Deer on my place

[Howie1968]

Here are a few deer on my place. We are in the middle of a WMA we have deep creeks on 3 boundries we call this our north property. The south property only has WMA on the west boundry east and south rivate property. A loop roud runs down the center of the property dividing into a east and west part. The east side has a creek that goes through the east and west. The east i do not touch its a safe zone for the deer my west portion is .y hog spot and deer spot as well. Ive watched all of the deer grow up since fawns on the north we have switch grass planted for cover goat weed oats peas and such we do have feeder pens to keep hogs out . The WMA is 14,000 a res wich is part of the Davy crockett national forest. So essentially all of our deer are public land deer. Our rules are buck 4.5 yrs or older i take a couple does a yr but at times we have 20-30 does in a feeder pen or food plotts any given time. Our deer are all getting age on them the body weights and health are good. Seeing the bucks we have from what we had 7 yrs ago is amazing. I pretty much dont care to kilk the hogs coyotes bobcats squirrel bear and turkey are things i like to hunt

 

[Notchy Bob]

Great photos, Howie! thanks for showing them!

Notchy Bob

 

[nkbj]

Aren't you concerned with keeping the hog numbers in check?
But then again, in that situation can you?

When we lived in Liberty County there south of you our back yard took on a plum rototilled appearance.

 

[Spikebuck]

Age and nutrition is all it takes to have whoppers running around!

 

[Peregrine]

Nice healthy deer!

 

[Howie1968]

Aren't you concerned with keeping the hog numbers in check?
But then again, in that situation can you?

When we lived in Liberty County there south of you our back yard took on a plum rototilled appearance.

Surprisingly on the North property the hogs dont bother the place except along the creek when the acorns drop. 4 years ago we had a huge problem until feeder pens went up. an occasional boar would jump in after several nights in a row of pulling sd cards id go hunt them and take them out. the hogs dont root the switch grass or goat weed theyve been staying out of the peas and oats as well on the south in the last couple years my numberss were 2017 i killed 107 off that little spot i call my pig spot 2018 70ish 2019 43 2020 im almost embarrased to say im in the 20s for this year. what ive learned is if i limit the food the pigs go away so i concentrate heavily on my south baiting i put out several hundred lbs of corn a w via automatic feeder but i put alfalfa hay for the deer. the east side which is part of my south i quit baiting completely deer hogs or anything. once the food dried up the hogs left the grass regrew and made it really nice so now the deer lay up in there as its mainly pines thickets with several 600 yard long lanes of natural grass. years ago i had watched a homestead video of a guy who free grazed his hogs. he would put them in a area to graze a few weeks at a time just before it was overgrazed he would move the hogs. he used electric fence to keep the pigs in but after he moved them the place grew back really thick and pretty. while electric fence wont work on a wild hog stopping the feed moved them along occasionally you will see a hog commuting but not staying ill post pictures to show

 

[Howie1968]

from this spot over a 3 month period i had over 7000 pictures so i will summarize, when i put corn out both hogs and deer would come the problem with that was the hogs would vaccum it up as fast as the feeder put it out. when that happened the deer stop coming. i then put out 2 bales of good quality alfalfa immediately the deer came back and would stay around the hay most of the day until the feeders went off and hogs came the hogs would vaccum up the corn and at first wouldnt go around the hay. since the deer werent eating the corn i cut the feeder off and kept the hay out every week id drop 2 more bales the hogs would not eat it. once the deer got the bales to come about the hogs would roll in it or lay in it but not eat in it. i hadnt seen rabbit pictures in a while but once i stopped the corn rabbits came back, as the rabbits came back the fox coyote and bobcat came back. so i had a occasional predator with up to 10 deer feeding. now this is the pineywoods of East texas not know for alot of deer, however trinity county according to state biologists has the highest density of deer per mile than any other county in eastern Texas. i dont have any current pictures as i have created a sanctuary so i no longer run game cameras etc the grass looks good found tons of rubs and scrapes this year. and noticed bucks coming to my hog spot from the east

 

[bluemule66]

well done Howie.

 

[mjpchief]

My front yard early this morning. I live in the middle of town.

 

[TerryK]

Very cool. No wild pigs here in PA. Neat to see.

 

[sawyer04]

Here are a few deer on my place.

Where is Rudolph.

 

[Cobra6]

Out my back kitchen window





.

Cobra 6

 

[Grumpa]

No wild pigs here in PA.

Wild hogs have been reported in Bedford, Bradford, Butler, Cambria and Tioga counties, population estimates run in the low thousands. The Game Commission has conducted extermination efforts in the past, and to my knowledge, hunting is permitted with any firearm that would be legal in other seasons. If you want to hunt them, your best bet is to contact the Game Commission to find out where hogs are being seen. You can always go coyote hunting and shoot any hog you come across. Wild hogs in PA have escaped from preserves, or farm animals left in the wild (they will grow hair and tusks, reverting to the wild state).

Richard/Grumpa

 

[OldRust]

Grumpa That is not good news. Hopefully they can be controlled

Thanks
O.R.

 

[derrickman]

That is good info. I hunt a couple 100 acres near Lake Fork & some more on the Sabine near Mineola. Often wondered about feeding alfafa & now I'll try it.

 

[Mackayst]

such nice photos