Have you ever seen this? I sure haven't
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Pat Lefemine
01-Jul-22
Deer are bedding in my barn during the day. Jumped a nice buck last week and then got this pic yesterday after putting up a trail cam.
Deer are bedding in my barn during the day. Jumped a nice buck last week and then got this pic yesterday after putting up a trail cam.
Five times in the last two weeks I walked into my Ohio barn and blew out a deer. Most of the time I had never seen the deer - just heard it blasting out, but last Wednesday I did and it was a pretty nicely developing buck. I found a bed in one of the old cow stalls and put up a trail camera. I was hoping to get the big buck, but I did get this little buck. I also saw a mature doe on Tuesday.
I have never experienced this before, never even heard of it happening. The buck is there pretty much every day.
From: RIT
01-Jul-22
Back in 02 or 03 we had a nasty drought. The deer would come into the barn to drink out of the stock tank. Often they would bed down in the shade. We jumped them on several occasions. Neat stuff.
From: WV Mountaineer
01-Jul-22
Awesome.
From: t-roy
01-Jul-22
There is a small barn just up the hill from my house, with an open covered stall facing the road. Several times, a few years back, there was a doe standing in the stall, looking out. I don’t know if she was bedding in there, but I saw her multiple times that winter. I can’t find my pic of her.
From: Bou'bound
01-Jul-22
That place is overrun with deer
I have heard of barns with John Deere in them.
From: scentman
01-Jul-22
Food source, security, Pat you just created a new food plot... no need for drills, fertilizers... like creating Bowsite you are genius!
From: hawkeye in PA
01-Jul-22
Yes I have and on four different occasions and in different locations. Still pretty cool though.
Four years ago I was walking power lines as a inspector. First trip back a right of way I had a nice buck run out of a shooting shack. I told the foreman about it and he wasn't sure if he believed me. Well the buck ran out again. So he tells his crew -ya right they said-it happened a third time. The buck changed his habits after that.
From: midwest
01-Jul-22
Good late season spot.
From: sticksender
01-Jul-22
Bucks need some peace & quiet away from the nagging does and pesky fawns. He found the perfect solution.
From: BOWNUT
01-Jul-22
There dodging the bugs.
From: BullBuster
01-Jul-22
I always have several deer that bed in my big barn every year when it’s hot.
From: Two Feathers
01-Jul-22
That's pretty cool.
From: kyrob
01-Jul-22
A friend of mine has an old barn on his farm and the deer bed in it regularly. He has shown us to many pics for it not to be true.
From: Basil
01-Jul-22
Was hunting once in South Dakota. Parked the truck at an abandoned farmstead. As I was heading out I heard some metal barn siding rustle. A big old buck came boiling out of an old collapsed barn. Never saw him again.
From: Grey Ghost
01-Jul-22
Yep, deer aren't stupid.
Matt
From: MA-PAdeerslayer
01-Jul-22
In PA behind a farmers house we hunt quite a bit, he has a horse barn where he usually keeps 2-3 horses, when it’s really cold in the winter he moves em down to the bigger barn on the other side of the farm and leaves the doors propped open on this one, several times going in to grab a stand or sticks etc we’ve jumped does and yearlings from it. Never anything with horns tho. They’ve eaten bags of food too when he’s left it open at night.
From: Woods Walker
01-Jul-22
I've never seen them bed IN a barn, but right up close to it. It doesn't surprise me though, as we all know deer are, if nothing else, ADAPTABLE!
And they probably have you "patterned" Pat! Neat stuff!
From: Shug
01-Jul-22
Mule Deer in Wyoming… In fact one year Denny Behn shot a buck and couldn’t find it. The farmer let him know the buck was dead in the barn… I guess it felt safe there
From: grizzly63
01-Jul-22
Kicked a doe and a yearling out from under a tarp covering up the hay once. Food and warmth in the same space, they are not dumb.
From: Inshart
02-Jul-22
That is so damn cool, what an amazing animal. Looking forward to more pics of the "barn deer".
From: kentuckbowhnter
02-Jul-22
we have had deer, including bucks, bed in the machine shed on one of our farms we lease many times. one of the bucks was a decent 4 year old and i considered putting a ground blind in the shed but never did.
From: Charlie Rehor
02-Jul-22
Set up in the rafters with your video gear and film the hunt. That would be an epic video hunt.
From: PECO2
02-Jul-22
We had a spike buck hanging out in our loafing shed a few years ago.
