Picture "dead zone"

[BSK]

Ever since I quit using food/salt-based attractants in late summer to get deer pictures, I hit the trail-cam "dead zone" mid-August through mid-September. Food plots are being burned down with glysophate, mowed and tilled, and seeded, but new growth won't show up until mid-September. Can't seem to buy a deer picture right now.

Anyone else?

 

[Pilchard]

I had a bachelor group on cam yesterday. Two of the 6 had shed their velvet. I'm using salt though so not really what you are after.

 

[JN]

If a door bell camera and deer eating my Japanese maple and bushes count then yes I have been getting pictures.

 

[TnKen]

I have salt and good established food plots (corn & clover). Having said that, my pictures have dropped off significantly. I'm running cell cams here and in Ky, and it's the same at both places.

 

[Popcorn]

I run some of both (food vs no food). On the properties I work we have recently started getting rains after a prolonged drought and the result is a flush of native browse that is preferred. I saw a reduction in pictures last week so I have moved a number of cameras higher and aimed them across food plots / browse areas as well as set them on time lapse to see if I am right.

 

[BSK]

I run some of both (food vs no food). On the properties I work we have recently started getting rains after a prolonged drought and the result is a flush of native browse that is preferred. I saw a reduction in pictures last week so I have moved a number of cameras higher and aimed them across food plots / browse areas as well as set them on time lapse to see if I am right.

I think you're on to exactly what is happening. Deer are pounding the native browse (if you have a lot of it). While repainting a property line along a clear-cut edge, I saw more browse damage to the native habitat than I have in years. Looked like a herd of cattle had been in there. Pokeweed was being annihilated.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Only running two cameras right now. One of my cameras was somehow turned off for the past two weeks, I did not pull that card. Very strange since it had 2 images on it. The other camera had probably 30 deer images, just one decent buck. Around here figure most of the deer are in the corn and soybeans right now.

 

[peytoncreekhunter]

On the farm I hunt it seemed to me the deer (and especially bucks) would really ease back on my mineral sites around the first week of September. Oddly that was also when they would shed the velvet. I wondered if they hit the mineral sites while growing the antlers and stopped because they shed the velvet. Plus I thought maybe they just started hitting browse and then acorns because it was preferred.

 

[BSK]

On the farm I hunt it seemed to me the deer (and especially bucks) would really ease back on my mineral sites around the first week of September. Oddly that was also when they would shed the velvet. I wondered if they hit the mineral sites while growing the antlers and stopped because they shed the velvet. Plus I thought maybe they just started hitting browse and then acorns because it was preferred.

Buck usage of salt licks peaks while they are mineralizing their antlers from a protein matrix to actual hard bone. This calcification process requires a lot of salts. But once that process is over, and the velvet is ready to split and fall off, salt usage declines pretty precipitously. Not that it ends (I would have bucks using salt a little right into November), but it falls off fairly dramatically from the peak of mid-August.

 

[Levee Jumper]

If a door bell camera and deer eating my Japanese maple and bushes count then yes I have been getting pictures.

Seek One boys will be knocking on your door soon enough!

 

[BSK]

Seek One boys will be knocking on your door soon enough!

Ha!

 

[BSK]

If a door bell camera and deer eating my Japanese maple and bushes count then yes I have been getting pictures.

I've got a bachelor group of 4 bucks in my neighborhood (two yearlings, a 2 1/2 year-old and a 3 1/2 year-old 8-point). If I'm driving through the neighborhood just as sunrise, I'm going to have to slam on my brakes at some point to avoid hitting one of these guys. And they are Hell on my roses.

 

[JN]

Seek One boys will be knocking on your door soon enough!

Nah. I just have little mountain bucks here but I do know come season I am shooting a few of the does. They have probably done about $700 worth of damage to my plants this year. If I could train this cat to take out a few of them as well it would be perfect.

 

[JN]

As for the cameras I have up. I have not seen a decline yet but I don't have them on salt or food sites just on travel areas. Will start switching them to mock scrapes in October and usually is when I get a lot of my pictures of bucks till rut starts.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

September is usually the hardest time for me to get pics. We just had a 1 mile trail made in the bottom of a big hollow that used to have no access. I placed 7 cameras over pinch points today on that new road and a couple other areas deer like to travel. I'll be gone for the next 4 weeks. Hoping bucks shifting around cruise through the pinches so I can get a look at them.

