What have you done to prep for deer season?

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There are plenty of things one can also do on public property that can enhance hunting and hard health.[/QUOTE]


What can be done on public land to enhance hunting and herd health?.

I don't hunt here in Washington Staten to expensive and not that many deer do to predators.
We have three apple trees,I take buckets of apples up in the Cascade Mountains where wewere go shooting and leave them for the few deer that are there.
I also buy table salt from Walmart, 52 cents a pound in one pound containers. I pick up ten containers and dump half (five pounds) at one spot and the other five pounds at another spot.
I will pick up another ten pounds tomorrow to place at a couple of new spots.
I don't know if it helps or not, but it doesn't hurt anything I guess.

I will probably buy airline tickets next weekend to take my grandson to New York for a week of squirrel hunting September 26th to October 6th.
 
I am cutting shooting lanes and have a mineral block out at one stand. I put two cameras in the woods about a month ago. Gonna check my cameras on Monday. Probably clear a little with my machete as well. I will machete hack paths early and Bush hog lanes at the end of black powder.

I am also developing my deer load for a .308 win I purchased after deer season last year. I traded my Savage 11 trophy for a 20" barrel Savage 10 FP SR. Early results with my old 165 Sierra gk soft point load are promising. I have 200 cases prepped total and will test some rounds on Monday as well.
 
Since I love just being in the woods. I enjoy just exploring.. I scout a lot, and spend a lot of nights just looking at XMAPS of the different areas and plotting them. When I am in a area, I put markers on the xmaps with my Garmin. Deer beds, hardwoods, trails I have seen, notes of what they are eating, traveling etc.
 
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Just got a chance to check my game cameras after a 2 week soak. Not very promising news. One nice 8 point, but only on once and at night. Only other buck is a spike. Our DNR has once again severely underestimated the deer population and limited anterless tags in my area, despite an escalating deer harvest 3 years running (when zone was hunter's choice) during 2 years of very unfavorable hunting conditions. At least 3 different does using my 40 acre property regularly, 2 with a single fawn, one with 2. Both camera locations had deer present almost every day during shooting hours which is rare in this part of the state with a relatively low deer density per square mile vs more agricultural regions. Also captured a yearling moose for the first time ever on my property, the first known sighting in the area since the 1980s. Animal appears healthy and an area of my woods shows browsing likely by moose (species and size of browse not common for deer) as well as moose droppings, so she appears to be a resident. Good news for this species which is struggling as of late in MN.

Hopefully my sightings of bucks will escalate as their hormones get pumping.
 
Pulled trail cameras yesterday after leaving them out for 3 weeks. I had 3 cams going and I ended up with a hair over 1900 pictures! This year looks to be very promising. I have a LOT of mature bucks. These are the top 2 on the hit list, but there are a handful more that might make the hit list depending on what they look like when they lose the velvet.

STC_0425.JPG HUNT0796.JPG
 
Nice set of bucks, what state are you in?

In Missouri. I try to show off my pictures as much as I can for encouragement to others. My property is located in a very poor county. All hills, rocks, and mixed hardwood timber. There is zero agriculture in the county. The people in the county are what you’d call “backwoods” and they shoot any deer they see. But because of the county, land prices are very reasonable so a lot of people from out of the county, myself included, have started buying land over the land 10 years or so. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a wildlife coop in the area of the county where my property is. Property owners created the coop to start getting people on the same page when it came to hunting and managing the land and deer. So while the rest of the county has a low deer population and very young age structure for bucks, within our coop area we have a very high deer population and now we are seeing deer like the ones I posted regularly. We have all worked with QDMA biologists to maximize our properties. Even though we aren’t easily able to put in food plots because of the conditions, we can manage our woodlands to produce as much or even slightly more tonnage and protein than even a large food plot.
 
Most think that food plots and supplementing minerals is the answer and it helps, but there are a few things that can have a lasting effect when done properly. Taking soil samples will help with using the correct balance of fertilizer for different plants and areas. Fertilizing local forage such as White Oaks, Honey Suckle, etc, can have a positive effect that can last for years. We fertilized several White Oaks on one farm and the deer favored those trees over others that were near that had no fertilizer. I watched them walk past a half dozen similar trees to eat at a treated one.
 
Most think that food plots and supplementing minerals is the answer and it helps, but there are a few things that can have a lasting effect when done properly. Taking soil samples will help with using the correct balance of fertilizer for different plants and areas. Fertilizing local forage such as White Oaks, Honey Suckle, etc, can have a positive effect that can last for years. We fertilized several White Oaks on one farm and the deer favored those trees over others that were near that had no fertilizer. I watched them walk past a half dozen similar trees to eat at a treated one.

I’ll be the first to say that supplementing minerals has been a HUGE difference in my deer herd, with the most noticeable being the antler size of bucks. What I’m also seeing is that 1.5 year old bucks are no longer coming out as spikes and forks for their first set of antlers. My 1.5 year old bucks are almost all small 8pts with a few 6pts in the mix.

