Little frusterated

My home place is 11 acres that is bordered on 2 sides by 400 plus acre gravel pit(half is active). I have about 5 acres in mature pines and 3 acres of standing bean plots planted around them. Other than me, no one is on the land most of the time and I am up at the farm every weekend. The hunting pressure is next to nothing. There is also about 1 acres swamp full of cattails half on my property. I had deer in the beans all summer and into the fall. Now with most of the crops down, snow on the ground and I still have 3 acres of standing beans loaded with bean pods I have very few deer sightings and very few trail cam pics. Last year I had bucks all over the place during the rut, scrapes on every low hanging branch. I will not give up until the archery season is over, but I am having a hard time figuring out where the deer went and why they are not coming to the beans…not even at night. Excellent cover all around including the thermo cover of the pines, all the food and water they want, very low hunting pressure, and almost no human interference, and a quick escape into 400 acres of gravel pit surrounded by woods on all sides. Any help would be appreciated.

You are probably feeling the effects of one of the lowest recent deer numbers up in Minnesota. As reported almost statewide in MN deer numbers are down…way down. You are doing the right thing however… You seem to have a place with little pressure where they would want to be. Rutting activity as a whole can shift areas from years to year based on alot of things. One year you could be covered up in bucks.. next they are a few miles off, in another area.

I would bet that you will be looking good here in another couple weeks. They will realize that you are the only game in town soon, and come back to your place. In the meantime I would give yourself a break, maybe just scout from your truck at dawn and dusk and keep running your cameras. Monitor the tracks, and look for hooves dragging in the snow as they walk. The tell tail sign of a buck. As soon as you see them coming back..hit the stand hard. You still have time, this weather has alot of folks panicking, but your gun season was just over a week ago. Deer are still in LOCKDOWN, or tail end of the breading.. Deer sightings go down pretty significantly all over this time of year.
You have the food, when the end of the season comes, that’s where the does will be………. and right behind her will be the bucks looking for the last does to come into estrus.

Keep the faith… good luck

Do you typically winter deer on this property all year?

I had a fair amount of deer around all summer, it’s in the metro so I am not sure we are in the low deer number areas. Central or northeast part on MN yeah, deer numbers are way down.

No, the deer for whatever reason do not winter at my place. I have been there for almost 20 years now and have only had them winter there a couple times, but the usually stay well into January. Last year they cleaned out my beans January 10th, started hitting the corn plot, then left until spring about January 15th. The two years before it was mid February when I stopped getting trail cam pics of them.

Do you have Coyotes or neighbor dogs near bye pushing them out of your area?
Any signs of tracks?

In the last few years i have learned that it is better to spend little time in a good spot, than a lot of time in a bad spot. I would continue to run cameras, check them every 5-7 days, and wait for a shooter buck to start showing his face. Until that time, glass, glass, glass. The deer might be hitting a different food source before they transition to yours. Spending time in the stand to spend time in the stand will only contaminate the area, and lead to more frustration when you don’t see a good buck. Your frustration will only get you burnt out.

No neighbor dogs, but we do have a few yotes,although I have thinned a few of them. Yotes don’t seem to be pushing the deer out according to trial cams though.

This is a google map of the area and a close up of my 11 acres on the northwest corner of it. Look at all the room they have to hide in the gravel pit. The field to the east of my place is owned by the gravel pit and was beans this year. No one is allowed to hunt in the gravel pit owned land.

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Here are few pics of the bucks I had at home last week of October that are now not to be found. Fortunately I did manage to stick a doe with the bow so I feel much better now

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and a few from the summer. I did have bucks around that’s for sure

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