late season whitetail
12-25-2011, 05:29 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location:
Posts: 2,186
Down my way, season ends Jan. 31. Finding mature buck cruising around in day light during late season is a tough deal.
I hunt on about 3150 acres along with 12 other men and our occasional guests. By late December pressure has the deer skiddish and practically totally nocturnal. This season will be a real challenge because food is everywhere. It has been relatively warm so far and wet enough to keep the browse in good shape. There is a bumper crop of Water Oak and Red Oak acorns. And about 75 deer are in the freezer!
One of the club guys has 23 trail cams out. During the past 3-4 weeks, every single decent buck that has been caught one or more of these cams has been caught between about 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. Does and yearlings in the food plots, which are the finest plots that we have had ever, are seldom out before 6:00 p.m. Back in October there were dozens and dozens of daytime visitors to the food plots ... cameras say practically nada now. And this is typical of every year where I hunt.
Our best estrus cycle is long gone by now. Our best bet for bagging a decent buck will likely be during a second and rather week estrus cycle that usually shows up in late January.
My advice is to hunt the routes from "bed to food and back", and hope for the best.
I hunt on about 3150 acres along with 12 other men and our occasional guests. By late December pressure has the deer skiddish and practically totally nocturnal. This season will be a real challenge because food is everywhere. It has been relatively warm so far and wet enough to keep the browse in good shape. There is a bumper crop of Water Oak and Red Oak acorns. And about 75 deer are in the freezer!
One of the club guys has 23 trail cams out. During the past 3-4 weeks, every single decent buck that has been caught one or more of these cams has been caught between about 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. Does and yearlings in the food plots, which are the finest plots that we have had ever, are seldom out before 6:00 p.m. Back in October there were dozens and dozens of daytime visitors to the food plots ... cameras say practically nada now. And this is typical of every year where I hunt.
Our best estrus cycle is long gone by now. Our best bet for bagging a decent buck will likely be during a second and rather week estrus cycle that usually shows up in late January.
My advice is to hunt the routes from "bed to food and back", and hope for the best.
Last edited by Mojotex; 12-25-2011 at 07:08 PM.
