I' d appreciate your input regarding the effect of gun hunting on the patterns of deer movement. Shotgun week ends this Saturday, and there have been local hunters hunting woodlots nearby, likely scattering the deer . It is also prime rut time here, so any thoughts on my chances with the bow on Sunday ?

Thanks

You' d have a better chance at seeing pink elephants being chased by 8 foot clowns than you would have at seeing deer.

Not to get you down, but this holds true for where I hunt at least. Our property is a 40 acre cedar swamp surrounded by farm land and hardwoods. Nice place to hunt you would think any time of the season. I' ve hunted this piece of land for 20 years now and traditionaly, if you haven' t got a deer out of there from Oct 1 through about Nov 17th (gun goes from Nov 15-30), the chances of seeing a deer for the rest of the year are really slim.

It always certainly depends on weather too. If it' s realy cold, deer movement should be better prior to sunset and shortly after sunrise. But for the most part, deer go completely nocturnal after having been pushed and shot at for two weeks straight. (Can you tell I haven' t got a deer yet this season?)

Hunting is theoretically over for me this season. I' m in the same boat as badshot. If I don' t get a deer the first two days of gun season which was the 17,18th then it' s over. If you see a doe 700 yards away it would be considered a good gun season.
I' m not one for all the deer drives. Nope no way. I won' t even open that can of worms. That will be the only way anyone wil get a deer around here (legally). Myself, I' ll stay on stand hoping someone may push one my way like I always do. Way too much pressure on them where I hunt. How do you hunt a nocturnal animal during the day anyway?

i dunno, i used to hunt game lands pretty regularly. during the two weeks i was out there i would hear guns shot consistently everyday and also see them here and there. i took my first deer the 8th day of teh season, the next year i could have had a doe the 3rd day but i didnt have a doe tag. the next day i took a 5pnt. just somehting to think about.

My expereince here in NY is this. During early gun hunting season, there are a lot of hunters out there, deer are running scared, or bedded down all day, but by the end of the season (I think it is around 3 weeks), there are very few hunters out there and the deer are calming down a bit. Late bow starts on a Thursday in December, so I usually wait till Saterday till I go out. And when I do, there is not another hutner around anywhere. I do see deer during this late season, but I have yet to take a mature buck.

BobCo...
Have you seen a mature buck during late bow?? I' ve never even seen a deer. I kinda got lazy about late bowseason the past few years. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?? Where abouts are you?

No, I have not seen a mature buck during late bow season for about the past 8 years, but I have always seen deer. I generally hunt in 9F, 9M, 9P, 9K, and 9H.

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Around here the deer scatter pretty good after the gun seasons. We have a week of early shotgun, a week of muzzleloader, and a week of late shotgun. Give them a couple weeks to calm down then you should be able to pattern them again. Hope this helps.

Around my neck of the woods, if you don' t get a deer during archery season--then you need to hunt with the neighbors.

And the reason for that is--they bring about 15-20 guys and do huge drives (across everyones land--they have been caught before--and just replace the guy who can' t hunt anymore with a different person) that scatter the deer to the 4 corners of the county. Plus each guy kills at least 3 deer a piece (no matter how they do it)...The woods becomes a war zone during shotgun season!