Suddenly, the whitetails seem to have vanished.
I talked to my gunsmith friend, he talks to everybody. Nobody is seeing deer all over the state.
They seem to be hunkered down in their food areas. Even the game cams are picking up nothing.
The rut ended and we hit a cold snap.
When will the deer start moving again?
They are calling for snow on Saturday.

I've had that happen beffore in Rocksprings too. Nothing on the camera for a few days...nothing meaning no deer, no pigs. No big weather change to go w/it. Got it once on camera and once when I went hunting late in season

No idea what caused it.

I do not know about VA.

But in the northern Black Hills of South Dakota it has been multiple effects.

1. Three bad winters with horrific late spring snowstorms in 2008 & 2009 causing low birthing rates.

2. Mountain Lions!! We have too many.

3. To many licenses issued by the GFP.

4. Disease, EHD went rampant in the summer/fall of 2008.

Don't know where you're hunting in VA, but I've got some buddies there that would probably disagree that all the deer have disappeared. One of them has taken 5 deer and 2 turkeys this year. Another has taken 3 deer with a bow and a third has taken 4 deer.

Of these 12 deer taken by 3 hunters, they have included a 9pt, an 8 pt, 2 7pts, a 6 pt and 8 does.

The deer are there. They haven't gone anywhere. You may have to do some looking that's all.

Let me clarify.

The deer have dissappeared within the last 5 days or so.

Up until that point everything was going pretty great.

The deer are out there somewhere, but they are not moving.

quote:

Originally posted by frank4570:
... When will the deer start moving again?
...

Late Friday night(24th) and if you have been "good", you might hear some Jingly Bells as they pass by.

A friend and I were sitting around a few years ago discussing this disappearing deer thing. We were consuming beer in some quantity and began to theorize. In PA we do not have concurrent seasons for turkey and deer. In those days, we often saw quite a few deer while turkey hunting, but few turkeys. We also noted that after the first few hours of deer hunting that we saw few deer, but may turkeys. That night we came to beleive that deer and turkeys are just shapeshifting from one to the other. Don't know if it it applies in VA, where seasons are concurrent.
We see the same thing sometimes where I hunt down in Halifax County, VA. Sometimes they reappear before the end of the season, and sometimes they don't. Like you, no tracks, no trail camera pictures, no deer sightings. They have to be there, I just don't know where. I suspect that they are bedded in thick stuff with food available close by and just don't move more than a few hundred feet in any direction and just won't move unless you step on them.
Bfly

I don't know about other parts of the country, but I'm glad to hear I'm not alone. I live in northwest Tennessee and hunt a section of woods adjacent to my home. The problem I have is "Where did the bucks go?"

Early in the season, my wife and I scouted the property and found buck sign galore. In October, we found rubs all over the place, as well as numerous scrapes. One area in particular seemed to be covered up in buck sign, and I found a stand location that allowed me to see 90% of the approaches, and with a rifle, I could easily shoot any deer passing through, providing I picked my shot through brush openings.

Since then, I have taken two does for the freezer, well away from this "core" area, but I haven't seen a single buck! All my previous experience told me that if I had does in the area, and they weren't spooked, the bucks would show up. That hasn't happened!

I've made moves, I've set up in different areas, maintained good scent control, haven't been busted in the woods, approaching or leaving my stand, and if the wind is wrong for one stand, I'll move to another, or not hunt at all.

But in all this, I haven't seen a single buck, even though one of the rubs on a big cedar tree has been hit continuously through all this!!!

I'm frustrated and the season ends on January 9!!!

Same thing is going on around here. Week before last bucks were chasing does hot and heavy.....since then, nothing....except dead ones on the roads.

quote:

Originally posted by frank4570:
Let me clarify.

The deer have dissappeared within the last 5 days or so.

Up until that point everything was going pretty great.

The deer are out there somewhere, but they are not moving.

If the deer aren't moving then you have to go into the brush to kick them out. No real secret there. Sometimes they just decide they're going to sit tight or move at night. If you saw deer in the area 5 days ago, then they're still there.

Get proactive. Quit sitting around waiting for one to walk in front of you. Get into the thick stuff, carry your rifle in your hand and not slung on your back and hunt real slow looking for a piece of deer in the brush. Probably won't see the whole thing. Find the first piece of deer hair and then move slightly until you can get a shot.

Problem with a lot hunters these days is that the only way they know how to hunt is by sitting and waiting. Get out and hunt. Don't sit around waiting for it to happen. Make it happen. You'll learn more about deer behaviour by actually hunting them than you will by saitting around. You'll find the bedding areas, the escape trails, the feeding areas etc... All of that info will help you find them when the conditions get hard.

