Doe meat hunt / same stands question.

Any folks have good luck / experience shooting a doe in the AM then coming back to same feeder in PM and getting another one? How skiddish do the get once they hear the big boom in your opinion? Always wondered about those "meat haul" hunts where guys go for a weekend and come back with 5 or 6 does. Eden / Menard areas.

The shot prob isn't gonna scare the deer as much as seeing one of their herd members flop over dead. Id shoot the first doe to show up and if possible shoot the doe on the way to the feeder not at the feeder. I think this would cause less disturbance to the other deer in the area.

We have had deer killed under same feeder same day multiple times....

They don't get too skittish, unless they identify where the sound originated. I've shot both bucks and does with lots of deer around the feeder. Some will run off but most will go on alert and stay close. After a few minutes, they'll be walking around the dead deer eating, again. Now if you chamber another round and they hear the brass hit the floor, bang around in the blind or whatever else attracts their attention to that stand after the shot, they will definitely become skittish around that stand. I don't recommend hunting the same stand twice in one day but, if that's all you've got, it will work.

The biggest thing you need to remember is deer don't understand guns any more than they understand thunder or bangs of metal or other weird noises. For the most part these noises don't hurt them at all. So they will not associate the report of a gun with bad things UNLESS YOU cause them to associate the noise with bad things. Also, If the deer know you are there but can't find you (they smell you or know something isn't right), they will spook a lot more than deer who have no idea you are there.

Shoot, watch deer go dead, stay in blind until deer leave. Once deer completely out of sight and out of mind, then go tend to dead deer and repeat next hunt.

The people that shoot and immediately get out of blind and watch deer run are spooking deer from their normal activity.

One of the hardest things to watch is a deer with a long time travel companion that gets shot, then said deer goes over and tries to figure out why their buddy is not moving. I know they don't have feelings and such, and its all part of nature, but it does make me sad when that happens. I try to shoot deer that nobody wants around, even its fellow deer....

I think hunting pressure has more to do with it than anything. First couple years we had our property we didn't shoot any deer at all. When we first started shooting them the other deer would just stand around and look when you shot, not run at all. After a year or so of hunting they run off when you shoot.

We have noticed if you shoot the deer and they die on the spot the other deer haul but and don't come back, but if you shoot and they run of even just 20-30 yards they most of the time will only run a short distance look around and come back. I went back to body shooting because of it.

I once killed four deer from the same blind in a 78 minute window. If you have the numbers and have an attraction, getting multiple deer can be fairly easy.

in Lometa I killed a spike and had about 12 deer including 4 young bucks eating right next to the spike. I think every area is gonna be different.

Was shooting does for a friend several years ago. He said shoot the doe and if she has a doe fawn with her, shoot it too. I dropped a Momma doe with a head shot and then killed her doe fawn with a neck shot about five minutes later. Fifteen minutes later along comes a three year old buck. He walked right up to the two dead does, sniffed a bit and started going berserk over the fawn. This was very late MLD season and the fawn was in estrous. That poor buck tried and tried to get her up for over 10 minutes. Finally, with tongue hanging out and really frustrated, be bedded down with his body touching the doe fawn's. He didn't leave until he heard the Polaris coming to pick me up

One of those days I was sorry I didn't have a video camera with me.

I shot a lone mature 8 point inside my feed pen in 2015. Within seconds of the deer hitting the ground all the other bucks jumped in the pen to eat corn.

Good tip. I'm typically a neck shooter so I'll remember this.

I've shot deer and had every other deer high tail it for the next county, I've shot deer and had the other deer jump, stamp a couple times, and go back to eating corn. Just depends.

Long story, but one year on my lease by the end of season pretty much everybody involved in lease was hunting my stand and doing a lot of shooting. By Christmas time the deer were spooked, I am not lying when I say they'd wait til about the time sun was down, haul [censored] into the feed pen, grab a few bites, then bounce back into the brush.

A shot here or there I don't think is a big deal, a pattern of watching their buddies get bang flopped makes an impact though.

I've shot doe from the same feeder, but no bucks were present. I don't know if that changes anything

Like others have said it depends on situation. I have killed a cull buck and the doe with him came out started eating within 2 feet of the dead buck. I did not need her so I let her eat awhile and finally had to get out of the blind to spook her away. I filmed it, but that was the old video recorder days. OLD SCHOOL as the youngsters would say.

This is Texas, whitetail hunting is easy. If you shoot one you may have to shoo the others away so that you can go get it.

different regions of Texas can be very different from what you just stated

That's what studies using radio-collared deer have proven to be true. However, these studies have focused more on bucks than doe. I'm sure most would agree the wariness of an older buck is much higher than that of any doe and lesser bucks.

Just depends. In South Texas I can shoot a deer and more come in and walk around the dead one. Shoot one and more come in. At my lease in N. Tex your are done for a day or two if you kill one. Depends but I will still hunt the stand and see. On the S. Tex place, I had a real nice young buck all around that hunt I shot those deer at. He bedded down in front of me like nothing happened. Even walked around the stand. Next night I hunted a mile away and that same buck showed up there for a long time. Depends what you are hunting. The mature bucks are smart and would not enter the field or area. I caught them on the edge or running away when dragging a deer to the sendero. They are not big and old for being stupid.

I would have to argue. Some of the most oblivious deer I have ever shot were mature bucks and most of the wariest deer I have ever shot were old does.

+1.

+2

I have had a herd of deer in my field and shot a doe or buck, the group will scatter to the edge and generally stare around, some will leave, some will stay. It will probably depend upon the amount of times something has been shot out of that stand, the more shot/pressure the less likely they will stay or come back.

Yes. In my limited TX experience the ones that make the most show of being suspicious are the old does. Then again...maybe the big(ger) bucks didn't even bother getting close enough to let me know they were on to me.

I have had a couple of real Britches does that would dang near every time start walking towards the blind, stare up at it and the old gal would start snorting and stomping and spook the other deer, but she would keep coming back to give me an opportunity to shoot her before she sounded the alarm!

I bet the only time you have seen real mature bucks that were not so wary was around the rut time, or you never saw him but he knew you were there

I see numerous mature to post mature bucks in bachelor groups early in the season. Just going about their same ol' routine and they are not real wary. One of the luxuries of hunting far south Texas and being MLD.

You are a lucky man


I hunt on a small track. I usually do not start seeing any bucks until this time of year through December, then they are ghost again. This is how it usually plays out. There is usually around 3 or 4 does and some fawns that hang around all year long, periodically additional girls will show up. Late September I will start seeing pictures of a couple of small young bucks and spikes.

Got my first picture of a spike and small 8 on the game cam last week, the 8 is nocturnal the spike is whenever.
Usually feed corn all year although I skipped 2 months this year due to great rains in may and June and tons of forbs.

When the field comes in mid October the amount of does and young bucks increase, by early November I can have anywhere from 8 -14 deer in the field and will start seeing a few mature bucks. But I never see a bachelor group of bucks where I am at? Sure they are out there on bigger places.

It wont affect the next hunt

A buck that's trailing a doe during the Chase phase of the rut is a completely different animal than one traveling alone late in the season when the rut is weeks gone by.

I think you also have to consider other factors, such as region, high fence or low fence, public land or private, etc., when gauging the wariness of an older buck.

I'll just say the meat hunt worked out well...multiple deer taken in the same stand each hunt. Was a lot of fun and much needed management effort to thin out the does. I love west Texas deer hunting.

Shoot one, jack in a new round, and sit there and don't move. You'll generally get another shot soon enough.