where did the deer go?

[maddowg1192000]

Last weekend I had good movement in different locations and now this weekend nothing is moving. My camera had dead batteries so no pics. Anyone else have this happen this week?

[james_walleye]

Well I had hundreds of pictures of 3 big bucks until August 25th and nothing since. The acorn crop is horrible which normally hold the bucks there. I still have a lot of does so I know they will be back. They have just moved their patterns.

[eyeguy 54]

maybe they are all headed to where my stands are?? ;>)

[96trigger]

The bucks dropped their velvet, crops are coming out, and the temps are dropping. Deer patterns are changing. You will want to start looking for late season food or travel corridors. Don't feel bad. Before archery opener I had bucks literally posing for the camera, now I got nothing from the last 3 weeks, basically since they went hard horn. I am confident they will return.

[Bear55]

Food sources changing, a little bow and small game pressure, bucks doing what bucks do and not getting shot.

In my area the acorns are dropping a lot more than earlier in the year, I suspect the deer are getting on them where they can find them.

[HunterLee]

Corn corn corn- Mine came off a corn field, my brother seen some big ones by the corn, and the farmer seen a big one while combining you guessed it corn.

[Jeff13]

Seen 5 last night corn, corn, corn. Was sitting just 10 yards to far from where they filtered out to the field. I guess last night they just decided to venture off there beaten trail. Stupid deer..

[jeff127]

I feel your pain also. I had five mature bucks moving past one of my stands mornings and evenenings until opening night(saw 2 of them opening morn but skirted out of range). Now it is random and mainly after 10 pm----the beans they were on have dried and I am sure they are in the corn now

[maddowg1192000]

I hunt an area that is a mix of oak and poplar with no fields in the area. There is a 3yr old clear cut that i sit near in a funnel. Until opener I was getting pics of does, fawns and 5 really nice bucks since then it has went dead. I saw a spike and decent 8 on opener. I thought i screwed the area up but talking to a couple other friends hunting different areas they had the same problem. One of them is hunting off a food plot and didn't see anything all weekend either. Next weekend I am planning on getting up high in a tree about half way down the clear and hoping to see where they are moving in and out at.

[CrewJones]

I have tons of pictures but NONE during daylight hours, im in sherburne county so its sort of urban/ country but its frustrating.

its better than not hunting though

[maddowg1192000]

stars are stand locations/red line is private

red dot is current stand location

Where would u think they would have gone, camera was at current location. Any ideas i where to try maybe. I figure they went hard horn and knew hunting was coming so went into the private

[surewood]

Happens every year. If it were me I'd find other areas to hunt until the mid/end of October. Right around the 20th of October I start seeing and getting pics of mature deer again. Most I haven't had pics of before. Pre-rut/rut they'll move again.

[maddowg1192000]

I was kinda thinking that, maybe I will go hunt a 2 deer area til then

[Laska]

what about moon phase? opener was new moon now its almost half crescent... I still have matures of the cameras but not til after hours now....

[Meat-Run]

Yup all my deer have moved out or figured my hunting schedule. I think I'm going to hunt some other stands and try jumping around with my climber for more scouting/hunting to see what I can find. I'm in all oaks and the acorns are almost gone or void of deer activity. Now is the time not to get discouraged but to be patient. I'm going to start some short grunting segments because I know of four mature bucks in the immediate area and I hope one comes to check me out.

MR

[CrewJones]

you think the deer figure out that you've been in and out more than usual? I have basically had night pictures of bucks since the beginning of Aug. The does where moving around durring the light once and a while, but since opener its been all night ? I am by a corn field though so they might be in there and then roam at night?

thats why hunting is fun its unpredictable, I see no deer people on here see 14 a sit and pass 8 pointers...

[Finlander]

I've been deer hunting since 1986 and I believe the deer are underground!

And they just pop up out of nowhere when you least expect it!

They are Ailiens!

[Meat-Run]

CrewJones, I think my pressure does have some kind of influence on there patterns so I'm going to move to another spot and not go into my first choice spot for awhile maybe give it a week off until the next rain....or snow for that matter.

mr

[sticknstring]

Deer can pattern us hunters pretty darn quick! Keep rotating stands and keep them guessing. Every time you enter/exit a stand, you're giving them an education and trust me, they're quick learners!

[Bear55]

Every time you enter the woods the deer know you have been there, many of the does and young bucks might not give a rip but an older buck might not tolerate the pressure.

[leech~~]

Last weekend I had good movement in different locations and now this weekend nothing is moving. My camera had dead batteries so no pics. Anyone else have this happen this week?

We hunt north of Brainard and I may have had one of the best deer sighting weekends in years. 15 Doe's and small bucks. The trail cam had 135 shots on it in the last two weeks and the best of all have not seen one Wolf track or heard one so far this year. Two years ago Wolf tracks everwhere, heard them every night and only seen two deer the whole bow and rifle season. Also the Acorns are all over which is helping us a lot right now.

[Bear55]

I hunt the same general area and saw good movement too, so it might be a pressure thing.

[maddowg1192000]

It was crazy earlier at my spot, I was going in once a week to check my camera and was getting around 2000 pics a week. Then I decided to not go in for 4 weeks and the number of pics was right around 1000. I am not worried about it yet was just wondering how everyone else was do. I have only hunted that spot 2 times this season and wont be in there again until mid oct just hope other ppl stay away from there too and I have a camera when mid october hits

[maddowg1192000]

Leech-

Sounds like a great weekend. I honestly havent seen an acorn in or around any of the trees in my area and i have some huge white oaks in that area. It seems like they have acorns every 2 yrs around there and it happens to be the same at my house so I can tell when I will have acorns in that area. Also no wolf tracks this yr in this area either which is nice

[hert2005]

We're in Wright county. My son saw two very nice bucks Sat. and on th eway out of the oaks, we found a fresh scrape and rub. He said the bucks he saw were really working on branches as they walked by. (too far for a shot)

Pretty new to hunting. Is this early for scrapes and would you hunt that scrape?