Where did all the deer go?

I hunt in holden springfield and independence and havent seen hide or horn anywhere. Barely seeing any tracks. anybody in the area having this same problem? if so any tips ?

I hunted in springfield and got out because of all the outlawing going on. that might be why theres no tracks.

We're experiencing the same thing at our club in St. Helena Parish, and we don't have an outlaw problem. I hunted last Friday morning and evening, Saturday morning and evening, and Sunday morning, and saw one doe. We had five hunters out over the weekend with very few sightings. We're just not seeing the deer we usually see. I don't know if it's the wet weather we've been having, or the fact that our woods are growing older.

Plenty early in bow season and now they have taken a vacation.

that area has been hit hard by over hunting and outlaws. im not from there or hunt there but a friend of my
hunted a four hundred acre club and 2o does and 6 spikes were taken, i mean come on ! yep it sure is sad

They are held up north on fresh watering holes and a newly germinated clover and wheat field that is placed out by DU... DU bought thousands of acres to pull the deer up North to give those Ducks company. They are starting a new fertilizer experiment also for a rare african flower that grows only in deer poop!

I know there's a good bit of pressure in that area - every patch of woods around there has an ATV trail within 150 yards. But that's nothing new. Could be more hunters around because the population's growing out that way. Or, maybe the high water forced the deer out of the river bottoms this year, and more got taken earlier in the season.

I hunt in the Killian area, we have seen very few deer since the full moon around Christmas. Last rack deer seen was 12/27/09. Last Sunday 6 hunters saw 0 deer. Don't think they left or maybe they are back in the swamp since the high water subsided.

...and they prove it each year as we get into the last weeks of the season!

I'll tell ya' a story. I was turned on (late this season) to some prime mature hardwoods and a section of short pine (bedding area)adjacent to them.

This place had not been hunted in several years (its private posted land)and is loaded with deer sign! I mean deer trails that are so used they look like highways and tracks just about anywhere you look.

There is no doubt this area holds deer and plenty at that. I have hunted it morning and evening and even midday, but have seen very little deer movement during the daylight hours.

So I have to conclude that as the deer in the General Area don't confine themselves to this section of property; an they have been pursued and probably shot at since the opening of hunting season. An just like any other living thing that has be hunted and shot at all season; they are very weary of movement during daylight hours.

Alas, the reason we ain't seeing nothing; this time of the year, they're "Smart'er Than Us".

Oh, this is not only limited to the "Holden, Springfield and Independence" area, either.

Tips: Be as SCENT free, Quiet and Still (invisible) as possible. Find fresh trails and hunt as close to bedding areas as possible. Get in well before daylight and leave after dark, so they won't see you and if your stealthy they won't hear you come or go!

My experience in the Holden area which is area 1 where I hunt is that we are in the post rut. Sure you may have a deer are two still catching the second rut. We are still seeing a few deer, but there paterns surely change this time of the year. The deer still have to feed especially with the freeze killing alot of the browse. They are smarter and more nocturnal also this late in the season which doesn't help.

Our club consists of 3-4 pieces in the holden spring field independence area and last year we killed ALOT of deer but they were all mature deer. I have to agree with the outlawing tho because the locals are really bad about. they have "outlaw trails" surrounding one of our pieces of property. During bow season there was sign EVERYWHERE and seen/shot deer but after christmas the tracks disappeared in holden, but in independence and springfield they were everywhere but had to have been at night. I think the high number of people running dogs out there could have a lot to do with the scattering of the deer. also the amite river that was our back border was high high most of the season. this could be another factor. i hope this straightens out next year....

I assume we're in the same hunting club, given the property locations.

The Tickfaw River borders the Holden property, not the Amite.

I'm still seeing a lot of sign on the creek side in Springfield and river side in Holden. Less people have hunted the big side in Holden and Independence, which are larger and less accessible, and only 1 dog drive happened on either of those, so that might be why less deer have been taken.

I've hunted all 4 properties this year. Email me if you want to know more:

chr4life@yahoo.com

Can't answer til after work, since our firewall now blocks webmail

yea theres always a lot of sign by the river in holden but, apparently during the work days no one cleaned out by the stands on the river, because i squirrel hunted the river several times and its overgrown every where. Several weeks ago we still hunted springfield on the river side and seen lots of sign but no deer, moving at night im assuming. we would hunt all day and not see a thing, but all the scrapes around the camp would be freshened up at night.

There is a trail that follows the river that is cleared fairly well, but it was inacessible for most of the season. I was able to get to the very last stand on the north side (there's 2 of them right by each other)about 2 weeks ago, but that was it.

As for Independence, your guess is as good as mine. It should be a good area, but I have yet to find a place where the deer are concentrated. It's always a few tracks here and there, but nothing indicating heavy activity.

Lizard Creek HC runs dogs pretty hard on the property near Springfield all season, so the deer were probably reacting to the pressure. There is so much swamp there that they can retreat to, in addition to the woods being very thick.

I'm still going to go bowhunting there Saturday, and maybe early Sunday to avoid 12 hours of Super Bowl pregame.

