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What happened to the deer?

ApexerER

By ApexerER,
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ApexerER Mentor

ApexerER

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I don't think I will ever figure out deer hunting. Maybe that is why I like it, it isn't easy. Saturday was the best day I have ever had in the woods that I didn't fill a tag. Most deer I have ever seen in one day even on days I have filled tags. I saw at least 15 deer on Saturday and that is assuming some of the deer were ones I had already seen so I didn't count them. This is in a timber stand not in a corn field or food plot. I saw two bucks and two doe in the morning, not really out of the norm although a good morning for me. In the evening I saw at least 11 more deer. 3 more bucks, one being a beautiful rack (couldn't tell how many points) and two other small guys and 8 doe. I took a crack at a big doe but made a rookie crossbow mistake being too close to a tree and my crossbow limb hit the tree when it expanded at the shot. I was so excited for Sunday I packed a lunch instead of leaving the stand. On Sunday I saw a small buck cruise through about 7:45 and didn't see another deer all day. What happened? Saturday seemed like full blown rut and Sunday seemed like maybe the start of seeking. Heck if I know. I guess that's deer hunting...

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armkb Rookie

armkb

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I don't think I will ever figure out deer hunting. Maybe that is why I like it, it isn't easy. Saturday was the best day I have ever had in the woods that I didn't fill a tag. Most deer I have ever seen in one day even on days I have filled tags. I saw at least 15 deer on Saturday and that is assuming some of the deer were ones I had already seen so I didn't count them. This is in a timber stand not in a corn field or food plot. I saw two bucks and two doe in the morning, not really out of the norm although a good morning for me. In the evening I saw at least 11 more deer. 3 more bucks, one being a beautiful rack (couldn't tell how many points) and two other small guys and 8 doe. I took a crack at a big doe but made a rookie crossbow mistake being too close to a tree and my crossbow limb hit the tree when it expanded at the shot. I was so excited for Sunday I packed a lunch instead of leaving the stand. On Sunday I saw a small buck cruise through about 7:45 and didn't see another deer all day. What happened? Saturday seemed like full blown rut and Sunday seemed like maybe the start of seeking. Heck if I know. I guess that's deer hunting...

Yup same here. Friday was one of the best days ive had in the woods. 6 bucks and 6 doe. One buck was a slammer. Figures I couldnt get off a shot. Saturday 1 buck 2 doe. Took Sunday off. Today 1 buck. Where did they all go? And to add Friday was windy as hell. Didnt think I would see much. Boy was I wrong.


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grampy Veteran

grampy

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Gotta admit, I'm scratching my head too. Saturday I had a shooter 8pt and three or four other bucks harassing some does. Hunted all of yesterday and this morning and didn't see a deer. But cams show tons of deer at night! These are lightly hunted private properties . With close to 50 blinds, stands and set ups. The most hunted set up was used 4 times in a month and a half. So far this year, the deer are winning the game. And that's ok by me. 

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Steve D Experienced

Steve D

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Been hunting pretty hard trying to fill one tag before gun season. Hunted 8h 8n & 8g, and have not had one shot all season. Seen a few deer but not like what you would expect archery season. Pulled all my trail cams because they show nothing but late night & early morning movement. I'll keep trying till fri. cause lord knows I HATE GUN SEASON!!

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Steve D Experienced

Steve D

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They are out there but unless you have access to them you can't get  them. In the block I live in there are not a lot of deer but yet 5 miles down the road a farmer complains about all the does he has. Won't give access to anyone but family & a few friends so I guess he will have to live with them eating his crops.

  Like the DEC says...There are a lot of deer out there. .......It's just a big percentage cannot be accessed.

Same old stuff year after year.

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Zem18 Apprentice

Zem18

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How about the lunar activity that was going on this past weekend and today (super moon) This might explain all the nighttime movement although Saturday did seem like a great daytime movement day for a lot of hunters on here. 

