I was speaking to one of the guys that hunts the same area as me and we were discussing the lack of activity this year. Both of us have excellant trail camera pics over the entire summer, and into the beginning of October, but then all of the bucks just disapear. What he did point out was that neither one of us ever had very many does on camera, and even less big mature does. Basically what we think is happening is all of the mature bucks are headed elsewhere to find does during the rut cause there just isn't a good enough population of does. Has anyone else dealt with this, and if you have is there any way of helping to correct it? I would assume not shooting does and taking more bucks from the area would help to balance out the numbers, but it isn't private land that we hunt which makes it more difficult. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. -Andrew
Sounds like the area hosts buck groups rather than doe family groups. Don't shoot does and hunt your spot early season when bucks are in the late summer pattern.
Yes, I had a regular group of 7-8 "does" shuffle behind me this weekend and after they circled around and came back about an hour later they walked single file under my stand and I was surprised to find that at least 3 of the 7 were button bucks. We already have a ton of fork bucks, a whole mess of 6 pointers, a few 8 pointers, and a nice 10 pointer so I can't imagine having more bucks running around. We are going to need to start shooting a few young bucks and passing all does if we can't get more does regularly visiting our property because it certainly hasn't helped us the past two seasons. I assumed all deer were going off to find food but I am starting to change my reasoning as to why I'm seeing less deer in November.
Thats what I was thinking for next season. When in the year do you think bucks return to their "home" area? Our season ends Dec 31st so on that property I will just be buck only from here on out.
Yeah we have a bunch of fawns and spikes running around. I guess the little guys haven't figured they won't have much luck on this property yet. Gonna try to manage that property the best I can for the rest of this season, but since I am not the only on who hunts there, it may take some convincing to get others on board.
I had the same exact thing happen to me this year. Although I am on private land, it is a small property and all the neighbors have a "if its brown, it's down mentality." I also did not shoot any does and next year am going to create a bedding area and a food plot on the property to keep the deer away from neighbors property hopefully. Can I expect this to work?
I know that here in wv oaks dropped a ton of acorns this year. I heard that this could cause deer to leave and hunt for the acorns, even if you do have a good food source.
