Disappearing Bucks???

[GOLDTIP]

First off I will start by saying that I hunt a very small piece of property as in 5 acres tops it consists of thick hardwoods with patches of grass throughout it with a drainage ditch on the west side of the woods it does have a few oaks here and there but they dropped their acorns a month ago and it is in broken farm country with a huge woods 1/4 mile across a field to the west during the first week of september I had pics of eight different bucks on the trail cam at mineral lick and since then not one pic of a buck  so what I'm wondering is where do they go or what food source do they usually switch to when they are sick of the beans or do you think it has something to do with the cold front that moved through last week  one other thing is in the pics I got the week before some of them started going hard horn I'm really thinkin that this is the reason for the change  any advice would be very much appreciated   Thanks

[Mayfly]

Let me explain my area briefly and what has happened here. I was seeing a lot of does at my corn feeder for a long time. There were one or two small bucks that would come aroound and eat there every once in a while but nothing more that I was seeing. I did not have a trail cam at the time. Once the apples in my yard became ripe and started falling off the tree I had about six different bucks that I saw here on a regular basis. They would eat the apples and then the corn. Now that the apples are done and gone for the most part my bucks have dissappeared. I do have two trees that just got ripe again and I have been picking them and putting them at one of my feeders. After 2 nights of that I am now getting pictures of my same bucks again. They didn't leave they just were not hitting the corn. Now that I have apples at the corn feeder they are eating both corn and apples. Actually last night I got pictures of 3 different bucks. 1 I have never seen and the other 2 are regulars.

So........

I'm guessing that your deer are still around but they are just eating something different and frequenting different areas. Just when you get a pattern they go and switch foods on you and screw everything up. Now with the pre-rut ready to kick in and then in a month+ with the rut coming I imagine they will start acting more and more different making it harder and harder to get a pattern on them. Hopefully there are a lot of does in the area that will hopefully attract some nice bucks for you to set your pins on fudd.gif

[T.R. Michels]

Read my "Hunting Transition Phase Bucks" article on the Home Page or in my thread. It should explain a lot.

Many hunters do not realize that many deer in MN have 4 seasonal home ranges, one each for winter, spring, summer and fall, often dependiong on food sources, temperatures/windchills, and areas where they can get out of cold winter temps and wind.

Deer move several miles between these seasonal home ranges. So, if you dont see 'em they may have moved.

Many hunters alos do not realize that once the testosterone levels of the bucks atar to rise, many of them can no longer tolerate each other - so they move to other areas.

And hunters may not realize that some bucks have "fall breeding ranges" (from a 1/4 mile to several miles) away from where you see them from late August to mid - October.
Ths transition phase may cause bucks to move to new locations sometime between that time. They are usually in their fall home range/ fall breeding range areas by mid - October.

What you have to do now is look for new/fresh rubs and scrapes to find some of those bucks. Some of them may have moved completely out of your hunting area. You may not see them until the aem time next year, unless you go looking for them.

God bless and good hunting,

T.R.