What changes do you see from year to year?

[Jordan Selsor]

NH I feel your frustration. I had 20 bucks on camera this summer an early fall. 6 of them were studs! I have no clue where they went. I had very high hopes for this rifle season but did not see one mature buck. Like you did I made improvements from last year. Mainly in increasing my food. This yrs acorn crop didn't help. My farm is new to me an I'm thinking it's just gonna take years of conditioning the deer to feed on my place. These are acorn deer with huge core area's. Much tougher to hunt in my opinion. You have some truly awesome stuff going on with all your habitat work! I'm sure next yr will be better!

 

[MoBuckChaser]

NH I feel your frustration. I had 20 bucks on camera this summer an early fall. 6 of them were studs! I have no clue where they went. I had very high hopes for this rifle season but did not see one mature buck. Like you did I made improvements from last year. Mainly in increasing my food. This yrs acorn crop didn't help. My farm is new to me an I'm thinking it's just gonna take years of conditioning the deer to feed on my place. These are acorn deer with huge core area's. Much tougher to hunt in my opinion. You have some truly awesome stuff going on with all your habitat work! I'm sure next yr will be better!

Start hinge cutting some 2-3 acre areas in a row, maybe in a square pattern, what ever will suit your terrain, do it NOW, not later. Then clear some easy access paths for the bucks to cruise and scent check. Then you can hunt the paths between them when the doe's start bedding there. It takes time but in a few short years you can have some good hunting during the rut! Wish I was closer, I would be over there chopping half your woods down with you!

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Start hinge cutting some 2-3 acre areas in a row, maybe in a square pattern, what ever will suit your terrain, do it NOW, not later. Then clear some easy access paths for the bucks to cruise and scent check. Then you can hunt the paths between them when the doe's start bedding there. It takes time but in a few short years you can have some good hunting during the rut! Wish I was closer, I would be over there chopping half your woods down with you!

Wish you were too! I would love suggestions. I'm gonna have a guy from MDC come out in Jan. interested to see what he has to say. Hope their are some programs i am eligible for. I want to plant corn next yr as well. It's expensive but I think my cagey deer will like the sense of security it gives them

 

[sandbur]

Wish you were too! I would love suggestions. I'm gonna have a guy from MDC come out in Jan. interested to see what he has to say. Hope their are some programs i am eligible for. I want to plant corn next yr as well. It's expensive but I think my cagey deer will like the sense of security it gives them

Is any seed corn available from local conservation groups?

Our local chapter of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association has a limited number of bags of seed corn and beans available. Some chapters have sunflowers.

 

[Native Hunter]

NH I feel your frustration. I had 20 bucks on camera this summer an early fall. 6 of them were studs! I have no clue where they went. I had very high hopes for this rifle season but did not see one mature buck. Like you did I made improvements from last year. Mainly in increasing my food. This yrs acorn crop didn't help. My farm is new to me an I'm thinking it's just gonna take years of conditioning the deer to feed on my place. These are acorn deer with huge core area's. Much tougher to hunt in my opinion. You have some truly awesome stuff going on with all your habitat work! I'm sure next yr will be better!

Jordan, I remember seeing your buck pictures earlier in the year, and yes, it was incredible how many high quality deer you had. It's hard to believe that you didn't see at least one of them during the rifle season - especially considering the great habitat you have and the low pressure environment you have provided.

In both of our situations I would say that the massive acorn crop made a difference, but at my place the change actually started early in the year before acorns became a factor. So many things were different from 13 versus 14, I can't explain them. Examples:

I started 2014 with entirely different bucks than I ended 2013 with.
Hunting Season in 2014 started with exactly the same deer I started the year 2014 with.
Nothing left and nothing new came in during 2014. (except for just a couple of quickly lost rut visitors)
There was no summer to fall transition movement like we normally have.
The number of noteworthy deer (mature bucks and good future prospects) was 20% or less in 2014 compared to 2013.

