Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Man, worst season in forever!

Crazy weather has really hit us hard this season. I have seen less deer this year than I can ever remember, spoke with a local processor and he stated he was at about 1/3 of what he normally is this time of year. I've been in the woods about 5 times so far and only seen one small spike.

Thankful for an extended season that lasts until Feb 10th.

I'll be back in the stand tomorrow morning, wearing some filson gear I got off of shrapnel, hoping that brings me good luck and a shooter buck.

Anyone else having a similar season?

My Season was over EARLY this year

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/10766478/1

We've had the same weather over here in MS and I haven't hunted much this year. Just can't get excited about hunting in 60-70 degree weather. However, I have gotten 2 deer so far, one of them a very nice 10 point. I'm going to try my best to get a couple more does for the freezer before our season ends at the end of January.

Dang sorry to hear about your heart attack, how are you healing up?

Matt -

This year in So. Ark was off/low but not my worst. I saw a fair number of deer and a FEW bucks.

I got a nice 8, no record book of course, on Nov. 23. I did NOT SEE another antlered buck after that day. Our deer went nocturnal.

My Uncle has a motion detector on his drive and the deer were activating it every night. I haven't counted but I went a few weeks w/o seeing a single deer.

Archery is the only kind of deer season left in Ark so I'm done.

Keep your chin up, at least you can hunt till Feb.10.

Good Luck

Jerry

Hunting with my 8yr old son was a bit 'challenging' this afternoon lol.

Ours have been nocturnal as well, and I really can't seem to figure out just why that is.

I understand why they have left our food plots a lone, up until now we hadn't had the hard freezes required to sour the acorns and the deer were hanging in the thick woods where those are plentiful.

However we have a ton of traffic in our food plots, just none during day light hours.

I'll be back at it in the morning, thankful I can still hunt.

We've been off in the Dothan area also. Hot weather and it seems like every five years or so the whole rut and patterning got to pot. I've only seen seven deer this year but on a better note I've seen more good bucks being taken then ever before. All but one guy on our lease has taken a good buck so far and a lot of other bucks from the surrounding leases.

Weak as puppy piss!
The Doc said it will take awhile and I MUST lose 70 lbs or
not be here long!
Thanks for asking
AMRA

This season was too warm and the deer weren't moving.

Well, persistence and Shrapnel's lucky wool vest paid off, to fill my freezer at least.

Was setup looking over one of our best greenfields this morning, nothing moving, nothing at all. Wind was up, but steady out of the south. By about 10am I realized if I was going to see anything I had to make it happen.

The greenfield I was in was situated on top of a ridge with hardwood bottoms containing a creek to my south east.

I put a stalk on with the wind in my face, move 5 yards wait 5 minutes and repeat. about 15 minutes into my stalk I heard something.

Spotted a young buck working a scrape line coming my way. He was about 30 yards out and I made the choice to take him.

Bang flop. 130gr Sierra GameKing quartering towards me. Placed the shot right infront of the shoulder faceing me, no exit. Meat for the freezer




Entry spot




Lucky vest







Meat!




Oh and I got a call that my great uncle shot an 8pt tonight across the road from our land, in his back yard...

congrats and you have time left.

Sometimes they come to you but IME not too often.


Jerry

NICE!
I hate you !

Was a lot of messed up weather this year in AL. The past couple of weeks have been good for me though. The rut hitting helps more than a little......I LOVE January...

From 1/8 and 1/9:





From 1/18:



Getting after the rubs:




Died just a few steps from each other at sunrise after a steep climb to the top of the mountain...1 year and 2 days apart:

The season across much of TX was the same as yours with fairly high temps but the real problem was the near record rainfalls that have semi-arid country looking like an oasis in January. We finally had a decent frost overnight Saturday that may finally kill off some of the bountiful browse that is growing everywhere and get the deer coming in. We have a month and a half to see what happens since we are on an MLD program.

Dang JCM where are you hunting?

NE AL, pretty close to Skyline.

Gotcha, I'm hunting south east Montgomery county, close to Pine Level. They are just starting to rut this week down here.

Our first two weeks of November were pretty good, with good rut behavior and movement. After that it was all over. High temperatures and excessive rainfall ruined the hunting until the end of the season. I was squirrel hunting in the early season so I missed my opportunities. Hopefully next year we get a bumper crop of whitetails.

