the deer are here .....but were are they?

A couple tricks i've heard to turn your deer from noctornal to "daytime" deer are to hang apples during the evenings so that they can smell the food...and only lower the apples on the ground during the day, that way they learn that the food is only their during the day.

the other thing i've read about are these drip bags that are controlled by the temperature. you hang it over a scrape and it will drip (which ever scent you choose) during the day time and wont drip during the night...i've heard that is a great way to "train" your buck to visit the scrape during the daytime only
 
Don't know man, I was setup on a line of 10 fresh scrapes this aft., frozen and wet, but the setup was so nice, I had to stay till dark. Maybe tomorrow :D
You know I did read one that directly following the chase phase, the mating begins , and the deer just go where ever to get -r- done :D , I sure hope they get on with it , and come back out of hiding. :D
 
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My bow partner and I were out tonight until the last minute of legal light. Neither of us saw as much as a hair..........and the rut really has not started here (Howe Island in the St Lawrence River south of Kingston).

Doug
 
Levi Garrett said:
Don't know man, I was setup on a line of 10 fresh scrapes this aft., frozen and wet, but the setup was so nice, I had to stay till dark. Maybe tomorrow :D
You know I did read one that directly following the chase phase, the mating begins , and the deer just go where ever to get -r- done :D , I sure hope they get on with it , and come back out of hiding. :D
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I dunno... Heard that the scrapes aren't always the best place to be in the heat of the rut. Often they are advertising done early in the rut to reinforce dominance, advertise virility and/or terrirorial boundry markers. Some abandon scrapes and rub lines in favour of stalking does when the heat's on. Theory is if you can find the females the males, assuming they're 'in the mood', will be close by, abandoning typical trails and habits so they can be around the does and not miss their chance to propogate.

Never got the chance this year to prove the theory. Saw tracks, droppings and the occasional scrape, but the deer were shy to say the least. Spooked one while walking the latter part of the last day, but otherwise the woods were barren.
 
I have seen 'em after this vanishing act, and some were still tracking does, (got a nice one this way) , and some were paired up, this may have been the waiting game till she comes in.
Those scapes today were made in the early morning, not a speck of anything on them, except for tracks, and a hog it was. Totally agree with moving on if nothing shows for a couple days. The does here, I know where they are, around every frecken bait pile :D .
The Rabbit numbers are way up, and did I ever see aloth of coyote crap with Thumper in it. :D
 
There is definately something strange about this year. I was luck and got mine but my buddy who owns the farm says that after the spring the deer just sort of vanished.

Brian
 
Doug said:
My bow partner and I were out tonight until the last minute of legal light. Neither of us saw as much as a hair..........and the rut really has not started here (Howe Island in the St Lawrence River south of Kingston).

Doug
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up in area 60 were we are, the rut is full swing.....scrapes and rub ,s all over the place....like i said earlier the best sign ive seen in years up there.....i think we just got to cocky :redface: ..and the animal gods said up yours to us.....
no matter what we had a week in the bush..better then a week in the big smog here any day
 
I hunt with the same partner now for years, we dont have the luck of a buck every year, but we have a great time with the laughs and giggles just like you did. We see it as just a bonus if we harvest a deer. Dont be discouraged.
 
Maddog has it right... the deer were smack in the middle of the breeding preriod this year and mostly nocturnal for most of the hunt. The second rut began at the end of the second week here and another chase period was just heating up. Toomer took a huge buck with both horns broken off chasing a buck and two does in the hardwood last Saturday night.
 
I got back on Saturday with ZIP, ZILCH etc.

It was too hot where we were, 13 one day, and between 7 and 10 others.

They were moving at night when it was colder.
 
I am hearing from a number of guys around the province that the rut WAS on where they hunt, and others that it was NOT.

When we see no rubs, no scrapes, and no activity of bucks chasing does, we conclude that the rut has not happened yet. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! I do find it highly unusual that all of the deer within a fairly small geographic area (eg Eastern Ontario) are not in the rut at the same time. Biology tells us that they SHOULD be. But observation by dozens of experienced hunters can't be discounted, I don't think.....

Doug
 
I got the impression they'd like to be rutting but the weather was just to warm. Seen lots of scrapes & rubs at the start of the hunt but not much new during! The bucks we did get were neck swollen so I think they started then stalled out with the warmth. Our camp did have a banner year with some unbelievable performance out of a 6 mon & 10 mon old pair of beagle pups :dancingbanana: of which I'm proud to say one was mine :)
They put 8 deer out to Ranger Gord on one chase at one time :eek:
 
Doug said:
I am hearing from a number of guys around the province that the rut WAS on where they hunt, and others that it was NOT.

When we see no rubs, no scrapes, and no activity of bucks chasing does, we conclude that the rut has not happened yet. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! I do find it highly unusual that all of the deer within a fairly small geographic area (eg Eastern Ontario) are not in the rut at the same time. Biology tells us that they SHOULD be. But observation by dozens of experienced hunters can't be discounted, I don't think.....

Doug
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The rut is controlled by the amount of sunlight taken in through the iris of the does.
This is becuase a buck will not start to rut unless there are does around to breed.
The farther south you go, the longer the rut.
The reason the bucks rut up here in the fall in Canada, is because of the distance from the equator.
Down in South America, Mexico, etc., the bucks can carry hard antler all year long.
This is because does that close to the equator can come into esterus at anyy time of year.
The reason for that is that the does can have fawns at any time of the year and they will have no problem surviving, unlike the Canadian winters.

Cat
 
Fogducker

Sorry to hear that you had a poor showing of deer. Glad the rest of the hunt was exellent. I've heard of other groups having the same problems as your camp. I hunted the controlled hunt and had an exellent week. We had 10 guys and shot 9 Deer. We figured we had seen close to 30 deer the first day. But hunting with shotgun, most we out of range.
Hope your next season is better.
 
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