Daylight movement

[BSK]

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.

Will be interesting to watch how it goes.

I just hope it isn't like 2007, with the huge late freeze, record-breaking heat and drought summer, and massive EHD year. That is the one year I believe environmental conditions significantly shifted breeding dates. That year, our peak breeding was around the first week of December instead of normal mid-November. But deer in poor health have been documented to have later breeding, so it isn't that much of shock considering what the deer had to deal with that year.

At least this year, no big EHD outbreak, so there's that...

 

[Ski]

Ironic you mention '07. That was the last "short & sweet" rut according to my brother. I remember that year not because of hunting, but because the hard maple logs I was cutting were uncharacteristically and dramatically light weight. It was so dry for so long that the trees were drained of sap & dormant in September, and the lumber dried almost a full week ahead of schedule. The climate conditions were incredibly harsh, but it made for the best maple lumber I've ever sawn. Dendrochronology today clearly shows '07. That year's growth ring summer band is notably thinner than average. I've not compared growth rings to trail cam data yet but it's something I've been meaning to look at. I'm hoping it'll maybe give me a tell on how closely buck activity correlates with climatic conditions.

 

[BSK]

Now that I'm closely monitoring buck activity at scrapes, as well as chases caught on video, I should be able to get a pretty good picture of peak breeding.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I remember '07 very well. I had just graduated college and was looking for a job. I hunted all of November. It was a ghost town. Never sat so many hunts without seeing a single deer. 2019 was a close second for us

 

[Ski]

I remember '07 very well. I had just graduated college and was looking for a job. I hunted all of November. It was a ghost town. Never sat so many hunts without seeing a single deer. 2019 was a close second for us

2019 was a rough season for me too. I got it done but it was the week of Thanksgiving, which is late season for me. I wasn't seeing many deer at all, let alone bucks. If I had it my way I'd be tagged out every year before Halloween, and lots of times I am. This year is shaping up to be a rough one too. I hate sitting on stand shivering with numb toes.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

2019 was a rough season for me too. I got it done but it was the week of Thanksgiving, which is late season for me. I wasn't seeing many deer at all, let alone bucks. If I had it my way I'd be tagged out every year before Halloween, and lots of times I am. This year is shaping up to be a rough one too. I hate sitting on stand shivering with numb toes.

2019 was a complete bust. EHD wiped out our local area herd just about like 2007. Numerous cameras I'd let sit in my hot spots for 3 weeks only to come back and have a pic of me walking away and another pic of me returning. If anything can be deflating, that's it.

If I check cameras Halloween weekend and there's still nothing, I'm really going to be scratching my head. Won't be checking my hot spots however, until I go in during muzzleloader.

Does and fawns are EVERYWHERE. The bucks are just not there. Really odd year so far and hope the pendulum swings back within the first two weeks of November!

 

[BSK]

Does and fawns are EVERYWHERE. The bucks are just not there. Really odd year so far and hope the pendulum swings back within the first two weeks of November!

Same. I have does and fawns in my food plots every single day. Bucks are hard to find. Well, older bucks. I've got a ton of yearlings.

 

[BSK]

I remember '07 very well. I had just graduated college and was looking for a job. I hunted all of November. It was a ghost town. Never sat so many hunts without seeing a single deer. 2019 was a close second for us

2007 was a tough year, although I did luck into my #2 buck all-time opening weekend of MZ season. But after that, very slow. But with the late rut we did see some buck activity all the way until the end of the season.

2019 was the kiss of death for us. The EHD outbreak had an impact, but it was the hurricane that rode up the lake and levelled the forests on both sides that wiped us out. Once all those trees came down around Oct 25, the deer simply vanished. Only year we've had in 36 years of hunting the property that no one killed a deer.

 

[tellico4x4]

Here's a 2019 pic taken by trail cam on 10/4, look at that dust!

WGI_0204.JPG

JPG Image

1drv.ms

 

[Ski]

EHD has me super worried about my Ohio place. One nearby farm reported more than 50 dead deer. Another reported more than 20. Last I saw there were only 3 counties that hadn't reported an outbreak.

