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Is anyone else being overrun by deer besides me? I bet I have 100 deer per night hitting my food plots. I even had a doe licking smoked rib drippings on my porch the other night. This is my first winter here in Ohio and I can't get over how many deer are here. Lots of 3.5 year old bucks too, but only one 4.5+ that I can see and his horns are gone. Very excited to see what made it through the gun season, but somewhat disappointed in mature buck activity. My neighbors say that's normal but on my other properties like NY and CT it's the opposite. My best time to see a mature buck is January in those states.
We also have a lot of deer hitting our food plots and farm fields. It sounds like you have more. We try to kill a lot of does to keep the numbers down so that could explain some of it plus an outfitter is still baiting in the area. My experience on mature bucks is very similar to what you are experiencing. They just seem to disappear, I can run cameras on fields and fill feeders and run cameras on them and not be able find a mature buck with antlers. I wonder if they are just avoiding my cameras but that seems unlikely. I read a lot about the last season being the best time to kill a mature buck but I have never done it. One of my neighbors thinks that a lot of the mature bucks are getting poached in the area and are dead by now. I spoke with another neighbor who hunts 400 acres with a 160 acres of hay on the last day of ML season. He had hunted every minute of the 4 day ML season and shot a 2 1/2 year old buck during the last hour. He said that he never say a buck during ML season over 2 1/2. The first neighbor think that a lot of the mature bucks in the area are being poached off of the second neighbors fields at night while no one is around. I have a hard time believing that. In short I have started to focus more on early season because of my late season experience. I mainly set up for movement during the rut.
Interesting. I don't think there is any poaching going on in this area. I know one of my mature bucks is here without antlers, he fights every buck that comes to the bait and they don't know what to think about it! Despite having no horns, in his mind he's still the top dog. But that's one buck. My top four shooters are either dead or miles away. I hope it's the latter.
Since 1985 I have found one large bodied buck near a road with the head cut-off. That was over 10 years ago.
I'm in the southern/southeastern area of the state. The deer 100% always congregate into bigger groups (here) in January and it seems to only magnify as February and March advance. Not uncommon for me to see a single group of a dozen deer pop out of the brush together. These are basically always doe groups hanging together. Occasionally I will see a group of antlerless bucks (maybe a couple juniors still holding bone) walk across my field. The dead giveaway is that the bucks almost always walk in a line and fairly evenly spaced like soldiers. I've videoed as many as 9 at one time.
I see the bigger groups holding together and favoring areas with the best nutrition and browse until things break with warmer weather and new growth. It's fairly common to drive somewhere in the evening and see a larger crop field holding 40-50 deer before sunset.
It will be great shed hunting. I've already found four.
Curious Pat, of your different plots which one they like best now?... Thanks
Yesterday afternoon
Yesterday afternoon
Zbone, until this past week I would have said my brassica plot but now it’s definitely my soybeans.
With as much food as you have Pat, I am not surprised. I agree with what has been mentioned earlier.....if there is a good food source, it's not unusual to see dozens of deer in it until it's gone.
We are pretty consistently getting groups of 4-8 does and several bucks too in our plots. Now we don't have any large areas and are usually looking at 1/2 ac plots so not really a destination. I am also on your same boat with lack of mature bucks now too......from pics I can see that some have shed already.
Yesterday morning I spotted 2 bucks with full racks here on our farm.
Late is great. My son got this buck 1 year ago today. Our first encounter with him after 2 years of mostly nocturnal pics.
I am in SW Ohio and I am seeing squat. In fact, until this weekend, I was convinced an alien abduction had occurred of all the deer. I finally saw a few does although nothing in shooting range. I might be eating tag soup this year.
I hunted yesterday evening. 3 young bucks came in around 5pm together. 2 of them were half racks. Saw a few does but they stayed out of bow range. I was in a ground blind and the fickle winds kept betraying me. There is less than 2 weeks left in the season and I still have my tag to fill. It's not working out like I had hoped.
Had a remarkable occurrence today. Yesterday evening my wife and I watched 4 bucks in our back field. One of them was a really impressive 10-wannabe-12 pt with nice bumps for the G5s. The big buck was acting pushy and irritable I thought. There were a total of 16 deer out at dusk, and I watched 2 coyotes work their way through the field as they avoided the deer. None of the deer left the field despite the coyotes.
