Summer Lull

[PatinPA]

Anyone else experience a summer lull or is it just me? I'm not sure what it is but the deer, especially buck, just seem to go elsewhere this time of the year. I'll get maybe 10 pics per week on cameras that typically get 50-100. I'm really surprised too because the neighbors still have hemlocks so I'd think it was a nice cool place for them to bed. There is plenty of water. Young tender crop fields nearby. Freaked me out the first couple of years it happened but now I know to expect it.

 

[35-acre]

Yeah - I keep hoping the guys near me didn't shoot them all. But they work hard do get rid of them throughout the season (and likely pre & post season as well).

 

[Hoytvectrix]

One thing that I've learned by keeping a few cameras up year round is that bucks spend almost zero time on our property from June to mid-August. For the last four years it has been this way for pretty much every buck 3 years or older. Must be because we have a "doe factory" lol.
Bucks will start showing up in mid to late August and be on our property daily until the following spring. I'm sure our neighbors are saying lots of bucks right now for whatever reasons.

 

[PatinPA]

Yeah - I keep hoping the guys near me didn't shoot them all. But they work hard do get rid of them throughout the season (and likely pre & post season as well).

I don't see the same buck year to year, at least not that I know of anyway. Last year I saw more buck than ever but it happens every summer. They just disappear mid summer. They'll start showing back up around early to mid September typically.

 

[PatinPA]

One thing that I've learned by keeping a few cameras up year round is that bucks spend almost zero time on our property from June to mid-August. For the last four years it has been this way for pretty much every buck 3 years or older. Must be because we have a "doe factory" lol.
Bucks will start showing up in mid to late August and be on our property daily until the following spring. I'm sure our neighbors are saying lots of bucks right now for whatever reasons.

I don't even see many doe this time of the year. I have about 3 or 4 does with fawns that frequent the property and that's about it.

 

[Tree Spud]

Anyone else experience a summer lull or is it just me? I'm not sure what it is but the deer, especially buck, just seem to go elsewhere this time of the year. I'll get maybe 10 pics per week on cameras that typically get 50-100. I'm really surprised too because the neighbors still have hemlocks so I'd think it was a nice cool place for them to bed. There is plenty of water. Young tender crop fields nearby. Freaked me out the first couple of years it happened but now I know to expect it.

It's hot out, would you want to work in the sun?

Does are comfortable sitting & tending their fawns and not being pushed by the bucks who are in their bachelor groups. Plenty of green browse so not a real push to move around.

 

[SWIFFY]

Nothing wants to move in extreme heat. I usually have a large group of bucks around in the summer but they are a little off this year. Seems I only see them once every couple weeks or when it rains.

They'll be here.

 

[yoderjac]

Anyone else experience a summer lull or is it just me? I'm not sure what it is but the deer, especially buck, just seem to go elsewhere this time of the year. I'll get maybe 10 pics per week on cameras that typically get 50-100. I'm really surprised too because the neighbors still have hemlocks so I'd think it was a nice cool place for them to bed. There is plenty of water. Young tender crop fields nearby. Freaked me out the first couple of years it happened but now I know to expect it.

I think that is very common and when it happens is location specific. Deer shift their diet and food sources changed throughout the season. Deer will sometimes move more during stress periods looking for food, but they may also become less anchored during times of plenty. Bucks in particular sometimes take excursions out of their normal home range. These can be quite long distance sometimes. I've seen radio collar studies that show it, but I don't think we have a completely satisfying biological explanation for it yet.

Another thing to consider is camera locations. The deer may not have left the area, but may simply be using food sources that put them in front of your cameras less often. Most of my cameras are on tiny kill plots, a few are on large plots, and I have some in hardwood bottoms. Every September, the number of pics in the fields drop dramatically and the number of pics on the hardwood bottom cam spikes. It took me a while to figure it out. We were getting storms with high winds and it was knocking down acorns early. If my cams were only in fields I would have thought the deer left.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[g squared 23]

I assume the bucks around here are out in little ditches in the middle of huge ag fields. There is literally food everywhere, they can go weeks without seeing or even smelling a predator. They won’t move to the timber until the hard and soft mast starts dropping, especially when the soybean leaves turn yellow and become less palatable.


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[Bill]

They’re all in my beans for the summer. But fear not, they’ll leave my beans to go home sometime around mid September….

