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Daylight movement

Did have this guy show up on the 11th. Never seen this buck before. His rack looks too small for his body, and it's a weird frame. Wondering if he's old enough to be degrading.
 

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Ski said:
I've still yet to see a scrape opened up, real or mock. That's VERY late. I don't recall a year ever when I wasn't finding at least small scrapes in the first week of October. Now we're closer to November than September and still nothing.
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Just going back through my GIS data layers for scrapes and I'm finding more years than I expected with late first scrapes. 2018, first scrape Oct. 13; 2016 first scrape Oct. 22; 2013 first scrape Oct. 11.

Guess I'm just too anxious.
 
BSK said:
Nothing can be done about our early breeding. But to alleviate the effects of our heavy hunting pressure we do several things: 1) use a lot of stands so that hunting pressure is more spread out; 2) keep very close track of which stands have been hunted and when, in an attempt to not over-hunt stands; 3) try to create great sanctuary cover - thick cover we do not enter (except to recover a deer) - spread in patches throughout the property. All of these are a help, but I think we would see a reduction in mature bucks post-rut anyways, because of the later rut in surrounding areas. However, since we got really serious about creating sanctuary cover (instead of a half-dozen 3-5 acre patches, going to half a dozen 20-acre patches), we seem to see more bucks hanging around longer into the season. Last year we saw a few mature bucks and definitely quite a few 3 1/2 year-old bucks still hanging around right until January.
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The more your cuts grow, the more daylight movement you'll see out of your older deer and the longer you'll hold them. At least that's what we've seen over the years after cutting nine 10-25 acre patches.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
The more your cuts grow, the more daylight movement you'll see out of your older deer and the longer you'll hold them. At least that's what we've seen over the years after cutting nine 10-25 acre patches.
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I sure hope that's true. last year was our first full hunting season with the cuts. This will be our second. I hate to use just one year's data to judge anything by, so crossing our fingers that we see the same thing this year. But because our timber cut was a winter cut, we got a lot of fast regrowth. After only the second growing season those cuts are head-high briars and saplings. A total jungle. Deer were pounding the pokeweed in those cuts this summer.
 
BSK said:
Deer were pounding the pokeweed in those cuts this summer.
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Exactly. An these native forbs produced by clear-cuts can provide much more "deer food" than many our cultivated "food plots"!

Not sure if this is a more regional thing, but up here a few miles north of Humphreys County, when we disturb the soil by clear-cutting activities, the next few years provide a tremendous increase in native ragweed, which is often preferred by deer over our cultivated clover plots. Ragweed has soluble protein levels comparable to clover.

Nature will provide, if we'll just provide nature with what she needs!
 
TheLBLman said:
Not sure if this is a more regional thing, but up here a few miles north of Humphreys County, when we disturb the soil by clear-cutting activities, the next few years provide a tremendous increase in native ragweed, which is often preferred by deer over our cultivated clover plots. Ragweed has soluble protein levels comparable to clover.
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last year, first year with our new big food plots, I hung a trail-camera on video to catch the deer eating the newly germinated plants. Got a buck on video feeding right in front of the camera. I zoomed in close to see which plant he was eat. Was he eating the buckwheat? The clover? The Austrian Winter Peas? Nope. He was eating ragweed. 🤦‍♂️
 
I hunted this morning but only saw a couple young bucks. I got busted going in but it was dark and I couldn't see the deer, but its snort sounded deep. On my way out I saw a single, large bed. I believe he was monitoring the ag fields.
 
Daylight movement has been virtually nonexistent for me in the evenings. Mornings have been key. Scrapes have been slow to open up this year. They are few and far between but the couple big ones I've found have been dynamite…another 5-7 days and the big boys will be right IMo
 
I saw several active scrapes last weekend... but my buddy went out to the farm Tues to spray wasp nests (there were zero in my airtight shoothouses... yeah!) and saw a bachelor group of 5 bucks that were 3.5s and one 5.5 yo together in daylight driving in.
 
Unreal daylight. Deer our shooters as well except one that's been a trouble maker for us for 2 years. Seen a lot of bobcats and coyotes as well during the day. Odd to me. I'm hoping it means a cold winter and a good rut. But who knows.
 
Boll Weevil said:
Dead as a hammer on the sat cams. I mean virtually zero.
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Mine too. It was building up to look like a banner year, then as if somebody flipped a switch the deer are gone. Not even catching the family groups of does that live here in the thickets.

My place in Ohio on the other hand had been dead all fall leading up to this past weekend, and now it's on fire. I'm heading up there tomorrow. It goes like that. If deer were predictable it wouldn't be as fun.
 
My sat cams are in sneaky spots, bedding, or way back in there so as not to disturb; they're not necessarily in feeding areas. As well, the beans are coming out now. My guess is: food sources shifting + acorns falling + persimmons hitting the ground + no pressure = sticking close to food. They aren't moving much because there's no need.

Food everywhere and nobody is shooting at'em...yet.
 
Deer are everywhere. But still no older bucks and not one scrape or rub found. Going to check a few more things out Halloween weekend without being too intrusive, then it's game on
 
Last year, the older bucks didn't start flooding my place until Oct. 18. This year, not much yet, but I did pick up three new older bucks between the 16th and 18th. I'm hoping the next time a check cameras I find a bunch of new older bucks.

I did finally find the first scrapes on the 20th. But the traditional scrapes haven't been opened yet. Bucks are visiting them, but only working the overhanging limb, not working the scrape itself.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
But still no older bucks and not one scrape or rub found.
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Same here. I've found rubs and two scrapes, one of which was inside a north wind bedding area and the other at the edge of a field. Figured with the south wind I could sneak in on the bedding area to see if anything is using it yet, and sure enough a dozen rubs and one big scrape. I'll be anxiously awaiting the next good north wind.

BSK said:
Last year, the older bucks didn't start flooding my place until Oct. 18. This year, not much yet
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That's what I've experienced as well. My brother predicted this year would be one of the "short & sweet" seasons where bucks don't do much until right before breeding, then it's scorched earth for a few weeks & then done as fast as it began. He says he experiences it about once a decade and figured we were due. Breeding still happens same way same time, just there's not much to speak of for pre-rut & post rut activity.
 

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