Tis that time of season. If you can find a heavy drop red oak in or very near a good thicket, you'll find deer. Also still hitting locust beans very heavy.
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Tis that time of season. If you can find a heavy drop red oak in or very near a good thicket, you'll find deer. Also still hitting locust beans very heavy.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
This year has mimicked last year. But two very different variables. 1) 2022 being the first year I never found an acorn on our property in the 24 years we've had it and 2) 2023 being the best years of acorns in the 24 years we've had it. Plenty of does seen in 2022 in the food plots, but nowhere else. 2023, not much has been seen at all! It's been dead - even the 2nd and 3rd week of November. Not sure what to strike it up as.
One thing is for sure - we are doing heavy TSI in the offseason to connect the dots of other logged areas in the past for thick cover "welding" together.
We saw a LATE rut last year and I believe that is due to the herds health from the lack of acorns. We saw a lot of activity on cams late October to the first 5 days of November this year - my only suspicion is that was natures way of "balancing" the breeding timing.
I'm just hoping next year is a "mediocre" or "average" year for acorns….with timely rains for food plots. And if we have a descent year next year with that methodology, that's what I'll hope for in years to come.
One thing is for sure - we are doing heavy TSI in the offseason to connect the dots of other logged areas in the past for thick cover "welding" together.
We saw a LATE rut last year and I believe that is due to the herds health from the lack of acorns. We saw a lot of activity on cams late October to the first 5 days of November this year - my only suspicion is that was natures way of "balancing" the breeding timing.
I'm just hoping next year is a "mediocre" or "average" year for acorns….with timely rains for food plots. And if we have a descent year next year with that methodology, that's what I'll hope for in years to come.
I dont what part of tennessee your in but here are a few pics from the last few days. Bedford/ marshall is rocking. Mature bucks are on the hunt for those last does. Trying to let all these except the palmated buck live.
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Prime time in Lawrence as well, they are on their feet covering ground in daylight hours. Haven't ran across one I want to shoot yet, being extra picky with my last tag. I did have a buck I would shoot come by a camera at 6:30 am, at 8:30 am he came by another camera 1.4 miles away. I love this time of year, never know when a non resident shooter buck is going to come by.
Also for the guys on here still hunting trying to fill a buck tag but are discouraged because they don't have anything on camera. Get in the woods! Cameras don't tell everything especially this time of year. A couple of mornings ago while on stand I saw 14 deer, bucks chasing does all around me. Only one deer tripped my camera, a few of those bucks were bucks I had never seen or gotten pictures of. I love running cameras as much as anyone but they don't catch everything.
Great advice
Be in the woods
Like fishing you won't catch anything if your line isnt in the water
Same here in Coffee Co. The OP looks to be in Centerville, which isn't far. My guess is what he's seeing is localized to his specific neighborhood and likely related to food sources and hunting pressure. If deer have unpressured food and cover nearby, that'll make it seem like there are no deer. If he or one of his neighbors is hunting too aggressively too often it'll push deer away. It's really hard to say what exactly is going on but lack of deer is the least likely scenario. They're just not where he's hunting for whatever reason.
A group of 2 mature does and 3 yearlings have been staying around my house over the last two weeks.... We see them daily. Eating acorns and something from the brown Fescue grass fields.... crazy thing is food plots with wheat and oats are within a few hundred yards of them...
It's the tender new sprouts insulated underneath the dead stuff. Same thing happens in cut ag fields mid winter.
gobbler32
Well-Known Member
Im in Hickman County and no I don't wait till my camera sends me pictures to go hunting. I have 2 days off a week but not in a row. I get in the woods every chance I can on my off days. I was just wondering if anyone else was having same issues. There definitely is a lower population I don't care what anyone or twra says
gobbler32
Well-Known Member
Personally I liked it when there weren't trail cameras and you didn't know what was there until you hunted.
chris1976
Well-Known Member
Bumper acorn crop. If there is food everywhere they don't have to move far. As far as lower population goes, hunters should start thinking twice about the liberal doe slaughter. You can kill as many bucks as you want and the population will continue to grow. Kill too many does and the population will nosedive.
In your current situation they might just be the ticket to answering your questions. Camera census is a proven way to assess herd numbers, sex ratio, and age structure. They see what you don't.
gobbler32
Well-Known Member
Nearly every one i personally know that hunts have seen very few deer or none. I know there is a ton of acorns, I get that they don't have to move as much but after hunting this much and seeing so few its troubling. I saw more deer in the 80s and 90s when buck limits were higher and shooting does only happened during bow season.
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Even on my unpressured properties, the deer are MIA at the moment.
This is not unusual for the 7-10 days after peak breeding. I think the bucks are worn out and the does are still broken up and in hiding.
This is not unusual for the 7-10 days after peak breeding. I think the bucks are worn out and the does are still broken up and in hiding.
gobbler32
Well-Known Member
Im sorry but creating an almost unlimited opportunity to take antlerless deer is dumb. 2 buck limit doesn't bother me, even all those years ago I didn't take more than 2 bucks a year
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Where in Hickman are you? We are seeing the same. Can't believe the lack of pictures and lack of sightings this year
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
I'll make a bet with you:
Dollar against a donut, you have trouble believing all the pics you get the 1st week of January.
This inactivity will come to pass.
gobbler32
Well-Known Member
I have tracts in sw Hickman, north Hickman and centrally located
BSK
Well-Known Member
It certainly happens. And the most likely time for it to happen is just before and during the rut, when some bucks make long-distance forays into new areas.
At the same time, placing cameras is both a science and an art. The more you experiment, the better you get at it. I've been running cameras since the early 90s, and I'm still learning new things. And I would highly, highly recommend checking cameras from the back of an ATV, side-by-side or even a truck. Deer react very negatively to cameras people are walking to. But they don't react anywhere near as negatively to cameras that are checked from a vehicle of some kind. This relationship is so strong that I no longer place cameras anywhere they I can't drive an ATV to.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
also a little feast/ famine right now. 1.5yo's and 2.5yo's are bunched back up in bachelor groups on my farms. So you can go a few days, not see any bucks, then all of a sudden 4 bucks in a bachelor group come by.
