Upstate hunters, anyone seeing bucks ???

[tprice]

Last few hunts I have seen a ton of does and only have seen 2 bucks in last week. Saw a huge buck 650 yards away chasing smaller buck from doe on pm hunt yesterday . I have passed on a 1 decent buck and honestly missed the first 2 weeks of gun season other than the first Saturday due to surgery

However guy I hunt with and I are neither one seeing the numbers of bucks we normally see. He has another small track of land that is normally a guaranteed for some bucks almost every sitting in pm but he is not seeing them there either

I sat in stand until 11 am today and saw a total of 35 does, I am sure few button heads in the bunch but not the first deer with any evidence of antler not even spikes or fork horn deer. In fact watched a lot of these does stay on power line for up to an hour feeding on corn and thought surely at least a small buck would come out and chase them some

Very little pressure around us and the other club across dirt road from us is seeing huge numbers of does and very few bucks .

Just concerned we are not seeing a normal numbers of 1 1/2- 2 1/2 yr old bucks like we normally do . Normally by this time of year I have seen 15-20 bucks and now only 3 bucks total so far

Naturally our food plots area almost non existent due to dry weather, we planted Labor day weekend and only had 1 rain on them. Lot of folks telling me acorns are dropping late this year and bumper crop and that I understand but we are seeing our "normal" numbers of deer just not any racked deer

[adamb61085]

Seeing alot of the same. Same groups of does. Dont know where the bucks are. Found out wed. damn logging crew has rolled in to cut some timber for the next 3 weeks. Right in the middle of where i have been hunting. With all that said im gunna have a hell of a view from my boxstand next year.

[Dr.Love]

I was getting 4 or 5 decent bucks on camera and 4 or 5 smaller buck pretty regular. In the last 2 or 3 weeks and I have only gotten pictures of 1 or 2 of the smaller bucks. Not sure where the others went. This is on 3 different tracks of land. Have cameras on scrapes, corn, and food plots. Plenty of does, its like the bucks have despaired.

[tprice]

Thanks, feeling little better if others seeing same thing.

Very odd season to say the least.

Headed to IL Wednesday for the slug gun season, maybe we will see some bucks up there LOL

[duckman88]

We have not been seeing anything.... it doesn't help that we have not gotten a drop of rain on 75% of our food plots and we also don't have a large amount of producing oak trees. But, we haven't heard many shots either. I am sure this super moon isn't helping.

[murraywader]

35 does? Here's your sign.

[dirtnap]

Hunted in the Upstate this morning. Saw 5 bucks and 0 does. I killed a 17 and a half inch 10 pt.

But I have been in your shoes. Stuff changes all the time.

[Smilee]

Kill some does unless you were counting the same deer multiple times

[uga_dawg]

Seeing alot of the same. Same groups of does. Dont know where the bucks are. Found out wed. damn logging crew has rolled in to cut some timber for the next 3 weeks. Right in the middle of where i have been hunting. With all that said im gunna have a hell of a view from my boxstand next year.

Be there ready to hunt when they stop cutting for the day.

[DMP]

Supposedly an absolute stud of a 10 pt was killed in the upstate this evening. As soon as I get confirmation that's true I will post a pic.

[britton40]

There won't be a pic. Learned my lesson

[TheVisorGuy]

From what I can tell the mature bucks seem to be locked down. I am getting very few pics of them anymore but when I do they are usually standing in the background watching a doe eat corn. They will likely free up anytime now and be cruising. That's when you will start getting more daylight pics of them coming by and scent checking corn piles and food plots

[DoubleSprig]

Thirty five does in one sit...
no wonder you arent seeing a buck. He has found a good piece and is up her ass until she gives it up (35). Then he will lock up on another and they will not leave the bedroom until she gives in (34). Then he will work number 33 and "the cycle" continues until he has bred every one possible.
Same story goes for every buck within 5 miles. Your does are going into heat, a buck is up her ass immediately...until he has done his deed, then he moves on to the next one on the block, and then repeats.
He has not had to travel any distance to find his next breeder and he aint gonna leave her side for any reason.

[ersepton]

We've had the same on our trac. I hunted with Dad yesterday. He said he was tired of not seeing a buck so he shot a doe at 8:15. Between 8:15 and 9:00 he said he saw 3 small bucks. I saw 4 does, still haven't seen a buck since 11/1.

[tprice]

Kill some does unless you were counting the same deer multiple times

Trust me this is not multiple sightings, this is on a power line where I can see 800 yards

At one time I had 23 on 3 different corn piles . The others were way beyond shooting range

Between the 2 of us, this is a small track of land (250 acres), we will take a doe or 2 late in season with our bows

Not against shooting does just wife and I only consume 1-2 deer every year . I have done that where you shoot a deer for a nonhunter way too many times . They all gung ho till they find out it is $75-80 to pick it up.

I have even donated a couple each year to the Haven of Rest which is next door to my office

Not uncommon to see 10-15 deer when I hunt, 35 is very high even for this place

My afternoon hunt yesterday I saw 13 does and the 2 bucks

We keep very detailed notes on numbers of deer we see.. Club that is across rd from us sees this many as well

[Duck cutter]

Trust me this is not multiple sightings, this is on a power line where I can see 800 yards

At one time I had 23 on 3 different corn piles . The others were way beyond shooting range

Between the 2 of us, this is a small track of land (250 acres), we will take a doe or 2 late in season with our bows

Not against shooting does just wife and I only consume 1-2 deer every year . I have done that where you shoot a deer for a nonhunter way too many times . They all gung ho till they find out it is $75-80 to pick it up.

I have even donated a couple each year to the Haven of Rest which is next door to my office

Not uncommon to see 10-15 deer when I hunt, 35 is very high even for this place

My afternoon hunt yesterday I saw 13 does and the 2 bucks

We keep very detailed notes on numbers of deer we see.. Club that is across rd from us sees this many as well

I'll be glad to come shoot some does for you

[DoubleSprig]

I was born into the "dont shoot the does, its no challenge."...and... "not enough meat to justify paying for the processing"....and..."the does are what attract the bucks to our property" philosophy.

I spent alot of years watching does. I did kill a few bucks, and mostly good ones at that... But as i grew older i realized (as mentioned previously refering to trail cam photos) that the bucks that came to those does on our land, would stick with THAT doe. He would be hunkered down with her, and therefore not even be huntable.

The number of does needed a drastic reduction so the a wanderring buck would have to work hard to locate a hot doe; thereby letting his guard down in his search for nookie.

[WoodieSC]

I've seen an occasional buck, but nothing over 6 pts since late July. My hunting partner and I saw a spike and a 4 pt this morning, and he saw that same 6 pt I saw last Sat evening, but that's it. I'm pretty much only seeing the same 6 does (3 fawns) that are around the house all the time, but very few other does.

[DMP]

Killed by a 12 yr old this evening.

[usrgce]

That'll work