A friend is allowing me and my kids to hunt his land. It's a 75 acre field with some tree cover in the corner. Best place for the feeder is in a corner but both property lines have newish barb wire fences. Worried that the deer are going to be too lazy or not jump the fence.

Normally, I hunt on land where fences are probably a foot lower and about 40 years old. Seen deer not want to jump over those some time.

thoughts?

Whitetails can stand jump 5 ft or more easily in normal travels and not being pushed. If it's 4 or 5 strand barb wire they usually Just go under it.

Theres not a lot of low fences that will discourage a deer from jumping.

Very true sir.

For the past 2 years I have hunted a lot on a new fence line of a standard 5 strand fence. Probably 85% of the deer I see cross it go through / under. Usually I only see them jump it if they're running from us driving around

Wether they go under or over, I've never seen a barbed wire fence discourage deer movement. If there's a little low spot, or an easier crawl, they will gravitate towards that. Use that to your advantage.

But they will cross it if they want to. doesn't matter how, you just got to figure out where.

I've seen them clear 6.5 feet for corn.

I have a few farm raised that I train for high level jumping competitions. My best buck cleared 11ft 3in[/mbarnes

I am encouraged by all the responses! Been sitting in a blind with a bow and had a 10 pt just not want to jump a 4 ft fence and it frustrated me so much with dying light and that i did not get that deer. hopefully we will not run in to those kind of wimpy deer on this property!

Thanks OB!

I was working at Brisco's Apache Ranch in the early '90s at Carrizo Springs. Early one morning heading out, saw a realy nice buck cross the road at a good speed go thru a barbwire fence. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. He had good horns & he just put one beam & then tthe other at that speed. Never slowed down.

daryl gersch said:

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I was working at Brisco's Apache Ranch in the early '90s at Carrizo Springs. Early one morning heading out, saw a realy nice buck cross the road at a good speed go thru a barbwire fence. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. He had good horns & he just put one beam & then tthe other at that speed. Never slowed down.

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I've seen elk do this. A big herd was running and crossing the road in front of me, and the first several jumped, and then one cow was like "naw, I ain't jumping over ****". She ran right through the darn thing without stopping. What was more odd, is how many following her still jumped, despite there being no more wire...

Confirm or deny something for me - was in Colorado outside FairPlay riding an off-road mini bike/motorcycle down a dirt road and came around a corner to a herd of Elk. Bull standing broadside while a bunch of cows crossed the road. They were diving into a huge stand of Aspen trees That were very tightly packed together - I mean barely 3' apart. He had a very respectable wide rack, much wider than the spacing of the aspens. I followed him in And he was plowing through the aspens.

How did he get those massive horns through there? Was told they stick their nose up so the beams/points pointed backwards and just bend the trees out of the way as they plow through. Seems plausible but is that how they do it? Maybe dumb question, but I couldn't imagine how an animal that big moved so quickly through there. Was almost spooky how quickly they disappeared.

AgTech88 said:

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Confirm or deny something for me - was in Colorado outside FairPlay riding an off-road mini bike/motorcycle down a dirt road and came around a corner to a herd of Elk. Bull standing broadside while a bunch of cows crossed the road. They were diving into a huge stand of Aspen trees That were very tightly packed together - I mean barely 3' apart. He had a very respectable wide rack, much wider than the spacing of the aspens. I followed him in And he was plowing through the aspens.

How did he get those massive horns through there? Was told they stick their nose up so the beams/points pointed backwards and just bend the trees out of the way as they plow through. Seems plausible but is that how they do it? Maybe dumb question, but I couldn't imagine how an animal that big moved so quickly through there. Was almost spooky how quickly they disappeared.

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That is how they run, more or less. They tuck their horns down along their back as best they can, and basically don't give a crap about the rest. I've spooked elk before in timber, and it sounded like someone was running through there taking full swings on trees with a baseball bat.

It's amazing that they can also move through tight timber without making a sound when they want to. I've seen bulls do some impressive contortions to slip between trees, without a sound. Other times, they bumble along kicking rocks and making all kinds of racket.

Thanks for the confirmation. It was a little spooky - 1 minute sounded like a bull in a china shop, then nothing. At least 10 massive animals crashing thru timber then complete silence. Made the hair on my neck stand up. I decided it was time I exited the woods....

If the feeder is in a corner next to property lines that aren't yours, its probably not the safest of places to put it. Bullets going into neighbors property is a great way to find yourself in a bad situation.

marleyrox said:

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If the feeder is in a corner next to property lines that aren't yours, its probably not the safest of places to put it. Bullets going into neighbors property is a great way to find yourself in a bad situation.

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Owner directed me to put feeder there. Both neighbors are close friends of property owner. If wounded deer hops a fence, I do not need to ask permission to retrieve deer because of relationship. Also, with the topography of the 75 acres, this is the safest shot with the background of the shot being heavily wooded instead of open field.