First deer season musings.

H

hobophobe

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Saskatchewan
Deer just aren't moving near us, not sure if its the warm and no snow or what. Even hanging out in the valley by our place early in the morning and evening. Don't see sweet #### all moving in there or the fields. (except a pile of moose!). Lots of tracks and poop. I was tripping over white tails all fall and summer, thought we'd be able to just camp out and it'd be easy.


But, discovered 3 big does and a small buck on my own 20 acres. Missed a running shot. I think ill put up a blind next season.

Tons of real healthy looking coyotes. 3 times i had 3 different ones in my sights. Most self control I have ever had to exercise. (Shoulda picked em off, didn't see anything anyways)

I haven't given up yet, one week left! Then I take my frustrations out on prarie poodles.
 
Have any hard frosts yet, how’s the food sources looking. That’s always been my observations late season, or any time for that matter. Find the food and water and you’ll find the animals, once the rut is in effect the bucks will be less nocturnal and will be near the does.
 
Deer go nocturnal when they sense pressure... You'll see this if you put out cams.

Any hunt, deer/turkey/moose/upland/waterfowl etc, TURNS INTO a coyote hunt when a coyote shows up. Never let them pass, ever.
 
Food source must be good, not much snow. Temp was in the low plus till yesterday pretty much. That valley near me has it all, I'm surpised I haven't seen much in it. Its huge. I'm sure they are bedded in there, plenty of trails and poop.

we got snow last night. Tracks through the yard.

Yeah, I regret those coyote chances. Bent out of shape at no deer for me...and no coyotes.
 
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Yes its been a tough rifle season here this year. Seems like the bucks never really got moving
I'm not even finding them in the cover they are typically in this time of year. I'm starting to kick myself for passing up a few decent bucks in muzzleloader season. Also seeing lots of moose and some elk sign which is nice.
 
It's been a strange year as well in my neck of 52. I don't care how lazy I sound, I generally start bracketing the various little groups from a high vantage point in my yard once they appear, and at least get a half arsed idea on the numbers. This year? Still watching n waiting to no avail. I'm sure the last 2 winters didn't help (although winters usually suck here) and the long wait for green up in spring IMHO is where a lot of the mortality was potentially caused. But it's surely odd to have no snow combined with mostly moderate temps here.

A guy can read on 306hunters or whatever that bucks are moving or rutting, but that don't mean a darn thing if it's not in your local area. Also, buddy of mine an hour away has all kinds of deer showing up at his bait, so hopefully there's some movement before the season ends. I haven't had WT tag soup since 2013, but this year feels like that one. Not to mention the lack of road hunters/field drivers, not hearing shots near dark thirty either. Strange.
 
hobophobe said:
Food source must be good, not much snow. Temp was in the low plus till yesterday pretty much. That valley near me has it all, I'm surpised I haven't seen much in it. Its huge. I'm sure they are bedded in there, plenty of trails and poop.

we got snow last night. Tracks through the yard.

Yeah, I regret those coyote chances. Bent out of shape at no deer for me...and no coyotes.
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I have shot coyotes and left them laying there, and still had deer show up after. Shoot away
 
Neighbor to my east says this has been low numbers for him too. Ill take the ole rifle and binos south again after work and see if those does are back on my property.

I heard south that there is a ton of white tails.

I told hunting buddy its game on now for coyotes
 
This year has definitely been different. Not many deer to be seen and we've see more bucks than does, which is very odd. 10 km south of here doe to buck sightings are 10 to 1 (which is more what we expect to see), but not here.
Lots of elk moving, almost every day. No shortage of moose either. Mule deer in abundance.

Starting yesterday/today the WT bucks are starting to move. One nice one 6x6 yesterday afternoon, and a decent 3x3 this morning. Things are looking up. Maybe the weather change and new snow recently? Who knows.
 
hobophobe said:
Neighbor to my east says this has been low numbers for him too. Ill take the ole rifle and binos south again after work and see if those does are back on my property.

I heard south that there is a ton of white tails.

[ B]I told hunting buddy its game on now for coyotes[/B]
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thats one of the answers to your lack of deer sightings in your area, Coyotes are "hunting pressure" same as you are...deer consider both of you "a predator" and will move locations from either of you.
 
Same thing happening in my neck of the woods (NW Ontario). No sign, nothing on the cams, long warm Autumn. And this is in an area where you're usually tripping over the deer on your way into the stand in the morning. I don't know if it's the weather or the explosion in Wolf and Coyote populations around here, but it's been a weird and frustrating season for sure.

