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Odd question

All y'all with above average deer sightings, send some to Hickman County. I hunted 9 out of 10 days starting the second weekend of muzzleloader. I saw 5 does, a six point, two small 8 points and 576 spikes. Very odd for the lack of deer movement during that time period. Additionally being very odd, we only had ONE 4.5+ buck range-shift onto us. As far as their spookiness, same as usual.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
All y'all with above average deer sightings, send some to Hickman County. I hunted 9 out of 10 days starting the second weekend of muzzleloader. I saw 5 does, a six point, two small 8 points and 576 spikes. Very odd for the lack of deer movement during that time period. Additionally being very odd, we only had ONE 4.5+ buck range-shift onto us. As far as their spookiness, same as usual.
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We have certainly seen some odd things herd-wise this year. But I won't know if it was just a "weird" year or we're seeing some new trend until I see what happens next year. Maybe this year was just a fluke.
 
Nothing far out of the norm in western Ky. Cept the unimaginable acorn crop. The rut was great for my guys also.
In Stewart county I have a doe that comes to my UTV when I am in her area! lol. Someone near there must be or have fed her from a UTV.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
All y'all with above average deer sightings, send some to Hickman County. I hunted 9 out of 10 days starting the second weekend of muzzleloader. I saw 5 does, a six point, two small 8 points and 576 spikes. Very odd for the lack of deer movement during that time period. Additionally being very odd, we only had ONE 4.5+ buck range-shift onto us. As far as their spookiness, same as usual.
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We are also noticing a crazy amount of spikes as well. Seems like way more then normal. We probably have 10 to 12 different spikes right now.
 
On the private I hunt in West Tn I have noticed the does tend to not be frightened. Maybe they know I only trophy hunt cwd areas. On the public in East Tn they don't stop running till they hit the next county over.
 
deerhunter10 said:
We are also noticing a crazy amount of spikes as well. Seems like way more then normal. We probably have 10 to 12 different spikes right now.
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Same here. EVERY time I went in the woods, I saw atleast 1 spike. At first, I was excited to see a lonesome doe, but as time went on, 95% of those encounters turned out to be spikes. It may have to do with the very poor nutrition from last year (ZERO acorns) - they were really stressed last year and I think this a ripple effect from that. Hopefully it will just be a one-generational thing. Theoretically, I would think next year's yearlings, we will see a much higher jump in antler size for their age class - due to the biggest acorn crop I can ever remember.
 
deerhunter10 said:
We are also noticing a crazy amount of spikes as well. Seems like way more then normal. We probably have 10 to 12 different spikes right now.
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In the areas hit hardest by the 2022 drought, I'm seeing a very high spike incidence this year. But that makes perfect sense, as these yearlings this year were fawns last year, and suffered the consequences of the very poor food sources in summer, fall, and winter 2022/23. These fawns becoming yearlings simply didn't enough resources left over after body growth requirements to grow anything beyond spikes this last summer. On properties that normally average 40-50% of yearlings being spikes, I've seen it as high as 80% spikes this year.

I honestly expected to see VERY poor antler growth for all age-classes this year, but that was not the case. The only age-class that really seemed to be affected was the yearlings. Now body growth, that's another story for another thread...
 
BSK said:
In the areas hit hardest by the 2022 drought, I'm seeing a very high spike incidence this year. But that makes perfect sense, as these yearlings this year were fawns last year, and suffered the consequences of the very poor food sources in summer, fall, and winter 2022/23. These fawns becoming yearlings simply didn't enough resources left over after body growth requirements to grow anything beyond spikes this last summer. On properties that normally average 40-50% of yearlings being spikes, I've seen it as high as 80% spikes this year.

I honestly expected to see VERY poor antler growth for all age-classes this year, but that was not the case. The only age-class that really seemed to be affected was the yearlings. Now body growth, that's another story for another thread...
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We are definitely in that 80 percentile.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
All y'all with above average deer sightings, send some to Hickman County. I hunted 9 out of 10 days starting the second weekend of muzzleloader. I saw 5 does, a six point, two small 8 points and 576 spikes. Very odd for the lack of deer movement during that time period. Additionally being very odd, we only had ONE 4.5+ buck range-shift onto us. As far as their spookiness, same as usual.
Click to expand...

Same with us in Hickman. We "lost" a lot of summer deer and buck quality and numbers seen are way down.. I attribute it to lack of green plots and abundance of mast. Last year we had decent green plots and corn in fields and we were covered up...
 
deerhunter10 said:
We are also noticing a crazy amount of spikes as well. Seems like way more then normal. We probably have 10 to 12 different spikes right now.
Click to expand...

We have them and button bucks galore. Its like mother nature knows we are out of balance...
 
Bgoodman30 said:
Same with us in Hickman. We "lost" a lot of summer deer and buck quality and numbers seen are way down.. I attribute it to lack of green plots and abundance of mast. Last year we had decent green plots and corn in fields and we were covered up...
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Acorns are both a blessing (herd health-wise) and a curse (food is everywhere, even back in the thick stuff), and deer don't have to move far, if at all, to feed.
 
BSK said:
In the areas hit hardest by the 2022 drought, I'm seeing a very high spike incidence this year. But that makes perfect sense, as these yearlings this year were fawns last year, and suffered the consequences of the very poor food sources in summer, fall, and winter 2022/23. These fawns becoming yearlings simply didn't enough resources left over after body growth requirements to grow anything beyond spikes this last summer. On properties that normally average 40-50% of yearlings being spikes, I've seen it as high as 80% spikes this year.

I honestly expected to see VERY poor antler growth for all age-classes this year, but that was not the case. The only age-class that really seemed to be affected was the yearlings. Now body growth, that's another story for another thread...
Click to expand...
That's us. Across the board antler are average but mature deer are down for us we don't have near the shooters we usually carry. That's somewhat normal for us on high mass crop years.
 
deerhunter10 said:
That's us. Across the board antler are average but mature deer are down for us we don't have near the shooters we usually carry. That's somewhat normal for us on high mass crop years.
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The same, but I think there's more to it than that. Topic for another thread...
 
BSK said:
I honestly expected to see VERY poor antler growth for all age-classes this year, but that was not the case. The only age-class that really seemed to be affected was the yearlings. Now body growth, that's another story for another thread...
Click to expand...
^^^Same....but turned out to be pleased with antler growth across age classes....we do have a few spikes and several button heads just busting through the skin...but nothing abnormal verses previous years....really pleased with the number of younger 8pt and 9pt bucks we've seen...and two smaller 10pt we really hope make it.
 

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