I hunted south of Selma for five days beginning on Jan 3rd. Seen about half the number of deer I usually see. Managed to shoot two small bucks and a doe.

warm weather here in va. made for hard hunting .i managed to kill 2 nice bucks but lots of my friends didn't do so well.

Our primitive weapon season ends Sunday and I've not seen one rack buck the whole year. Started hunting in mid October. Most snakebit I've ever been. Hard to even see a shootable doe. At least half a dozen times I've gone to sure-thing spots after others have seen a dozen or more and gotten totally skunked. Guy hunting same stands with me got shots at 4 rack bucks this season. Go figure......

WE Had one of our best seasons ever in KY ....Great rutting action for 3 weeks, lots of Mature Bucks....Last year was almost as good...I have a friend that Hunts around Wytheville VA and they had a Great season also killed a bunch of Mature Deer.

Two more meat deer for tatelaw and I today

Caught this bastage sleeping in a field in LA

Wow nice!

Matt,

I am hunting pine level area as well. A few minutes from Sikes and kohns actually.

I got down here Friday night and have been hunting since. Saturday morning was wide open, saw bucks running does but that afternoon and sunday were dead. Weather is miserable and not supposed to get any better until Thursday. Bucks have all been spotted in the woods, fields are a bust this year as stated already. I have found hardwoods or Crp to be the best option for morning and planted pines around food plots for the evening. Best of luck!

Middle Georgia was about the same as everyone is reporting it was in Alabama. I never saw a deer until after the first of the year.

Our local processors are reporting this year is 1/3 to 1/2 of what is expected in a normal year.

Expecting a huge carryover of bucks where I hunt. Kill was down a tad because of warm weather.

Yup hunted Friday and Saturday as well. Nothing Friday and passed an three does Saturday morning hoping a buck was following, no luck. I was sick all Saturday night and spent Sunday in the bed.

I'll be back Friday and it will be my last hunt of the year, if it's brown, well you know.

With the low harvest this year I'm looking forward to next year. This is the first season I've hunted this property in years, looking forward to putting up a few stands in the hardwood bottoms for next season. These guys have pretty much stuck to their shooting houses over greenfield and I believe are missing out. The deer only hit those fields at night this year, you got to hunt their travel routes.

Didn't ya'll have "blue tongue" hit your area this year? Seems I remember my son in law say that Mississippi got hit! Though I'm getting senile,I may have dreamed it. memtb

I would have taken that SOB to court. Let a judge hash it out.

I think it's interesting that the deer in Alabama are just now rutting. Is this the first rut?

Everyone I've talked to here had a slow season. It was really warm here this fall and I think the deer weren't moving that much. The other problem is the coyotes. I've got them running around like crazy maniacs. I think the does headed out of that neck of the woods. All I had were bucks and very little does. I generally average about 12 every year, but by the time Christmas came, I only had 4. The week after Christmas, I shot 4 more. I took out one of the yotes right after Thanksgiving. I got 4 bucks. 1 nice 8 pt., a busted up 8 pt., a 6 pt., a spike and 4 does.

This is the 8 point.

For my part of Alabama yes, thankfully we now have an extended season to Feb 10th to allow us to hunt the rut. Other parts of the state have much earlier rut.

3/4 the bucks I saw in a 5 day hunt DEc 31-Jan4 were rutting some more then others, I only recall one batchelor group in a greenfield where they were civil towards each other.

Interesting in that the rut was supposed to be happening in Feb and all I saw were batchelor groups of bucks hitting the feed heavy last year

I'll tell ya, you learn something new every day. Damn, those deer must be dropping Bambies in May or June? Heck, most of our bucks are losing their racks right about now. We have our first big rut the beginning to middle of November, and then a smaller one in late December.

Yip not uncommon to see yearlings that still have a few spots on them in mid November.

It was tough here in the Northern Shenandoah Valley, even on the small plot of private land my younger son hunts, which has been a regular killing ground in the past.Only three deer taken by my and my two sons. Only one was a buck, but it was the biggest buck my older son has taken to date, and to top it off he took it with my pre-64 and hand-loads with 160gr NPs. Bang-flop.

This was my fourth season hunting strictly public ground and it confirmed my notion that I'd better shoot the first deer I can, and then worry about horns afterward. I've yet to lay eyes on one after the second day for two seasons now. Time for plan B, I think.

I saw one with spots during Christmas vacation here. When would that one have been born?