Not to stir up rumors, but I also heard that someone may have been night hunting on one of the places when no one was there. Nothing to substantiate that, but even if a member wasn't doing it, local outlaws probably were.

my work schedule killed my huntin season basically. i killed a hog the day it snowed by my private stand on vaughn rd and seen a few other deer, that i could have shot but i didnt know i could. for the first three weeks of the season i thought you had to shoot 4pt or better every where. it turned out to be just on the camp side in holden. so technically i should have a huge cow horn spike and a 3pt in the freezer. my dad and his cousin both killed. my dad got a doe, and dale got a 6 pt, both with dogs. they went to tunica during the muzzleloader season and my dad killed a doe, and missed a monster 10pt at 45 yards, and dale seen a few. i went to tunica with my cross bow the first week of january and seen several deer and missed a nice 8 at 50 yards. i hope the lease turns around next year in holden/springfield/independence. that land has a lot of potential and cover for the deer if it were managed right and the trails and food plots kept up, and if the outlawing could be controlled.

Went to the camp side in Springfield Saturday. It was so windy that I didn't see any point in swinging in a tree all day, so I went looking for some sort of deer sign.

I walked almost every trail on that side. Despite the recent rain, I found NOTHING. Not even a set of tracks. I did find a couple of old rubs in the swamp that cuts across the road by the pond, but nothing fresh.

The best looking place in there seems to be the stands up front, where there is a path cut across the swamp into some hardwoods. May try bowhunting there next year when the acorns start to drop.

OUTLAWS= FEW DEER AND KILLING DOES = FEW DEER IT IS SIMPLE
WHEN YOU KILL ONE DOE YOU HAVE KILLED ALL THEY DEER THEY WOULD HAVE HAD AND ALL THE DEER THEY WOULD HAVE HAD ON AND ON AND ON AND ON THE NUMBER GETS REALLY HIGH REAL FAST--IT DOES NOT TAKE TOO LONG KILLING DOES AND ALSO COYOTES KILLING FAWNS TO RUIN THE HERD FOR YEARS--READ THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA STUDY ON HOW BAD COYOTES KILL FANS--ILL GO AHEAD AND TELL YOU IT IS ABOUT 75 % OF THEM EACH YEAR

I agree with you turkeyhunter 100%.....Why 6 deer tags? I've also heard of people killing more. SAD, GREED ??? I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS. Lets use our heads before pulling the trigger.

i hunt in independence and been seeing tons of tracks, though the deer are mainly moving at night threw our place, try get some trail cams but make sure you lock them up before someone steals them.

I’m not denying that Livingston Parish has some outlaws, I don't think they are doing as much damage as some say. If so, and you have knowledge of the illegal activity, then you should do something about and not just say, “OH well, we are in Livingston”. I think Livingston produced several very nice Bucks this year. I think we had several events this year that changed the deer patterns. i.e. Flood and several very cold days. I think this had a big impact on the deer movement. Just my 2.
BTW I don’t think we have the caliber of outlaws we had five years ago. Most got old; the younger bunch is just too lazy.

simple too many doe days and people not useing there tags if they are not checked at the boat landing in the basin
for the deer tags they are able to shot another one. So how can you control the amount fo deer talen?

The flooding of the tickfaw river (our back border) didnt help at all. alot of deer from the surrounding clubs did cross there like they usually do. i know deer will swim rivers and such but with a current like that i know they stayed put.

I know a deer is capable of swimming the river at flood stage. It happened twice this year in dog drives. However, I wouldn't expect them to do it in the course of daily travel.

The neighboring club did really well this year, but they (allegedly) do not shoot does. That's good news, since we'll get some of their deer when the fawns disperse later in the year.

I wouldn't mind going up to a 6 pt rule on that side. We've seen several spikes and 3 / 4 points, which is probably the norm for 1 1/2 year olds on that property.

FYI: All the deer sign is now on the Vaughn Rd side. Go figure.

Just so you all know, the club we are talking about has 4000 acres on 4 different properties. There are 60 members, which sounds like a lot. However, I hunted four properties and never saw more than 4 or 5 people in still season. There MIGHT be 4 of us that bow hunt.

During dog season, we never had more than 12 standers and two small packs of dogs. Two of the properties, including the largest tract, were only driven one time all year.

Basically, a lot of people join, and only a few actually hunt with any regularity.

That figures that the deer moved back to the vaughn road side. Earlier in the season i had a spike and a 3 pt coming to my feeder regularly right a dark. Then the hogs moved in and i shot one, and had another 6 on camera. Then everything disappeared. They had a decent amount of scrapes within 100 yards of my stand but the hogs messed that up. I did notice this year that the number of people participating in the drives dropped drastically. i hunted on basically every drive last hunting season and sometimes there werent enough stands for everyone. This year i went to only a few because of work but my dad and his cousin went to everyone of em and said there were hardly enough people to make a drive. Hopefully next year we will get some more motivated hunters in.

...if one of you could drop me a E/Mail, we'is three old geezers that would love to hear and tape some "rock'n sing'n runn'n dogs" within 20/30 mi. of Hammond...we had a tape that was used in a barber shop...but was "misplaced" after the old barber got so excited and almost cut a guys ear off ???...thanks,cheers

sayboi email me at chr4life@yahoo.com