Im gonna try and make this short, but it may be tough.....
First off I've been Hunting Whitetail Deer for over 35 Years, back just say 10 years ago I could go out and be in My Stand overlooking a Corn or Soybean Field and at 3:30 in the afternoon the Field would be filled with Deer, mabey not the Big Bucks but there were Bicks there. I could take a Big Fat Doe or a Decent Buck any time I wanted to, then things started to change over the last 10 Years.
I Call it the SMART GENE, it seems as if the Deer that live to see tomorrow pass on this Smart Gene to there Young and as the Years go by the Deer just keep getting Smarter and Smarter. You start to see them Avoiding the Stands that have been there for Years and thy start comming out later and later in the Afternoon, and are going in Earlier and Earlier in the Morning.
Heck I could be in My Stand in the Morning a half hour befor Sunrise and catch them Deer comming in to Bed, Now there in Bed Hours befor daylight, and in the Evening they dont come out untill after Legal Shooting time. Or better yet they found where they Cant be Hunted and are there insted of being in there Traditional Bedding Grounds or the Property you Hunt.
I even tried My SECRET to Hunt from 11am untill 1 Pm to catch them when they Least Expect you to be there, this used to work Great and I'd Fool them, No More, now they stay Bedded ALL DAY and dnt come out untill Dark, and the Big Bucks go Total Nocturnal from the Beginning of Bow Season. I see there Tracks in the Corn Fields from the night befor but they Never Show in the Light, same as the Does and even the Fawns are getting to be the same way.
I've been talking to some of the Best Deer Killing Machines I know and they say the same things, it's getting so hard to take a Deer or even see one that I cant believe it.
I Work all Year Long to Hunt and have the time off in the Fall to Hunt, I have the Entire Hunting Season Off, I Hunt Every Day and Hunt All Day most times. Im in Deer Infested Areas, there GONE and Hiding.
Do any of You have the Same Experiences? Im a Dedicated True Born Deer Hunting Machine, and for Me and many like Me to have the same thing happening really blows. And Im not saying we over Hunt our spots either, we have many Private Big Acreage Land to Hunt. It seems as if you Hunt there once, take a Deer or Two then they know your there and there Gone.
I Feel Fortunate to have the Deer I have taken this Season as Many Good Hunters I know did'nt even see a Deer, there's many out there but there just Hiding and Good.
(BP)