Needing some tips!! Deer have vanished!?!

[PSEhunter]

All, I currently live and hunt in WV, bordering the Ohio River. My grandparents own land up past Athens, Ohio, where I have also hunted the past several years. It is a small piece of land (about 23 acres), however, every year mature bucks seem to cruise through the area frequently, and usually one or two seem to stay local. We have received countless pictures of mature bucks over the past 4-5 years, and I personally have harvested a 9 point (scoring 120) and a 10 point (scoring 143) the past few years. However, a problem has arisen in which we literally can't find any deer this summer!? Our trail cameras have yet to get ONE single picture in over a month of a deer. Our corn and mineral licks we put out (which are usually demolished frequently) have been unscathed.. Does anybody have any insight?? One note, two large trees did fall on the hillside above my tree stand, going across two of the deer main paths. However, I do not find this as a reason for the deer to just vanish completely? I'm not exaggerating, we have got ZERO pictures and our land shows little sign of deer..

[Strother23]

Maybe you need to see what's going on on the neighboring properties. See what they are doing possible to drive the deer away or if they have a similar problem. Or cut the trees off the path. That shouldn't effect them though.Very strange. Hope it works out

[teej89]

ohio grassman musta gotten em all

but that's really weird tho. I'd check neighboring properties. If it's ag fields and the crop is not doing so well they will move elsewhere.

[PSEhunter]

weird fact, main guy off that show "trapper" lives less than 5 minutes from me.. anyways, the backend of our property connects to like 700 acres of public land and hunting.. the end of it we hunt connects to about 60 acres privately owned. The guy who lived there hasnt been there in months and is trying to sell the house and land. However, from browsing around in past years we never saw any feeders, food plots, etc that would draw deer in our area locally, or off our land in particular.. But even the combination of the two big trees falling and him possibly not putting a mineral block or something down, still shouldn't lead to ZERO deer.. baffles me.. will try and post pics later of the two bucks I've recently taken and other trail cam pics..

[mrbb]

well, that is very odd for corn to not be eaten up on you
are there any other critters eating the corn, do you have a trail cam over the corn??
as if noting is eating the corn, it might be BAD corn
next I used to hunt north of Athens(10+ yrs) and I do know a lot of Amish live and hunt them areas, and they been known to kill a few deer out of season and a bunch in season
if it was me, I would be contacting my local game warden, could be some sort of illness killing local herd of deer, or some sevcere poaching going on
corn will 99.9% of the time attract animals in a few days, and most deer will at least check it out
going from average numbers/pic's to Zero, is very odd, and would have me alarmed too!
different food sources can change patterens as well as people wandering about, but if it was people you would be getting pic's of them on cam
could you maybe have a bad camera??
they do go bad, in summer's heat the one's that work off heat, can maybe not trigger if too warm out?

but deer that used to luive and wander your lands should still do so ubnless a major reason to stay off
call your warden and ask? maybe he know's something??
Good luck and let us know

[zachc]

Have you tried moving your camera's around to different locations on the property? Maybe something has changed with the land, ie the tree's falling, or like others said neighbors property and the deer have had to change their travel corridors. That's pretty weird though for them to just up and move out.

[blackbeard]

Are dogs or coyotes roaming the property? Trees shouldn't make them disappear but I would cut them up so the trails can be used again. There is so much for deer to eat ths year, hopefully they just have preferred food elsewhere. Very weird though, I'd be very concerned.

[PSEhunter]

Yes, we had one camera facing a trophy rock within 15 yards of feeder, and another on other side of property that has also yet to receive a single picture of a deer. So far, just tons of pictures of coons (cams are working).. Land has never had an abundance of deer, but as stated earlier, for whatever reason bucks seem to cruise through every so often.. 0 pictures in 4 weeks just doesn't make sense..10244102451024610247 ... a few pictures from the past 2 seasons are attached..

[mrbb]

well again there have been out breaks of sicknes that can kill a local heard off, so again talk to the local game warden, he might be your best bet

[ohiobuckhunter]

Is it possible someone is messing with your bait pile possibly putting soap or perfume or something else in the area to try and keep the deer out of your area and eve them for thereself ?