SLUMP! UGHHH!

[Wolfie2nd]

I just can't figure out what happened to my patch of woods.?.? Early fall it was hot and I mean hot you could not sit a post with not seeing something. But soon as late October got here it seemed like the deer moved. I know they didn't cause I have em on my trail cam but its all at night now. There is only one other guy hunting out there and he is the master of all baiters when he baits its a few hundred pounds. Could he of fouled up my prime chunk of woods??? I first noticed the bait about a month ago. I don't know what to do?????

[Bonebuster]

Find where the deer are coming FROM, and set up as close to that as you can without alerting them when you go in.

[Doug in MN]

Is the food source still there?

Deer are motivated by the same things we are; Food ,Water, Shelter, Safe place to do it all in.
They are also motivated once a year to procreate.

This time of year here in Minnesota or any other northern climate I would look for and verify their food source.

[Dusty Nethery]

Well, good news is eventually you'll be the only hunter around...

I hear all "masterbaiters" eventually go blind.

[Roy Steele]

I agree the food scorce changed.Were there acorns there.If there were they changed and now move through at night.Distance's changed.
  Or it could just be pressure or a comnation of each.

[Wolfie2nd]

Well for the most part all the white oak acorns are gone so now I have moved on to red oak. The only other trees out there are shag bark hickory, gum, pine,cedar,maple and, red,white and pin oaks. Hickory and gum  are dominate.
  Other are  the red oak. Oh yeah the giant corn pile tree.

[xtrema312]

I am thinking there is a very good chance they are on to you.  Maybe with help from the other hunter, you have run them off in day light and now they are nocturnal.  Just how much land are you hunting and how often do you hunt?  How often do you spook deer getting in and out?  This happens on all the properly I hunt because I hunt with others who don't watch the wind, how to enter, how much to hunt, or where they can and can't hunt without spooking the deer.  It gets real frustrating.  

Food changes will move the deer and so will temp changes.  Could be they are bedding in a different area and going to different food or same food from different direction.  But then they are still there at night so I still think they are on to you.

[Wolfie2nd]

Well I hunt the land according to the wind probably once a week if the wind let's me. It's the only private land I have and its pretty big  area. I know that's probably over doing it. But I'm also new to the land I got permission at the end of last season

[xtrema312]

How big is pretty big?  How much does the other guy hunt and how far is he from you?  The fact the deer come in at night shows they are still using the area.

[Wolfie2nd]

Pm sent
I'm probably 250 yards from the other hunter. to be honest I have never seen the other hunter I think he hunts during the week and I also found out he was a kid I found his hunting license.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

My deer did basically the same thing Wolfie. It was the strangest and worst deer season I can remember in the past 10 years or so. Our property was planted in soy beans and the deer were thick as fleas during summer and into September, then the beans were cut.......then the deer all but disappeared. Went nocturnal for the most part, I still had some decent bucks and does on trail camera from 10pm to 5am......nothing during daylight hours. I have never had that happen to me on any other property I've ever hunted before. Sad thing is that the deer never have gone back to their old routine, they are still nocturnal and I don't over hunt the property either.
If I were you, I would follow the advice some others have already gave and hunt the trails. Sooner or later it might happen?

Good Luck!

[xtrema312]

There has been a lot of nocturnal activity for a lot of hunters this year.  Could be just an odd year.  I here reports all around here of a slow season for bow and gun hunters.  We had a huge mast crop, warm temps much of the fall, and a lot of easterly wind.  Add in our early seasons with guns and the cross bows now.  I figured it was just my area, but now sounds like much of the state was the same.  Maybe this goes beyond that.

If the other hunter is 250 yd. to the northwest he could be cutting off the traffic to you if you are hunting behind the house.  Could be they bed up to the northwest and come down your way into that pocket out back of your place.  If it is a kid, he could be hunting about every day after school and wondering all over the place in there.  The deer could just be on to him and wait to come your way until after dark.

Do you hunt all over that area or just a few spots close to home?  I would maybe try to get on the other side of the kid and see if you can get back into the deer.  Time to do some scouting and maybe set a trail cam in some other places to see if you can catch where they are moving in the daylight.

[bawana bowman]

We have pics of a lot of big bucks 8 to 12 points all with heavy mass that are staying on our property. Problem is the pics are all from 10pm till about 4am. Only one small basket 6 has been seen during legal shooting times. Have had a few Does taken this year but no bucks. Definitely not because they aren't there. They've for some odd reason only been moving at night this year.
Have not been over hunted because we only have 4 hunters covering 251 acres and there hasn't been more than 2 hunting at a time. And even then it is only for 2-4 days at a time. These deer are definitely not over pressured.
The only real change to the property since last year has been an influx of turkeys, which I believe is also responsible for the increased coyote population. We now are snaring coyotes and have a shoot on site policy.
These deer are basically free to move about all day if they want because everyone that hunts the property lives out of state. But yet they choose to still move at night.
We also know that there are not trespassers hunting the property.
Guess it's just an odd year, perhaps we should confer with the Mayan calender,     maybe this is a prelude to the world ending in December of 2012!    :eek:

could just be the moon phase,they kinda disapeared around my areas to,but starting to see more now, i hate full moons during hunting season.they alwys go nocturnal,hoping for the second rutt now, better late than never huh.

[chanumpa]

Dont give up,when you let youre guard down thats about the time old moss back will show up.How did we get it done before we had all these trail cams ,etc.We moved to a new spot and then came back to that hot spotanother day.I probably dont really get it though as I dont really get to hunt whitetails.Wish I did though.Hang in there.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by arrow30:
could just be the moon phase,they kinda disapeared around my areas to,but starting to see more now, i hate full moons during hunting season.they alwys go nocturnal,hoping for the second rutt now, better late than never huh.

You and me both!
I didn't see much of a first rut, so any kind of second rut would be much appreciated even if I don't stick one, it would still be a pleasure to at least see some chasing of some kind and know that there's a hot doe in my area. At least that would build my confidence back up.

[Wolfie2nd]

A confidence booster would be great during next rut