I only seen a small doe in the morning and let it walk. We need to thin the does bad this year but I didn't know if it was a button buck or not. In the evening a buck walked by at 15 yd's, I drew on him, put the pin behind his shoulder and let the bow down. He had spikes about 10" with brow tines. Maybe he should be culled but he was young. Then a large doe with two large fawns came out on the wrong side of me at 10 yd's. I was sitting and could not turn and draw, so she walked away too. It's OK, no hurry and it is still warm so they would have to be butchered quick. Our herd is way out of balance with few bucks and hundreds of does.

Good for you and your restraint on shooting the young buck. It really is unusually warm weather for this time of year. I was wondering what happens to the fawns if you shoot the mother? Don't the mothers soon start chasing the young males away and let the females stay with her? So the fawns are probably able to be on their own. It sounds like you had a real good opening day, at least you got to see some.

Plinker

quote:

Our herd is way out of balance with few bucks and hundreds of does.

The numbers are down in this part of the state. We had poor mast crops for a couple years, but this year there is a lot of acorns. I saw the same deer all summer, a doe and two fawns and another doe and one fawn that would sometimes travel together. Seeing more variety now, a few bucks more does. But i'd rather see a few in good condition than a bunch of skinny ones.

Plinker

I only seen two large does this afternoon. They are not moving much until almost dark. This full moon is playing hob with movement. I didn't even move any walking out. I usually see tails flagging all up and down the lane. The woods felt empty. I take my dogs for a ride in the mornings and we have not seen many then either. The road is normally full of them.

Interesting observations. They always keep you guessing, just when you think you got em figured out, the moon changes or they switch to some other food type or something.

When you're out there, do you see many squirrels? Our squirrel numbers seem low this year. I shot two, but i actually see more deer than squirrels.

Plinker

I have not hunted in my woods yet, I usually save that for last. I do not see too many squirrels there and think they migrated to be closer to water when we had the dry spell. However, down the road I am seeing a lot of them. They will also migrate when the food supply is low but we have tons and tons of black walnuts on the ground. I have 4 in my yard with the most nuts we have had in 20 yr's. The trouble is, a lot of them are empty or dryed out from the lack of rain.
I have been raking them for weeks and have taken a hundred wheelbarrow loads off the grass already and they are still falling. I can hardly walk on my range, like walking on bearings.
I suspect there are more squirrels then I have been seeing. The only way to hunt them is from a tree stand. WAY better then from the ground. They ignore you when you are up a tree.

Well, I spent the afternoon in a friends ladder stand. I had a doe come in directly toward me and feed 15 yd's from me. I did not shoot because I figured her at about 3 sausage links. After she left, another doe of about 2-1/2 links came in from a little higher and fed right under me for 20 minutes. I could have touched her with a broom. Then two larger ones came up from my right in the thick stuff and I could not get a shot.
The amazing thing was that the first two came in downwind and did not smell me. Not one of the deer ever looked up at me either and never knew I was there even though one of them was at eye level to me when she walked in. I was only 12 feet up, in the open with no background cover at all. It shows what the proper camo can do.
I read here about guys getting busted being too low but I waste my breath and fingers telling them what is the best camo. I use ASAT or Skyline but they buy Realtree or some other dark, tight pattern junk and look like big black blobs in the tree instead of looking like the sky. Then they have to go 30 feet up to avoid detection. You can't use camo that is appealling to people and is nothing but style to make some company a lot of money. Deer can not distinguish those tight, close patterns with almost the same colors close together. Think BLACK BLOB! You would be much better off with a white T shirt on. Then there is the new stuff called Featherflage---good grief, it is all one color to a deer!
When in a tree, you must look like the sky with a few (very few) branches and maybe a leaf or two. The color should absorb colors from the surroundings. Light grays and light tans work good.
But then again, these dudes look real cute when they go shopping with their camo on! He man stuff you know!

You're right about that camo, but i looked all over Cabelas and they don't have anything for women except for hardwoods. My olive drab Carhart jacket works great for camo. One time i walked in front of the trail camera and there was a tree in the background and it blended in perfectly.

I got a squirrel call at Walmart, i may try it to bring some squirrels out.

Good hunting to you, you're sure seeing a lot and they don't see you, can't ask for anything better.

Plinker

It was drizzling and cold this afternoon and my tree stand was uncomfortable. It is a 19# home made thing and the seat is too small. I have to fix it. I seen 4 fawns, a nice doe and a buck but they were on the wrong side about 20 yd's, in brush. I could not stand or turn because they were at eye level coming towards me. They just kept on going as they turned to go behind me.
It is hard to get a deer close this year because of all the acorns. Food is everywhere and they just go to all the trees. I just can't say where they will be from day to day. I might have to shoot a 3 sausage fawn for meat.

I see the same thing aroungd here with acorns and hickory nuts - more than ever before by a large margin.

The deer just filter through the woods, and choke points don't mean much.

I see deer almost everytime I go, but they haven't cooperated for the shot!

It will get better as time goes by. I am in no hurry. It is raining and I figured the deer were laying up until I drove up the road. They were all over the place. I found some puffballs and picked a bunch. I fried a big one and ate most of it in one sitting. I wish there was some way to preserve them.

Hey Guys,

Whatcha seein' now?

Movement has been a little better here with the change in temperature, but there is so much mast that the deer population doesn't seem to have to move very much to eat.

Without walkin' them up it's hard to get an estimate of the population.

I've been seeing deer within 100 yards almost every time I go. Nothing big, does and fawns and two two-year-old bucks so far.

Starting to see some minor scrape activity, but no rubs.

Been a crimp in my hunting from 2 days of rain. Then I had a rusted out brake line on my 4 Runner. Took forever to fix because of the location over the rear axle, way in the corner where the road dust and gravel collects. There is just no way to get more then one arm up there. I also changed the master cylinder. Checking the rear brakes, I found a drum rusted tight. It took me 3 hours to get it off. The brakes looked like new though. Then my old Chevy needed inspected. Everything now fixed so I can start to hunt again.