Farm country deer

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BRoth82
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Farm country deer

Unread postby BRoth82 » Thu Oct 07, 2021 6:53 am

I thought I'd share one of my experiences with how a little pressure in open farm country can have a big impact on the deer.

There is a drainage ditch just south of my house, it's roughly 8 feet deep and about 20 yards wide with a 10' wide grass buffer on both sides then corn fields. For several days before the season opened I was seeing a big doe on the south edge of this ditch, around 5pm everyday when there was a South, South West or South East wind. My guess was that she was bedding right on the edge of the grass and the corn field, then getting up going to the bottom to get a drink and browse on the small bushes and grass before going into the corn to feed.

On opening weekend we had a strong (20+ mph) South wind, so I took my daughter down there to see if we could see the doe and maybe get a shot at something. We arrived late around 5:30 and were walking 5-6 rows deep in the north corn field, we walked slowly until we we were close to across the ditch from where the doe was coming out. Well she was out already and ended up catching our movement and busted out, we did see more deer and got a shot at a buck. I didn't want to mess up that ditch by walking around on that side, so we took my wheeler over there to get my broken arrow, we never got off the four wheeler.

Since then I have not see a single deer on that ditch, and have to assume that just driving a wheeler down there spooked them enough that they didn't want to bed there anymore. I just find it interesting that, that little intrusion was enough to blow them out of that spot. Has anyone else see this happen? I know the doe didn't smell us or hear us, but just caught that slight movement and the other deer never seen, heard or smelled us.


Moose
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Re: Farm country deer

Unread postby Moose » Thu Oct 07, 2021 8:50 am

Deer seem to tolerate farm machinery " it's their dinner bell". Unless you drive in a field on a regular basis or checking livestock I think their smart enough to know something is wrong. Four wheelers or trucks in my opinion are to bring out the deer you harvested and not to get to point A to B. I've hunted farms where they drive a side by side through a field because they don't want to walk and they parked 20 yds from a known buck bed! There's alot of deer in farm country but access isn't easy especially when the crops are out.
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Boogieman1
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Re: Farm country deer

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Thu Oct 07, 2021 9:01 am

In tight quarters deer wont tolerate much. When you get a hard frost that grass will lay over and things will really start getting skinny. Pay attention to high/low side of bank and morning vs evening movement. U gotta slide into them kinda spots cautiously and hunt sparingly when odds are high. Just my .02
Life is hard; It’s even harder if you are stupid.
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Lockdown
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Re: Farm country deer

Unread postby Lockdown » Thu Oct 07, 2021 3:15 pm

From my experience they will come back a time or two if they really feel secure there. If it’s a spot they’re hanging out in simply because they haven’t been bothered, it doesn’t take much pressure to relocate them.


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