What am I doing wrong???
 

So I am beyond frustrated at this point. I recently got permission to hunt a private 120 acres (half field half woods). I shot a small doe opening day and that's it. There are trails, scrapes and rubs all over the damn place. I put 60lbs of corn out and it's gone in 3 days, I have seen a few deer besides the little doe but no where near shooting distance. I have hunted the property 5 mornings in opening week and 3 evening and am getting my ass kicked by these deer...what do I need to do?

do you smoke?

do you wash your clothes in no scent/no uv wash?

do you spray down with scent killer before going afield?

do you constantly move around in your stand?

are you bow/gun hunting?

do you wear a face mask?

are there a lot of deer out there? very low population? average?

What to do
 

Be patient.

When you have property such as this, you need patience above all else.

Where do they bed?
Where and at what time do they feed?
Where can they access water?

Find these and you will find shootable deer.

Do Not rely on chance!
Find out where they cross areas or venues (transition zones) and place your stand to access these in shooting hours.

Above all else: Be Patient.

Two things I can think of right away are that you may not be using the wind and if any deer are in a bedding area near you and are downwind of the cahances are that you will never see them! The second thing is that there may not be any bedding areas on the property and they are just passing through there during nighttime hours and that's why all your corn is gone. Getting in and out of an area properly that you hunt is as important, if not more so, than the way you actually hunt it.

I dip occasionaly when im hunting.

I dont wash my clothes in no scent but i do spray myself

I only move when i stand up to strech every 45min to a hour

shotgun

Seems about average.

I am pretty sure they are bedding on the property because its really thick on the edges of the woods and its not very thick in the middle so ive been trying to catch them on the edges but i always see them in the fields before or after the sun goes up or down....There are also alot of hunters on surrounding farms. Could the pressure of other hunters and this full moon do the trick to see less deer?

Patience, patience, patience!!!! If this is your first season hunting this property, take the time to walk the property this winter spring and summer. Find their food source and scout for their bedding area. Then find their route between their bedding area and food source. Deer are very routine in the off season. If you can find these areas that I just described, you shoudl be able to set a stand to catch them in route between the two. Others posted about washing the clothes, a facemask etc. These are all great things to do. I wash my clothes before I go out every time and throuw them in the dryer with scented dryer sheets "earth smell". Rubber insulated boots that I spray before I walk in the woods. Fill the truck the night before because gasoline on the boots or on your hands can stick with you all day. Most importantly, you have to put in the time. I was fortunate enough to log some good quality hours in the stand this year. 155 so far and this past Thursday at 148 hours, it finnally paid off with a big 9. When you think you don't want to stay in the stand anymore, stay longer. Many hunters move mid day and even if they are not on your property, that may push a big boy your way. Good Luck!

What everyone else has said is very good advise.I would also put up a trail cam or 2 so you know when the deer are comeing out to feed and where the are entering the field ?

We have a similar situation on 150 acres land we lease. Rubs and scrapes everywhere. Trail cam caught few nice bucks but only night time. Someone else killed one of them about 1/2 mile away. He was laying below the horse pasture 1/2 mile away. 120-150 acres are not big area. it is not necessary that seeing those signs mean bucks are bedding, feeding and doing what they need to do within. Refreshing scrapes etc will increase frequency of their visit to the area. We will scout the area right after the season and make a game plan for the next season.

new property is really hard to firgure out sometime. I hunting a 110 acres piece of property near home and didn't see a whole lot of deer. The place was covered in deer sign so i knew they were there. There wasn't a whole lot of hunting pressure in the area so I couldn't figure out why they were so nacturnal. Ended up hunting in a couple spots that I expected to see nothing and ended up killing a 134in 8 pointer. There are much bigger deer on the property they just know how to stay hidden because it it THICK in there. Just keep mixing it up and trying different spots. If you get into an area and realize the wind is bad just leave and try another day. Also the best time to do this scouting is late winter when the deer movement isn't too high but the leaves still aren't on the trees. This isn't the best time to go trudging through to woods blindly. Camera's help a lot in the off season.

Sounds like you might be pushing the deer to where they have left and only return at night. With respect to the corn, the process of putting the corn out can push the deer out or push them to going nocturnal. Keep your baiting to the edges in a manner that will draw deer into your property and you will not alert deer by bringing it out. Your hunting stand should be such that you can get to it without alerting deer too.

Could be any of many things... But right off the bat it sounds like your putting way to much pressure on that property. Your "corn pile" might be making them nocturnal as well...
It is also possible that the best bedding areas are off of the property and that they are coming over at night.