This morning I spotted the big 10 again, and he was shadowed by 2 other bucks. Then I spotted a doe bedded in the wide open...obviously being guarded by the 10 pt. He was locked down on her and only turned his attention away when the other bucks ventured closer. She got up and moved to the edge of the trees....he followed. I watched him do a full scrape sequence from working the limb to pawing to hock-pissing, All of the deer ended up walking within a couple feet of a tree which holds one of my stands...and then into the brush. This is the latest I've ever seen a really big mature buck be tight on a doe.
Kevin, are you going to hunt him? Still have some time left. I headed to my stands on Sunday and found 5 fresh scrapes. I haven't seen an breeding behavior like you watched, but I am seeing signs that it is still occurring. I never experienced a 3rd rut but I have heard about it before.
I keep hoping for a big one to show up but am losing confidence. What I have is a ton of 3.5 year olds, just nothing that I would feel good about shooting. I don't think there's a soul hunting anywhere around here so anything I pass up will be bigger next year.
I wonder if what is being seen as far as rutting action is fawns coming into estrus for the first time? With all of the food by you guys some doe fawns maybe big enough now to come into heat.
Possible but I think it’s more likely that we still have does that we’re not bred during the first two ruts. Our ratio is very skewed heavily on does. Can’t imagine they are all getting slammed.
Pat....I killed on Nov 13, so I'm out. I saw this buck (the one tending the doe today) a couple times from my stand but no shot.
The buck I killed in Nov made me happy.
He'd make me happy too! Stud!! Congrats!!!!
Agree doe fawns coming into first estrus, and more will continue as they get bigger/heavier, even as late as April... A deerfarmer told they'll come into first estrus once they reach about 75-80 pounds... Seems these young does spurs on rutting activity as well like Kevin mentioned... Once seen a fresh scrape line of 4 or 5 after new fallen snow on March 12th and full blown rutting/tending/chasing on April 21 by a fully crowned mature buck...
A couple photo frames attached from poor quality trailcam video from the other night Jan 23rd... The shed 3yr old buck identifiable by a healed broke front leg and a doe fawn... They were licking each others faces and he proceeds to mount her as they move out of frame...
I snapped these pictures from my porch last evening while I was grilling some chops.
The 10-wannabe-12 has been persistently showing up out back. Looking at him, I'm glad he made it thru the seasons. He's definitely still young and could become something extra special if the G5s develop. He has better mass than the pictures reveal. I am basically 100% sure he's carrying the genetics of a giant 12 I had here a few years ago...a buck I named Bruce.
Nice photo's Thanks for sharing
He looks 3.5 to me and he’s already nice. Can’t wait to see what he looks like next year!
He looks 3.5 to me and he’s already nice. Can’t wait to see what he looks like next year!
He looks 3.5 to me and he’s already nice. Can’t wait to see what he looks like next year!
Pat...I agree....agree....agree. ;-)
I probably would've taken him this year if given the chance, but the buck I killed was a 4.5 and really unique. This guy gets to grow and it's pretty easy to see he's got what it takes. It will be fun watching for him to show up next summer.
New buck.
New buck.
This buck just showed up tonight. Never saw him before. Looks great!
WOW Pat... He's gonna be a moose next season... How old you think he is? Hope you find them sheds...
I'll take a guess at aging Kevin's buck... Doesn't have that racehorse figure or look, and he's got a little belly on him,,, I'll guess 4, he'll be 5 in the spring...
My wife says he's just a baby (hers) and off limits. "Shoot an ugly deer!"
Different angle
Different angle
Zbone, he looks 3.5 to me judging by his body size and the mass of his rack but his main beam and tine length are excellent. He could be 4.5 but that would be it. He should be a stud next year. I have never seen him before.
Was thinking Kevin's as a 4yr old, but he could be 3, he doesn't seem to have much grey around the muzzle, but body looks more mature like 4...
Pat, yeah, I'll go along with your half shed as a 3yr old, rack a little spindly, but boy bet he's gonna be a monster next season, good luck... Crazy how big bucks you haven't seen before show to good food sources this time of year, why I think they have different ranges for winter and summer and kinda migrate between...
I'm taking a couple days vacation next week to try and kill something...
Beans are drawing bucks from all over the place
Beans are drawing bucks from all over the place
And another big one shows up tonight for the first time.
