Well, I took this past week off work for our season opener. For two weeks prior I would sit on a hill 400 yards away and watch a nice buck along with several others coming out into a soybean field every evening on one of two trails. A week before the season I hung two stand sets and continued watching him throughout the week on his late summer pattern. Well the opening evening came and due to a bad wind direction I opted to sit on the hill again and simply observe. A few of the deer showed as usual but the one I was after did not (in daylight hours anyway). The next evening came and the wind was right so I sat in one of the sets. Again no buck. I spent the rest of my week off watching and sitting in the stands a few evenings having no luck on the disappearing buck.
Well Sunday rolls around and I decide to take a little scouting trip. What I found shocked me. The acorns were falling and the white oak droppers had multiple poop piles, chewed caps and all the evidence of the deer were using the trees. Several worn trails also confirmed my findings. What's so strange about this you may ask? Well our acorns usually don't start dropping until October. So I was caught off guard and just wanted to give everyone a heads up that if your deer patterns have suddenly changed you don't waste a week as I did.