You are going to scare the deer away

People think deer are a lot more timid than they are. I needed to clean up some brush around the feeders. Our season opens Saturday. I fired up the dozer and went and did what needed done.




Five hours later the deer are at the feeder like normal.

Good info sewer. However, is there any way to know that ALL the deer came back. Is there any chance that maybe, just maybe, some deer, or one deer, is just a little more "timid" than you think? Personally, I dont hunt "most" deer, or the "average" deer. I hunt a particular deer and until he will talk to me and explain a few things, then I will always assume that all deer are not alike. I do agree, though, that "most" deer are like that.
Good info though and if you have access to that kind of equipment then bring it on over to my place.

Good point and really no way to know for sure. Honestly I used to be really worried about frightening the deer but I just haven’t seen it, the biggest deer I have ever seen on my property showed up at a feeder about an hour after I was there at the feeder with a skid steer.

The hogs are a different story. If I am not at the ranch the hogs will hit virtually every feeder every single day. If I go make a trip and visit every feeder it will often be 24-48 hours before I see a single hog on the cameras again.

Sometimes they will run from the vehicle....while other times they run to the vehicle

Ive seen similar. Also a few years back we had a new water well drilled opening weekend in the center of our place one mile long by 1/2mile wide and it had a huge effect on deer activity.

I have a friend thats a biologist(Masters) that runs a very large and successful Ranch. He told me that they measure protein consumption on a weekly basis and keep close tabs on it. He said that when they have "disturbance" in an area they will definitely notice the consumption go down which he attributes to them leaving the area for awhile. Im pretty sure what he meant by disturbance was probably significant, like a bull dozer running all week or building fence all week. I also assume they came back when the disturbance went away.

Couple of years ago I was invited to a big HF ranch near Sonora that my company had just inherited with the purchase of another company. Hunt was for does and any exotics. We all piled up in a Ranger and headed to the blind they were going to put me in on the first hunt. Before dropping me off, we made a pass around the feeder with the tail gate feeder. We were only half way back to the blind to drop me off and the deer came RUNNING in like cattle. Had never seen anything like it. Got to the blind that was 200 yrds away, stepped off of the Ranger and looked with my binos. There were several good does in the group at the feeder. Said "Hold on, don't leave yet I'll be right back." Up the stairs with my 22-250 I went, opened door, opened 1 window, bang flop. Closed window & door, back down I went. Everyone was looking at me like "are you serious". Well yeh, there's no sense in me sitting here all evening when the game is over before it even got started. We got everyone else dropped off, I cleaned my deer and was there cooking and waiting to help with everyone else's deer as they came in. Which was cool, because most of this group were city boys and pretty new hunters that needed some help.

Efficient use of time. Not a thing wrong with that.

Depends on what the deer are used to. Was hunting a buddy’s land a few years ago while he was preparing to build a house on it. Saw deer every time I hunted until they dozed a lane to run electric service. Deer vacated the premises and did not return for weeks.

Beautiful

My redneck neighbors were sighting in several magnum guns yesterday afternoon towards the 10 acre woods were they like to shoot towards with no backstop and houses on the other side. About that time a nice 10 point buck came strolling by my yard at the very same time they were still shooting, so pretty sure he was in those woods 200 yds away. Incoming.