How'd yall's season go?
02-08-2012, 10:05 AM
#22
Typical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 590
My trip to Texas was a total bust. But that's a different subject. My Alabama deer season was very good, though a riddle that I have yet figured out to my satisfaction. I have a freezer filled with fresh venison ..... 5 does and 2 nice bucks. Both bucks were killed during the December estrus cycle. Both ( a 9 pt. and 8 pt.) were pushing does. I probably would not have bagged the nice 8 pt. if he had not been grunting, bumping a big doe through the hardwood bottom. I killed the 9 pt. on Dec. 10 and 8 pt. on Dec. 12. Then as abruptly as I have ever experienced, I could not find a decent buck and saw very few does after mid December. One of my hunting buddies had 23 trail cameras out all season. Starting around Dec. 17, his photo count dropped by a factor of about 10 !! I and several friends hunted a great deal during the month of January. Practically no deer were killed. Final kill board count was down over 30% from 2010-11.
Who in the world has the time or money to keep up with 23 trail cameras??
02-09-2012, 05:12 AM
#24
Typical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Northern WI
Posts: 853
02-09-2012, 05:26 AM
#25
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Sulphur,Indiana
Posts: 1,350
Had a great season over all,but I could not find a Buck I shot 6 days into the gun season and that was a real bummer. He would have been my biggest ever in my short career of 3 years,a very nice 8 pointer about 115 to 120. Saw more Bucks than ever during the rut and plenty of Does which filled the freezer with a good supply of meat for the family. Seeing the Bucks even though small in size except for 2 nice ones to far out to shoot was a real lesson for me in Buck rutting behavior. I'm in southern Indiana near the Hoosier National Forest around Harrison and Crawford County. I think a lot of people had a good year in our area over all. I took some pics and put them on my photo section if you want to see some of them. Thanks for asking the question.
02-15-2012, 05:20 PM
#27
Spike
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 16
In south MS, the season just ended today. Everyone around here says it's the worst season in many years due to the abundance of acorns and the warm winter. My son killed a decent 9 pt chasing a doe, but I didn't see anything I wanted to shoot. Maybe next year!
02-19-2012, 12:02 PM
#29
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location:
Posts: 2,186
Stonewall308 - Answer. my bud E.R. And he had 31 cameras! Eight were stolen last off-season !
I kid you not this guy makes a round about ever 7-10 days starting about Oct. 1. Down loads all photos. Sifts through them and stores what he figures are non-duplicates.
I have seen him sit at a table and go through 1000's of them. He also has kept a spread sheet record, developed graphs based upon about every variable that you could imagine, and also made a area scatter chart of all kills made on our lease (3000+ acres) ... since 2004. It's a ton of work. The end result is intersting and has been an eye opener to me for sure.
Several trends are obvious .... (1) Moon phase has nothing definitive to do with when its killing time. (2) Over 80% of the good bucks have been killed during what must be the peak of the doe estrus ... Dec. 8-15. (3) Most deer have been killed when low temps have been about 30F - 40F. (4) January ... may as well stay home. (5) Three or four areas of 200 +/- acres have been the hot spots all of these years , (6) The big boys are practically 100% nocturnal, (7) Over 75% of the deer have been killed after 3:00 p.m. (8) And so far, no feral hogs.
I kid you not this guy makes a round about ever 7-10 days starting about Oct. 1. Down loads all photos. Sifts through them and stores what he figures are non-duplicates.
I have seen him sit at a table and go through 1000's of them. He also has kept a spread sheet record, developed graphs based upon about every variable that you could imagine, and also made a area scatter chart of all kills made on our lease (3000+ acres) ... since 2004. It's a ton of work. The end result is intersting and has been an eye opener to me for sure.
Several trends are obvious .... (1) Moon phase has nothing definitive to do with when its killing time. (2) Over 80% of the good bucks have been killed during what must be the peak of the doe estrus ... Dec. 8-15. (3) Most deer have been killed when low temps have been about 30F - 40F. (4) January ... may as well stay home. (5) Three or four areas of 200 +/- acres have been the hot spots all of these years , (6) The big boys are practically 100% nocturnal, (7) Over 75% of the deer have been killed after 3:00 p.m. (8) And so far, no feral hogs.
