Worst bow season ever thus far, any thoughts on what to do

[Musky-buck]

Well this year has been a real bust thus far. I have access to an unbelievable 200 acre piece of property in central mn. I've been fortunate enough to be able to have this property to myself for the last 3 years. I was tagged out with a nice 135 inch 8 pointer last year on November 1st. I've been now hunting pretty religiously since October 20th. On the property I have 6 stands and 4 cameras. With what it showed leading up to the rut was very promising, including a deer that I've been hunting the past two years which now he is pushing the high 180's. I know my odds are slim with tagging out on this buck, but I had several other 130 inch plus bucks on camera. I consider myself a pretty good bow hunter. I always play the wind in my stands, read a lot about whitetails, I guess you can say I'm a little obsessed.

So my season since October 20th has gone like this..... The first time walking into my stand a place where I have yet to jump a deer on a little island with no more the 5 little tree's I jump the big boy... So from the start I was discouraged. A few days later on October 28th I was sitting on my stand and had a nice 2 1/2 to 3 year old twelve pointer at 45 yards along with several other bucks seen. Since that time all the mature does have disappeared all that I'm seeing is spike bucks and yearlings since about 2 weeks ago. I haven't seen any of the quality bucks period. I don't know what happened. I know those first does that come in estrus will pull those big boys away, but I didn't see any pre-rut activity from smaller bucks, no chasing no nothing, What the hell should I do

[bustumup]

I would just keep at it & stay positive. Its primetime right now & even though gun season might throw them into nocturnal activity, they still can make mistakes. You just need to be there when it happens. Keep at it because the biggest buck in any area will breed does until they have all been bred, so there's still hope. After guns quiet down, try a doe decoy with tail straight out, upwind of your setup so any buck thats inbetween dates se this will go down wind of coy & gives you the shot.

[bustumup]

I dont gunhunt, just bow & i havent been out yet. Just finished fishing sunday for year, but will be getting in a stand soon. Bowhunting in iowa all those years has really spoiled me though & makes it tougher to get motivated here.

[MattL]

It's tough to say what else to do but keep sticking it out. Is there a chance you are over hunting your spots? Sounds like the does moved out and took the mature bucks with them. Do you have a food source on the property? Does will be near the food and bucks will be near the does. Have you identified the bedding area(s) and kept them as a sanctuary? There are a couple areas on the farm I hunt that I've only crossed the imaginary line once and that was to retrieve a buck. I don't even go near them if there is a chance the wind or thermals will travel that direction.

The other thing to consider is that you seem to have your sights set high on what you will harvest. It takes some skill, but a lot of luck to consistently kill mature bucks. I set a personal minimum of 140" after taking a buck in 2009 that I regretted shooting. Since then I've only taken 2 bucks in 5 seasons...one was 166" and the other hasn't been scored yet but should come in right around 140".

[Musky-buck]

I have identified a bedding area that I keep as a sanctuary. I would say it's about 40 acres of bedding area. There is picked bean field on the sw side of the property and a picked corn field on the ne side. I have been hunting the tavel routes.

[MattL]

One more thing to consider... In the past winters have the deer yarded up in the area or have they disappeared? One area I hunted near my house would always go cold about this time of year. It was obvious that all the deer were yarding up a couple miles away as the fields over that way would suddenly be loaded in the evenings. One of the farms I currently hunt is the exact opposite and it holds deer all winter. The later into the bow season, the more deer show up from neighboring properties and they stick around til spring.

[bustumup]

I would give that spot a break for a bit or atleast hunt from fringe & just see what kind of activity is going on after this snow. Ill bet that with all the gun pressure & fullmoon, they are just laying low until dark but are still around. Bucks will usually stay with hot doe 24-36hrs, then go find the next hot doe so dont give up because when they are in between they can cover some ground & are usually blind stupid nose to ground.

[nbadger23]

It may very well be that you're doing nothing wrong at all. You just literally may be missing them by a bit here and there.. i.e. wrong time wrong place. Keep at it, using your head in regards to wind direction, etc. I think sometimes we hunt so hard this time of year and our expectations are so great that we forget that it's still a pretty slim chance of things coming together. Trust the prep work you did and keep at it.

I know the feeling about jumping the big one and the kick to the gut that is. Once a week I walk 50 yards into the woods by my house to check the trail camera.. always between noon and 1. I rarely (and never this year)jump a deer yet at that time of day. I was surprised but not too concerned when I saw the doe jump up and run away. It was the jaw dropping buck behind her that that has me wanting to bang my head against the wall.

[surewood]

This time of the year I'd try to get as close to the does bedding area as possible. When the rut is on I push the limits to be where the bucks will be.

[Scoot]

One more thing to consider...

I have another thing to consider-- your "worst season ever" is noticably better than my currrent season! I've seen three bucks all year: a forky, a "spork" (spike on one side, fork on the other), and an extremely small six pointer. That's it as far as headgear. Plenty of does around and I've let them all go to this point- I'm hoping my son will get a crack at one of them in a couple weeks when he comes of age to hunt in MN.

