Questioning an old truth
- Thread starter Papaclaude
- Start date
Deer follow established trails and have a routine....... They seldom deviate, although they do sometimes have offchutes from these trails that they take occasionally.......
When conditions are favorable they tend to take less time covering ground..... if they get to a part of their trail where the daily conditions are less than ideal, they take longer as they are more cautious.....
Of course, the rut can shake things up, but essentially speaking, deer are "predictably unpredictable"......
Oh, and they don't know how to use a compass......
When conditions are favorable they tend to take less time covering ground..... if they get to a part of their trail where the daily conditions are less than ideal, they take longer as they are more cautious.....
Of course, the rut can shake things up, but essentially speaking, deer are "predictably unpredictable"......
Oh, and they don't know how to use a compass......
I hear what you are saying and agree completely. I have been deer hunting for close to 45 years - actively bowhunting for the last dozen or so (and significantly since we got an early season in Ontario).
When the early season started playing out the way it did (no buck pics/indications but lots of does) I had already reserved myself to a "low probability" year so decided to keep myself "entertained".
Since I always hunt ambush style I am typically very careful about total concealment and total lack of detection. I just got to wondering if I really would "blow an opportunity" if I happened to knock something or brush against the tree etc at "the wrong time". So I took this year to satisfy my curiosity about "what can I get away with" before causing a reaction.
So in future, while I will be as stealthy as possible, I have a new understanding of how at least (some deer) react to their surroundings - at least where I hunt.
No, I probably won't have any deer in the freezer this year - but there is lots of bear to eat while I plan next years tactics
prairie lover
CGN Regular
- Location
- southern MB
my second biggest buck was shot at mid afternoon during the rut. he was on camera in the morning half a mile north north east solid bush and ravines in-between. so he went south south west and there was a good north west wind all day. he went with the wind from 7:30am to 3:30 pm.
This is absolutely true.
No...they do walk in the direction of the wind as well, but when they do, they walk backwards...so that they are always facing into the wind.
It is funny, they all end up in Alaska eventually, if you take the logic to the extreme.
In relatively heavily populated Southern and Eastern Ontario hunting areas, most of the time it is human activities that chase and scatter them around.
In relatively heavily populated Southern and Eastern Ontario hunting areas, most of the time it is human activities that chase and scatter them around.
I was about to call you on your first point before I saw you post your second...... well done!
You want to let the mule deer around here know that?
Maybe - but I am getting softer as the years go by. I still love hunting just not willing to be overly uncomfortable to do it any more. I do own three traditional black powder rifles and there is also the late bow that goes all the way until New Years Eve so I probably will get out a few more times. But for (me) I always think of the close of the gun season as the effective end of my season. Anything afterwards is just "bonus".
I don't need to get a deer to have a successful deer season, I have really loved this season - spent a week hunting moose/bear and got a bear - 14 days in the stand in the early bow and four days during the gun. And with more things aching and my body reminding me of how it has been abused over the years I don't take my hunting for granted - I'm getting to the point where maybe next season or the season after could be my last - hopefully I have 20 more years but...
I admit little mulie experience....... I did take a 4 pointer (you guys call them that right?)...... on a guided hunt....... by i fully admit I don't know their behaviour outside of rut...... and barely inside of rut......
OP is in Quebec and not hunting mulies....... so tailored my opinion........
257Roberts
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Peterborough ON
What yomomma said.....
Thinks were completely different this year.
I think it was the heat in my area.
David
Yeah, this year has been totally weird. Been hunting the same area for 18 years. Almost always fill all of our tags, and always see at least half a dozen deer. This year, not one. I've been between Ottawa and TO several times this fall, always leaving Ottawa well before the sun rises. We usually see at least a dozen deer in the fields on the way down. This year, 0.
My experience has been that deer coming in to a food site will quite often travel cross wind to smell the whole area on either side of the food pile, I've also watched deer travelling through a long narrow stretch of bush I hunt going cross wind, the bush runs east to west and for example if the wind is coming from the south they travel the north side of the bush as they can see out in to the field where they can't smell but anything in the bush they can smell where they can't see all that well.