Now I will say that you can’t just throw out a mineral block or two every year and expect to see results. I put out 1200lbs of mineral per YEAR! So in the last 5 years, I’ve put out 6000lbs of mineral! And it can’t be just any mineral or salt. It needs to be specifically chosen for deer.
 
Our season opens on Sept 29th and I still haven't got slips signed. I pretty much know where they feed, travel and bed but I have a few new spots that I want to check out. I left a set of sticks, lifeline and millennium receiver out for the last 2 seasons, so need to replace all that. I need to do all this very quickly, especially on one farm because there is a guy who slips the farmers brother $ and he gets pissy when I hunt. I usually hunt with my buddy on his lease but I don't expect that, so need to get my stuff in a row and maybe take a big doe early and wait it out for a buck and another doe.

I haven't shot my compound in 2yrs and kind of worried about doing so with the slight hernia I have. Ive killed two big deer in the last 5 years. 125'' 8 pt with a spread past his ears and 150'' Non typical. The big buck fever has worn off and I will be happy with anything.
 
I’ll be the first to say that supplementing minerals has been a HUGE difference in my deer herd, with the most noticeable being the antler size of bucks.

Now I will say that you can’t just throw out a mineral block or two every year and expect to see results. I put out 1200lbs of mineral per YEAR! So in the last 5 years, I’ve put out 6000lbs of mineral! And it can’t be just any mineral or salt. It needs to be specifically chosen for deer.

Yep, while table/rock salt will attract deer and they will lick, it ain't gonna do a thing for them. I've also found that by adding mineral to the soil at your food plots has good results also. Lime(calcium) not only makes alfalfa and clover greener, it also helps build horn. Boron, while not needed by deer, makes alfalfa and clover more palatable, thus deer eat more of it and get healthier/fatter. Having better/healthier alfalfa/clover than your neighbor, means the deer will be at your food plot and not his.
 
Absolutely nothing. Grandparents did a reverse mortgage on there 10 acre's. Needed the money. They past away bank took possession. Don't trust public land. So I'm hunting squirrels in the back yard of my rental property. While renovating it. Large back yard pellet rifle.
 
Yesterday mowed and sprayed a bit over 2.5 acres spread out over 7 food plots. They should be ready to plow and replant in a week or two. Will be planting a 50/50 mix of oats and Whitetail institutes Pure-Attraction with a little bit of radish and beets mixed in.
 
Could only get muzzleloader tags for elk and deer this year, so I have been spending a lot of time learning to shoot the things. Settled on a 54 caliber 380 grain conical over 120 grains of powder. The elk hunt is in September in the foothills, the deer hunt is on the plains on a chunk of property that will involve wading across a river to get to most of it. All public land.
 
Got 6 permission slips signed last night but one farm is rabbit, coon and squirrel only. One farm has a lower bean field that attaches to a county metro park. I have no idea how I am going to enter because the beans are up, but man is it a great spot. Saw 4 doe feeding yesterday in one field and 3 in another field. I still need to get cameras setup, scout a little bit, shoot my bow. Sept 28 is coming quick. I am really torn if I want to shoot a doe the first few weeks of season or wait until gun/muzzleloader.
 
Found the right load for my new to me Model 70. Just under an inch and a half with vertical stringing which I'm guessing is more me than the rifle. I need to load a few more up and retest zero before the season opens in late September. Time to rectify the empty freezer!
 
SIL, his friends and grandson came by and picked up some wood, pallets and timbers then they went to the hunting land and rebuilt the 4x8 stand (condo) and used the pallets to rebuild some blinds, in the 95 degree afternoon, I got to spend the day with the granddaughters in the air conditioning :) canning figs and peppers. They shot some of my 30-06 reloads and was very pleased.
 
I bought my non-resident New York Sportsman license (small game/bigbbn game combo) online and bought two doe tags.
I bought somemore 6mm/243 bullets to reload some ladder loads for my 243 hunting rifles.
I bought myself and my grandson roundvtrip tickets to fly back to New York for a week & a half the end of September to Octopber 5th to do some squirrel hunting and maybe get permission to hunt a couple of other properties.

Another week or so I will pick.up.my airline ticket for deer season. Last two weeks of November and the first week of December.

I bought another Havon pockrt knife to gut the squirrels out we shoot in September.
 
I bought my non-resident New York Sportsman license (small game/bigbbn game combo) online and bought two doe tags.
I bought somemore 6mm/243 bullets to reload some ladder loads for my 243 hunting rifles.
I bought myself and my grandson roundvtrip tickets to fly back to New York for a week & a half the end of September to Octopber 5th to do some squirrel hunting and maybe get permission to hunt a couple of other properties.

Another week or so I will pick.up.my airline ticket for deer season. Last two weeks of November and the first week of December.

I bought another Havon pockrt knife to gut the squirrels out we shoot in September.
Good luck, hope it cools down for by the first September for us in ny.
 
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