stillquietvoice
Contributing Member
Usually during bow season mid October till the opening day of fun season in November.
I'm doing it all wrong.
- Thread starter troy fairweather
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troy fairweather
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Middle October I'd say with rut, then some year we get another in early December. Acons I'd say October to November we have a mix of red and white oak.
Well I’m no biologist. And I don’t live up north. But something has pushed them out or has forced them into cover. With all the people not working, it’s “possible” you’ve had an increase in people out in the woods. Especially the young ones (teenagers). That’s what happened in Arkansas. Except it was teenagers with nothing better to do than go trespassing/poaching on private land. They were caught. But no one has any idea how they got on the properties. An uncrossable river to the south, and very private land (where they were caught) to the east. Our gate wasn’t touched.
Hunting public land is always a risk. But I still do it. However I don’t put out cameras anymore. Got burned twice. That was enough. I just know where to go (usually). This year not many people hunted in the bottoms because the lake was low and they couldn’t get their boats close to the woods. That typically pushes deer up top to us. The rut started in September which is almost 2 months early.
If you have water around, I’d go looking there to see if you had a big die off from EHD. But again, I don’t know if you even have that up there. It can certainly decimate a deer population.
Do you have anyone around the property that are “animal lovers”? They may be feeding them the good stuff and the deer have no reason to come to you. I’ve seen that happen. They domesticated a fairly large herd (including the bucks) in 1 year. The deer literally bedded down on their property and would come when called. 1 stinking year is all it took.
Truth be told, without cameras, or evidence of death, I’m just grasping at straws. The DNR might have some more insight after season is over.
Hunting public land is always a risk. But I still do it. However I don’t put out cameras anymore. Got burned twice. That was enough. I just know where to go (usually). This year not many people hunted in the bottoms because the lake was low and they couldn’t get their boats close to the woods. That typically pushes deer up top to us. The rut started in September which is almost 2 months early.
If you have water around, I’d go looking there to see if you had a big die off from EHD. But again, I don’t know if you even have that up there. It can certainly decimate a deer population.
Do you have anyone around the property that are “animal lovers”? They may be feeding them the good stuff and the deer have no reason to come to you. I’ve seen that happen. They domesticated a fairly large herd (including the bucks) in 1 year. The deer literally bedded down on their property and would come when called. 1 stinking year is all it took.
Truth be told, without cameras, or evidence of death, I’m just grasping at straws. The DNR might have some more insight after season is over.
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troy fairweather
Member
this year dec said they sold more licences then the last several years, but I think from what I've seen there were less hunters. The spots I normally see guys parked were empty. This will make dec go made this year it think, and I hope they don't try to limit tags for the 2021 season, this year was the lowest year in a long time on deer that were reported.
the deer are around they were just acting strange, no kill offs from what I've seen. Deer will hang around house when the season starts or when it gets cold but that's normal here. Guys are saying it's wasn't cold enough to get the deer up moving but about 10 years ago it was 70s opening day rifle and deer we're all over. Seems the last few years it's been a full moon on the opener and that will make the change there patterns some but only for a few days. Most don't feed deer here, they will crack down on them are and most won't risk it. Yet In years past the state used to have deer feeding programs for years with heavy snow or extreme cold.
Captcurt
Member
I had 4 out most of the season. It is amazing that I haven't seen many bucks while hunting but the cameras show some nice ones. Last year I put out a feeder and camera after Christmas and had 7 bucks coming to it with 4 shooters. I saw one during gun season and he was 200 yards away running like the hounds of hell was after him.
This year our acorns started coming off in late September but there wasn't many. The deer were hitting the fields and feeders by the end of October.
The rut has been spread out over several months in our area. Too many does. I saw fawns small enough to have been born in August and some large enough to have been dropped in April. That would extend the rut from September to February. The most buck activity that I had at the farm was in mid-October.
Speedo66
Member
So now we have to worry about cannibal deer? lol
I've seen a video of deer eating baby birds in a ground nest.
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troy fairweather
Member
Yea they will eat some things if they need to, I've seen them eat old deer skulls that were outside for the calcium.
stillquietvoice
Contributing Member
I have a few beach trees near my house, they fell teal early this year too.
Chuck R.
Member
I'm guessing part of it is the bolded.
We headed out to western KS again this year for our annual hunt on the walk-in areas and we were frankly amazed at the number of hunters, especially out of staters. Fully believe a large number were "teleworking" while hunting
. Combination of folks escaping COVID restrictions, not working, and the success of the KS WIHA program. What we didn't see was anywhere near the number of deer we're used to seeing out there. Normally one or two of us will come back with something 10pts or better. This hunt the only deer was taken on opening morning by my friend with his 2020 F150 with 5000 miles on it. Now it's still sitting out there with an estimate $12K in damages and no parts due to COVID.- Status
