We’re about halfway through the regular deer hunting season here and it seems the general consensus by hunters is it’s been a feast or famine season as far as hunter success goes. On one side are the hunters who experienced success early the first morning or opening day, while on the other are those who’ve struggled just to see very many deer.
I suspect one of the reasons for the disparity has been the milder than normal weather we had the first two weeks, which limited deer movement during the warmer daylight hours. The other may well be fewer hunters moving that, in turn, rousted bedded or immobile deer into moving. Many opening weekend deer that were taken were moving along natural travel routes between bedding and feeding areas. Reports also indicate a majority of bucks that have been taken were either following does or moving along the buck’s establish scrape line, in search of receptive does.
Generally speaking, deer are also often taken along routes they use to escape hunting pressure. If the pressure isn’t there, deer will often stay put for much of the day, and move primarily early and late in the day and at night. Since the temperatures weren’t unpleasantly cool, many hunters spent the majority of their hunting time sitting on watch, waiting for deer to come by. Also, the main rutting period appeared to start a bit later than normal this year, and the warmer temperatures caused many bucks to do most of their rutting travel at night when it was cooler.
As usual, the best success by hunters has occurred on private lands while those hunting public land areas tended to be less successful. This has been especially true of the bucks being taken. Public land hunters, however, generally took an overall higher percentage of antlerless deer via the state’s deer management permit (DMP) system. As far as I know, no hunter has reported taking a black bear in the county yet, the season having opened on bears last Saturday.
Last but not least, luck always plays a part in deer hunting … being in the right place at the right time. The best example I can give of this is my experience opening morning. I’d found some serious buck sign and chosen that area to put up my tree stand. However, when I reached the stand on opening morning, I could see another hunter was set up in a ground watch about 100 yards almost directly in front of my tree stand. Not wanting to “overload” the area or risk an unsafe situation, I moved farther away and took up a ground stand watch. I found out later that my hunting partner had spotted a buck heading toward my tree stand about 10 a.m. By then, the hunter I’d seen had moved on, so neither of us ever saw the buck. Had that hunter not been there, I’d have probably taken that buck when it came by.
Although more by choice than luck, sometimes the hunter must make a shoot-don’t shoot decision which could cost him or her a deer. This year mine happened just a few days ago. It was windy and light snow falling where I was hunting. I’d just finished a still-hunt, moving into the wind as I hunted. All I encountered were two smallish yearlings, so about 3:30 I decided to loop back and spend the remaining time in a pop-up blind I’d set up near a buck’s well-used travel line. At about 4:15 I could see a large deer walking steadily through dense beech saplings and briars about 80 yards away. Although by its posture and gait I was quite certain it was a buck (plus I had a DMP for an antlerless deer), I kept following it through my scope, looking for an opportunity to shoot. But I also was concerned that the shot might be deflected by the dense cover and I might just wound the deer. So I never fired.
