Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

No deer sightings post rut

D

dreambig@84

Active Member
Is it normal to not see any deer post rut?
Hunting in a blind over standing beans and last 2 sits havnt seen anything. Thought I would see deer after the snow storm at least
 
That is strange.. you’d think they’d be everywhere in that. My main late season plots are only brassicas and rye this year. Lots of deer the last few days but none of the bucks we’ve been seeing consistently prior to the snow. Figured they were in my neighbor’s standing beans.
 
Point blank..., if you got heavy snow/ cold and the deer weren't pressured earlier on your land, and you have feed, they ARE going somewhere to feed.
Important tho, is thermal cover. Once snow/ cold hits, you can have the very best food in the county but if there is no thermal cover close, deer can/ do migrate to the best areas with good cover even though good food may be lacking.
6" of snow combined with cold here can move big populations of deer miles away almost overnight to a good wintering area (thermal) even if food isn't great there.
I see it almost yearly here in nw mn.

Great food doest mean squat to a deer once harsh weather hits if there is no thermal cover.
Not saying that's your case but appears it may be?
 
Thanks. Yeah very well could be. While I have patches of cedars, I had cleared some in the last couple years to plant more food. Would you consider adding switch grass good thermal cover if a guy wanted to experiment and add some back in? I started adding switch around edge of plot last summer.
 
I have noticed deer not eating beans much this year..In years past, even with enlist beans, deer hammered them late season. On both my farms, deer are not eating the beans hardly at all even with very minimal hunting pressure. With the cold and snow, I thought they would be hitting them good, but no. I think I might try a different variety of bean next year and see if I notice a difference. I have been getting trail pics of a lot of deer digging thru the snow to get at clover and cereal grain plots.
 
Mine have been hammering the food last 2 nights. I have 2 farms where they absolutely poor into late season. Funny because they bed quite a ways away, 1/2 mile or so, but make the jaunt to the food every night. Makes hunting them decently easy when the wind is good!
 
571bc4f8e82881ae8ef5621190b4bfc3.jpg

4f647a98340ef454e727302af5e6c53b.jpg

The little ones fight over turnips instead of does now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
jkratz5 said:
Mine have been hammering the food last 2 nights. I have 2 farms where they absolutely poor into late season. Funny because they bed quite a ways away, 1/2 mile or so, but make the jaunt to the food every night. Makes hunting them decently easy when the wind is good!
Click to expand...
That's a dream scenario. Every good late food source I've ever hunted seems to have deer bedded right on top of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom