Seems to me a lot more people seeing nice bucks on cam this year as opposed to last year. Agree or disagree??? Perhaps the drought last year had a lot to do with this? I know it did in my area!
Could be the drought as that can decrease antler growth do to a lack of water in the early stages of antler growth and lack of protein producing food. Blue Tongue could have also gone throught the area. I know parts of Kentucky and Montana had it a few years back and the deer population took a big hit. Check with Fish &Wildlife in Kansas, they would know.
Better weather all around Better management and better food year around cooler and deer are moving more more and better camera usage
When people see big bucks on camera they pass up the smaller bucks hoping to get their target deer. This allows for the younger bucks to mature more so subsequent years have more bucks that are a bit more mature.
My buddy told me that blue tongue hit their area last year (KY), and have already got a few nice pics of bucks this year.
I had somewhere between 10-20 shooters on my trail cams last year. I've only picked up about 5 this year. With that said, I'm still seeing bigger and better bucks since I started food plotting heavily.
I disagree. Last year I hunted less than I have in my 10 years of hunting. (Yes, I've hunted since I was 5.) Anyways, I saw way more big bucks than I ever have. And we were in one of the worst droughts there was last year. There hadn't been any habitat changes or improvements in my area in about 6 years too, so I doubt all the big ones were from that.
So far I had more shooters last year then I do this year and I have almost doubled my cameras from 5-9 this year.
