The area I hunt doesn't have a large deer population. However, one particular field I hunt in had great sign last year and I saw does in season, leftover rubs, sheds and plenty of does and small bucks on my camera....Fast foward to this season. Hardly any sign of deer. Rarely do I see tracks in this field anymore. Reasons? 1) One section of woods was thinned, not cleared, I thought it would make it a bit easier to hunt, but did this freak them out? 2) I set up an automatic game feeder. It wasn't right on a trail but on the edge of the field/woods where a fence was broken, I thought would create a natural funnel once deer running along the edge found it....This is a soybean field surrounded by woods, really great setup, especially compared with my other locations. Do any of you think the thinning of woods or automatic feeder scared them away?

I possibly going to be seeing similar things once my season starts due to a logging company takiing out a lot of mature hardwoods from my family farm. My guess is that if the woods were considerably thicker than they are now then it might have been a bedding or staging area that made them feel secure. If there are other soybean fields with thicker cover now I'd watch them and see what kind of sign you see on that field.

Well i had the same problem this year but only in hardwoods. So lastyear i was seing tons of deer and this year 4 deer all season so far. So i used my head a little bit and thought well maybe there all in the thick stuffso thats where i put my stand and put my camera up and there is alot of deer!