 

[PatinPA]

A friend of the family where we hunt. His property is the exact opposite of mine. He has all the bucks in the summer. Some years you'd think it was a game farm. But around September they all leave.

For me it does make my September card pulls much more exciting because I know at some point there will be a big one on there.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

We see a fair number of bachelor groups (definitely sporadically though) at the farm in mid to late summer, then we definitely see more bucks in general from October to December..oddly enough there is a spike in buck sightings in late January, as I think they need to move closer to the plots due to the harsher weather. There is one spot on our farm where the past 2-3 years has been a buck parade (2-5 shooters a day, in daylight) from mid October till late in the first week in November. That spot is getting a Tactacam reveal 2 slapped on it this year and when we start to see that march we will be sitting close...

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I generally don't see any appreciable buck activity on our properties until late July.

 

[JonJ]

Would you rather see them now, or during the season? Right now it's Food, Food, Food along with shade and water. We're getting resident does with fawns, then occasionally a passing bachelor herd.
Every year when the fall plots go in and corn out we draw in neighboring does with bucks patrolling the routes groups of does use between beds and food, stopping for a snack if does leave any.
Keep the girls close and happy!

 

[PatinPA]

Would you rather see them now, or during the season? Right now it's Food, Food, Food along with shade and water. We're getting resident does with fawns, then occasionally a passing bachelor herd.
Every year when the fall plots go in and corn out we draw in neighboring does with bucks patrolling the routes groups of does use between beds and food, stopping for a snack if does leave any.
Keep the girls close and happy!

Oh I'm really glad that I know they'll be back in the fall. It was more to the fact that my neighbors property has all that food, shade, water and they don't seem to be there when I would think they would want to be there. Guess there is something they don't like there in the summer or somewhere else they prefer. They love the seclusion my place and my neighbors offers in the fall.

 

[Mortenson]

Around here the bucks will be near soybeans. We've been growing continuous corn at our hunting farm for years, and don't usually get many velvet pics to look at. In '19 we planted cover crop soybeans after taking Prevent Plant at that farm, and low and behold we had quite a few velvet bucks around.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I was watering trees last night and checking cams and I rode my 4 wheeler down the fence row next to my house which borders a bean field. As is the case every night, there were 20+ deer in the field, some as close as 30-40 yards from my running wheeler. About half didn't even look up from chowing down and none of them ran..glad that field is within 150 yards of my plot...

 

[JonJ]

Watching Dr Deer videos and they address pulling in your neighbor's deer come hunting season. Fencing off your food plots, with the right foods to peak as season arrives, then opening things up, in stages if you have a bunch, pulling deer in to stay awhile.
I remember 3 seasons back when I found pallet boxes of apples. Had 26 eight+ bucks on cam (90 acres) during November, and a good bachelor herd daily during late December. Had good plots, corn and apples that year and plenty of deer. Looks like apples did okay around here this year, so looking for repeat. Plant late season apples, pears, crabapple, chestnut and persimmon and you'll be good for 50 years. Unfortunately, I lease.

 

[yoderjac]

Watching Dr Deer videos and they address pulling in your neighbor's deer come hunting season. Fencing off your food plots, with the right foods to peak as season arrives, then opening things up, in stages if you have a bunch, pulling deer in to stay awhile.
I remember 3 seasons back when I found pallet boxes of apples. Had 26 eight+ bucks on cam (90 acres) during November, and a good bachelor herd daily during late December. Had good plots, corn and apples that year and plenty of deer. Looks like apples did okay around here this year, so looking for repeat. Plant late season apples, pears, crabapple, chestnut and persimmon and you'll be good for 50 years. Unfortunately, I lease.

Before long it will be like feeder wars in states that allow bait. Neighbor vs neighbor with only the industry benefitting!

 

[Foggy47]

I got back to MN (from OZ) in mid-may. Only had one cell cam out then.....and the deer pics I had were almost gruesome. It was a very rough, long winter here....and the pics showed some pretty thin deer with ribs sticking out and not much bulk. I had deer in my rye / clover immediately in large numbers in spring. Now those same deer look fat and healthy. LOTS of good nutrition in the woods surrounding my plots....and my plots have proven they're worth (once again). I still get lots of pics....but I dont thing the deer are desperate like they can be in Spring and early summer in MN. Each year here in the North country can be somewhat different. Also insects can be a big factor here. Healthy deer seem to adapt. I feel good about doing my part.