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Where have they gone??

Curious as to how many guys are seeing deer. I hunt a bow-only area and several other great spots and the last 10 days the deer have disappeared. I have sat a total of 70 hours on stand the last 10 days and have seen a total of 15 deer. I have seen the same 3 bucks together 3 or 4 times. I am wondering if anyone else is having the same issue. Where have they all gone? Shawn

I have to correct myself as I checked my notes and about a week ago I had one very good day and thought things were changing, but again it has been terribly slow. Shawn

Check my last entry on my thread chronicling my hunts. My sightings have decreased significantly but I think they have moved to an undisturbed section of the farm I hunt. I bet it is happening to you too.

This time of year I find the dominant bucks get a doe pushed into some oddball areas. The young ones hang around because the Dow is hot and a lot of other does are just laying low. It's feast or famine. Good bucks are on the move as soon as they are done with the doe though, sonthings can get exciting any second

In my area they put up "do not disturb" signs because most of the bucks I've been watching since early Oct. are locked down with does for a week and a half. scentman

Friends that hunt a few miles form me were rejoicing for the fantastic deer traffic they were witnessing from the 7th to 14th. now those areas are dead quiet. Its a familiar, to-be-expected pattern in my area in 7H. I'm sure in most others also. Things will get better over the days, but with they usual gun season hunting pressure putting a damper on it.

We usually expect to see a 2nd period of heavier traffic almost exactly 1 month from the 1st period. Not always though.

On my property in 8S everything more or less shut down after the middle of October. Trail cam pics of both bucks and does slowed down to almost nothing. The ones I did get were between 11pm and 5AM. Most pics I have are 100 yds from the house under the apple trees.. I got one day light pic of #1 buck at 12:26 PM the day I had a Dr's appointment.

That is my point, I have been doing this for 40 years and I have not seen a November this bad, ever. Trust me I know what lock down is and I know pressure can change things but again when I go from seeing 30-40 deer a sit in early to mid October on an afternoon sit to seeing 6 or so on an all day sit something is strange. Shawn

Bucks are running all over in Northern NY;three killed locally(gun) in the last four days. Always Nov.5-15 is prime time,don't care about moon phase or weather.Our group has seen multiple bucks every sit;just waiting for the big boys we have on camera.

I went into a hell home thicket today with my LW and sticks. It's a spot I don't hunt because it's high risk. Almost no way to get in and out completely clean with Swirling winds and deer moving in all directions. I gave killed quite a few good bucks locked down with does in this type of area, so I gambled on it. I heard tending grunts in the thicket behind me and 30 minutes later a solid 130" 8 pointer came out following a doe. She walked past me at 15 yards with him following 40 yards behind. She finally caught my wind and started to leave back the way she came. He circled and started to follow her. I looked ahead and saw an opening he'd cross at 30 yards. I came to full draw as he hit the opening and stopped. The feather touched my nose and the shot was gone. It was flying perfectly.... until a couple of yards in front of him, it hit a twig I didn't see and ricocheted off above him and landed 40 yards behind him. I'm bummed but I did everything right. I just didn't see this tiny beech twig.

pulled my camera this afternoon and had 4 bucks on it today from 9:09am till 1:28pm 11/17/2017

The only bucks within 40 yards all season were a spike and a fork horn. As the sun set tonight the eve of gun season, I had the (pleasure?) to watch my # 2 target try to romance a doe for 45 minutes 150 yards away. Why do I do this to my self!

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