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Where they at?

Gobbler32,

Deer populations are odd things. First, deer do not "spread themselves out" across the landscape. In fact, they do just the opposite. They tend to clump together, leaving large expanses in between nearly devoid of deer. That's why one property may be crawling with deer while a property just down the road being nearly devoid of deer. In addition, populations fluctuate. This can be caused by disease outbreaks (EHD) or sudden changes in predator (coyote) numbers, or most commonly, changes in local habitat. A sudden change in habitat can cause a local population to boom or bust. An of course, harvest practices can play a big role. Everybody in the area starting to shoot does (when they hadn't been doing so in the past) and you can expect to see a very sudden decline in local population. And that doesn't even touch the subject of farmers' depredation permits.
 
megalomaniac said:
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.
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Same here North Williamson and Dickson county younger bucks grouping up, mature bucks still on their own.
 
Going to try and check cams tomorrow. I have no idea what's been going on since I last checked Nov. 21. Rut was still going strong at that time.
 
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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Same here in Maury county. Have a couple bucks on camera at night, but haven't seen anything during the day in several weeks.
 
BSK said:
I sure wish I knew the truth about depredation permits. I hear a lot of stories, but I don't comment on this situation because finding the facts about them has been virtually impossible.
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One of the best farms (200 acres) I had to hunt on started this about 6 years ago. When they first started it was 5 allowed now they are up 10-12 during the summer. If I I knew what I knew now I could have easily documented the decline of deer sightings, bucks, and trail cam pictures. I run cameras in the same locations for the past 13 years and this year was so bad with lack of pictures and no mature deer that I didn't even go and replace the batteries when they died around thanksgiving. I think they have put a hurting on the herd and I also think the herd has learned to avoid the farm due to being "hunted" from summer to end of deer season.
 
If you believe in the CWD stuff, depredation permits might be a good thing. I'm covered up with deer usually, but the acorn crop has changed their behavior. They're around. Last year at dusk, we could count 100 deer in cut soybeans on 80 acres this time of year. I don't believe numbers are down, particularly with fewer hunters. People are lazy, used to hunting food plots. The deer aren't there yet. Next year could be unbelievable.
 
Creek bottoms said:
If you believe in the CWD stuff, depredation permits might be a good thing. I'm covered up with deer usually, but the acorn crop has changed their behavior. They're around. Last year at dusk, we could count 100 deer in cut soybeans on 80 acres this time of year. I don't believe numbers are down, particularly with fewer hunters. People are lazy, used to hunting food plots. The deer aren't there yet. Next year could be unbelievable.
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That kind of thing boggles my mind. I'm in Humphreys County as well, and we would consider it a GREAT year if we photographed 35 bucks and 35 does on 500 acres.
 
Keep in mind, Tennessee is a big state and conditions can be highly localized. I'm on 70 acres in northern Decatur County without heavy hunting pressure around. I have decent red oak acorns this year but far from the best I've seen. And I have little to no white oak acorns. My cameras have little activity in either woods or food plots in the last week. I'm still hoping the wheat and the clover might recover a bit from the drought destruction. The buck I shot in ML season wasn't a resident. My one and only picture of him was sent to me 10 minutes before I harvested him, it turns out. Good pictures of some other area bucks including Mr. BIG (we have a history 😡) but little activity this last week either on cameras or while sitting in the woods (where I am now).
 
TheLBLman said:
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.
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I hope you're right, but I don't think this is necessarily a seasonal or even a yearly scenario. We haven't pictured or seen the deer we normally see since before last years severe drought. Last year was one of our worst years for deer numbers. This year rivals that. That makes 2 years of hardly any deer (2022 and 2023). 2021 was magical and deer galore - was a "normal" year in terms of acorns and rainfall. 2022 was historical - first year I never found an acorn on 622 acres in the 23 years we've had the place. 2023 was also historical - more acorns in the 24 years we've had the place.

I'm an optimist at heart and hoping we've seen the 2 extremes and we will level out and have a normal year next year. Time shall tell
 
JCDEERMAN said:
I hope you're right, but I don't think this is necessarily a seasonal or even a yearly scenario. We haven't pictured or seen the deer we normally see since before last years severe drought. Last year was one of our worst years for deer numbers. This year rivals that. That makes 2 years of hardly any deer (2022 and 2023). 2021 was magical and deer galore - was a "normal" year in terms of acorns and rainfall. 2022 was historical - first year I never found an acorn on 622 acres in the 23 years we've had the place. 2023 was also historical - more acorns in the 24 years we've had the place.

I'm an optimist at heart and hoping we've seen the 2 extremes and we will level out and have a normal year next year. Time shall tell
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Your situation really sounds like an EHD die off. Not many things can explain a sudden & dramatic drop in population. EHD can and the drought is ideal conditions for it to flourish.
 
Ski said:
Your situation really sounds like an EHD die off. Not many things can explain a sudden & dramatic drop in population. EHD can and the drought is ideal conditions for it to flourish.
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The thought of EHD was on my mind constantly, but we had a HUGE die off in 2019 (biggest or maybe bigger than the one we saw in 2007). I was living off the assumption that the 2022 herd would have been immune to EHD from the 2019 outbreak. Maybe not? But yes, it is the only logical explanation
 
Creek bottoms said:
I'm on nearly 500 as well. The only thing I can figure is that 80 acres is the only row crop ground for miles. At some point, it starts drawing them in?
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And considering the drought conditions last year, that was probably the only food around.

All of the deer that normally inhabit my place in fall did not show up in my hardwood hills last year. They all stayed in the bottomlands picking over harvested crop fields and finding the few wet-ground Swamp Chestnut and Swamp White Oaks that produced last year.
 

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