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Favorite Time to hunt

If you could only pick one, which would be your favorite time period to hunt in Tennessee

  • Archery Season

    Votes: 10 11.4%

  • Muzzleloader Season

    Votes: 51 58.0%

  • Rifle Season

    Votes: 27 30.7%
  • Total voters
    88
Nov 10 thru 22 are 100x better than any other time frame. Specifically Nov 15 thru 18. I'd hunt with a spear then if it was the only legal weapon.
 
ZachMarkus said:
Where I primarily hunt I would trade the whole month of November to hunt a week in December. A couple of places I hunt in the northern part of the state mid November is best. I'm taking about mature bucks here.
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I think we forget sometimes that in your part of the State, it's Sweet December instead of Sweet November.
 
Lost Lake said:
I think we forget sometimes that in your part of the State, it's Sweet December instead of Sweet November.
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Yes sir and we miss out on some good hunting down here after season is closed. I had a guy that has cows on a place I hunt tell me yesterday that he seen the biggest buck he has seen all year this week after a doe.
 
ZachMarkus said:
Yes sir and we miss out on some good hunting down here after season is closed. I had a guy that has cows on a place I hunt tell me yesterday that he seen the biggest buck he has seen all year this week after a doe.
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Yep. Not huge but working scrape today.
 

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megalomaniac said:
Nov 10 thru 22 are 100x better than any other time frame. Specifically Nov 15 thru 18. I'd hunt with a spear then if it was the only legal weapon.
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I was about to say the same date ranges. I will also add December 12-15 those days I seem to have big deer walking ever year for years.
 
BSK said:
On my place, very close to the same dates. I'm assuming that mid-December peak is the "2nd rut."
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Also think it's the 2nd rut timing. I killed a 3.5 one year chasing 2 fawns that I believe just came mature enough to come in estrous. Cameras show a lot of movement in this short timeframe in December.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
Also think it's the 2nd rut timing. I killed a 3.5 one year chasing 2 fawns that I believe just came mature enough to come in estrous. Cameras show a lot of movement in this short timeframe in December.
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As I've mentioned previously, I believe our peak breeding was delayed about 10 days this year due to the physical stresses caused be the local summer/fall drought. And what did I see 10 days after the normal "2nd rut" timing in mid-December? A bunch of bucks chasing fawns right around Christmas. Even got a fawn peeing in a scrape on Christmas and then a huge flurry of buck activity around that scrape over the next 48 hours.
 
BSK said:
On my place, very close to the same dates. I'm assuming that mid-December peak is the "2nd rut."
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It's so strange how different rut activity is across the state of TN. I have hunted basically the Cumberland Plateau area for 40 years. I have never seen a mature buck on his feet in December that I can remember. The last few years, I have just given up on hunting December, unless I have a doe tag I want to fill. My buck sightings plummet when the page turns from November to December. I've tried every kind of strategy I know of to get on bucks in December. My trail cameras never even show any. Now, if you have a really good food source, I start seeing some on camera in late January on. I've never really seen any signs of a second rut around here in my life. I know others in my area probably have. But, I've just never seen much of any activity in December, outside of does feeding.
 
BSK said:
As I've mentioned previously, I believe our peak breeding was delayed about 10 days this year due to the physical stresses caused be the local summer/fall drought. And what did I see 10 days after the normal "2nd rut" timing in mid-December? A bunch of bucks chasing fawns right around Christmas. Even got a fawn peeing in a scrape on Christmas and then a huge flurry of buck activity around that scrape over the next 48 hours.
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Very interesting for sure. I need to look back at our pics - I'm sure they tell the same story.

If I could chalk up my biggest failure this year, it would be focused on a delayed rut timing, rather than it being at the traditional time. Now, how would we know that at the time, we wouldn't. Even years with droughts and few acorns, most everything is at traditional timing. But these once-in-a-decade events most definitely won't sneak up on me again. Granted, we saw no range shift of older deer, for whatever the case may be, so I can't say the season would have been fruitful, but may have had better odds focusing on a slightly different timeframe
 

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