a piece of public land i hunt has, a decent section of woods, (that seems to be a good bedding area) on one corner of it, and right across the two lane highway is crops. do you guys think the deer would cross the road everyday, going to and from the food source to bed? or do they tend to stay on the property and choose a better crop field. there are crop fields on three sides of the property, do you think they would pick the more convienent field over the one across the highway?
Hi, new guy here. How busy is the road? What crops are in the field? I have seen/know about deer crossing a two lane county road to get into an alfalfa field regularly.
road is pretty busy id say a car every minute not a real busy highway but a steady stream of cars. there is either corn or soy beans on the field. cant remember what it is this year. i dont think ive ever seen any deer on the side of the road there though. so either they are good at dodging cars or they dont cross much there
Deer are readily attracted to soybeans. I imagine when the acorns start falling that the deer may use the road less frequently but some will still be drawn to the fields, especially if its soybeans.
I agree! the deer will be there, a good bedding area will always hold deer. It might even be a real killer spot, often times on public land bedding areas next to roads get over looked by most hunters and the big BOYS figure that out pretty quickly.
I doubt mature bucks cross in daylight much, but no doubt if they like that food better they will head over after dark.
Last year my dad and I were standing on the edge of 2 lane road and saw a buck jump the fence about 10 yards from us. He landed stopped saw us turned around and went back in the woods. We heard him run down the fence line about 20yds then jumped back out on the other side of us and ran across the road. If they want to go somewhere they will go no matter what.
I hear the horns.......... especially the 18 wheelers, start blowing right at feeding times almost every day I hunt public land in Illinois. When I lived and hunted in Florida I would stay in a tent during deer season on some public land. The camp ground was in hearing distance from a main hwy and I would hear the horns blow every night during feeding times.
They cross on my road right around feeding time every night. We mostly see doe and young buck though. I never see mature buck cross that road in the daylight.
We saw a pregnant doe run across our yard into the garden and across the road to a wheat field. everyday for about 2 weeks until... screeching tires... BAM! We had to take her and her unborn fawn to a back field in our woods.
