Derekg359

Hi guys I'm coming on here to get help and see if any of you can help me out with hunting my property. I live in western pa and there is about 300 acres of land where I hunt and we own half. The other half isn't hunted by anybody. My side is where all the food is and the other is more bedding area. We have 3 fields that has half clover and half corn before it was cut. we have 2 major areas where there are vast amounts of oak trees so there are acorns everywhere. We work all year having cameras up and figuring out patterns. Through pictures we have a lot of bucks, we have at least 5 or 6 that are over 3 years old and are shooters and we have a couple very big buck that are very mature. I wish I could put some pictures up but it won't let me. We also have 3 or 4 spikes and two button bucks following the mother around still. My problem is, we haven't got many pictures of doe, and I have only seen doe 4 nights I've hunted and have spent a lot of days in the stand. Previous years I'd see at least one doe but usually multiple every time I hunted.. beginning of this season the bucks were hitting scrapes hard every day and there were rubs everywhere. Now that has slowed down a ton and they aren't using the scrapes near as much. We are in rut now in many areas but I'm not seeing much action. I did see one of the mature bucks last night at 50 yards, couldn't get a shot but other than that it's been slow even though we have tons of pictures of buck. Could this be because of no doe in the area? We have tons of buck but only have about 3 doe we've been able to pick out so I'm worried that there aren't enough to go around and this is causing the bucks to travel elsewhere. It just has me really confused because usually there are groups of doe and we see a ton.

Muzzleloaderhunter

Get out there and grind it out. There unpredictable

IdRatherBeHuntin

Are you pressuring the area too hard? The deer are going to catch on if you aren't doing everything right and constantly visiting the area. Hunt smarter not harder. But the rut is on and the bucks are more likely to make mistakes cruising for doe's so just hunt a travel corridor and you'll get your shot eventually. Do you use deer scents/calling when you're hunting? During the rut I use doe in heat pee and always bring a grunt call and doe bleat can. I've had good luck "blind" calling bucks in and redirecting bucks to right under my stand that would've otherwise stayed out of range. I hunt Northeast OH and Southwestern PA.Good luck!

Bocajnala

Any idea why you don't have doe? If you have food and cover you should have doe. Have you overshot your doe population in past years? Keep hunting, the rut is just kicking off and bucks will be moving all day long. So you should still see deer. Gotta figure out where your doe went.
-Jake

GTOHunter

Maybe You need to start thinning out the Bucks and let the Doe's build up for a few years....it takes time but it can be done by keeping a close eye on the Amount of Deer and the Buck to Doe Ratio.

Usually when You have a decent amount of Doe's and several Bucks.....the Bucks will disperse and find their own Territory.

MaineRida

I have had a similar situation, I am hunting where I have four different buck frequenting the area and I have seen only one doe. The stats are opposite of usual circumstances. I am trying to determine if this is coinciding with the increase in coyote presence?