But... what one defines as a rough season is all relative. I know guys in some places that would kill to have the number of does running around that we have. I would give my left "you know what" to have a huge buck to think about and chase, like you have. My advice is to try your best to enjoy the chase and not get too hung up on the kill. If you get too locked into killing that one buck, you're destined to be disappointed more times than not.

[gardn184]

Sounds like a pretty decent season to me.....try hunting northern Minnesota where you don't see a deer for weeks sometimes. It's the rut it only takes a minute for a bad season to go to a great one. Think positive and sit in the stand as much as possible. That's the best advice I've been given. Good luck and get after it!

[SmellEsox]

I had 11 straight sits without seeing a deer this season. Total sightings for me in MN this year was 12. Now that is my worse season ever in MN. I hunted another state close by last week and saw 41 deer. Never has a sit where I didn't at least see one deer.

[Bear55]

I hunt public land as hard as I can and if I see one or two mature bucks a year I am happy. Sometimes it comes easy and I have a pile of opportunities, other years I see nothing and wonder what I am doing wrong. The good years can set out expectations too high and the bad years can take the fun out of hunting if we expect certain results and don't get them. Just stay positive and keep at it, don't let an empty tag take the fun out of it. Sometimes those empty tags make the next years buck all the more fun. Like mentioned above it sound like you had a pretty good year to me and there is still time to hunt, things can change in a minute.

[O.T.C.]

Finally read your post musky-buck, hmmmm, I sometimes think trail cameras cost people deer, depends on their placement and ease of checking them. The more you walk in and out I guarantee in some places you'll move deer elsewhere not even knowing it, also depends on how many acres you have, i wear chest waders every year, walk a 1/2 mile or so thru water, deer still peg my boot tracks on the high ground once I get there more often then not. I think mature does are smarter than the bucks mainly meaning 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks, they must be as I'm seeing more bucks than does for the past many years now. Biggest ? to you is can you access your stands as quietly as possible ? If not forget it, PM hunts the deer are bedded on high alert, mature bucks, 1 wrong stand creak or broekn branch etc and the gig can be up, you always hope the rut or the ground scraping etc. pre-rut will get them all lathered up and we all see this sometimes, but it isn't the norm or we'd all kill nice buck after nice buck, it all has to work out pretty smoothly, you mentioned this 200 acres, is there no rifle pressure then I'm assuming ? If not you have a sanctuary of a goldmine and should hunt that hard right up to the bitter end of December, good luck, mature bucks can come easy some years, but most of the time leaving us frustrated like i am this year lol. Just some thoughts.

[PropsterII]

Had you (OTC) not already posted that you were indeed the former muskybuck, this last post would have been a good indication. The punctuation, or lack thereof, is a dead giveaway

[O.T.C.]

No doubt propster, the time off did me some good lol. Sounds like the new musky-buck is having the kind of season so many of us are. I coulda totally hunted backward this season and I'd have a large buck grounded opening night, but been in the wrong stand wrong land wrong county all season lol. I'm alarm clock conditioned now 5 bells and it's go time, might as well fight the fight to the bitter end now, not liking the full moon but didn't do so great when it wasn't lol. Think M-B it just isn't meant to be or I'd hunt this Sunday hard, finally some sort of a weather change/event and the moon should be hidden, that's the hope lol.

[sportfish]

OTC had a great point on the trail cams . I had a good season but it didn't go as planed . I have a great spot that holds a lot of big bucks but the closer to the rut it shut down ! I was hunting a point of woods and had 3 cameras in it and after thinking about it the deer ended up patterning me more and more . My wife shot my biggest buck I had on camera coming out of a swamp next to the woods I hunted . By the way the buck was a 170" with drop tines ! !

So next year I'm going to change my ways and not run cams in the woods , there's a creek I'm going to use with my john boat to run my cameras . I'm going to get new stand sites set this winter and not enter that woods until the first of nov.

I feel a season is never a bust if you learn something from it !

On the next cold snap get out there and they will be moving

[O.T.C.]

10 4 sportfish, I wish the deer weren't so touchy like they have become in time, but that's the battle we're battling. Musky-Buck guy time to scout the daylights out of this land, snow is not deep, makes easy walking and easy scouting, things are frozen, they must leave it to feed someplace if you're in central MN. Find those routes out, do not touch their bedding area and hunt the wind for certain even if it means not going to your favorite stand site. If you blow some deer out of there so what now really, it wasn't working before anyway. This is exactly what I've been up to since rifle ended. I need to re-adjust according to hunting pressure, where the food sources are and have stands ready to go by March, so I don't have to mess with things much come Sept for that final check up like did a storm knock my stands over like last year etc. Is there 1 brutal blowdown in my best chance shooting lane, etc. Take care of those things while the getting is good like now, mild air, easy walking, etc and next fall report that droptine monster MB.

[Don Brinkman]

I have noticed deer are getting out early and have the feed bag on, they are acting like they do in the spring time right now half starved because of the early snow they are getting out in the fields and taking advantage of the warm weather and snow melt.