Ruttin1
5 year old buck +
Hello all, I am looking to share my 2024 deer season with you and hopefully, get some feedback on the issues I ran into. I’ll start with a little background and then launch into how my 2024 deer season went.
The first two years of property ownership I did very few changes to the property. I took good advice from this forum and learned the property, how it was used, and how to hunt it before launching into any big changes. The first two years I was very happy with the deer activity. I had multiple deer on a daily basis. Sometimes groups of 5 or more deer. I would say 90% of the deer I had on camera the two prior years were doe. I rarely had bucks on cam. Even during the rut. Certainly more, but still not a ton. To top it all off, I would say 65% or more activity was during daylight.
This year I decided to make a few changes to the property, but nothing crazy. We added two 120 gallon water holes to the property. I also added two small food plots both in clover. The deer activity early this year was great, especially around the water hole and the closest food plot. Again, a majority of the activity during daylight.
Then came hunting season. I had a bear permit and I baited for bear in summer into the season. The bait station was tucked into the corner of the property and I was able to use the neighbors logging road to get to the station without disturbing my property much. Through summer into early September I had 4 bear on camera, so they were around. I only mention this as a possible contributor to the problem I will talk about later on.
Anyway, it was warm throughout September and we didn’t begin hunting deer until the 2ndweek of October. My hunting partner got a doe the first time out. I did not see a deer the first 20+ hours I spent in a tree. It was a rarity to go a sit without seeing a couple of deer the first two years, so I began to become concerned. To top it off, about the same time the activity on camera dropped off quickly to almost nothing. As October wore on most of the activity was at night. More odd was the % of bucks to doe completely flipped. I was rarely getting doe on camera. It was now mostly bucks. Into November it stayed this way and the buck activity was off the charts, but still mostly at night. Finally, the weekend of November 9th I saw a decent amount of deer. Sitting a water hole I saw 5 on Friday night and then 6 more on Saturday. They were all over 100 yards away and all in the same area. So, Sunday morning I moved to a stand nearest where I saw the deer activity the prior two days. About a half hour after light I had a doe come through 20 yards in front of me, which I let go.
Shortly afterward, I had a nice buck come through behind me, nose to the ground. He gave me a nice shot on him and I put down a very nice buck.
For the next almost 2 weeks I did not see much, nor did my hunting buddy.
Then came gun season. The past 2 years I had seen over 20 deer opening weekend. Sitting the same stand I ended up seeing 2 deer opening morning. I had a doe come through a little after 8am. 20 minutes later I had a really nice buck come through on the same trail she had been on and I was able to put down my 2nd nice deer of the season. I was ecstatic. Still am. I usually find a way to mess up opportunities on nice bucks, so to get both flawlessly was awesome!
My son ended up getting a nubbin buck on Monday night of gun. My buddy got a doe last night during the doe only season currently under way.
So, here is where the story gets more strange. The day after gun season ended my doe herd started to return. I had multiple doe come through and feed that Monday and they’ve been coming through since. The entire population seems to have returned. Daylight activity has picked up. The buck have gone for the most part. So, here is where my questions come in and here is where I am looking for opinions and solutions. For the 6 weeks of prime deer season my doe herd disappeared and I’m not sure why. I have several theories:
1. Baiting for bear and having bear around made the doe move off (someone else's theory. I don't buy it. The timing doesn't fit).
2. The large amount of buck activity made the doe relocate to avoid the buck until they were in season.
3. The logging on the 15 acres to the north of my property (attached) has changed the bedding and the doe are spending all of their time there.
4. One of my neighbors began an illegal baiting program (Shawano Co. WI) that sucked the deer off my land until the end of the hunting season.When they stopped baiting the deer returned to their normal pattern.
Help me out. What sounds plausible to you? Is there something else that I am missing here?
Finally, if it is an illegal baiting neighbor, which I believe it is, what can I do to my property to try and keep them on the land during season next year? Or, shut up you got two nice bucks and saw a couple others so quit complaining (I've said it to myself, but I love seeing deer). Thanks for reading and thanks for your input.
