Deer Behavior is Changing
- Thread starter sandbur
- Start date
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I was referring to the area where I live. If we are a one deer area for one more year, we will be in decent shape. We just need to stay away from anything over 2 deer per year, with mostly one deer years in my view. Landowners that farm can get a free tag at present anyway. Few get the tag.
Reproduction is good and most older does have twins. Wolves are kept under control-in the past anyway.
Reproduction is good and most older does have twins. Wolves are kept under control-in the past anyway.
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
We are seeing more in the open because the bugs are now unreal in the woods and swamps. I don't think there are anymore deer in my area.
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
Yep, the harry home owners are buying up the yard spray for skeeters by the cases again this year. Can't keep the stuff in stock! Hahahahahaha!
biglakeba$$
5 year old buck +
My first inclination on seeing more deer wouldnt be necessarily that they are changing. I would first put population increases as the most likely scenario.
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
99% DEET is better. :) Costs about the same at FF.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
I HOPE you guys in Minn., Wisc., and Mich. are getting better populations of deer. After all the work ( political and in the dirt ) you guys deserve some reward / results for your efforts. :cool:
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
It's going to take some years of not shooting every deer people see to turn things around. We've got a good start with the population goals, now we need to have harvests which enable those goals to be met.
4pt APR and no doe tags for the whole state would be a good start. It'll never happen, but it'd be a good thing for the population recovery effort.
4pt APR and no doe tags for the whole state would be a good start. It'll never happen, but it'd be a good thing for the population recovery effort.
B
bat man
Guest
Was playing kings in the corner with my kids and the deck was made by a company promoting their safety agenda.
I may play with a deck that chronicles mddi points. It's too much info for guys short attn spans but if they take it in a little at a time Hunter behavior may be affected.
I may play with a deck that chronicles mddi points. It's too much info for guys short attn spans but if they take it in a little at a time Hunter behavior may be affected.
Steve Bartylla
5 year old buck +
You're hitting on something I've been paying a lot more attention to in the last 10 years or so, Art. I don't pretend to have learned enough to fully understand it, but there is no doubt in my mind that deer density impacts deer behavior a ton more than we realize.
One of the big things I've noticed is that deer activity increases as deer densities increase. When you have stupid high deer numbers, you see a significantly higher % of all age classes and dominance levels moving during daylight. My belief is that the more subordinate bucks and family groups are forced to move earlier and earlier to get their crack at the better food and water sources for the doe groups and any chance of breeding for the bucks. It may sound cheesy, but I believe the higher level groups of deer and bucks then see the lower doing this and assume it's safe for them, as well. It sort of becomes a snowball rolling down a mountain after a while.
Obviously, how safe the deer do and don't feel on a property impacts all of this, as well. That said, one of the stupid big pieces of ground I manage had deer entering plots at all hours of the day when numbers were ridiculously high, but dropped off to about normal when numbers were decimated by disease, and pressure was actually a bit less on the low deer numbers years. Now that numbers are climbing again the deer are entering the wide open earlier and earlier along with the numbers increases. I've noticed this link on a handful of different properties over the last 10 years or so. I'm sure there is more to it that I just described, but equally sure that's a major factor in it.
One of the big things I've noticed is that deer activity increases as deer densities increase. When you have stupid high deer numbers, you see a significantly higher % of all age classes and dominance levels moving during daylight. My belief is that the more subordinate bucks and family groups are forced to move earlier and earlier to get their crack at the better food and water sources for the doe groups and any chance of breeding for the bucks. It may sound cheesy, but I believe the higher level groups of deer and bucks then see the lower doing this and assume it's safe for them, as well. It sort of becomes a snowball rolling down a mountain after a while.
