Well, this thread helps me feel better about my weird season. I hunt 4 different places spread out over 3 counties in eastern middle TN and run 19 cameras starting in July. I don't collect data and journal and such, though when I retire I'd love to do that, but it gives me a lot of insight. I also rarely post on here during deer season because I'm either working or hunting
. Anyway, here's the weirdness I've observed.
1) My largest lease of 3,200 acres has members widely reporting deer sightings are way down, and in some cases the worst they've ever seen it, and this is a trophy managed lease (on a minimal scale). Plenty of acorns and over 100 acres of agriculture and surrounded by even more. Rutting activity was only "pretty good" and only for a few days...and it was about a week or so later than usual, and then just shut down. I've seen less than 10 rubs (mostly in one spot) and would have normally seen 100-150 by now. One member did kill a 169" (green score), but then he hunts every single day of November...so there's that. Except for that one, fewer and smaller bucks killed this season. We do have a hog problem which USDA will come in after season and help minimize that issue, but that's been a problem a few years now. All-in-all a disappointment on this lease...unless you're the guy that killed the 169"...lol.
2) I live on 130 acres which I manage for quality deer and turkey habitat. It's not big enough to manage for trophy bucks, so I just target retaining high numbers of wildlife (of which I work closely with the local habitat biologist to do that right things). Plenty of acorns this year and surrounded by great agriculture. In July through mid-September I had a solid number of 2.5-3.5 year old bucks (9 to be exact of which 5 appeared to be 3.5). Also, regularly see does in the vicinity of 30 just based on having seen as many as 22 in my food plot while catching others on camera at the same time across the property, so I've estimated 1:3 or 1:4 buck to doe ratio every year. That should result in a solid rut and countless rubs and scrapes...NOTTA this year! I seriously have not seen one rub or scrape on my property and I've checked all the usual spots...very strange indeed. I run a couple of mock scrapes and have had minimal action on them...and I mean minimal. Over the past few weeks, I've only got a picture of 3 bucks in the 2.5-3.5 age range and one of them moved in here, so only 2 of the original 9, and I have a smorgasbord of food and cover on this property. No hogs here either. No signs of EHD in early season. The doe population seems to be halved as well. Very few shots fired on neighboring properties and I've only heard of one of those original 3.5 year old's being killed. Every other year I'll harbor a 4.5-5.5 on my property but that's not happened in a couple years now. Most weirdness I've seen since buying the property in 2007.
3) I have a small 80 acre lease in another county I've only had 5 years now. I don't manage it at all or maintain any food plots...just let it do it's thing. Plenty of acorns this year and some agriculture nearby. It's been covered up with deer every year and the buck-to-doe ratio is a bit out of whack at what appears to be about 1:5. It's never disappointed with very high levels of rubs and scrapes and rutting activity. My mock scrapes there stay highly active during the rut and off and on outside the rut. Only one of the past 5 years didn't offer up a 4.5-5.5 year old buck; however, hunting pressure around is higher than I would like to see. Well, this year tracked the previous 4 years on everything except the scrapes. I only seen three scrapes and I made two of those. My mock scrape action was way down. They would just walk right through them many times like they weren't there. The number of rubs were on par and the rutting activity was probably the best I've ever seen it albeit later than usual by about a week or more, but lasted a good 1.5 weeks at it's peak. The only TN buck I've taken this year (and I'm almost always tagged out by Thanksgiving) came off this property on December 3, and the days leading up to then showed the highest level of rutting activity. He happened to be my biggest 8pt I've taken in TN at 142" and age guessed at 5.5 based on tooth wear. Trail cam pictures guessed him at 4.5. He literally just showed up out of the blue a week before taking him on December 3. All-in-all, this spot didn't disappoint, but the lack of scraping and reaction to my mock scrapes was way off...and the rut was notably late as everywhere else seemed to be.
4) I'll keep this one short. There's a public property I hunt in another county because it's a bow only hunting area. This was the worst year by far which was echoed by some others I chatted with during the hunt. It was the second year with zero acorn crop which is very weird and no doubt is a large contributor, but I did not see even one rub and only seen two scrapes. Two years ago in the same area I seen 200+ rubs and probably 40-50 scrapes. Last year was less than half that and then this year was DEAD! Again here, no EHD reported in the area.
Don't know that I added any value other than to confirm it's been the most weird year around me in a long time, and maybe ranks number 1. And I've heard this from several hard core hunters in my area.
