I am having a serious problem. this is my second year hunting in texas(came from MA) and i am having a problem. i have a lease in fairfield tx wich is basically in east texas but all throughout archery season i see atleast 5 deer a hunt and shooter bucks all the time. my son harvested a real nice shooter buck that scored 137 1/2 and i want to beat him. i have seen plenty of deer throughout archery season that will beat that but not anymore. ever since halloween they slowed down tremendously. my son was out of school all last week for thanksgiving and i took off of work. we hunted all week and weekend and only saw 4 deer all together the whole time. i am used to seeing atleast 5 deer a hunt and know this time a year i am lucky if i see one a day, this also happened to me last year. i am wondering if this is normal in texas for them to disapear around the rut or if it is the area i am hunting. i have always liked the rut(of course) but i hate when it is about to come now becuase it screws everything up. is it normal for texas?

My first guess would be that your neighbor is feeding more corn than you presently are.

Im having the same problem... Without the giant bucks though lol. I saw a minimum of 3 deer a day up In NY. After halloween.... Not to much.

It is normal for deer to do that, not just east Texas. My guess is the bucks are keeping close tabs on the doe. If you do not have the doe feeding and bedding areas on your lease, then the bucks will most likely not be there. Right before the rut, the bucks will sorta hole up to prepare for the fun times. During the rut, the bucks rarely come back to their normal bedding areas if there is some distance involved. Look for travel routes that are being used more now than before Halloween. You might try some obersvation hunts. Place a stand out of range, but able to see the routes. That way if they are using that route, you can verify it, but not disturb the area if you misjudge the stand placement. You can learn a lot in 2-3 hunts just watching from a distance. If you do have doe, the bucks will be scent checking the feeding areas hopefully just before dark. They do that from field edges and up to 50 yards off the edges. As fast as I have seen some appear and disappear, if you are not looking at the right spot, they can be missed easily.

On my property we kinda have the opposite problem. Before rut was very slow for the antlered deer. Doe were everywhere, but not the bucks. Once the rut kicked in, we had bucks traveling through and chasing. Now that the rut is over, I have a feeling the bucks have moved back to my neighbors place. They don't have the doe population we have. I guess that is good and bad, good that they do not bow hunt, bad that I have a lot of time in the stand and not seeing the bucks. I am trying to get some buck bedding areas, but that takes a lot of time for the bucks to find it and feel secure there. I haven't been out since the rut ended, but should be out later this week if time permits.