BSK
Well-Known Member
Over how many acres?
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Drought and poor-acorn year deer activity
- Thread starter BSK
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BSK
Well-Known Member
It really depends on when the drought is at its worst. We had acorns in the trees this year (a low number, but they were there), and the peak of the drought in August and September dried them up. We had acorns falling in early October, but for the vast majority of them the nut was shriveled up in the shell.
Late freezes in spring are the worst offenders for wiping out acorn crops, but late summer and early fall droughts are the second leading cause.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I got a bunch of daylight pics of bucks just the last few days.
348Winchester
Well-Known Member
That's what I have happening to a T!
On this particular piece of property in northern Morgan County there are excellent food sources. One is a green lush food plot with a variety of goodies. There is an abundance of red oak acorns but nary a white oak acorn. However, my sightings on this property are way, way lower than normal. There is decent deer sign but trail cameras reveal that the overwhelming majority of deer activity is at night.
This property has received very little hunting pressure.
I'm a bit puzzled.
WTNBowHunter
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
So a camera per 75-100 acres. That's good coverage. I feel I can get a very good unbaited census of the local population with one camera per 80 acres, as long as I can move the cameras around all season.
BSK
Well-Known Member
To add to my above post, there's a statistical process that can be used to determine at what point your camera density would start "missing" a significant number of bucks. It's a process where camera data is removed by randomly removing individual camera's input and then seeing what the census numbers show. By running this process over and over, each time randomly removing a different camera, and then two cameras and then three cameras' data you can find where the buck inventory starts missing a significant number of bucks. For the way I place cameras, the census numbers start to dip significantly once I get below about 1 camera per 90 acres (this is for an unbaited census, where you are trying to catch bucks doing their normal thing).
BSK
Well-Known Member
OK, I was wrong. Once I ran the numbers, so far this year is not a more "nocturnal" year than normal. From 2011 through 2023, the percent of middle-aged (2 1/2 and 3 1/2) buck camera events that occur at night (outside legal hunting times) from October through December is 68.3%. For mature (4 1/2+) bucks it is 82.6%. So far this year (2024), middle-aged bucks are at 68.3% and mature bucks at 84.3%. Go figure...
BSK
Well-Known Member
To add to what JCDEERMAN had posted in this thread and others, we too saw a delayed rut with peak activity much later than normal due to the drought and acorn failure. We saw the same thing during the drought and acorn failure in 2022. Below is a graph displaying the average number of older buck events caught on trail camera in October, November, and December. I have two lines on this graph. The orange line represents years with adequate acorns since 2019. I started with that year because that is when we first started some major habitat changes on our property, and 2019 was also the year we began using video trail-cameras instead of still image trail-cameras (video collects much better data). The orange "adequate acorn years" graph represents the average of four years of data, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. The green line represents two years of data, both drought years with total acorn failures (2022 and 2024).
Notice how the older buck activity peaked much later in November for the acorn failure drought years (green line) versus the adequate acorn years (orange line). In a decent acorn year, our best hunting is the first three weeks of November. However, in the acorn failure years, the best hunting is more like Thanksgiving week through the first few days of December.
This year, our best days of hunting were the Friday-Sunday following Thanksgiving (Nov. 29-Dec. 1).
Notice how the older buck activity peaked much later in November for the acorn failure drought years (green line) versus the adequate acorn years (orange line). In a decent acorn year, our best hunting is the first three weeks of November. However, in the acorn failure years, the best hunting is more like Thanksgiving week through the first few days of December.
This year, our best days of hunting were the Friday-Sunday following Thanksgiving (Nov. 29-Dec. 1).
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Mega that added pressure next door may have them thinking your place is a sanctuary which is good, it can become habit forming. Poor hunting tactics and too much pressure can do this easily in my opinion.
WTNBowHunter
Well-Known Member
I still think late December after Christmas is going to be dynamite if you know where to find the deer.
To summarize what I saw. I started seeing active chases and breeding as early as Nov 1st. Almost no scrapes, deer were scraping in very obvious locations extremely close to bedding areas but scrape numbers were extremely low. If you could set up and hunt a scrape line successfully this was the year to do it in my opinion because they were so localized and few. The bucks running those scrapes were staying very close to them and daylighting more than usual at the scrapes. I have a strong suspicion the bucks were more aggressive toward each other due to the lack of scraping. I watched this behavior on two different farms in different counties one with a good doe to buck ratio, one with a poor doe to buck ratio. Rubs were almost none existent this year, very few anywhere on all the farms I hunt.