Seems every year I get a lot of trail cam pictures of larger mature bucks all at night and maybe 1 or 2 daytime photos of the same deer on days I did not hunt or couldn't hurt t. Then I always see the smaller younger deer while on stand. Also the doe have not been in as much at all and I believe this is because of food. Camera is set up on a crab apple tree in the inside corner of a field with Autumn Olive plots surround it for cover. 50 to 60 pictures a week this year with no apples. 200 to 400 per week last year with Apples.

Food for thought

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upstate Newbie

upstate

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31 minutes ago, Steve D said:

They are out there but unless you have access to them you can't get  them. In the block I live in there are not a lot of deer but yet 5 miles down the road a farmer complains about all the does he has. Won't give access to anyone but family & a few friends so I guess he will have to live with them eating his crops.

  Like the DEC says...There are a lot of deer out there. .......It's just a big percentage cannot be accessed.

Same old stuff year after year.

One of the biggest problems hunters have is access and choices. You could have 200 acres and they're just not there. 

 

My only experience with this was in 8N. 30  years ago farmers had signs up begging people to hunt deer. By the time we lost the land (family friend, business deals gone bad, sold land we got for $250 and acre for $3,000 an acre) we were restricted to 2 other parcels in that area that were friends of ours, our lot was biggest. 

Access? There were huge plots of land that were hunted by the TV crowd. 1,500 acres of prime deer land hunted by 3 people. Sit in a stand and shoot a monster, lock it up. Then shoot 75 doe in January with nuisance permits. This is just one example, there were numerous hundreds of acres plots where farmer's let the neighbor control the woods. You're not getting in. 

Look, deer hunters can be a weird lot. So, If I put 10 stands in a parcel and my buddy puts in 5 and so on does this mean nobody else should sit in my stands? I don't care. Others are furious that you got a nice deer from "their stand". Should I put one next to it, that's "mine"? If I choose not to be in that stand, why should I be mad? Now, if he's chewing tobacco, smoking, pissing and pooping then that's different. 

Have you not ever witnessed two hunters fight over a deer on a property line? Apparently, its only OK for the other guy to have  a stand near a property line. 

My family owns 388 acres on the tug hill. The tippy top of the hill. Deer are scarce and we don't hunt it but opening weekend and thanksgiving weekend. I lease 60 acres with another guy in 7M , but its pricey.  I am looking to flip houses with land that I can parcel off to hunt. My wife has told me more than once that she should just "buy you a big buck every year" for all the money I spend chasing deer. 

 

/rant 

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Core Rookie

Core

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In the past six weeks I have been out about 12 times. During this period I have seen deer only one out of every four sits and only had them come within range on two occasions, in both cases walking through at a good clip. I can't even imagine sitting in a stand for hours and seeing 3, 4, 5 encounters! These days if I see a deer at all I am ahead of the average.


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ApexerER Mentor

ApexerER

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47 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

Having saw that many deer if you're not seeing them in the stand why not get down and do some still hunting? You know the deer are there it's just a matter of finding them.


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Honestly, its because I am terrible at it. I have tried numerous times and I do see deer. They are just all tail up bounding away from me. No matter how quiet and slow I still break sticks and crunch leaves.

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Buckmaster7600 Mentor

Buckmaster7600

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Honestly, its because I am terrible at it. I have tried numerous times and I do see deer. They are just all tail up bounding away from me. No matter how quiet and slow I still break sticks and crunch leaves.

You have a 100% better chance of killing a deer that you see as to the ones you don't.

There is only 1 way to get better at still hunting and it's to do it and mess up a bunch. If I had a dollar for every deer I jumped when still hunting I would be hunting on my own farm in Iowa.

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ApexerER Mentor

ApexerER

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10 minutes ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

 

 

 

 


You have a 100% better chance of killing a deer that you see as to the ones you don't.


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While I can't argue with that, I am also 100% sure the deer are dancing around my stand and drinking tea the second I leave it...

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grampy Veteran

grampy

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2 hours ago, Larry said:

Those dam mountain lions the DEC are stocking along with the wolves and now I hear they are stocking Bigfoots or is it Bigfeet. We will be lucky if there will be any deer left.:taunt:

The Bigfeet are no threat to the deer! Because the deer always smell them coming. :taunt:

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