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)

You may be right Breechplug. A few years ago I would be able to sit in any one of my three boxes and expect to see a few deer on the plot, morning or late evening. Last year that hardly happened. Even worse this year. Could it be that deer are actually smarter than the average congressman? At least the deer seem to have the ability to learn from experience.

They aren't too smart yet. I had a doe in my sights today, but couldn't pull the trigger.

I have a real hard time killing a doe. It was a fun hunt anyway.

I love the early part of the season, in Oct. the days are longer and the deer are moving during shooting hours. It seems to me as the year grows older and the deer keep moving at the same time but the days are so much shorter I am home eating supper at the time I was seeing them in Oct then comes daylight savings time to really screw things up. Our bow season will open in Sept. next year and muzzle loader in Oct. I think they are actually going to do something right!

If you are there Every day ALL day you are educating the deer and it doesn't matter how big of an area you have. And if your not the one actually educating the deer then someone is from somewhere, there has to be pressure.

Muley is a girley-man! Muley is a girley-man!

I believe in non-discrimination and have a real hard time passing on a nice fat doe.

Still lots of elk meat to finish. I just wanted to be out hunting. I enjoyed the stalk. No need to kill Bambi to have fun.

I never ever pass on a buck.

deleted : no longer want to be on the forum

What I think happens is they start reacting to hunting pressure. For instance, when I was young, no one or at least few bow hunted. Rifle season was nine days long and hunters flooded the woods. All the natural patterns deer follow was interrupted and deer were seen all over the place. After the rifle season there was no muzzleloader season.

Present day, bow season starts in September and hunters flood the woods with bow and arrow waiting for a chance to stick a deer. But they also teach the deer that strangers are in the woods. Sights, smells, bait piles, all things they are not used to tell the animals that additional caution needs to be taken. Then would come the early youth deer season. And gun fire much earlier then usual erupts through the woods. The animals take note. Then we have scouting with trail cameras, and more bow hunters, and finally rifle season hits and the woods are flooded with deer hunters stomping all over the place.

But the deer are expecting this from all the sign in the woods. And they begin to go nocturnal. Hunters are confused because the deer are not following patterns. So they make drives. Deer then not only go more nocturnal, but they go deeper into the area where man will not travel. Hunters are upset because the deer are not wandering the normal trails during the day time.

After rifle season, muzzleloader season starts, and bow season still is on. Some deer start to relax but I think all the activity from early fall until winter, has these animals on such high alert, that many go nocturnal until deep winter, when temps force them to come out in the day for food.

Mature muley bucks are much more of a challenge. The hunt is always the bottom line for me. If the hunt was too easy. I get no pleasure in the kill.

I live by my rules. Not yours. Antlers have nothing to do with it.



btw Teddy Roosevelt wouldn't shoot a doe either. I'm a fan of his.