I believe most of the deer stayed in pockets and are still in those pockets, they will start venturing out after Christmas in my locations but once they find food they will lock down again.
The overall rutting was about 1 week late even with transient bucks showing up exactly a week late. I figured they would start chasing again around Dec 9th and that was pretty close. I started getting photos and reports around the 12th-16th.
I do think many bucks will shed antlers early this year. They are extremely run down and beat to hell on all the farms I hunt.
To summarize what I saw. I started seeing active chases and breeding as early as Nov 1st. Almost no scrapes, deer were scraping in very obvious locations extremely close to bedding areas but scrape numbers were extremely low. If you could set up and hunt a scrape line successfully this was the year to do it in my opinion because they were so localized and few. The bucks running those scrapes were staying very close to them and daylighting more than usual at the scrapes. I have a strong suspicion the bucks were more aggressive toward each other due to the lack of scraping. I watched this behavior on two different farms in different counties one with a good doe to buck ratio, one with a poor doe to buck ratio. Rubs were almost none existent this year, very few anywhere on all the farms I hunt.
I believe most of the deer stayed in pockets and are still in those pockets, they will start venturing out after Christmas in my locations but once they find food they will lock down again.
The overall rutting was about 1 week late even with transient bucks showing up exactly a week late. I figured they would start chasing again around Dec 9th and that was pretty close. I started getting photos and reports around the 12th-16th.
I do think many bucks will shed antlers early this year. They are extremely run down and beat to hell on all the farms I hunt.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Dumluck,
Our chasing peaked very late this year, centered around Nov. 30. However, I too have seen a sudden uptick in chasing again around Dec. 10-13.
Our chasing peaked very late this year, centered around Nov. 30. However, I too have seen a sudden uptick in chasing again around Dec. 10-13.
BSK the leaves and nature's signs had me thinking they would be late this year regardless of the deer activities. I thought the deer in my area would actually rut later than they did. We had leaves on the trees later than I can remember in a while coupled with warm temperatures
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
Yup, my place as well. Warn temps through November and didn't get our first killing freeze until Thanksgiving. We still had green leaves on trees just before Thanksgiving.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Maybe, but we have put the pressure on them as well. I think we are up to 8 bucks killed thus far.
New observation.....
bucks are really bunching back up into bachelor groups past 2 days. Group of four 2.5 to 3.5y/o's on one spot this morning feeding, about another mile away another bachelor group of 5. 4 miles away a group of 3 bucks.
Hunting is about to become feast or famine.
TN Larry
Well-Known Member
This has been the greatest, craziest year that I have ever seen. Between myself and two kids, we have killed 9 bucks (2 statewide and 1 bonus per) that were all 2.5 plus.
I found some acorns in KY but have not seen the first acorn here. I can normally walk enough and find a hot tree on bad acorn years but the closest I have come is one tree with about 10 fresh caps underneath it the day before juvenile. Our normal seeking phase here is the second week of muzzleloader with heavy chasing the week of Thanksgiving.
This year, I saw two chases on the opening day of muzzleloader. The first one was a good buck from what I could tell but too thick for a shot. The second one, I think was a good buck, but thick as well. I ended up killing one at 9:15 that morning just out feeding. When I skinned him out for a Euro, he was full of green stuff that he was browsing on in the woods. I will add that I spent the day before covering a ton of ground looking for general deer sign, tracks, and scrapes in traditional rut travel spots to pinpoint where I was hunting the next morning. I told my son that I found 31 scrapes that day with 30 of them being on one scrape line. That's honestly not too far from the truth. The deer weren't running the scrape line but there.
During the second week of muzzleloader, I walked into a place that I hadn't been in several years. I found about 10 to 15 scrapes, a bunch of general sign, and a few rubs. I went there opening morning of gun season on a funnel and killed a good 9 pt following a doe. My daughter killed one the same morning at 10:05 out in a field feeding.
To put it into perspective, I covered a ton of territory walking in a few weeks period and seen about 50 scrapes, however, 40 of them were in two places.
