Stonewall308

So I've decided that my bow hunt this weekend in Northern Virginia will be in a slightly different area.

For the last three weekends I've been hunting this area where a bunch of trails cross, and where I think deer bed down near by. The first weekend I had close encounters with a buck and two does but couldn't close the deal, the second weekend I saw three does well out of bow range, and the third weekend I saw nothing. I'm thinking I may have pressured the area too much, or it could have been that it was a full moon, or that some jacka$$ on an adjoining property decided to fire off about 100 handgun rounds during the best hunting hours on a Saturday evening.

So this weekend I am going to hunt another spot that I know of of the same property, much closer to a good food source. I've never hunted it before, but I think it is probably a staging area for nocturnal feeding. There is a good corn field on someone else's land within 200 yards.

My question is, should I be using any scent as an attractant? Maybe an all-season curiousity scent? Is it too early to use an estrous scent?

bushanic

I can tell you this the deer have gone to bed for now. 2 weeks ago the deer could be pattern pretty easy in NoVa and I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of that. I have not seen anything since Monday 18 I can tell they are still around with fresh tracks and rubs but they have bedded down hard for now. I also have removed a dominant buck and 2 does from the area. that could be a part of it also. we don't have a big food source like corn but the area is not pressured at all but by me. I would think the deer will really start running around by Next week to the weekend. I am not one to fellow the moon but when its that bright at night I would feel the deer get to roam pretty freely making for a quite day of hunting.
We were down in Richmond county last week from Thursday to Saturday and only saw one doe but a ton of fresh scrapes and rubs.On the way back home Saturday night there was a lot of road kill that was not there in the morning. I looks to me that the deer might be moving more down south. I run 95 from fredericksburg to NoVa every morning and you can really tell when the rut is firing up by all the deer on the side of the road. as of today I have seen 3 over a 60 mile drive that is a small amount so far. I have not found scents do work for me till December and then it code blue on a drag line.
The deer in your area could just be taking a nap before the BIG date. Good luck to ya.

Stonewall308

Thanks for the input.

There is supposed to be a coming cold snap in my area for this weekend, so hopefully that gets them moving.

o2bebowhunting

i plan on sitting all day in a oak flat w/ my TC pro hunter. i saw around 15 deer from 7-11 am last saturday while bow hunting. saw 2 bucks chasing(actually nudging) does. they were not interested. i just need to hold off on shooting the first 6 or basket 8 that comes by. easier said than done when someone you know wants a deer. this is in madison co btw.

bushanic

My son just reminded me that 3 years ago I got my first Xbow buck on Halloween.With the cooler temps coming in I plan on being on stand Thursday Friday and With the kid on Saturday I wish he could last longer then 3hrs There is a nice 8 I have been hold off messing with till now. Good luck to everyone this weekend I have a feeling things are going to get HOT.

dcbucki

I hope things start heating up. I haven't seen a buck since 10/4. Been out a couple times a week. Still haven't seen anything on Quantico. I see a lot of sign but haven't seen anything yet. I'm sure next week things will get really nice!! Hunting Am and PM Thursday-Sat next weekend so can't wait!!

bushanic

dcbucki, What T/A are you in?

Stonewall308

I am thinking about using a drag line with estrous scent on it to see if I can trick a less-savvy buck into coming in.

I read in another thread that bucks may actually be more likely to follow estrous scent early on when only the first few does have gone into estrous, the theory being that there is more competition among bucks for the first few does than when the majority of the does are available.

crenshaw

Ive been hunting in NOVA for a while now, and i would say it just depends, i actually never have to much luck with Scents, i think there are just to many deer and it makes putting out scent kinda obsolete. Just my opinion, but i have dragged tarsels off a deer i shot the night before and hung them from a tree, ripe as could be with added scents, and deer walked by paying no attention, even bucks.

But i can say this in my studies, cold fronts on Halloween weekend tend to cause a doe or two to snap, can cause heavey chasing due to only one or two does being in heat and all the bucks got to follow those, when they all go into heat, nova can slow down, so many does, not enough bucks.

mackesr

The farmer that leases the land that I hunt on did not plant anything this year due to the drought. I have not seen a large amount of deer movement this bow season but when I did it was always around 9:30am and 5:30pm almost every single time. All three deer I killed this year over a three weekend period was at almost exactly 5:30pm. This is down in Culpepper Co. Even the full moon phase last weekend did not change that. I watch the roads as well as I drive in from Orange to NoVa every day and have seen a lot of small buck activity the past five days. Yesterday on my way home I took a backroad and a small three pointer was just walking alongside the road and I drove up along side and he hardly paid me any attention. Thats not normal for down there as there are a lot of road hunters. He seemed to have something else on his mind.....