The first two years of property ownership I did very few changes to the property. I took good advice from this forum and learned the property, how it was used, and how to hunt it before launching into any big changes. The first two years I was very happy with the deer activity. I had multiple deer on a daily basis. Sometimes groups of 5 or more deer. I would say 90% of the deer I had on camera the two prior years were doe. I rarely had bucks on cam. Even during the rut. Certainly more, but still not a ton. To top it all off, I would say 65% or more activity was during daylight.
This year I decided to make a few changes to the property, but nothing crazy. We added two 120 gallon water holes to the property. I also added two small food plots both in clover. The deer activity early this year was great, especially around the water hole and the closest food plot. Again, a majority of the activity during daylight.
Then came hunting season. I had a bear permit and I baited for bear in summer into the season. The bait station was tucked into the corner of the property and I was able to use the neighbors logging road to get to the station without disturbing my property much. Through summer into early September I had 4 bear on camera, so they were around. I only mention this as a possible contributor to the problem I will talk about later on.
Anyway, it was warm throughout September and we didn’t begin hunting deer until the 2ndweek of October. My hunting partner got a doe the first time out. I did not see a deer the first 20+ hours I spent in a tree. It was a rarity to go a sit without seeing a couple of deer the first two years, so I began to become concerned. To top it off, about the same time the activity on camera dropped off quickly to almost nothing. As October wore on most of the activity was at night. More odd was the % of bucks to doe completely flipped. I was rarely getting doe on camera. It was now mostly bucks. Into November it stayed this way and the buck activity was off the charts, but still mostly at night. Finally, the weekend of November 9th I saw a decent amount of deer. Sitting a water hole I saw 5 on Friday night and then 6 more on Saturday. They were all over 100 yards away and all in the same area. So, Sunday morning I moved to a stand nearest where I saw the deer activity the prior two days. About a half hour after light I had a doe come through 20 yards in front of me, which I let go.
Shortly afterward, I had a nice buck come through behind me, nose to the ground. He gave me a nice shot on him and I put down a very nice buck.
For the next almost 2 weeks I did not see much, nor did my hunting buddy.
Then came gun season. The past 2 years I had seen over 20 deer opening weekend. Sitting the same stand I ended up seeing 2 deer opening morning. I had a doe come through a little after 8am. 20 minutes later I had a really nice buck come through on the same trail she had been on and I was able to put down my 2nd nice deer of the season. I was ecstatic. Still am. I usually find a way to mess up opportunities on nice bucks, so to get both flawlessly was awesome!
My son ended up getting a nubbin buck on Monday night of gun. My buddy got a doe last night during the doe only season currently under way.
So, here is where the story gets more strange. The day after gun season ended my doe herd started to return. I had multiple doe come through and feed that Monday and they’ve been coming through since. The entire population seems to have returned. Daylight activity has picked up. The buck have gone for the most part. So, here is where my questions come in and here is where I am looking for opinions and solutions. For the 6 weeks of prime deer season my doe herd disappeared and I’m not sure why. I have several theories:
1. Baiting for bear and having bear around made the doe move off (someone else's theory. I don't buy it. The timing doesn't fit).
2. The large amount of buck activity made the doe relocate to avoid the buck until they were in season.
3. The logging on the 15 acres to the north of my property (attached) has changed the bedding and the doe are spending all of their time there.
4. One of my neighbors began an illegal baiting program (Shawano Co. WI) that sucked the deer off my land until the end of the hunting season.When they stopped baiting the deer returned to their normal pattern.
Help me out. What sounds plausible to you? Is there something else that I am missing here?
Finally, if it is an illegal baiting neighbor, which I believe it is, what can I do to my property to try and keep them on the land during season next year? Or, shut up you got two nice bucks and saw a couple others so quit complaining (I've said it to myself, but I love seeing deer). Thanks for reading and thanks for your input.