 

[Shed Hunter]

EHD has me super worried about my Ohio place. One nearby farm reported more than 50 dead deer. Another reported more than 20. Last I saw there were only 3 counties that hadn't reported an outbreak.

I've been reading it's pretty rough in some areas. The only good that will come of that is less hunters in Ohio the next 5 years or so

 

[Ski]

I've been reading it's pretty rough in some areas. The only good that will come of that is less hunters in Ohio the next 5 years or so

My county is one of the milder hit, but I'm right on the edge of the worst of it. My brother's place is in one of the bad counties. He's pretty worried because he's not seeing any older bucks at all. It's going to hurt for a lot of out of staters who've already bought tags and made plans. I'll be on site tomorrow for a week or two, so I'll hopefully see first hand how bad things are.

 

[BSK]

I'm getting more than a tad nervous. STILL no big shift of bucks up into the hills, and scraping is almost nonexistent. Tons of does, fawns and yearling bucks in the food plots, but older bucks are few and far between. Finally had a buck open one of our traditional scrapes on the 26th. That's incredibly late, and all the other traditional scrapes are untouched.

The only thing that's keeping me from freaking out is that in our last poor acorn year (2020), the big surge of new older bucks didn't start until Nov. 1. So I'll be holding my breath for the next week.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

I'm getting more than a tad nervous. STILL no big shift of bucks up into the hills, and scraping is almost nonexistent. Tons of does, fawns and yearling bucks in the food plots, but older bucks are few and far between. Finally had a buck open one of our traditional scrapes on the 26th. That's incredibly late, and all the other traditional scrapes are untouched.

The only thing that's keeping me from freaking out is that in our last poor acorn year (2020), the big surge of new older bucks didn't start until Nov. 1. So I'll be holding my breath for the next week.

Not the news I wanted to hear. I'm checking several cameras over the weekend. I guess as long as they show up at some point? Preferably before the start of muzzleloader. I just hate not being able to do some studying on them before the hunting part gets here

 

[TnKen]

I've found several scrapes over the last two days. Most were along the edge of food plots or trails leading to them. I also had a pair sparring last night on camera.

 

[Ski]

I just checked most of my Ohio cams and nothing. No shift yet at all. Last night a 4yr old actually opened fresh dirt. That's the first scrape of the season here, and it's usually a few days ahead of TN. I'm pretty worried. I'm afraid the EHD up here was worse than I've heard, and I heard it was bad.

Deer are grazing my plots like cattle, and in my water tanks all time of day and night. Bobcats are daylighting more than the bucks are. Weird weird weird

 

[megalomaniac]

We picked up a new 5.5 yo this week, have lost more mature bucks in the past 3w than we picked up

Got plenty of mature bucks to hunt, none over 130in. Worst year I've had in a decade for high scoring deer. Very frustrating after passing up so many 130 class 3.5yos, spending $2500 annually in plots and habitat improvements.past 3 years

I can't remember how long it's been since I had at least a 140in deer using my properties, but nothing even close this year. Was not a bad winter last year, and there has been plenty of forage and ag all summer long. I'm sure it's just a fluke this year only, and I'll keep pouring the $$$ into the herd as they keep improving body weights... at least until my wife cuts me off. She wasn't happy with this year's seed, fertilize, herbicide, and diesel bills. Gonna get a crapton of mature buck sausage tho.

 

[Ski]

If a pic is worth a thousand words, this one writes a novel. That tank was refilled a week before the pic. I've heard from many people that deer don't need water because they get plenty from their food. I've got 10,000 pics of deer on my water holes this fall that says otherwise. The only spots I'm getting as many pics are my greens plots. Tough tough tough year for deer this year.

 

[Ski]

These guys are just now showing up and making scrapes. Not the studs I'm used to but fingers crossed I'll see some in the next few days. Poor fellow at the water hole looks to have already endured an arrow this season.

 

[megalomaniac]

Oh... as far as the original thread topic.. daylight movement....

Never have seen this much daylight movement from mature bucks this time of year.... ever.

Here's one from today... 4pm on a plot next to me.