Jeff’s thread on learning (and the replies to it) got me thinking. I’m having trouble applying several seemingly common items to my situation. Which entails being restricted to small choppy parcels of land for my hunting? How does caring where a deer spends its time January thru July help me predict where he’ll be in October & November? And in similar fashion, other that it being cool to find a little trinket in the woods, how would finding sheds help me out in the fall? Do deer behavior patterns vary enough within the broad spectrum of “deer behavior” to make odd revelations about individual deer, invalid to apply to other deer? Or are they all “close enough”?
First off rybo, how small of parcels are we talking about? 1- For myself, seeing what the deer in my area are doing in Jan-July can help me in a few ways. First, in Jan-Mar, I can get a good sense of how deer are using the area late season. True, in my area many deer yard up for the winter, but not all. If they are using areas that have better late season food sources or cover from the snow, I may be able to apply this to my December and late November hunts, especially if we get early or severe snow. Vise-versa for June and July. Information I can gather then, may clue me in for my early Sept&Oct hunts. 2- I'm just now having time to do some shed hunting for the first time. So I'm new to this aspect. For me, finding a shed is nice for the shed itself, and just plain knowing that that particular buck is alive for now. Even if I'm not sure when, or for how long he's on the property, it's still nice to know. But I think that the best part is that you are spending that much more time learning the nuances of your grounds. Whether you're finding bedding areas, water holes, old rub-lines or even seeing deer, it all can be recorded for future review. 3- I look at deer behavior kind of like dog breeds. Let's take Labs for instance. Some will say a lab is a lab. Some swear by them, others say they are "retarded" ( <-- my brother for instance ). There are obvious similarities in behavior, but no guarantees. Deer have tendencies as a population, but I believe that each individual deer is capable of unique, and downright bizarre behaviors or habits as well. Deer are "trained" like dogs too. They can learn our patterns and smells and alter their behavior accordingly. Anyways, this is just my thoughts on the subject. Truth is there are far more experienced hunters and outdoorsman on this site, and I'm looking forwards to seeing what they have to say
It doesn't.........IMO. It sure doesn't help me and last week was a PERFECT example. I went to check on my stands on a warmer day to see if they were still there. What I found was a rediculous amount of deer traffic at the front of the farm I hunt. Beds everywhere and I personally kicked up about 20 deer in a short walk. Now I have hunted this farm for about 5 years now and can tell you for a FACT that this area is NOT used as a bedding area in the fall........not only that you will NEVER see 20 deer on that farm at one given time in the fall, let alone one spot. The deer are all herded up and just happened to settle into that spot probably for a couple days before I came along. I'm sure by now they have moved on to another comfy spot maybe even on another farm. So what am I supposed to learn from what I saw?? The deer aren't there in the fall........hell, they probably aren't even there right now. Certainly, the numbers I saw are in no way a good sample of the deer population a hunter can expect to see come fall. Once the fall hits the deer use the middle/back portion of this farm for all their travel routes and VERY seldom and totally random will you find a deer bedded down on this particular parcel..........they pass through it, and usually don't stay long. If this had been my first trip to this farm I would be 100% wrong if I used the info from last week to plan anything for the fall. I don't see how it could..........except to let you know that a buck WAS there at some point and is likely still alive. Gives you a good place to start looking in the fall I guess in hopes he may still be using the area. I will have an interesting story about my buck from last year (hopefully next week) that will tie into this as well. Stay tuned.
Ryan, if your hunting area is like mine, then I have some ideas for you. First, as far as scouting this time of year, I have found that right after rifle season/late archery season, the deer are so spooked from the hunting pressure that they have re-treated into areas where they feel the safest. The bucks will usually hold up in the nastiest brush that they can find that hunters have passed by. One spot that I hunt has a mess of multifloral rose bushes mixed with crab apple trees and this covers an old culvert ditch right beside a busy road. This spot is small, less than an acre and surrounded by golden rods. People pass this spot up as it is so close to the road and small. When the hunters start hitting the woods the bucks head to that area and I have noticed that they will stay in that general area till spring. I use this as a starting point for my scouting for fall. I know that it is an area where the deer feel safe and in the past I have seen some really nice bucks in that patch of brush. The hard part is figuring out how to hunt that area. As far as sheds, the only knowledge I feel that I can get from them is if they are found in an area like what I mentioned above. If they are found in a field or the open woods it really does nothing to tell me where they will be in the fall. The tough part for the area we hunt is that the hunting pressure can and will throw off any pattern that you can find during scouting. Pressure during rifle season might have forced deer into that area and they might not be there during early archery season. Their feeding areas during this time of year seem to be affected by the pressure during rifle season. I have seen deer stop using a field after rifle season because it was hunted hard and they moved to a less pressured field to feed.
I have to say that what deer are doing now ain't gonna be what I'll expect them to be doing in Oct/Nov. Then again, I've seen their patterns change pretty significantly from Sept to Oct.
I see an obvious discrepancy in the deer movements now compared to the fall (at least on my property). I usually ignore the actual deer sightings AND tracks at this point. What I'm looking for is terrain features, and fall sign (rubs, scrapes, licking branches, etc). I've stated this a few times on here, but my main goal this year is to locate WHERE the bucks are outside of the rut. This is why I'm focusing little on traffic sign, and more on terrain. I feel terrain features are much more obvious with the vegetation off the trees.
Actually If I was to see a 170" buck right now walk across my land It wouldn't excite me nearly as much If I was to see this buck In late August. Deer yard up In my area when we get snow so who knows how far away this buck came from. Same goes for sheds that I find laying on top of the snow. It Is what It Is and to be honest I could care less In remembering where I find a big buck shed. It seems I hear this all to often on here (remember where you found that shed). It don't do me any good.
Ryan, my thoughts kinda resemble Gri22ly's. We are kinda the same area, 2 hrs apart. My area dosent get much yarding either, the winters are mild here. The sheds i found the other day were i believe in the bucks core area. I had an encounter with him in the late season. His sheds were found where i believed he was bedding/traveling, which believes me to believe that if he is still in that same area, then i have found his core.
He didn't ask WHY the deer behave and move differently in the fall then they do now.........he asked what can be applied to the fall from watching deer move around in the winter. On the farm I hunt if you base your fall strategy on where the deer are sleeping and moving today you better bring your Ipod and a hand held Yahtzee game with you to pass the time because you are gonna be a lonely fella come October.