My personal opinion is in the real world and open free range hunting like 99% of us do that you will never and I mean never kill the largest or even probably the top 3 largest bucks over a bait pile. If you live in some extreme weather conditions way way up north then maybe. I have seen it 100 times from friends and other hunters and even myself a long time ago. Trying to bait to get a big buck doesnt work. Even if you have several big bucks on the property there is no reason for them to get up and eat before dark when they know the food is in the same spot everyday. Just my opinion but I hunt an area with some pretty big deer and every year the guys who bait say I stopped seeing bucks this year or something equivalent. Good luck

If you aren't washing your clothes in some kind of scent remover the deer are prob smelling you..or the UV brighteners in the laundry soap are spooking them. If you have lots of leaves clear a good trail around your bait pile within shooting lanes of your stand. Deer will use your cleared trail because its quieter...Get a trail cam out to see when the most activity and where its coming from...movement and if you spit your dip out...they might be smelling that but Ive heard other stories where the deer didn't mind about that...but movement for sure will throw them off..also clear a trail going to your treestand...you may be pushing them out when you go in...I usually go in 1 to 1.5 hours before dawn and 3 to 4 hours before dusk and sit till after dusk unless there are deer there...

Scout the trails where they are coming in,don't just sit and look at the corn pile.They may be staging 50 to 75 yards away waiting for dark.As stated a trail cam is a must.

Nocturnal. Forget the corn piling. Realize that 60 acres of woods is not a whole lot of space .... easy to spook the deer out of there. Really have to be careful about stand location so that you can ease in/out with as little disturbance as possible. You spook them out of there 2-3 times during the season and they will just move on.

Scout hard now. Look for a place where multiple trails come together. Find the oaks. Be there when the acorns are freshly dropping. Look for "traditional" travel areas, bedding and old rubs. Probably your best bet of getting on a decent deer is to be there around the peak of the estrus cycle.

deer
 

Hunt only in the afternoon. Stay out of the woods and only hunt the field when the wind is blowing from the woods into the field. Sounds to me like they be bedding in the woods. Spread the corn thin on the edge of the field. Make sure your travel path is along the edge of the field.
I had the same thing happen to me a couple of years ago on a small patch. I was sitting up a stand bow hunting one ofternoon and heard a deer get up right behind me. I figured out that the reason I wasnt seeing anything is that they were bedding close to where I was parking my truck and watching me walk in. The first two nights of entering the property from a different direction produced two nice bucks. If you are seeing sign then there are deer. Just outsmart them.
Good luck

It takes time to learn a piece of property. I started hunting a spot three years ago about twice the size of yours. First year, I hunted I didn't see that many deer. I had a giant buck run by me chasing a doe, a couple other small bucks and does and that was it. Two years ago, I did a little more scouting (I live 3 hours from where I hunt), hung a few more stands and tried to play the wind a little bit better. I started to see a few more deer but only shooter bucks and they were a ways off. This year, I started thinking about how I was hunting a lot more. Morning hunts, I would only hunt the outer edges of the property so I wouldn't spook deer on the interior. I wouldn't see as many deer in the mornings, but the afternoons were much better. When it came to afternoons, instead of picking the stand I think was best, I would chose the stand that was best for the wind. Even though it wasn't always the best stand with the most deer sign, it was the best stand for the wind. That really increased my deer sightings. I also concentrated on better entry and exits. It paid off this year. I shot a very nice 8 point on the land and on a new piece of land I shoot a very Nice eight point. I think first and foremost is make sure the wind is in your favor, it will really increase your sightings. Also, Google maps is now my favorite tool. Overlap that with the tops of the land and you can start to pinpoint funnels, elevations changes and such which can really help. Also taking tips from Buckmastr (and his friends) have helped me tremendously as well. I spent years chasing bucks. For 10 years the first picture below was my biggest buck. After scouting and using wind and funnels and finding the bedding areas, last two pictures are the bucks I got with my bow and shotgun. (With some good bucks in-between)

Use the wind, find funnels and bedding and watch your entry and exit and I think you'll do much better.



Last years bucks:

yep! 100%...I have this same problem so I now have to park about 1/2 mile up the road and walk in...I had a doe coming in and saw my truck and she was snorting and stomping and going on and I know she was too far for her to smell or even see me...but she had a good line of sight on my truck! Needless to say she took off snorting through the woods! lol once I moved my truck away they did come a lot closer and I missed my shot on a big doe...only because I didn't have the branches cleared infront of me and I couldn't get a good angle to shoot her with my bow...but that is all my fault...

I would hun less, but smarter. Now that the season is over learn the bedding areas, determine access to different spots KEEPING WIND DIRECTION IN MIND, hunt close to bedding, don't hunt the same spot over and over, move to different spots each time you hunt.