My spots dried up

[luberhill]

Got a decent doe opening day, been back every day since and seen nothing !

is it due to the warm weather ? I don’t even hear shooting ,,,

[Nomad]

Welcome to the club . I only see deer when I walk out in the dark , nothing comes out of heavy cover in the light . I hope to catch one ( anything ) coming back a bit late in the morning .

[Swamp_bucks]

Pressure, crappy weather just keeps them from moving need some cold weather so they need to get up and feed more often and move more.  I've seen 4 all season 2 running and 2 others at last light.

[Robhuntandfish]

Sightings and cam pics way down here too. End of breeding season, eating to recoup at night , hunkered down in daylight.  Find food sources and hunt afternoons when they get hungry and get up just before dark to eat , or in between food and bedding for mornings.  

Or drive/push out bedding areas to jump them and get them moving. Best way is with more than one person or a couple, but once you blow them out of security they might not be back for a bit, so it's risky. 

Hunt cold snaps and be near food now. 

I will still hunt but my best hunting ahead is prob in muzzleloader when I can back to my spot in 6S after gun season and hunt the AG fields in the afternoon.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Robhuntandfish

[wolc123]

17 minutes ago, luberhill said:

Got a decent doe opening day, been back every day since and seen nothing !

is it due to the warm weather ? I don’t even hear shooting ,,,

The exact same thing happened to me last year.  I intended to shoot a big button buck, that was with a doe and a smaller fawn, but they switched positions on me.  Thru a case of mistaken identity, I shot the doe instead.  They had passed me earlier, on the side where I could not shoot, and he was in the lead then.

Prior to that (throughout crossbow season), I had seen bucks on every hunt, sometimes several.  Apparently it was that one doe that was keeping all of them around.

I was set up for that again this year, but I let the doe pass and I waited for the buck 15 minutes later.  Now that that's out of the way, I am going back over there and try to get the doe, and/or the fawn, tomorrow.

The two local spots that I hunt  normally have a good buck population, but doe are scarce after October 1. Farmers kill many with their nuisance permits prior to that.

I dont think it is due to the warm weather.  Usually, it is an old dominant doe that controls the territory.  If you take her out, everything changes.

[luberhill]

Thinking about blowing off tomorrow and as sleeping in

[BowmanMike]

48 minutes ago, luberhill said:

Thinking about blowing off tomorrow and as sleeping in

Why not? It is better to take some time off and be motivated when you are out. I haven't been out since opening day of gun. I may not get back out again until the middle of the week or maybe next weekend even.

[wolc123]

1 hour ago, luberhill said:

Thinking about blowing off tomorrow and as sleeping in

If your spot is not that large, a break can be good to reduce pressure.  That allows the deer to get comfortable there again. I don't have too much trouble with that, since there is about 15 miles between my two local spots and I am the only one who hunts them. 

Usually, I just hunt the weekends. Hunting a spot just once a week seems to work out pretty good. 4 consecutive days right now might overload things a bit for me though. I feel good about tomorrow morning at my parents, since it will be a full week since I hit it. I plan on hunting one side of that 60 acres in the morning, and the other in the evening.

Sunday morning, I will hunt back at home, from my bedroom window prior to church at 9:30.  Sunday afternoon is a tossup.  I am leaning towards a low stand, right near the center of our 34 acres. I have not hunted from that yet this year, and it would provide a great spot to shoot the deer I saw in the field on my walk out this evening.  I hunted the east edge this morning,  the south end this evening, and the north end Thursday morning.

I saw 3 deer at my parents on Saturday, but nothing at our place on Sunday afternoon, or Thursday morning.  I probably would be burned out also, if I had not seen the two this afternoon and this evening.  The second one has me particularly interested, because I think she was a doe, for which I still have tags. I wouldn't care if I didn't see that little buck (or any other buck) again until ML opens.

I breath a sigh of relief, when every hunt ends, and I don't see a buck larger than the one I killed. In 39 seasons, I have yet to have that happen.  I am not too confident about tomorrow morning. I found a huge shed over there this spring, and that big boy must still be around.  I hope he stays hidden, until ML season opens.

Edited November 28, 2020 by wolc123