, many deer every season. To each their own...

BTW - that video has one really nice deer in it.

Nice buck, kinda like PK lake 150" eating Cheetos lol

Some idjit enthusiastically took this guy.

I have a feeder about 100 yards from my front porch. If a huge buck were to show up someday during the season, I would probably take pics before and after the shot. They will tolerate my daily routine around the house but walk towards them or change the routine and they will react like any other deer on my place.
Now let's throw this question in the mix. If that same deer you see in the video/pic were to show up at your blind/feeder a mile or two away during the rut...would you shoot if you had never seen him before? Same deer just you know nothing about him.

I guess that all depends on my current and future hunting opportunities. First I would have to see what he looks like out of Velvet, probably not as impressive.
Its a nice buck but I would probably not shoot because he does not have any brow tines and once the velvet is gone so will a some of the eye candy, I have passed on better.

Would you or anyone else on here?

I look at where I am hunting and what is considered a mature/trophy animal more than how big is he. I would waste time here on my place waiting for a 160" deer but I am content with picking out one buck to go after for that season...no matter the score. It is more about what I the look that I like. If the weak browtined buck in the video showed up here he would be shot by one of my neighbors before he got to my place...if he did he run the gantlet then he would be in deep poop if he showed up at one of my bowblinds. He is mature and would be consider a shooter buck around here by age and tine length.

I guess for me there are days I would and days I wouldn't and perhaps places I would and places I wouldn't.... in my back yard?... probably not maybe depends most likely....fortunately(?) I don't have that dilemma.

Had an uncle who was an avid hunter...he bought a place out by lake Whitney and set a feeder out back. He would sit out on his deck during deer season and watch the big bucks that flooded onto his property during the season and never once even considered shooting one....those same deer on his lease would not get a pass.

ETB...I hear ya...the older I get the more I like to just observe and learn what I should have learned years ago...too busy pullin' triggers I guess.

I guess I'd have to shoot him for a management buck with those weak brows and such ,lol . I guess it's all of a matter of perspective of where you hunt and what kind of deer is the norm.

When you can get them to eat corn out of your hand it is time to quit shooting those. In Ruidoso, we had some that would eat out of your hand, no corn, they also like Cheerios.

Nice deer.

I have a friend over by Eagle Mountain Lake that has them pretty tame put not eat out of your hand tame.

Long time ago I use to go to Koon Kreek Kountry club south of Athens. One of the members use to put corn in a coffee can go out back shake the can and whistle and they would come within 10' and were talking some nice bucks mixed in there too.

Bow hunt at the very least

I dont like to see WILD animals in un wild situations. If I knew a deer was not wild I would not want to hunt/kill it.

A couple of those are much better than the average buck for that area.

We have a lot of deer in the neighborhood and they are fun to watch. At times when I see a good one cannot help but think I wish was at the lease. The other side of the coin is the frustration of them eating plants around the yard.. Last year they wiped out 2 small trees and damaged 3 shrubs. Bucks use the small tree and shrubs to rid themselves of velvet.

Yep. I have a feeder 15 yrds behind my garage with deer on it daily again, had a couple real nice bucks on my ground too pre Harvey. Before the storm there were a lot of deer here, then there were none for quite some time afterwards. Anyway, I'd have deer within 30-40 yrds of me as long as I stayed moving on my mower. If I stopped the mower, they would alert and stare at me. If I took one step off of that mower they were gone!. I used to sit in my garage with my crossbow waiting on one of the big boys to show up, but only young bucks and does would show when I was hunting of course. I've got some neighbors pretty close now, so not going to use the crossbow anymore here at the homestead. I can already hear the screaming and the drama if a deer runs through their property squirting blood everywhere and crashing lol. Chad is loading me up some subs for my suppressed 300 blackout for up close DRT shots, JUST in case. I question now though, whether or not I would shoot a good buck here now. Since they are just starting to come back. Most likely not, unless he's a real bruiser.

On a side note, a couple of days ago my nephew swears up and down he saw a mountain lion run across the dirt road and jump the fence right here about 150 yrds from my house. We've talked & talked about it and he swears it was absolutely a big lion, but happened way too fast to get a picture. I've seen of course deer, pigs, & coyotes on my ground, it's definitely possible it was a lion. I live 2 miles outside the city limits but there's deer all over in town.


And yes, there are a lot deer around Choke.

