Opposite here in MidTN unit B. Much spookier than normal. The farmer next door has cleared all the fencerows around the picked soybean fields and even weedeats under the trees. I call it the parking lot and driving range. Lol. Naturally deer aren't comfortable being out in the open like that but they are spooked like late season even across the road at our place even during the summer. The travel patterns which have held true for the past 15 years are disrupted as well. Hunting pressure is up a LOT. MZ and gun it was like a war zone with multiple shots coming from every direction. I guess the farmers around us started giving out permission to hunt where for the last 10 they would not. I think its a combination of hunting pressure, the drought or acorn abundance, and habitat. With most of the thick stuff aging into open hardwoods, the farm next door getting a Brazilian wax and the other neighbors thicket aging up into 5" diameter trunks, the deer patterns have shifted.
In Smith Co. hunting at a buddys place, the deer movements seem to be off as well. All the regular spots are a bust and if you even see a deer, they seem to know all the stand locations. Hunting pressure has been up but not crazy. The only explanation is that the deer are bedding under the oak trees and we are spooking them before we ever get to our hunting areas, OR there is some unknown attraction off the property we don't know about that is influencing the deer movement.
I'm not worried about it. Next year the acorn crop will be different and hopefully no drought. The hunters who have been hammering the deer will have a much less productive season and either loose interest, or move on. The WMA's I hunt have a similar boom/bust cycle. A pile of new hunters come in, overwhelm the deer, the next year have a couple hunts with no success and decide the place is shot out and don't come back. Then we have a cycle of improving hunting for the next 4-5 years before the next crop of Youtube influenced hunters swarm back in after seeing a WMA featured on a video.
In Smith Co. hunting at a buddys place, the deer movements seem to be off as well. All the regular spots are a bust and if you even see a deer, they seem to know all the stand locations. Hunting pressure has been up but not crazy. The only explanation is that the deer are bedding under the oak trees and we are spooking them before we ever get to our hunting areas, OR there is some unknown attraction off the property we don't know about that is influencing the deer movement.
I'm not worried about it. Next year the acorn crop will be different and hopefully no drought. The hunters who have been hammering the deer will have a much less productive season and either loose interest, or move on. The WMA's I hunt have a similar boom/bust cycle. A pile of new hunters come in, overwhelm the deer, the next year have a couple hunts with no success and decide the place is shot out and don't come back. Then we have a cycle of improving hunting for the next 4-5 years before the next crop of Youtube influenced hunters swarm back in after seeing a WMA featured on a video.