Anyone still huntin notice a big change this week?

[rabjr]

Trying to fill an antlerless tag and there seems to be a big change here. Deer have disappeared on me! :haha: Dangit, I know we just had weather come through but they seem to have changed their pattern and I'm seeing nothing and no sign even. I did have an antlerless buck come through on my camera at 7:00pm which is no real surprise as we usually have storys every year of a buck or two loosing antlers during our shotgun season which is the first week of Dec. :idunno:

 

[jethro224]

Maybe they're still restin' up from all that sleigh pullin'. :haha:

I haven't been out at all but our antlerless season opens tomorrow so I'm fixin' to go have a look. I wasn't seeing much movement during our 2nd firearm season or muzzleloader season so I'm hoping they're back to normal now. The weather is supposed to be pretty darn nice for the end of December here. We're looking at highs around 50.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Nope, no changes per se.

I went out Tuesday morning, with a storm coming in. It was due to hit at sometime after 09:00, and dump near 1" of rain before 3 p.m. So I figured the deer would be skittish, and moving before the storm hit.

At 08:15 I took a doe at 42 yards. A group came by, kinda wary as I thought they'd be, and she was a straggler, and loitered in the wrong spot. Temperatures were hovering at around 40 degrees before the rain hit, then dropped.

I have found that as the season progresses, one really needs to be out for the entire day, as the deer will feed at night, but the earlier they feed at night, the earlier in the day they will need to feed again, and the colder the better as that makes them burn calories too.

At this time of year I see deer moving after 12 noon, to about 2 p.m., and then there seems to be a break-in-the-action, and they move again at dusk.

LD

 

[BrownBear]

My son-in-law was hunting a 25 acre wood plot in VA Monday, and the overnight and morning wind threw everything out of whack. It died off midday, and by evening the deer appeared in adjacent fields as normal, but were too slow getting back into the wood lot. It's more of a "morning" hunt in terms of deer movement, so the wind definitely threw things out of phase. Tuesday morning things were back to normal and he hung another deer on the meat pole.

 

[jbhower]

It's bad here in the PA mountains. Food is scare already. Acorn crop was almost nonexistant this year. In the mountains already as early as November deer turned non-patterned and would just roam for days moving from place to place eating what they could find and then maybe returning to a place a few days later.

It's really bad now. Hunting this week they were digging at tree roots trying to eat the small ones. You see sign that is maybe 2 days old, but nothing fresh. They are just going place to place. There really hasnt been any snow yet this year, but if we get a big snow in Jan-Feb its going to kill the herd.

Maybe down in the valleys or around farms with a stable food source it is better.

 

[rabjr]

Yeah, same thing here, no acorns this year and I don't remember a worse year than this for lack of food out there.

I decided to stay in where its warm today. I'll see how things are tomorrow.

 

[majg1234]

yep kinda the same here patterns have broken down and seeing a lot less deer now.Maybe I made a mistake by passing so many fat does up this year :idunno: Did guide grandson to a nice 168lb 4 pnt in octobers youth hunt.We hunted a day and half with his cherokee,,,,not a single deer in range then on the last PM hunt he took his 243 model 7 and killed the 4pnt @ 90 yrds

 

[buttonbuck]

finally out with the muzzleloader, It is raining now, I am hunting State Ground Lowden Miller in Northern Illinois, My son and I saw a young buck at 40 yards but it is antlerless only, did not see if it was a button buck or fork anyway it was a young buck so let it walk, Out of this 2400 acre hunting area a possible 40 hunters took 3 deer I do not think there was more than 15 in the park. If it quits raining I will go out in a few minutes. This is a tough place lots of under brush not many open areas accept by the rock river which is dotted with ladder stands.

 

[smoothy]

Just getting out again with Illinois' late winter season. Hope to see some. My previous experience is that it isn't until January that I've gotten them in years past. But mostly young deer.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Looks like I'm going tommorrow. I hope to see plenty.... :grin:

 

[buttonbuck]

The park officer said the same thing, The deer move again in January. Wonder why? Vacation?

 

[jbhower]

Went for the first 2 hours this morning then took a break to work on the tractors and junk, then went for the last 2 hours today.

Didnt see squat. :cursing:

 

[Archer 756]

:surrender: One poor year here in NY deer 4 frenchman 0 :hatsoff:

 

[jbhower]

Went out again today in the morning and afternoon. Nothin! But i did see that there was fresh manure only 15 yards from my stand that was fresh, but that's it for the year.

Cleaned both the flintlock and the percussion cap up(still loaded from early muzzleloader) tonight and are ready for storage for a few months.

 

[smoothy]

Let me eat my earlier words. I hunted Saturday and today. Didn't see anything neither. I have another weekend in two more weeks so I'll leave my guns with ball and powder. Some new snow could help, just not 2 feet all at once.

 

[MeatStick]

Food source and weather change I believe is whats causing you not to be seeing deer. Try hitting the areas you don't typically hunt in the early season.

 

[Dave K]

I have been keeping myself in deer pretty regular. Our 2nd rut is about over so they are laying up and resting. But, they aren't straying far from their food source. I have several areas that are working out well. All these places are against shelled corn fields. One area has a white oak stand about 50yds. from the corn field. Most of the deer are filtering through around 4pm and stop at the acorns. They are moving to the corn fields about sunset or close to 5pm. They are also jumpy as well just coming through Ohio's split modern gun season and the month's of archery season. It doesn't take much of a stray breeze headed toward them from you and they are gone.

 

[rabjr]

The biggest change I'm seeing here is the times they are coming through the area. They are still here, the Does and yearlings anyway, just moving through around 5:30ish PM now according to the camera. Which does me no good. :haha: Something messed these deer up for one hour. From October up to when I posted this I was seeing deer pretty regular between 4:00 and 4:45 sometimes earlier. Then like flicking a switch they stopped coming until after dark and are pretty regular showing up at 5:20, 5"30ish... :idunno: Its like the damn things know I have two antlerless tags left. :haha:

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Acorn crop was almost nonexistant this year.

YES I did notice that, and I have conversed on that with several of my deer hunting coworkers. We have a line of white oaks adjacent to our parking area, and last year it was covered with acorns, but this year very few.

One of the guys says he looked into it and there is apparently a "cycle" with oaks, and this year apparently East of the Mississippi, there wasn't as much mast for the deer.

So that change I noticed from the beginning of the season. I hope it's normal, and doesn't repeat next year.

Where I am there is lots of other food sources for the deer, but for the folks who have deer that are fully feeding off of wild sources, this was probably not such a good year.

LD

 

[Dave K]

For what it is worth. It seems as if the nut crop seems to cycle about every 5 yrs. at least in my area. But, that is for individual trees. In the woods that I hunt mainly, there are several areas of white oaks. One area hardly produced this year, it is also up near a soy bean field. So the deer didn't seem to be real affected by that is they prefer the corn. The other area is near the corn field. That area had a real good acorn crop this year, so that is where the deer seem to be headed. Next year the crop rotation will be the opposite of this year. Hopefully the acorn crop will be as well. Another thing, is the rain/water. My area of Ohio, like so many other areas, got ALLOT of rain this year. In my area it is pretty flat,so we have some woods that are still flooded. I learned one thing from my motorcycle Enduro riding days and deer are like the spectators and the trees, they don't stand in water. So head for the higher ground. I will not say that deer won't head to the islands if there are any in the woods though. Actually the flooding made it easier for me to find the deer as most of the woods in my area are there for one reason, it was swamp ground and not feasible to clear for farming. So I don't need to concentrate as hard on the flooded woods and head for the higher ground. But again, never say never if there is hunting pressure and there are islands.