You'd think it woud, here.....but it has the opposite effect one might think. They don't have a CHOICE where I hunt.....except to come to the food sources available to them. By the time leaf drop occurs......they're hard on the mast crops, here. With the deer density as it is, here.......the browse line is non-existent to 6', also. So the cover they used in Septemeber and early October(to travel where I can hunt them)is now a thing of the past.

I notice them coming out of the thicker stuff later and later, though....but this could also be attributed to pressure (gun season around here is still popular in the outlying tracts I hunt).

For a time....in my woods....they have all they need within the confines of an area that allows no hunting. They stick tight in there until they've used up the food sources, there. Then.....they come out to places I can hunt them.

If the herd dynamics were different, here.......they could stay in the non-huntable area during the winter. Too many of them.....and the food sources are depleted rather quickly. I have mast producing trees, galore, though........

So I got that going for me.....which is nice.

During the rut here.......is basically the only time I see a buck (barring an early season sighting or two of a buck with his guard down).