badshotbob

I'm not a deer biologist, so any input will be appreciated.

Two seasons ago, the deer herd seemed to have a great balance of bucks to does - I was seeing two does for every buck (approx).

Last season I counted 21 different bucks, and didn't even see a doe until late season. The bucks were mainly 1.5 year old deer - spikes to forks to small 6's, no large bodies, etc.

This year I haven't seen a buck yet! Well let me clarify - I've seen two bucks from the window of my house while I wasn't in my stand. One was decent, the other a small 4pt. But while on stand, I see doe after doe.

Is the herd out of balance you think? Let's say that all of the bucks I saw last year are still alive this year - would they spread out finding their own territory?

Why no bucks this year?

GMMAT

1) How many times have you hunted?
2) How clean are you (scent-free)?
3) Are you hunting in the right spots?
4) How often are you hunting a particular tree? Area?
5) Are you varying your entrance/exit routes?

I don't need to know the answer to these questions. I just put up there what "I" would be thinking about if "I" wasn't seeing bucks.

If you have a large herd of does.....that's also where I'd want to be hunting, right now. If you'll hunt the does, all season.....the bucks will come to you AT SOME POINT. I simply hunt where I KNOW the does are going to be (because I scouted THEM).....and the bucks seem to have lovin on their minds at some point. I didn't start seeing a good number of bucks until well into the season.

Jeff

GregH

bsbob, that is a hard question to answer without more info. I know what you mean because I've experienced that situation and the reverse. Sometimes when a lot of does are killed off the previous season, you'll see a lot of bucks, especially 1 1/2s, the following season because their mothers were not around to disperse them. Sometimes I've seen a lot of bucks and hardly no does because when there are an abundance of bucks chasing them before their ready, the does vacate the area to hide from the relentless bucks. If you are seeing nothing but does and hardly no bucks, it could also be because there aren't enough bucks to do their job and they are elsewhere doing their thing. These are just some possibilities. You actually need a few years of herd observations to try and make a determination. I hope this makes sense and helps.

badshotbob

Funny thing is, this year I have been hunting the area less than in past seasons. I did notice that during peak rut a week before firearm season and through firearm season I didn't see much of anything. The area I hunt is a small section (15 acres or so) of a larger 300 acre parcel. The woods I'm in serves as a bedding and travel corridor for does, and has had good rub and scrape lines in the past. It's the kind of area where the doe trails are sunk in the ground from years of travel.

In past years there has been rubs everywhere and a good amount of scrapes as well. This year I haven't seen a single rub and only two scrapes that didn't remain active for long.

In the beginning of the season a guy that was trying to get access to hunt the property walked the entire woods where I hunt scouting the area. He even told me he found a couple of my stands. The owner eventually told him he couldn't hunt the section I hunt, but I'm sure having him wander around didn't help things out.

WBowhunt

One of my questions would be has anything else in the area changed. Crop rotations, Poor Mast crop. Any land clearing going on. I've hunt this one farm for the past four years and based on what the farmers around this farm are doing is what determines what I am seeing and where I need to move. Once year a farmer came and just cleared out a huge thicket are the first week of October right before seaon opened. Years past it had been a major bedding area for a bachlor group of bucks in early season. After that, we did not see anything except a few small button bucks until late into the rut. So You may want to look around and see what may have changed. Just a thought