nocturnal deer, update with photo

woodchopper

woodchopper

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just finished my 2 week hunting trip...

wife let me in the house without having to burn my clothes. :d

got my moose, but the deer are nocturnal, still got 3 empty tags after 2 weeks in the bush

a lot of fresh deer sign in the mornings but nothing moving, and when you did spook one up out of its bed it went for thick cover and no chance to get off a clean shot.

very frustrating, anyone else in Alberta noticing the same ?

I saw more moose then deer this year,

come to think of it I saw more coyotes then deer. :(

oh well I still have 2 weekends to fill those deer tags.
 
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well you could hunt with a buddy and push the deer out of there beds and have your buddy waiting on the edge off the thick cover waiting for the shot .if the deer will not come to you go to them ..Dutch
 
dutchhunter said:
well you could hunt with a buddy and push the deer out of there beds and have your buddy waiting on the edge off the thick cover waiting for the shot .if the deer will not come to you go to them ..Dutch
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I'm hunting solid bush, there is no pushing deer where you want them to go, too much cover, a long shot would be 100m, unless the deer stands on a cutline waiting.
 
I've had success by beating em back to there bed's...

Once you know where they are coming from and where they are moving in the open just put yourself between them and the bush before legal light and wait it out... Likewise you can sit on a spot till end of legal and they may slip up and come out early.
 
My cameras are showing mostly night movement. These are baited locations in the bush, which tend to encourage coming in during the daytime. The bigger bucks seem to like an hour after dark and midnight. Its been like that since September when they were on bear cameras.
 
woodchopper;10709908got my moose said:
Yes, absolutely Preacher... says the choir. :redface:

Jokes aside: yes, absolutely. In my circle of hunting friends: Those who have gotten deer (most have none so far) have only gotten bucks by pushing them out of beds, and gotten does at the edge of the heavy forest areas minutes before time to stop shooting in the evening.

The moose seemed to be everywhere just before season, but not so much now: one friend is not happy about that. :(

And the coyotes are indeed plentiful, so I plan on getting my boots on the ground to start after them first of December. :dancingbanana:
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Jokes aside: yes, absolutely. In my circle of hunting friends: Those who have gotten deer (most have none so far) have only gotten bucks by pushing them out of beds, and gotten does at the edge of the heavy forest areas minutes before time to stop shooting in the evening.
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Got my last one Sunday early afternoon standing in a field half way up a lil rise broadside...

But then again I been seeing lots of bucks mid day lately sunning themselves while hunters are back at camp waiting for "magic hour"... Deer change patterns from time to time, hunt smart and you'll get em :)
 
Spent almost 2 weeks hunting in Eastern Ontario. One full week and second evenings only. The four of us went 4 days without seeing anything, but got a doe on Nov. 7, and I shot my buck on the 8th. After that we saw quite a few does, but nothing else (no tag more tags for does). We did see some nice bucks on Trail cams, but always at 8-10pm. From what I have read here and elsewhere, and conversations with others on my WMU, 4 guys splitting 2 deer was exceptional this year. I know of multiple groups of 15, running dogs, who only shot 2.

I bought a crossbow this past Monday....
 
well just a quick update....

yesterday on my way out hunting I almost got a nice big buck with my truck, stupid thing came halfway onto the road (highway) and then turned around. I even ended up stopping and just looking at the stupid bugger from about 20 feet for about 15 seconds before he thought to wander off. I was thinking of getting out of the truck and just shooting him...... but that would be illegal, shooting a deer from the highway, unless both the deer and myself moved off the right of way, and it was close to legal shooting light but still a little early.

so stupid buck is still running around out there waiting to jump out in front of a minivan.

but more importantly I got a nice big buck in a swamp just as he was bedding down about an hour after sunrise.

he must of thought he was safe in the thick brush, but then he stood up to see what was making all that racket stomping around the swamp.
 
kamlooky said:
Yeah, yah, and then whut happened?

Gadd I enjoy suspensfull stories.
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well he stood up looked at me and decided it was time to leave, bounce bounce bounce, so here I am thinking 2 more bounds and he's gone into the thick, head neck shot if I time this right... bound... freehand 100m.... bound.... BOOM....

so now I walk some more, fricken frozen bog grass.... fricken lumps... fricken shrubs.... good sign of moose here....

get to where he was bedding down, hmmmm just a little farther..... more frozen bog grass lumps and shrubs, then blood spray.... Yaaaaaaahhh :) tie the first little orange ribbon.

then some simple tracking, more frozen crap to trudge over, and a few more orang ribbons, and then I get up to the dead deer... hmmmmm thats funny looking...

I guess my timing was a little off,

ass shot :( might be messy :( but nice rack. ;)

well one more ribbon in the trees, and trudge back to get the quad, more frozen crap.

so quad over a few trees hook on the deer drag it to a more gutting friendly spot and get on with the messy business.

well its not bad really, bullet went in high in the rump, came out in the body cavity around the loins, they look shredded and then tore out all the big blood vessels just under the spine, and tore up the tops of the lungs.

big bugger was tough to gut, old buck, so mostly hamburger I'm thinking. (I got the calf moose in the freezer so I have lots of good roast / steak)

I'll be skinning him out tonight.
 
I had only non legal shooting bucks on my camera for 3wks - on the Saturday of the third weekend I put some doe in heat on a wick near the alpha - I shot the 10 pt that had been on the camera at 3.30 in the afternoon that day. Was that the day he decide to show his horns during daylight ?? or did the doe in heat help him out of the bush?? I am not sure - but I'll try it again.
 
Had some real good luck with a tending grunt call this weekend. Six bucks brought out of one 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile chunk of bush in 24 hours, we got three with myself landing a large bodied 5x5, rack wasn't huge, but lots of hamburger and sausage in that one. The larger bucks would come right near dawn or dusk with the younger ones popping their heads out at midday. Good weekend, I had to travel from my usual hunting grounds where deer are fairly sparse this year (again).
 
skined him out last night, I think that bugger has more meat in his neck then in one hind quarter.

the right hind quarter is busted up and the bullet did not exit, I can see where it went into the ribs near the front left sholder, very high up in the ribs.

and tough.... I may have to grind him twice :d

Be interesting to dig that slug out, it will be the second one I manage to recover, normally everything I shoot the bullet completely penetrates and is lost.

300WM 200grn accubond @2960fps MV,


we tried last week with some rattling and scent lures and got nothing.


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