From: Highlife
02-Jul-22
I've got a old 1 room cabin on our property in Tennessee that a doe beds in. Shocked the hell out of me when I jumped her and her fawn out the first time lol
From: speedgoat
02-Jul-22
I left the overhead door open at the shop a few days ago. When I went back in a few hours later, a doe was bedded in there.
From: Lewis
02-Jul-22
Pat,just set up seat in the loft and you are good to go lol Pretty cool thanks for sharing Good luck Lewis
From: Matt
02-Jul-22
Happens all the time on my lease here in CA. Barns tend to be cool and provide some respite from biting flies.
From: JSW
02-Jul-22
I have an open front barn that I've seen deer using for shelter. Mine is defferent since no one lives on the property anymore.
An abandoned homestead will become deer habitat very quickly.
From: fuzzy
02-Jul-22
I've actually killed two deer in my parents front yard (the farm house in Franklin County Virginia)
From: scentman
02-Jul-22
You could outfit Jimmy Houston with a canned hunt ;0)
From: Bandicooter
02-Jul-22
They bed every day under my deck when it's hot in Virginia. I send my dogs to run them out. They come back when I take the dogs back inside.
From: RonP
03-Jul-22
yep, seen it including under decks as also mentioned above.
besides maybe food such as alfalfa if it is in the barn, around here i think what drives them to do this are snow and predators. i have a lot of deer around home and there are times when they hang really tight, and bed at night with their backs toward the house or shop. their behavior is different, and you can tell they are very uneasy and on edge. they are able to see downhill and a much wider range, and worry less about what's coming up behind them.
From: Zbone
05-Jul-22
Way Cool...
From: Chief 419
05-Jul-22
Don’t feed him. You’ll never be able to get rid of him.
From: Mint
08-Jul-22
My friend shot a 8pt last year and couldn't find the blood trail after it passed his neighbors old shed/barn. Finally he looked inside and there was the buck dead.
From: Jaquomo
09-Jul-22
Have had it happen for a couple summers in an old loafing shed on my horse ranch. But mulies. Startled me the first time. After that, we sort of reached an uneasy truce. This was on the edge of my alfalfa field, so....
From: Will
09-Jul-22
Bit of public land near me was a hot farm for decades. They retired the farm, held it about 15yrs and then sold it to the state who are preserving. That said, they left the old barns, most of which are open on one side. The first year it was open to hunting, multiple times my buddy and I bumped deer out of those barns while tracking in fresh snow. We both felt like it was crazy. The tracks would go right in there, and they would be in old hay or what not bedded. A few times we saw really nice bucks in that situation. Weirdly, it was only the first year the area was open. After that, be it hunting impact or maybe hikers in the off season, the deer stopped doing that. It's been probably 10yrs since we have seen it. Crazy, to be on a track and suddenly there is a buck hauling it out of a barn!
From: txhunter58
09-Jul-22
We have a cabin in Southwest Colorado and mule deer routinely bed down under the deck to get complete shade during the heat of the day. No hunting allowed in the “subdivision” but this is 30 miles from town and deer are hunted right across the fence from us. There are no deer in these pics but you can see that they just use what is there
From: txhunter58
09-Jul-22
But after putting in some posts for an electric fence on Memorial Day, this was a pic I took off the deck the next morning! They know where they are safe!
From: Snag
09-Jul-22
I was elk and deer hunting here in Oregon a few years ago. I came into the closest town on my way home. As I walked into the general store I looked over at a bedded muley buck by the video rentals. Thought it was stuffed until it wiggled an ear. The man at the counter told me he comes in through the front door ever once in awhile. Called him Frank!
From: fuzzy
09-Jul-22
Seen them bedded against the blast barriers and in sheds at the Radford Army Ammunition plant
From: Mad Trapper
10-Jul-22
Many of our does drop their fawns year after year in the fields closest to my house and barn. Less chance of encountering a coyote or bears. My guess is that this young buck had an encounter with some coyotes and figured it out that he is safer close to the buildings.
From: SaddleReaper
10-Jul-22
I had a friend tell me about a big buck that would bed in an small abandoned barn overlooking a non hunting area surrounding a small lake in southern iowa... I was skeptical (one of those visuals ya have to see to believe), but this adds to the validity in my mind. Shouldn't underestimate these animals!
From: Blue Buck
11-Jul-22
Do football stadiums count? :^)
From: huntinelk
13-Jul-22
Saw this today
From: KY EyeBow
13-Jul-22
I see it sometimes here in KY as well
From: blue spot
13-Jul-22
so where do these fall on the spectrum between free range and high fence ?
From: Swampbuck
13-Jul-22
From: WV Mountaineer
15-Jul-22
