What is it about this day? I have always considered this a magical day. Just looking on this forum today it is a no brainer. In my lifetime I've only been lucky to harvest a 153" and a 139" as my biggest deer with a bow, but my biggest deer sighting ever occured on this day years ago. That deer was a true giant. A 180" deer freshening a scrape at a mere 20 yards in broad daylight and there was nothing I could do as he had me handcuffed. That being said, I can look through my collection of 14 years worth of North American Whitetail and can look at multiple monster deer killed on this date. There is definately a pattern in the midwest on this date. Especially Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Iowa. There has to be something. Is this the "official" day that the shortened daylight hits the bucks brain? Does it trigger the start of the rut for them? There has to be something. Lets pick the brains of you guys and put something together here.
Man, I truely have no idea. My hunting buddy and I got one on Halloween this year too. Last Halloween I saw the same buck but passed him up at 10 yards. Only seeing this buck 2 times in 2 years and both times on Halloween. We agree that we don't know what it is that makes it such a great day but we agreed to hunt every halloween until we die. lol
I totally agree 2 lunger!! It's been a great time to be In the woods for myself as well although I've never shot a Halloween buck. Years ago I never missed a Halloween sit cause It was usually always a good one. The last 10 years not so much but this year It was a great sit again as I passed up a nice 8 point that ran doe's all evening. Saw another good buck that was chasing doe's too but I couldn't tell who he was. Many years ago when I was a kid mom was driving my brother and I around trick or treating when she saw 2 huge bucks that were In the ditch nose to nose. My mom knows her bucks and still says to this day they were both 170 Inch class bucks with ease. It sure seems like a switch gets turned on.
Halloween(especially if it fall on a weekend) is my most anticipated hunting day of the year. Lots of great luck. This year the whole weekend was a complete dud, but sometimes I guess that happens.
I was lucky enough to take one two days before halloween, but I completely agree. Halloween and the days that immediately surround it seem to be the most productive time of the year for buck movement imo.
By Far the best sit of my life came on this past Halloween, I'm definitely looking forward to next Halloween!
Not sure. Didn't see much personally besides the one 8 point chasing. From the looks of it, it REALLY paid off well for many BH members.
I've always liked the last 2-3 days of october, I passed on a 150+ incher on the 29th at about 9:15 in the morning.
It's just the number of guys hitting the woods IMO. Halloween is that stereotypical day that everyone thinks "it's getting good out there" so everyone makes sure to not miss it. It's a special day for a lot of people to go hunting, and the more hunters in the woods the more deer that hit the ground. Obviously it's a good time of year to be out there, but no better than Oct 30 or Nov 1 for that matter.....I think it's that everyone is sure to be out there Oct 31 is all.
Then what explains the decline this weekend? This has been my experience in over 15 years of bowhunting. There is a huge increase in buck sightings the last 3 days of October and then it just gets stone cold until around the 8th or 9th every year for me. After that it is rocking clear up until gun season here. Following the pattern in just this site, it looks much the same. I highly doubt there is any less hunters out there this weekend as last. Probably more.
I retract my last statement after some of the hard evidence that has been presented. What I don't get, since the deer obviously have calendars, why they would move on a day they know will have a lot of hunters in the woods? Maybe they can't resist the urge to go trick or treating. If they ever catch on to this, we can just change which day Halloween falls on the deer calendar, but keep our calendar the same, so we can fool them! A great "trick" that would be.