Looks well marbled and tender to me

Have a feeder in my nephews hayfield right accross my fence,have several does and a couple of bucks all the time.one of the bucks is large for our neck of the woods.my wife has laid claim to him come deer season

Three houses down - I couldn't even get them all in the photo.

Hudbone, are you saying someone killed this deer in town? How long ago was this pic from?

This is one hell of a buck if this is in NB. I've seen some very nice ones up to the 150s but nothing with a frame like this one.

stx, our deer are still wild as hell for some reason. They are not bothered if I'm on the tractor but they will not stand around long even at 200 yds if you move around outside.
I'm not sure why this is as there is very little hunting pressure on them that we know of at least recently.

skinnerback, I don't doubt the lion story at all. a few years back there was a big one in the city of Cibolo that was seen multiple times and even killed a big dog in one of the neighborhoods. Prior to that a year or two there was a confirmed sighting of one crossing FM1518 about a mile south of FM78 in Schertz next to Randolph AFB and the Cibolo creek. Both these sightings were confirmed. 3 years ago there were multiple sightings near our place and several cows/calves that got pretty scarred up.

I think there are more lions now than ever but they still remain pretty dang smart and secretive and can live within very close proximity of populated areas and never let it be known in most cases.

Photo above was from 2018 season. This one below from 2017. We saw him up until the end of the 2018/19 season and then after seeing him multiple times a week, he disappeared. GWs found a dead deer (not this one) with bolt in it and found several other, similar bolts down the street nearer Landa Park. The assumption is, he was taken.

I was in Port Mansfield last weekend and we hand fed bucks in the 160-180 range in the neighborhoods surrounding the harbor. I like the meat, but what I really enjoy about deer hunting is the quest to find exceptional bucks. If I could hand feed giant bucks at our ranch, the novelty would be gone, but just being around a bunch of deer pets doesn’t take the thrill out of hunting for me.

Damn shame for sure...….no doubt someone killed IMO.
I just don't understand what anyone gets from shooting what is basically a 'tame' deer any more than I understand someone killing a big deer in a spot light.
Anyone who does it is not a true hunter and IMHO is just a POS!

Wow, what a beautiful deer.
He looked 5.5, maybe 6.5 in the 2017 pic here and probably in the 160s.

WOW
Great buck! This is the same buck, correct??

Reminds me of years back when they still allowed people to feed corn to the deer at Choke.

So cool but you definitely have to be careful when they get this tame. lol

You are now under oath... Tell me if you seriously thought about .....how much corn does it take to road feed this buck to Live Oak county

I may or may not have thought about what I could do with a horse trailer and a bag of corn.

Now if I Did Not Know that was a neighborhood pet and was on a close piece of hunting property I would have his azz in a heart beat, what a stud.
Bummer if some neighbor took him knowing it was basically a pet and zero hunting involved.

Fourth one from the left is a "bomber.

Son...………

That deer is a stud

I can't tell even blowing it up on my large monitor if he is an 8 or a 10???

If he is just an 8, he has to be in the high 40s to low 50s. What a buck!

A nine last year and again this year. Carries almost an identical frame only larger in every aspect.

It does for me.

Some of the very best places to hunt in Comal County are lands adjoining subdivisions. I think the antlers get bigger when the deer eat philodendruns.

No kidding. My FIL has a lease 5 minutes from Gruene. After hunting east, west, central and south Texas over a 40 year period, my highest scoring deer came from Gruene.

Well next time you come down NB way shoot me a PM if it is during the week and we will meet up for lunch somewhere!

Will do, ILUVBIGBUCKS. Still in a holding pattern for now because of Corona. I'll do it though. Always enjoy meeting new folks.

Too bad Bretzke's isn't open these days. Loveyed their coconut cream pie.

Good Lord !!! Great deer

Where is Bretzke's at Hudbone??

I've heard Freiheit Store has some pretty good deserts as well.

But, my favorite place in NB and probably all the entire SA area to eat is McAdoo's Seafood. Holy smokes it is outstanding.

I have a place in Canyon Lake also and it is not unusual to see 30-40 deer when we take a ride through certain neighborhoods. Biggest one I have seen by the house was about a 140" that got hit by a car on 306.

Bretzke Station was in New Berlin. In between us.

Found him again. Fella was with a doe and this was the best photo I could get. He is much more impressive than this picture.

in front of a home in near downtown NB and very near the old middle school