I'm not really sure what my point is, lol, but just a weird year with early chasing, no acorns, etc. Seasons for me are generally tougher without some red oaks, but this one has been extremely good so far in terms of success.
My son and I are going back to KY this weekend that would be great to top the year off with another good buck.
My mzl buck full of green.
I found some acorns in KY but have not seen the first acorn here. I can normally walk enough and find a hot tree on bad acorn years but the closest I have come is one tree with about 10 fresh caps underneath it the day before juvenile. Our normal seeking phase here is the second week of muzzleloader with heavy chasing the week of Thanksgiving.
This year, I saw two chases on the opening day of muzzleloader. The first one was a good buck from what I could tell but too thick for a shot. The second one, I think was a good buck, but thick as well. I ended up killing one at 9:15 that morning just out feeding. When I skinned him out for a Euro, he was full of green stuff that he was browsing on in the woods. I will add that I spent the day before covering a ton of ground looking for general deer sign, tracks, and scrapes in traditional rut travel spots to pinpoint where I was hunting the next morning. I told my son that I found 31 scrapes that day with 30 of them being on one scrape line. That's honestly not too far from the truth. The deer weren't running the scrape line but there.
During the second week of muzzleloader, I walked into a place that I hadn't been in several years. I found about 10 to 15 scrapes, a bunch of general sign, and a few rubs. I went there opening morning of gun season on a funnel and killed a good 9 pt following a doe. My daughter killed one the same morning at 10:05 out in a field feeding.
To put it into perspective, I covered a ton of territory walking in a few weeks period and seen about 50 scrapes, however, 40 of them were in two places.
I'm not really sure what my point is, lol, but just a weird year with early chasing, no acorns, etc. Seasons for me are generally tougher without some red oaks, but this one has been extremely good so far in terms of success.
My son and I are going back to KY this weekend that would be great to top the year off with another good buck.
My mzl buck full of green.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Great description TN Larry.
In very poor acorn years to no acorns at all, I find bucks make much less sign than in decent acorn years. I believe that is driven by energy reserves. Making sign burns precious energy reserves, and in a poor acorn year, deer have almost no excess energy to burn. I've found few rubs this year, although slightly more than the true total acorn failure we had in 2022. Similarly, scraping is way down this year, although where they decide to finally make a scrape, it gets a lot of traffic. And food plot and field edges appear to be the hot locations this year, as well as trails leading into open food sources.
In addition, in a previous post, I had talked about how field-edge scrapes get used less in daylight than scrapes back in the woods, and that trend intensifies the deeper into the season we get. Daylight usage of field-edge scrapes drops to very low levels by December, while scrapes "back in the woods" maintain about the same daylight usage all season. However, looking at just the data from this year and 2022 (another acorn failure), exactly the opposite is true. Field-edge scrapes have far higher daylight usage than scrapes "back in the woods." I believe that is because food is at such a premium this year that doe groups are almost living in the plots, and bucks are advertising their presence at food plot scrapes around the clock. Even now in mid-December, I'm getting videos of 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year-old bucks working food plot edge scrapes at all hours of the day, something tht normally would not happen at this time of year.
In very poor acorn years to no acorns at all, I find bucks make much less sign than in decent acorn years. I believe that is driven by energy reserves. Making sign burns precious energy reserves, and in a poor acorn year, deer have almost no excess energy to burn. I've found few rubs this year, although slightly more than the true total acorn failure we had in 2022. Similarly, scraping is way down this year, although where they decide to finally make a scrape, it gets a lot of traffic. And food plot and field edges appear to be the hot locations this year, as well as trails leading into open food sources.
In addition, in a previous post, I had talked about how field-edge scrapes get used less in daylight than scrapes back in the woods, and that trend intensifies the deeper into the season we get. Daylight usage of field-edge scrapes drops to very low levels by December, while scrapes "back in the woods" maintain about the same daylight usage all season. However, looking at just the data from this year and 2022 (another acorn failure), exactly the opposite is true. Field-edge scrapes have far higher daylight usage than scrapes "back in the woods." I believe that is because food is at such a premium this year that doe groups are almost living in the plots, and bucks are advertising their presence at food plot scrapes around the clock. Even now in mid-December, I'm getting videos of 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year-old bucks working food plot edge scrapes at all hours of the day, something tht normally would not happen at this time of year.
