Cows and Deer?

[CSG]

I am a new hunter this year and I have been out scouting a spot that a friend took me to last year. After sighting some deer in the area I kept moving a little and came across some cows making a racket coming out of the forest into the cut block. Didn't see any deer after that.

So I am wondering if deer are comfortable being in the same vicinity as cows. If I show up to hunt one morning and there are cows in the cutblock should I keep moving on to where there are no cows?

[Gateholio]

Whatever you do, don't shoot them in the udder!:mrgreen:

[Ehv]

Maybe you should move to an'udder spot

[Big7]

Generally speaking, I have seen less deer in fields that have cows in them allthough there are exceptions to every rule!!

[ruger#1]

Ive hunted the rock creek and cache creek area, There are a lot of free ranging cows and they don't seem to bother the deer. Just be careful some cattle have the same color hair as a deer. Have fun hunting and be safe

[stella-artois]

Ive seen cows in cut blocks and the deer just walk right between them

[elkdom]

Make the best of it! sometimes when game is hard to find, cattle are referred to as ..."SLOW DEER!", udder wise you go home hungry! lol

[brian]

The cattle can stampede if they get really spooked so I wouldn't chance it and hunt right around them. Deer also pay attention to the warning signs of other animals, I assume that would include range cattle so there's another reason not to freak them out. To be safe just give them a bit of a berth and carry on. Mostly they'll be pretty passive. When scouting around in the interior I've seen lots of deer and cattle sign intermingling.

[todbartell]

cows **** up an area for hunting IMO

[Muleycatcher]

I shot a three point buck while he was standing approx. 25yrds away from a group of cattle.. and he was with a 2 point and a doe. So ya never know

[huntwriter]

I have found that once deer are used to cows that they not only don’t mind cattle put in many cases seem to like their company. At least that is what I have observed time and again on whitetail deer and in the past few weeks on mule deer around here too.

A few days ago we observed a black bear walking right between cows, he didn’t mind and neither did the cattle.

[Phreddy]

Out cutting firewood last Saturday and passed a small group of range cattle with what looked like a nice little 2x3 buck about 15' from them.
Everyone looked me over and then kept on grazing, with the buck checking me out after every couple mouthfulls. (mouthsfull?)

[reach]

From this year's hunting regs, page 12, Site and Access Restrictions:

3. Wildlife Act(Section 39) - A person is not
permitted to hunt on cultivated land or on
Crown land which is subject to a grazing
lease while the land is occupied by livestock,
without the consent of the owner, lessee or
occupant of the land.
Does anybody ever pay attention to this? It seems to me just about everywhere is subject to grazing lease, and I never hear of people asking permission from anybody. Examples posted above indicate there's lots of hunting around cattle.

[CSG]

From this year's hunting regs, page 12, Site and Access Restrictions:

Does anybody ever pay attention to this? It seems to me just about everywhere is subject to grazing lease, and I never hear of people asking permission from anybody. Examples posted above indicate there's lots of hunting around cattle.


Thats interesting...I don't know alot about leased grazing land but I would assume that leased grazing land is leased in large parcels. Like 50 acres or more. So I would imagine that the regs are subject to case by case assesment by a CO to determine if there is an infraction.

I get the feeling that they are trying to prevent people from hunting game that is among livestock, like the instances mentioned earlier in this post. I think it would be overkill to prohibit hunting on a parcel of leased land that had livestock grazing on it.

This is gonna be my first year hunting so I could be wrong, but its good to bring up issies like these. Anybody else have an opinion or experience with this?

[Alpine Addict]

Like every one said be carefull! If not it might end up being a 1000$ tag!

[outdoorsman812]

from what i have seen in some areas the cows graze the land right to the ground leaving very little for bears and deer, i don't like to see cows in good deer habitat, but i guess they have to be fed somehow

[Wolfman]

Most places I've seen where there are cows present there are way less deer. You gotta watch out in such areas too - wouldn't want to accidentally bag a cow - they you will be on some rancher's 'most wanted' list ;-)

Wolfman

[Leaseman]

see quite a few cows where I see and spend time deer hunting.... will look through the herd over the weekend and see if there is a buck there for my son....;-):lol:

[brian]

from what i have seen in some areas the cows graze the land right to the ground leaving very little for bears and deer, i don't like to see cows in good deer habitat, but i guess they have to be fed somehow

Sometimes the cattle won't be interested in browse the deer really love, but most of the time when I start seeing cow prints and cow patties in a good deer area I get disheartened. They do hoover an area clean.

[Jimsue]

I got cows and often see deer in with them. I also seen a good size ram in with a lama north of Cache Cr.

[358win]

Hunted many years in Willy's puddle and there were always free range cattle. I always noticed allot of deer tracks around the salt blocks.