During a brutal cold snap you can eliminate areas of your hunting ground. Seek out areas sheltered from wind, tight brush (low conifers if possible), areas that have good browse (honeysuckle, buckbrush, greenbriar, etc.) and areas that catch sunlight.

Once you find the area that has deer, it'll hold a pile of them. Out of the wind, in the sun, good brushy cover.

The problem is that so many of us have such limited hunting ground, that the spot that holds the deer may be two properties over.

I do know where some of them are bedded up.

In this area the longest shots are maybe 100 yards. My experience so far has been that when there is crunchy snow or dry oak leaves on the ground, the deer can hear me coming farther than I can see. I move into the honeysuckle patch, they go out the other side. Maybe I see a tail running over the hill.
Maybe this is a style of hunting I need to learn.

quote:

Originally posted by frank4570:

They seem to be hunkered down in their food areas. They are calling for snow on Saturday.

Sometimes I am convinced the deer sense weather coming and hole up until it passes. I wonder if you could get the coyotes to kick them out by using a bunny call to get their attention...

several reasons come to mind

moon phase
post rut
bad weather
we are on the back side of the full moon, if deer are moving they are doing so at night.
post rut and the bucks and does are wore out from rutting and chasing, combine that with very cold or wet and cold and you have the perfect set up for no deer.
try some mid-day hunting,they have to eat especially after the rut and with bad weather.
but hey, i live in wyoming and with zero experience in your neck of the woods,
what do i know??

Alien abductions!!!!

Light snow on sat, sun, & monday. I'll go out and give it a try today.

Here in Texas, areas have had bumper acorn crops. This has resulted in deer not being seen much at all. In fact, the acorn crop has been so good that the few pigs we've seen have walked right by the corn feeders. How's the acorn crop been?

LWD

LWD,
I'm hunting out of Reagan Wells, our situation is pretty much the same. Out of 9 guys we've taken 3 bucks (in the Hill Country no less). Very little rutting activity has been seen. Lots of mast. No need for animals to come to the feeders. Mature bucks aren't moving at all. Does and spikes at the feeders, and usually stopping by for a quick nip. I've over 20 "hunts" this season,and have yet to see a "wall hanger". Heading up to hunt Sunday through Thursday. If I haven't seen anything by Tuesday, it will become strictly for meat.
GWB

It seems it has been the same around here (SE Oklahoma), too. We're not getting any photos on our game cameras and we're seeing very few hunting. As was stated about Texas, we've had a bumper acorn crop this year--don't know if that is having an effect or not.

We also had a big acorn crop this year. And I can see where the deer have been eating them, at night I guess.

I just got back. At this spot I normally push one or 2 on the way in. Then I'll see 3,4,5, while in the stand. Then I might spook one out the way out.
This morning I didn't see or hear a single deer the whole morning.

Geez, guys, it's the holidays.

The deer are no doubt off in far places to visit relatives.

We've had a HUGE crop of acorns in WV this year. In places it was like walking on marbles when you tried to move!

Our deer weren't moving at all this year.

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
Geez, guys, it's the holidays.

The deer are no doubt off in far places to visit relatives.

LOL, they sure ain't visiting relatives in west Tennessee!

No deer on the way in,or in my stand this evening.

However, on the way out I bumped into 4. My neighbor just said he saw 3 just now in the driveway. My sister in law saw 3 along the driveway at noon.
It sounds like they are moving again.

Counted 52 deer from my stand this evening! They must all be visiting my farm!

*Hate you.*

quote:

Originally posted by edholum:
Counted 52 deer from my stand this evening! They must all be visiting my farm!

quote:

Originally posted by frank4570:
*Hate you.*

quote:

Originally posted by edholum:
Counted 52 deer from my stand this evening! They must all be visiting my farm!

We have 320 acres that is mostly set aside for wildlife and since we only shoot a couple deer a year and let all the neighbors shoot the does, as you can imagine deer from the entire county gets driven into our acreage where they have sanctuary. We also have too many pheasants to count, but I plan on reducing that population in the next few days

My area has really been hit hard the last few years. F&G has been on a campaign to reduce the population and they've got it done here. I haven't seen a mature deer of either sex all summer or fall and I live amongst them. Talked to one of the local processors, he usually cuts up 140-160 deer, this year it was 43

I heard they were out of town working for Santa.

But it's just something I heard at the barber shop.

Lou