i plan to hunt a cow pasture this year the landowner let me in on. anyone ever have any luck on one? there is a few acre stretch of timber a mile long with an open pasure on one side and corn and beans on the other. there is also a good creek spliting the woods and pasture. the cows somtimes cross the creek and graze in some cleaings in the woods. i set up on the corn side of the timber kinda overlooking one of the clearings in the timber. what do you think?
It sounds good. I have read other posts on here of people saying they never got anything out of a pasture. 2008 WI gun season I got a split brow-tine 10 pointer in one while I had steers nearly surrounding my ladderstand. I saw many deer along the edges of that pasture.
Personally, ive never had any luck with pastures. Deer seem to avid them round here, cept for the edges.
I agree with Caleb on this one. I've hunted active pastures several times and never had much luck on them. Not to say you can't have luck there, but it just seems to be harder to come by. Although it sounds like you've got a pretty good setup. If the cattle don't cross the creek very often and you can set up next to a good food source (corn field) you may have a chance to get a shot at something. Good luck!
In my experience cattle are about the worst thing for deer hunting. I hunt cattle farms periodically, and have seen some great bucks on them, but only by hunting the corners and fringes away from normal cattle movement. Deer shy away from what I can twll
If it moo's dont shoot. Seriously though, I raise cattle and rarely see deer in the pastures with them.
Depends on your area. Scout it out from a distance and see where in the fields the congregate so you can get an idea if your area is the highway or the dinner. Just because there are cattle dont let it deture you from hunting there. Around here cattle are extra eyes that watch out for them while they feed.
I would be looking elsewhere personally. I acquired a new piece of ground last year. Looked awesome on paper. I went ahead and set 3 stands simply by covering the funnels. I hunted the property a total of 5 times in a two week period(2 morning and 3 evenings). I never saw a 4 legged animal other then those darn cows. This was a half section and had just about every type of cover imaginable. Including some isolated corn and bean fields. On the 5th outing I walked the entire property. I didn't find a single scrape, rub, or track. Maybe just bad luck... I don't have enough time to hunt if it was. I will however be going back there come spring turkey season. Lots of turkeys........ I believe that hunting is 80% location, 10% hunter, and 10% luck........ After all you can't kill them if they aren't there. With that said I try to spend a lot more time scouting and acquiring land then I actually do in the stand.
Where i hunt, I've had deer cross rivers through my cow pastures. That's about the most they interact. Out west is an entirely different story. 99% of the hunting I've done in Montana is in cow pastures. Probably has to do with the cows basically clearing out the food sources, but out west where single pastures can be 1000+ acres its less competition for food.
being from southern IL I've hunted tons of cow pastures, and i'v never seen deer walking through them. However, i've killed deer on the edges. good luck.
The more you can stay away from the cattle, the more your chances will go up. Deer may or may not hang out in the pasture but they will cross through it. Especially during the rut. Hopefully, there won't be many cattle in there. There's nothing worse than having a whole herd of them spot you, then hang around and moo like crazy which alerts everything in the area! Good luck.
The ground I hunt has cattle on it and deer both grant it its 880 some odd acres but they co exist together. Those montanna Cow (not elk) decoys would work great
Around here the deer and cattle share the same timber/pastures but the deer will stay far away from the cattle ... so if you can't keep the cattle away from your stand while in it, your hunt may be ruined ... happened to me.
My buddy got one on a pasture last year, stuff is wide open, easy to see because they cows keep it all mowed down.
On the land I've hunted on, the deer seem to avoid the cattle more often then not, so if I see cattle around the area I'll be hunting in on the way to the location, we'll usually try to scare them off so as to not be prone to any problems later. Who knows, maybe the cows will create a good cover scent for you, and they also might distract the deer, making him come closer to you while not looking because he's looking at all the cows the whole time. There's advantages and disadvantages of having other animals around your hunting area.
One of my favorite stands that I hunt in Kansas is in a cow pasture next to a cattle pond. The pond creates a funnel as the deer try to go around it trying to get to a patch of timber behind me. During the rut, the bucks cruise the pasture checking out plum thickets where the does bed during the day. The deer try to avoid the cattle as much as possible but I can sit in my stand and watch the cows meander through the pasture and kick up the deer in the plum thickets, but they just wait for the cows to leave and sneak back in there. I've taken 3 P&Y bucks out of this one tree.
