New Member and a question

[captwalleye65]

Hi everyone thanks to the administer for helping me getting posting privilege's. Here is my question, I got permission to hunt a new property its roughly 160 acres with a combination of tillable, pasture, and a little bit of timber. For the first couple of month before bow season I was getting tons of pictures small bucks, big bucks, and does. Then the owner combined his corn, bailed the stacks, and then let his cows out into the corn. So long story short I haven't seen any deer with my eyes or my cameras in over a week My question is am I over reacting or is this property a bust? Also a new house is being build on the property. Posted below are some pictures from my cameras. Thanks for any information and ideas..

 

[bigbuckhunter88]

Where are your cameras at right now and where are you observing? I'd have the cameras over a scrape or in a funnel. The deer are probably not feeding where the cows are but might not be far.

 

[captwalleye65]

Right now I have a camera on a scrape line on the edge of timber, one on a rub inside of timber and a third on a trail. But the cows have access to everything above, below, and in the timber. So far they have mostly stayed in the pasture/Cron ground

 

[Hardwood11]

When will the cows be out? Or won’t they ?

 

[Bassattackr]

Right now I have a camera on a scrape line on the edge of timber, one on a rub inside of timber and a third on a trail. But the cows have access to everything above, below, and in the timber. So far they have mostly stayed in the pasture/Cron ground

Is there any area(s) on the property where the cows are kept out of ? "Food" or timber - either?

 

[captwalleye65]

I don't know if the cows will be taken out of the property. They can go anywhere they want. I hunted Saturday and they left the timber alone but on Sunday they all came right as the sun started to set. The timber area is surrounded by pasture and crop ground

 

[Daver]

Generally speaking, deer and cattle do not mix well if you are a hunter. But I used to hunt a place back in the day that had cattle freely roaming and I still had worthwhile deer activity enough to keep hunting it. Is there anywhere the cattle don't go? If so, I would go there. Otherwise, if you have no other spots I would make the best of this one and just try to avoid the cattle as much as possible.

My situation from yesteryear was a private property immediately adjacent to a large no hunting area that was FULL of deer in those days. So I still had some "spillover" movement since I was so close to such a loaded area...even though the cattle definitely reduced the deer activity. If "your" deer have other options, it may not be a good place to spend much time on.

 

[sep0667]

If there is not much cover and the cows are just all over now its probably a bust

 

[203ntyp]

Generally speaking, deer and cattle do not mix well if you are a hunter. But I used to hunt a place back in the day that had cattle freely roaming and I still had worthwhile deer activity enough to keep hunting it.

I always thought the same until the last 2 years. I've been after a pig of a buck and finally figured out where his core area was thanks to trail cams and finding his sheds this past February. He lives in a small patch of cedars, brush and trees right in the middle of a cow pasture with black angus!