What would you do ?
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: LBshooter
24-Jul-19
One of my areas is absolutely void of any crop fields this year do to the spring rains. So, what would be your tactic to get on the deer? Any tips would be appreciated.
From: LBshooter
24-Jul-19
One of my areas is absolutely void of any crop fields this year do to the spring rains. So, what would be your tactic to get on the deer? Any tips would be appreciated.
From: grizzly
24-Jul-19
well, the deer didn't all die off. Just spend some time with glasses and you will figure out what they are doing and eating. Ask a farmer if you can plant something they like for a cover crop and start your own food plot. Go to your other areas ?
From: APauls
25-Jul-19
I'd do more scouting. They are somewhere, and they've found a preferred food source. Mos likely within a few mile radius. Use glass, drive and look for trails. If there is nothing "juicy" around they could simply be in the bush. There's so much food in the bush, especially if you've had a wet year.
From: OFFHNTN
25-Jul-19
What does your "area" consist of? Is there any woods? Is it all open fields? Is there still bedding cover? How far to the nearest crop field or food source? Are there acorns in your woods? Etc. As others have said, deer are still around...........
From: LINK
25-Jul-19
Like others have said, the deer are still alive and eating something. If they are not on your properties because there’s no food I guess I’d see if the farmers would let you plant a couple acres of their fields to clover or winter wheat. If the fields are tilled it would be as simple as broadcasting seed and dragging something over the top with a 4 wheeler to cover up the seed. Like elk, deer are where you find them.
From: Jaquomo
25-Jul-19
Is it all dirt or is there some "volunteer" forage coming up from previous years? In my area when fields are left fallow the deer still go there to feed in the fall.
From: woodguy65
25-Jul-19
What is in the fields now, did they just go to weeds? If so that’s either a good source of food itself or a bedding area depending how tall it got. Put trail cam out or go sit in tree and see. Could be your best year yet.
From: LBshooter
25-Jul-19
A huge swath of farmland is unplanted, just grass in the fields. There are oaks but by mid October they are gone, then it's a mixture of woods and fields, It's farm country, will deer hit the fields for grass? The only bright side is that they may have to spend more time on their feet looking for food, I hope lol.
From: Franzen
25-Jul-19
At least if the corn crop isn't in, you won't have to worry about access being blocked or having the deer hide out in the "short" timber through October. There will probably be plenty of that this year, and I personally am not one to hunt them inside the corn fields. You could probably just do a little scouting, and move a stand or two to find some success. I doubt the deer completely vacate the area.
From: SJJ
25-Jul-19
Your in Illinois right?...get in a funnel and stay there!
From: Bake
25-Jul-19
I would bet there is more in those fields than just grass. Probably a lot of little forbs that deer will feed on. On one farm I hunt, deer prefer the big overgrown field with lots of little forbs to eat over the corn and bean fields that are right next door.
I cut my hunting teeth in bigger patches of woods. Deer will eat more in the brush than just acorns. Browse, forbs, etc. I think I read somewhere that even in farm country, the majority of what a deer ate was still woody browse.
Deer are more like a goat than other ruminants like cows. They don't want to graze. They want to browse.
From: LBshooter
25-Jul-19
You think with the absent crops fields that the deer will spend more time feeding? Or am I just hoping lol
From: RutnStrut
25-Jul-19
The absence of crops may actually make hunting easier. You have less food sources to worry about.
From: RIT
26-Jul-19
They won’t spend more time feeding they will spend the same amount of time feeding.
That field isn’t only grass. It’s full of forbs as Bake suggested. Along with forbs there are weeds that have just as much protein as crops.
Deer feed 5 times a day and the most visible is the evening feeding because that generally is the destination spot for deer. A lot of times it’s a crop field. Everyone notices when the acorns drop deer show up later to the crops.
Food plots and crops are a small part of a deer diets remember they browse. If you have spent a fair amount of time hunting and observing deer you notice it’s a bite here a bite there and they generally don’t spent a lot time in any one area.
From: South Farm
26-Jul-19
Hook up the boat and go fishing..
From: CSAL
26-Jul-19
If you dont have a lot of crops in the area but do have acorns I would spend my time scouting the trees with the most mast and set stands according for late Sept and October hunting and then for the rut look for funnels and park yourself there, also like to set up adjacent to thick bedding cover for the rut. Your lack of crops probably wont effect your rut hunting to much especially if bucks cover a lot of ground during the rut in your area. It will mainly effect your early and late season hunting.
From: rooster
26-Jul-19
We had/have the opposite situation at our hunting grounds. It had been enrolled in CRP for the past several years. The mix was probably 50 or 60 acres of woods and 90 or so in CRP. The CRP contracts expired at the end of 2017 and the CRP was tilled and planted. I believe that we saw more deer when the ground was CRP than last year with beans. I have yet to make it out there this summer to see if they got anything planted.
From: Bou'bound
26-Jul-19
either go scouting or flood the area with cameras and then go get the memory cards and see where the deer are hanging out.
From: RIT
26-Jul-19
It doesn’t really matter where they are now. I’d worry about it when the season opens.
From: Shawn
26-Jul-19
Lots of food in those filed besides "grass'!! Forbs, wild brassica's and maybe the farmer will do some fall planting. The farm I hunt did not get any crops in ths year due to all the rains. I spoke to him though and he will plant rye so he will have straw next year and he will plant winter wheat as a cover source and he will plant a bunch of beet and turnips as they will rot over the winter and add nutrients and keep the fields soft for tilling in the spring. I love when he plants rye. He plants in easrly Sept. it starts coming in preety good by Oct our bow opener and by mid-november and early december the deer are hammering it. No crops is far from the end of the world and may just turn out better for you. Ever try to hunt hundreds of acres of unharvested corn?? Shawn
From: Duke
26-Jul-19
Let some woodsmanship go to work! Lots of people kill lots of deer ever year without crops!
From: Genesis
27-Jul-19
All of my top 10 bucks were taken in timber despite hunting in farm country.ROCK ON!
