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Where they at?

gobbler32

gobbler32

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
248
Location
centerville
The last eight times I have hunted I've seen absolutely nothing; not a doe , a yearling or anything. Since archery season and through muzzleloader and gun I've only seen 5 bucks total. Im hunting three different farms to keep pressure down but it's like they've disappeared altogether.
 
Probably just enjoying the acorns, while not worrying about being pestered by young bucks & hunters. They really have little need to move around much right now in most TN places.

In my Stewart Co areas, cams are going days without getting a single deer pic. I have one cam on a large red oak, that is apparently still dropping fresh acorns. Several deer appear to be bedding within 100 yds of it, and feeding under it periodically. Most cams on food plots have gone days without getting any deer pics (no turkeys either).
 
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gobbler32 said:
The last eight times I have hunted I've seen absolutely nothing; not a doe , a yearling or anything. Since archery season and through muzzleloader and gun I've only seen 5 bucks total. Im hunting three different farms to keep pressure down but it's like they've disappeared altogether.
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When you find the answer please let me know ! Im here in west tn !
 
megalomaniac said:
Right now is the worst 2 weeks of the year to hunt my farms. Cameras with a dozen different deer on them mid Nov are dead. But it will be great again in 2 weeks.

Now if you haven't seen deer all season long, you need to look for other places to hunt.
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Seen some here and there but honestly I think the population has dwindled. For years it was rare to hunt and not see anything but its fairly common now.
 
gobbler32 said:
Seen some here and there but honestly I think the population has dwindled. For years it was rare to hunt and not see anything but its fairly common now.
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Something has changed... figure out what that is... could be good.

One of my farms I used to see 20 to 25 deer per hunt. The very next year, it went down to 1 or 2 deer a hunt. I figured somebody got a depredation permit nearby and wiped them out, but the farmers all denied it....

Regardless, the population crashed, but the few bucks remaining started growing the biggest racks this farm has ever produced. Nothing giant, but that farm went from 110in mature bucks to 130in mature bucks.
 
Dwindled in my usual area also. I've hunted the same public for many years. Not the only public I hunt. But it's kind of my local stomping grounds. For a long time just a few of us deer hunted it. Not until your apps coming out with pin point accuracy did lot more people hunt it. And the doe's for the last 4 years or so have been decimated. Oh well part of it I guess. Still have just a tiny bit of hope to bag a buck before it's all said and done somewhere.
 
It seems like a familiar pattern to me. Maybe the good ones are laying up in the thick places away from the cameras with does this part of the year. They won the majority of the breeding rights hopefully and they are just enjoying the benefits of being a dominant buck. Maybe the does come to them even. A few weeks ago they were quite visible at all the licking branches and community common areas passing out business cards and smiling for the cameras. That first round will be finished soon and some will continue to look for more does. The smartest ones go back to a night schedule and start eating acorns trying to recover. Maybe next year we will have a hunting season break about this time like back in the old days.
 
gobbler32 said:
I've been deer hunting for 40 years and I've never had a season like this has been.
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How many times have you seen this many acorns, along with moderate weather?

I also believe most areas have less hunting, which is providing defacto "safe" areas where deer are simply not disturbed.
 
Flintlocksforme said:
It seems like a familiar pattern to me. Maybe the good ones are laying up in the thick places away from the cameras with does this part of the year.
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I'm like BSK... once you figure out how to run cameras and have enough cameras, there just aren't any bucks you kill that you didn't have pics of. Sure, it could happen, but we haven't killed a buck we didn't have pics of in over a decade.
 
megalomaniac said:
I'm like BSK... once you figure out how to run cameras and have enough cameras, there just aren't any bucks you kill that you didn't have pics of. Sure, it could happen, but we haven't killed a buck we didn't have pics of in over a decade.
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I run cameras and some are the cellular type. I personally don't like checking cameras constantly due to spreading scent and the intrusion. I do agree that fewer people hunting is one of the reasons that fewer are seen.
 
megalomaniac said:
Something has changed... figure out what that is... could be good.

One of my farms I used to see 20 to 25 deer per hunt. The very next year, it went down to 1 or 2 deer a hunt. I figured somebody got a depredation permit nearby and wiped them out, but the farmers all denied it....

Regardless, the population crashed, but the few bucks remaining started growing the biggest racks this farm has ever produced. Nothing giant, but that farm went from 110in mature bucks to 130in mature bucks.
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I believe what has changed is the influence of liberal doe limits(3 a day is ridiculous) and disease. Along with fewer people in the woods and in some cases predation permits being issued which is uncalled for imo
 

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