Anyone here have experience hunting land that has horses or cows pastured in it? The land I have permission to hunt is 100 acres and there is typically 10-15 horses pastured there from May till mid October. It can get frustrating have to deal with them, fencing in food plots and trying to hunt when they are hanging around nearby. Has anyone had experiences hunting a piece of land like this? Any recommendations on strategies? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
My experience is that hunting land that actively has cows or horses on it sucks and I'd rather hunt somewhere else. The only time I've ever seen decent bucks on them is during the rut when they're cruising for does. So if there's any pinches or travel corridors wait until November and sit all day. Outside of that, cross your fingers and pray for the best!
I used to hunt the very edge of a piece of public land. This corner of public land bordered a giant "L" shaped private hay field. In the bottom of the "L" where I was hunting there were horses just across the other side of the field. 95% of deer movement was on the ends of the fields where the deer were far away from the horses or couldn't see them. The exceptions being during the rut and at night. I saw those horses spook many deer moving through that field.
Why not keep the pressure off until October when the horses are moved off? The deer may move in thick once the horses leave.
I've never harvested a deer on pasture with COW's or horses. I honestly believe the deer tracks I did find were from Nocturnal deer only. I hunted cow pastures for years and only saw deer on the borders of the properties.
I agree with Justin. Years ago, we had several head of cattle on our ground. The entire timbered area bordered the pasture area, at it was all fenced. The cows roamed where they wanted, including the timber where my stand were located. I knew our area had a good population of whitetail deer, but I rarely saw deer while on stand. The cattle have been gone for many years now, and we have many, many deer. The woods have grown back in nicely, and it's become an awesome hunting area. In my experience......Whitetail deer do not care for cows at all. Not sure about horses.
I don't enjoy hunting actively grazed pastures, but I do know a guy that shot 212" monster right in the middle of a 500 acre tract of pasture land. There were lots of draws, but his tower blind was out in the middle of the pasture. It was during the rut however.
I've killed several big bucks and a bunch of doe off of our pasture land. We usually keep 40 head of cattle on it. In my experience cows do not bother deer. I don't know about horses. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
The farm I used to hunt, the deer wouldn't even cross the pasture to get to the alfalfa. They skirted around it, which made some great pinch points.
Ha well I can't say my experiences have sucked! I've had some great hunts there but mostly during the rut like you said Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
There are a lot of does early season they just tend to avoid areas that the horses are and when you get the horses hanging out near your stand it can ruin the whole evening/morning. Maybe I should hunt some public areas nearby till November since it only seems like does early on anyway? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Do the cattle clear the underbrush on your property or are there some thick areas they leave alone that you hunt? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
We have some heavy wooded spots that is super thick. They don't clear it out but they do walk through there all the time. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk
One of the areas that I primarily hunt is 85% cow pasture. Up until 2 years ago they had cows in them. We generally focused our attention on the edges or fence lines. You can use the fence lines to your advantage by finding where deer are crossing or even parelleling. If you don't have other options this is much better than none. Hang in there you might be pleasantly surprised.
We also have deer grazing with the cattle not many bucks mostly the does and fawns but went rut comes kaitie bar the door we watch them from the house
One of the biggest problems is how open the woods is because the horses have eaten a lot of the underbrush. The deer still travel through but not much bedding except for does. The bucks do travel through in the rut though. Any ways to help hold deer in a situation like this? Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