Obviously, how safe the deer do and don't feel on a property impacts all of this, as well. That said, one of the stupid big pieces of ground I manage had deer entering plots at all hours of the day when numbers were ridiculously high, but dropped off to about normal when numbers were decimated by disease, and pressure was actually a bit less on the low deer numbers years. Now that numbers are climbing again the deer are entering the wide open earlier and earlier along with the numbers increases. I've noticed this link on a handful of different properties over the last 10 years or so. I'm sure there is more to it that I just described, but equally sure that's a major factor in it.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Concerning deer behavior - I'd like to ask you guys on here what you think of riding 4-wheelers all over a camp property - 220 acres. I don't own one, but my camp has a bunch of guys that, starting in late October each year, ride them ALL OVER that acreage. Then when rifle season starts, they don't see any deer and grumble about " where did all the deer go? They were here all summer and fall. " 5:30 to 6:45 A.M. on opening morning, there's a squadron of 4-wheelers driving out to all parts of the property.
I'm not asking for my own learning - I have my own solid thoughts on this. I just want other opinions from knowledgeable, experienced hunters and deer managers. I'd like to show the guys in my camp your responses. We have a few hard heads in camp that insist it has no bearing on seeing deer. In archery season, when we have no 4-wheelers there at all, we see ample deer numbers. I think the answer is freakishly simple, but would like to hear from multiple sources on this.
If this is too much of a hi-jack, I'll start a new thread. No problem. Thanks.
I'm not asking for my own learning - I have my own solid thoughts on this. I just want other opinions from knowledgeable, experienced hunters and deer managers. I'd like to show the guys in my camp your responses. We have a few hard heads in camp that insist it has no bearing on seeing deer. In archery season, when we have no 4-wheelers there at all, we see ample deer numbers. I think the answer is freakishly simple, but would like to hear from multiple sources on this.
If this is too much of a hi-jack, I'll start a new thread. No problem. Thanks.
B
bat man
Guest
We have about 40 different landowners in our coop, and the common denominator is those that have ignorant access or try and use the whole property on foot or with wheelers have crap hunting.
Those with a plan that builds trust with the deer herd see and pass lots of deer.
Set 80% aside for the deer and give it a couple years. Whole different world.
Those with a plan that builds trust with the deer herd see and pass lots of deer.
Set 80% aside for the deer and give it a couple years. Whole different world.
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
Sounds like you have a recreational property......not a hunting property.
And for some people, that's not a bad thing.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
o_ONo way in H3LL! Especially if it is for actual hunting stand access during an open season. To work plots and perform habitat work, ok. Our idiot neighbor on the east side of our old place would do this every morning during the gun season and wonder why he never saw any nice bucks, but we would see and shoot them on a fairly regular basis. He was literally driving through a river bottom and 7 year old cutover pine plantation that were both thicker than snot and was one of the primary deer bedding areas on our "block".:mad: After it got cold enough to form ice on the oxbows in the river, when he would fire up the quad in the morning you could hear the deer breaking through the ice to get away from the ATV as he was driving it out to his stand...the whole 250 yards he had to go to get to his Shadowhunter.:rolleyes: He obviously couldn't hear them over the noise of the ATV, and if he was too lazy and stupid to not just walk to his stand, I wasn't about to tell the d#mba$$.
B
bat man
Guest
Not suggesting that walking to the stand is going to be any better. If you have more guys hunting than stands with good access likely going to run the deer off no matter how you go to your stands.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
The question should be: Does it help? The obvious answer is no. So how much does it hurt? Who knows. But why chance it?
We are on foot on our place almost exclusively. From time to time we'll have a wheeler out there doing stuff, but it's in and out, and at slow speeds. After labor day, we pretty much don't even go in the woods until we hunt. It's just much easier for us to be one of the quiet properties in the neighborhood for the deer.
We are on foot on our place almost exclusively. From time to time we'll have a wheeler out there doing stuff, but it's in and out, and at slow speeds. After labor day, we pretty much don't even go in the woods until we hunt. It's just much easier for us to be one of the quiet properties in the neighborhood for the deer.
