Horses and Deer

[WhitewaterDuck]

Ok. Talk to me horse people. Got access to 141ac of olive grove, whitetail perfection land bracketed by two ponds with seep/creek running thru it and bordered by huge alfalfa field. Basically same exact set up as the small spot across from my house where the 140-150” deer ducked my shot last year and caught it in the skull. That small spot has at least 8 WTBD on it on my camera from last years pics. Can’t figure out where to hunt there from the steady, non concentrated carpet of deer poop.

The new 141 is less than 3/4 mile from that spot, has every feature of the spot in spades, and has ultimately more places for me to build blinds or even hang lock ons if I want to do the arborist work to get elevated a few feet. So excited to walk it yesterday pm and hunt/scout. Dood has 11 horses in the 141. I walked every inch of the perimeter and grassy Spots in the olives. I looked at every waterhole and in any mud along the seep running thru it. There was not one pebble of deer poop and not one track.

I know you don’t want to hunt in a freaking horse arena or smack in amongst a herd of cattle, but I never dreamed that 11 horses in a 141 acres perfect whitetail grove would cause every deer in the area to avoid it like the plague.

Bright note. Left there frustrated to go the 1/2 or so mile to my small spot just like it (very little cover for me to hide in) just to see if I could bump into a deer in the last hour of light…walked in and immediately saw a gross booner at 120 yards feeding. I was able to get to an olive tree/cover ~60 yards hoping he’d cut my way somehow. Knew he was biggest deer I’ve seen for anytime longer than a flash in the woods. Finally got good brief look with binos when he lifted his head from feeding. Either a mainframe 10 or mainframe 12 with split G2s both sides and the tines north of both of the splits are all a solid 10+ Inches. I know the G3, G4, and possibly G5 (hard to know if it was G-5 or G-4 due to the split G2) were all 10-12”. Then there were smaller 3-6” points out near main beam termination that were g-5s thru g-6 or 7s or kicker points or possibly both. Deer was symmetrical and moderately heavy and tall but probably 18-19” wide max with normal looking 3-5” brows. He’s tall, tight, heavy and tine-y. I managed to get to 18 yards once he went to the alfalfa, but he was bedded on the edge of it not feeding in it like I thought he was as light slipped away and killed my ability to see well. He detected me crawling in and stood up and there I am in a ten minute stare down at 18 yards thinking he was 15 yards further out and once again getting caught unprepared to shoot. He did not blow or haul ass…just knew I was a bobcat or lion or coyote or something and trotted to safety and walked off.

Going to be tough to get an arrow in him with what I want to kill him with and what cover I have but at least I’m hunting one that has 170” of bone up top. If the guy would only let me use something that goes bang, I’d put the bow down for this one. Now I’m likely going to end up having to make a decision on a stick bow buck of a lifetime if one of the other P&Y bucks that’s in there comes in posing. Good prob to have.

Regardless, wish the other spot had deer like it should, as I could do a lot more in that acreage as far as stands, guns, etc. Is it the horses or maybe something else I’m overlooking that has the acreage barren of deer?

[Palmetto Duck]

Sounds like you’re completely over the vid crawling stalking bucks. Good luck.

[Drylok]

I have three horses on my place nd they don’t bother the deer. The deer don’t gather with the horses or graze with them but they sure are close by when the acorns start dropping.

I also see deer poop in the lesser used pastures year round.

[Huntinjunkie]

I've killed several decent bucks in my horse pasture. I would think the deer would get used to the horses.

[StrutnBPS]

Do they have a Donkey?

[doe killer]

I hunted with a club just outside of Ridgeland that had two drivers that rode horses and they killed many beded deer from the horses. Said you could ride right up to them.This was mid to late 80s

[Huntinjunkie]

Do they have a Donkey?

That's a good question. I know a lot of people use donkeys to keep coyotes out. Not sure how a deer would feel about one.

[WhitewaterDuck]

No donkey that I saw or am aware of. Found a lime pit where they disintegrate cows and a pile of rotted coons along fence edge…likely poisoned. Its bizarre. Maybe something I’m overlooking is just better about this small tract I’m hunting. I’m going to ask the owner of the olive grove next to this place if I can lease it for whitetails. If I could hang a couple of lock ons in some of the bigger olives and make some real good ground blinds in some of the olives and have multiple ways to get to them, I can kill some big bucks here. Dang just had some deer go by 40 yards behind/beside me. All I saw were does, but they didn’t bust me so that’s good. Been in here cracking limbs and brushing up a blind and didn’t expect to see anymore anytime soon.

Anyhoo. I looked back at TC pics from last year. Had two non typicals…one smallish, one biggish. Several 110-125” bucks with one small 10 with great potential. A couple of 125-140” bucks. The >140 I hit in the skull. And a bunch of yearling bucks and tons of does. All on maybe 25-35 acres I’m guessing. Going to offer the guy 1000$/year for Sep 1- Oct 15 and do it with a bottle of Woodford in hand.

Saw a wall hanger in alfalfa at first light walking in. Didn’t mess around trying to see if it was the giant. He was large, and I hauled ass to get to where I could cut him off when he came to the olives. Had to pass by a small pond holding 50ish mallards and they all flushed just like yesterday. I think he uses them to detect danger. Ran into a doe that hauled ass. He figured something out or just fed out of the field before I could get into position. So I worked on getting this spot made into a good hide. I’m ~ 15 yards from where we had the stare down at 18 yesterday. In the light…I now see how dang closecI was to him with him having no clue of my existence. Dangit! Going to be nearly impossible to pull this off on the ground from the limited spots I have to hide and limited ways to get into here, but I’m going to lean heavily on luck and the fact that deer are not immune to screwing up. The first and most important element of being able to pull this off is in place…He’s in here. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he will slip up.

I’ll keep you all posted as things develop.

[wskinner]

I haven’t seen deer mingle with livestock. They use the same areas, but not at the same time. It’s worked to my advantage before. Years back, I was attempting to get the drop on a group of deer that I watched bed down in an overgrown field edge, bordering a cow pasture. The wind was in my favor, and I was down in an canal ditch, working my way towards them. When the cows finished feeding, they started moving to their usual loafing area, which was just past where the deer and I were, but they were still a good 500 yards from us, and I figured I had enough time. I was closing the last 50 yards, when I see the deer moving through the weeds, directly towards me. I raised the rifle, and when they got 10 from me, the lead doe paused and gave me a, “What’s that round thing sticking up out the ditch,” look. I sent one through her throat patch and thanked the cows for their assistance.

[LabLuvR]

Deer don’t mind cows, horses or mules.

[Sportin' Woodies]

We should all strive to eradicate horses for the good of deer.

[Tater]

For the good of the earth.

[Huntinjunkie]

We should all strive to eradicate horses for the good of deer.

In the event of an emp. I'm ridin your walkin.

[wskinner]

In the event of an emp, someone’s gonna eat that horse.

[Huntinjunkie]

In the event of an emp, someone’s gonna eat that horse.

2 of the 3 I've raised from colts. Someone wants to eat one they'll die tryin

[Sportin' Woodies]

Horse girls are crazy

[Huntinjunkie]

Horse girls are crazy

Reminds me of 3 day weekends at love valley. Them girls up there party harder than the men.

[Bigtimber2]

Swing and a miss, Rocketman 2.0.

[w33kender]

I am guessing that donkeys and deer avoid each other or co-exist. And yes donkeys will try to kill any dog in their pasture. Cats, too.

[led0321]

Cats, too.

Im interested


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