I suspect it's the predators though, because there are deer all over the place in town.
 
A normal year on the prairies is much colder with at least a couple of weeks in November in minus double digits. Under normal circumstances, deer would have to browse several times during the day and sometimes near constantly just to maintain body mass. They would of course be out into fields and other feeding areas earlier or even midday as needed.

Deer generally conserve as much energy as possible, especially moving into winter. When the weather is warm they simply don't need to move as much.

This directly affects buck movement looking for does. Does in warm weather are in their safe bedding areas most of the day so they are easy for bucks to find and evaluate safely, hunters not so much. When it is cold the does are spread out and browsing. Harder for the bucks to find and easier for hunters to ambush.

Anywho, doe like to bed on knobs and hillsides where they can watch down wind and detect predators approaching from behind with their nose. These areas are easy to find. Once you find a bedding area just get down wind and sit. Bucks will visit the area throughout the day.

This just minutes ago under one of my stands in a bedding area. This image was captured with a Spypoint Cell Link hooked to a cheap Amazon camera. Not without issues but a lot of fun and a cheap way to get a cell camera.

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Definitely the slowest year for movement I’ve seen in a long time. I have at least 12 different bucks on cam in the area I hunt up in the forest but have only seen 2 of them after sitting in the stand 11 days now. I have 4 more days towards the end of the season but like saskgunowner, I feel this is going to be a tag soup year.
 
jbmauser said:
Definitely the slowest year for movement I’ve seen in a long time. I have at least 12 different bucks on cam in the area I hunt up in the forest but have only seen 2 of them after sitting in the stand 11 days now. I have 4 more days towards the end of the season but like saskgunowner, I feel this is going to be a tag soup year.
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It takes less than a minute to change a season. That minute is just as likely in one of the next four days as any other.
 
MK2750 said:
It takes less than a minute to change a season. That minute is just as likely in one of the next four days as any other.
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Ain't that the truth!! All it takes is a instant to change a hunter's fortune. Days spent sitting in the stand seeing zero animals thinking nothing is ever going to happen and then out of the blue something shows up and we get our chance.

This November does seem rather slow though, I certainly chalk it up to the warm weather, lack of frosts, and minimal snow. Hadn't really seemed like the rut really kicked in during the first few weeks at all. My experience the last couple years is that late season is when I perceive things to start moving, and its been when I've had the most success. YMMV
 
I was thinking this has been the worst season for deer I have personally seen in Saskatchewan since 2010. Both white tail and mule deer numbers are extremely low and the age structure is heavily skewed on the young side. It is a combination of several extremely cold winters and deep snow coupled with increasingly dry summers and little standing water as well as heavy larval ticks in the falltime and lots of kill around the grain elevators from the ribbon rail meat grinders during the long cold winters and of course record increases in habitat loss and slough draining as farmers race to turn pasture into grain production.

Combine this with white tail being the only open season that doesn't need a draw and you have a bunch of guys hammering any and every white tail they can for a few pounds of meat off a doe or fawn. Shoot the doe and the fawns die. Fawns need their mothers to teach them how to survive through a winter. And we need the does to survive and breed to keep our populations growing.

As for coyotes being a problem, I'm just not seeing that on my 8 trail cams or while I walk several former PFRA pastures. Even coyote numbers are way down. Same with sharp tailed grouse, ruffed grouse and snowshoe hare. I've put on some heavy miles on my boots in some of the best habitat for animals and am seriously concerned with how poor our wildlife populations are. I would say we are in serious trouble right now regarding the state of all of our game species, even migratory birds.

I'd also like to address the growing concern surrounding Chronic Wasting Disease. While I don't think it is close to being a main contributing factor in lowering deer, moose and elk populations it is spreading geographically. Most deer will never even live long enough to die from CWD given that it can take over 2-3 years for symptoms to be fatal after infection. Also, mule deer are primarily the species with the highest incidence of CWD and their populations have largely been afflicted by CWD for decades. Despite this fact, mule deer populations have been stable to slowly growing in some areas notwithstanding swings in population numbers due to other variables like weather and habitat loss and hunting pressure.
 
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Coyote numbers here and by weyburn are apparantly way up. And they look healthy. Everytime im out or driving to work i see them.


We were practically tripping over white tails all summer here.
 
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