My reason for starting this thread was twofold. First, I wanted to see if others had "up and down years" like this, and second I just wanted to gain knowledge and understanding of it. From the responses, it seems that others do see similar things.

Good responses from everyone - keep it coming.

 

[Native Hunter]

Jordan, one more question. Were you getting night pics of any of those bucks during season or where they just gone?

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Jordan, one more question. Were you getting night pics of any of those bucks during season or where they just gone?

NH I went from having 15 deer feeding in my destination food plot every night (on cam) to just a handful. Mostly young bucks. Seems like everything changed when
A. Beans turned brown
B. White oaks started falling
C. Rut (don't think doe's want to be anywhere near these plots when they are coming into heat)

I don't think these deer are gone because I had a similar experience last fall. Then they came back around after the hussle an hussle of rifle season ended. They just have so much cover an browse that they will not take one bit of pressure. Im anxious to get back after them in a couple wks. It ain't over yet;)

 

[MO/KS]

Jordan- check with your local nwtf chapter in spring.Alot of MO chapters have foodplot seed programs. I got rr Pioneer seedcorn for $20 bag, & $15 bag of soybeans this year

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Jordan- check with your local nwtf chapter in spring.Alot of MO chapters have foodplot seed programs. I got rr Pioneer seedcorn for $20 bag, & $15 bag of soybeans this year

Tks I don't know why I havnt gotten envolved with NWTF! I have heard lots of great stuff about it

 

[Native Hunter]

NH I went from having 15 deer feeding in my destination food plot every night (on cam) to just a handful. Mostly young bucks. Seems like everything changed when
A. Beans turned brown
B. White oaks started falling
C. Rut (don't think doe's want to be anywhere near these plots when they are coming into heat)

I don't think these deer are gone because I had a similar experience last fall. Then they came back around after the hussle an hussle of rifle season ended. They just have so much cover an browse that they will not take one bit of pressure. Im anxious to get back after them in a couple wks. It ain't over yet;)

Glad to hear you are still hunting. We will be too in late ML season this year if anything worthwhile shows up. Last year we had some nice ones to take up residence for several weeks, starting around the first of December. Wow - look at that calendar - its almost the first of December again!:D

I worked on my Savage smokeless ML this week and finally got a load that will print 2 inches at 100 yds by trying a new bullet. That thing has been a devil to get good groups out of for me. I read on the internet where lots of other folks got great accuracy easily with theirs, so I must have a contrary one. Before this week I was only getting about 4 inch groups at 100, which is fine at 100, but not good enough to risk a long shot at a nice deer. I think we would feel ok at 200 now.

Good luck - Steve

 

[Jordan Selsor]

Glad to hear you are still hunting. We will be too in late ML season this year if anything worthwhile shows up. Last year we had some nice ones to take up residence for several weeks, starting around the first of December. Wow - look at that calendar - its almost the first of December again!:D

I worked on my Savage smokeless ML this week and finally got a load that will print 2 inches at 100 yds by trying a new bullet. That thing has been a devil to get good groups out of for me. I read on the internet where lots of other folks got great accuracy easily with theirs, so I must have a contrary one. Before this week I was only getting about 4 inch groups at 100, which is fine at 100, but not good enough to risk a long shot at a nice deer. I think we would feel ok at 200 now.

Good luck - Steve

Not sure what sabots your using Steve but I have had great luck with powerbelts. My H&R ML just has a red dot but it shoots consistent groups with 225gr powerbelts an 150 grains of pyrodex. Good luck!

 

[Native Hunter]

Not sure what sabots your using Steve but I have had great luck with powerbelts. My H&R ML just has a red dot but it shoots consistent groups with 225gr powerbelts an 150 grains of pyrodex. Good luck!

The powerbelts are great bullets, but for some reason Savage doesn't recommend them for the smokeless ML. After much research, it seems that nearly everyone is getting outstanding results with the original Barnes 300 grain bullet that was used in the 45-70s. They use the rib crusher sabot. So, I guess we had better try some of those. I think with the different components I have ordered we will get something to work well.

Good luck Jordan on your late season hunting.