 

[Chickenrig]

I have salt and good established food plots (corn & clover). Having said that, my pictures have dropped off significantly. I'm running cell cams here and in Ky, and it's the same at both places.

Same here down in SE Bama , i have my usual does but the bucks have vacated for now . I just planted my WTI fusion plots and my summer iron and clay pea plots are winding down . It happens every year at this time , no worries they will return without fail !!! Every piece of farm land and wooded property around here is leased for deer hunting so when the orange hat army starts to filter in and get things rolling them deer will get pushed around

 

[megalomaniac]

I gave up years ago running cameras in Sept. Just not worth the wear and tear on the cameras and battery wastage. Currently, I have 3 long term established salt licks over a mile apart from one another. So I run 3 cameras in July, Aug, and Sept. Come October when scrapes open up, I put out the bulk of my cameras. If I find a really hot oak tree with a scrape nearby, that is my all time favorite for numbers of pictures.

I never hunt without a spare camera in my fanny pack in November. I don't scout in November, but will occasionally come across something interesting on the way to a stand that needs one (new fence crossing from a downed tree with tons of prints, etc)

I'll pull many of the cameras after Thanksgiving to relocate to my lease in MS, but still leave the ones on the very best hot communal scrapes for the 2nd rut hunt.

After years of running multiple cameras from July thru Feb, I've learned all I really need to know about timing of range shifting, timing of when mature bucks begin to move in daylight with some regularity, etc. So no need to incur unnecessary wear and tear on extra cameras leaving them afield.

 

[BSK]

I gave up years ago running cameras in Sept. Just not worth the wear and tear on the cameras and battery wastage. Currently, I have 3 long term established salt licks over a mile apart from one another. So I run 3 cameras in July, Aug, and Sept. Come October when scrapes open up, I put out the bulk of my cameras. If I find a really hot oak tree with a scrape nearby, that is my all time favorite for numbers of pictures.

I never hunt without a spare camera in my fanny pack in November. I don't scout in November, but will occasionally come across something interesting on the way to a stand that needs one (new fence crossing from a downed tree with tons of prints, etc)

I'll pull many of the cameras after Thanksgiving to relocate to my lease in MS, but still leave the ones on the very best hot communal scrapes for the 2nd rut hunt.

After years of running multiple cameras from July thru Feb, I've learned all I really need to know about timing of range shifting, timing of when mature bucks begin to move in daylight with some regularity, etc. So no need to incur unnecessary wear and tear on extra cameras leaving them afield.

I'm almost at the same point Mega (not running cameras in September). If it wasn't for my love a data - ANY data - I would just go to placing cameras on traditional scrapes October 1. Everything I really need to know can be captured from October 1 onwards.

 

[BSK]

Nah. I just have little mountain bucks here but I do know come season I am shooting a few of the does. They have probably done about $700 worth of damage to my plants this year. If I could train this cat to take out a few of them as well it would be perfect. View attachment 147877

That cat picture is too funny! I've had one of my cats confront a deer several times, and the stare down is great.

 

[philsanchez76]

I have noticed that some trees are already dropping acorns in my area (greater Nashville) so maybe that plus the increased browse as mentioned above is scattering these fellas. and the few buck pics im getting are hard horned already!

 

[BSK]

I have noticed that some trees are already dropping acorns in my area (greater Nashville) so maybe that plus the increased browse as mentioned above is scattering these fellas. and the few buck pics im getting are hard horned already!

Unfortunately, we have no acorns in my neck of the woods. But I too have noticed acorns dropping early in Nashville.

 

[Shed Hunter]

I had a bit of luck with trying mock scrapes in September, but certainly not to the extent you could make an accurate census from. All of the scraping I got in September was 1.5-3.5 year olds

 

[redblood]

Slow here as well

 

[redblood]

I have noticed that some trees are already dropping acorns in my area (greater Nashville) so maybe that plus the increased browse as mentioned above is scattering these fellas. and the few buck pics im getting are hard horned already!

Man nothing like them getting rid if that ugly velvet and those red coats