How to attract does?

[Hoytmania]

This is a thread that I have been thinking about for the past month or so. As you guys know I acquired permission to a new property right around the beginning of Nov. A lot has happened since then. I myself have actually had some of the worst luck of my hunting career at this property and I blame no one but my self for this and that is another thread all in its self.

Through hunting this property I have met and developed a good relationship with the neighbor to this property. He happens to own 16 acres all wooded that is right beside the 42 that I have permission to. He has lived there for 16 years and is a very avid archer and has the trophies on the wall to prove it. Well he has brought me in and shared many things with mew about where and when the deer are traveling. He has showed me trail cam pics from present all the way back to 04. As we where going through all these pics he told me to let him know if I noticed anything odd about all the pics. After about 200 pics I made the comment that I haven't seen any does in any of the pictures. He said precisely!! In 16 years of hunting this property there has only been one doe over three years old harvested. There are does on occasion but are very limited. All the summer pics are of bucks in velvet.

So the question is how do we get some does in here and hold them so that when it gets to hunting season the bachelors groups aren't all taking off to go look for the does.

 

[RedCloud]

First thing you have to do is get in there and find out where on the neighboring properties the does are. Then you could put a feeder on the property line right about now and try to draw them onto your property. After they start coming in you can just keep moving the feeder further back onto the property in 40-50 yard increments. Could also try small food plots after the feeder hooks them and make sure it is a plot that has food year round to hold them. Something in the triangle of what deer need is missing on this property. They need cover of different types,water, and food as we all know but something is definitely missing here.

Looks like some ground stomping time is needed for your homework here.

 

[rrr]

Corn And put that foodplot at the bottom like you were talking about...it would be cool to see that pond revitalized TOO.

I think for all that work they ought to give you the keys to the place and then we can all party there

 

[uglykat26]

most def food brings em in , good cover for them to fawn in to would be helpful, some sort of tall grass

 

[jagermeister]

Sounds to me like something about the property isn't giving them a sense of security. Not sure what that could mean... either no enough cover too much human interference... I don't know, that's a tough one man.

 

[Mike]

Sounds real odd to me. My problem is just the opposite.

 

[Hoytmania]

I know this is the first I have ever really heard of this type of problem. I know food and cover are some of the primary ways to do this.

Ernie the plan that I had talked to you about what I would like to see happen has already happened. The neighbor that I am now friends with has all the necessary equipment to do plots and tried once. He has permission to hunt over on the 42 acres also just chooses not to. He talked to them and asked to put in a plot where I would like to see one go in. They said go ahead not realizing what all was entailed into putting in a plot. He tilled up the ground and planted a good clover plot. The next time the wife of the land owner came I guess she threw a fit because the ground was all tilled up. She said it was an isore. So needless to say that was the last time that happened. I don't know if the neighbor and I can work together to try and convince them again to let us do some plots. If this doesn't work then I have a couple other ideas of what we might be able to do for some plots.

As far as the pond goes it would take a lot of work to get it back to where it will hold water. It was never done correctly to begin with and is all gravel. It would be quite expensive and require a whole bunch of clay to be hauled in and laid for that pond to hold water the way that I would like to see it happen. As I get to know the land owners better I will find out if this is ever in the future plans.

As far as cover goes I am unsure of what to do. There is very little field area, and what field there is is surrounded by woods.