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Joined: Dec 2004
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Do you guys ever have seasons where it seems that your entire deer herd goes nocturnal for a while? I know too much hunting pressure can do that with deer and hogs, but we've not been hunting much over the last few weeks and deer movement has slowed to a crawl. Cameras reveal lots of deer but only nighttime photos. Everybody around us is reporting the same thing. Our acreage is in a very rural area with a lot of different landowners and several big hunting clubs but it is now rare to hear more than one gunshot on a weekend evening. Everybody is scratching their heads. It's been pretty warm lately and the moon has been bright, but this seems really odd, as we're not doing any very different from previous deer seasons. Of the last 5 times I've been on a stand, I've seen one deer, total. That hasn't happened to me in at least 10 years. It's weird.......


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Ours at home have done this on ONE side of my property... but not the other???

At the deer lease, its normal as its ever been, if not better, regardless moon etc.... but mostly because they are a bit hungry as the acorns ran out awful quick this fall and I feel for our deer... they will have a tough time come Jan/Mar because all the other dumbazzes quit feeding, while I"m pouring my wallet out to the deer....

But I've seen exactly what you are talking about and have no explanation, other than typically its moving a long way to a new food source, but that doesn't then explain all the night pictures of plenty of deer IE normal numbers you seem to have.

I can tell you that from hunt to hunt sometimes its weird... 2-3 hunts in a row with 20-30 deer and then the next hunt, no explanation, IE no wind rain etc.... might see 5 deer and all might come out 1.5 hours later than they normally do.

And at that time I"m not even seeing them in normal movement on the natural trails, much lesss around the feeders.

I'm lucky that I have a big funnel area and I'm up on ridge and can see lots of movement even in years when they don't come by the feeders. So I tend to see whats actually going on too, vs whats influenced by hunger.


We can keep Larry Root and all his idiotic blabber and user names on here, but we can't get Ralph back..... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over....
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JPro Offline OP
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We had the biggest acorn crop in many years and they've been hammering the hardwood areas up until recently. It had the early season somewhat messed up regarding certain stand locations, but the deer were still moving in the daylight. Our feeders would often go several days untouched but we'd catch deer roaming. Now it seems that they are finally hitting corn and our food plots, but only at night.


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Been the same for us, this season !

The 2 of us have seen 4 deer on stand in over 120 man hours of sitting, yet have literally 1000's of night time trail cam photos.

Thankfully, we chose to put the hammer to the 2 bucks & 2 does we did see.

Season ended 45 minutes ago.

I do think, the timing of the 2 full moons during our season had something to do with it.

It is normal for our bucks to go nocturnal once the pressure starts, excepting the rut, but never seen it like this year where the does were, for the most part, seemingly nocturnal too.



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They got a lot of food and or pressure from trail camera usage. I know guys that can't go 2 days without checking multiple trailcams on their place. It's nice to know what's there but I believe excessive traffic to check them causes more pressure than folks think. Oh and temperature has a lot to do with daylight movement I believe

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I hate to say it, but I'm glad to hear it!

Before opening day the deer were at the feeders like crazy. In two days I had 332 pics on the trail cam.

I've been going crazy trying to figure out what is wrong this year. The first three days of season were pretty good and then it went downhill. Every time I went to the lease I saw fewer deer. The last three times out I have seen only one deer. And after shooting two hogs they have disappeared also.

The local game warden blames it on a bumper acorn crop, but I'm thinking there may be more to it. What I'm not sure, but I've seen more bob cats and gray foxes than normal also. Maybe they are more visible because they can't find the deer either. smile

I still managed to put two in the freezer, but I like to spend the rest of the season watching and taking pics and there's nothing to watch.

Anyway, I'm not really glad your experiencing a tough season also, it's just that misery loves company and I'm glad it's not just my lease.


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I know what you mean. Definitely something off at the moment. We've not seen one buck worth shooting on our place. Our neighbor hunts a ton, as he is semi-retired and he says he has not pulled the trigger on a buck yet either, which is unusual. Maybe some weather changes and less moonlight may mix things up.


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Most miserable deer season I've had. NOTHING is moving, NOTHING.


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As the land ownership, landscape (available deer habitat), and hunting tactics have changed over the last 10-15yrs the deer are becoming much more nocturnal here in ND. In the not to recent past nearly everybody lined up and performed "deer drives". Actively sending walkers through cover whether it was CRP (tall weeds), cattails, fence rows, tree rows, etc, etc, etc, it got pushed. Fast-forward to present day, a goodly percentage of landowners have erected permanent elevated stands and have provided some sanctuary cover for deer. As a result, deer get pushed into these sanctuary areas and also become basically nocturnal because that's when there's no pressure on them. A guy used to see deer moving all day because they were being pushed from one parcel to another by different groups of hunters all day. Now they get pushed around until they find sanctuary and hole up until dark.


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When hunting in West Tennessee on our place its been about normal, except for rutting activity that was early.

On some of the public land I hunt close to home in Middle Tennessee I've definitely noticed earlier than normal nocturnal activity, especially with the does. I expect it with bucks, but not so much with the does.

The Orange Army descends here from about the first week of November until thanksgiving and usually sightings pick up again in mid December. Things seem to be changing though. Fewer and fewer does seen, but heck a lot of them are killed also.

I've often thought we might be killing too many does, and need to rethink the three per day limit.

Last edited by paint; 12/15/14.
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Havent seen one since thanksgiving weekend here in middle tn.

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I have seen this deer disappearing act for several years, with no way to explain it. Hunting pressure the same before they disappear, during and after. Moon phase doesn't account for it, nor does the food supply. I always thing that our deer numbers must be way down and then all of a sudden things go back to normal. Sometimes it is after season is over, but it happens. miles


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Originally Posted by Steelhead
Most miserable deer season I've had. NOTHING is moving, NOTHING.
+1 .... When acorns started raining my good bucks disappeared. Only pics I get now are in the night. Suck ass season on my lease.

Last edited by slg888; 12/15/14.
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They have been fairly nocturnal here for years. Folks that move here from other areas really struggle with it. Some of the bigger bucks are almost never seen during the day. There are times when you can hunt for many days without a sighting of a deer. Maybe that is why I am doing more small game and waterfowl hunting.

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I'm having the worst season I've ever had. 95% of trail cam pics are at night. Deer sightings in the daytime are almost none. I've seen more coyotes on the trail cam pics than ever before also.


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Same here. Fewest sightings I've ever had on this property (12 years), and by a long shot.

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heavy acorn crop have not help deer movement here in va. either. coyotes had does bunched up early to.i have not seen many deer just feeding during the day all season. high winds,warm weather didn't help in acrhery season.i know lots of good hunters that have been skunked this year.

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WTF is that all about? Crazy stuff.

This is only the 3rd year I've hunted my property, but the previous 2 years if I went 2 days without seeing a deer it was odd.

I haven't seen a deer since before Thanksgiving.


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Low numbers seen here as well.

Normally I have one shot from the house by now and I haven't seen jack, nor schit, walking the bean field/tree line.

I blame �bama, bad cops, and scotch on the rocks.

I've seen enough squirrels to make up a deer, though.

One tree near the pond I counted 8 running for cover when a hawk landed nearby. 8, from one tree.

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JPro Offline OP
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Saw 8 rabbits Sunday evening in my grass patch. Three booners....


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