In my front fields at dark today. Thats double a normal afternoon. I guess they are grouping up. One group of 9 bucks, all very young. Its that time of yr i guess. We start to see some huge groupings right after season ends. My question is...why? What is the advantage of congregating after rut? Its not pressure. These deer havent had any measurable hunting pressure since Thanksgiving and very little then.
82 deer......
- Thread starter redblood
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Youre blessed. I use to see that over a mile or so stretch in the mid 2000's. Lucky to 8 or 10 now.
Dang man thats a lot of deer, is your place in Lincoln ? Not trying to expose your location , you can answer in a pm or not at all if you want. Maybe Maury ? Dang thats deer heaven.
I would assume the ole safety in numbers deal.
That's a lot of deer for sure.
That's a lot of deer for sure.
Must be nice
You must either have a very large amount of land to manage or must not be in a liberal county.
Flocking to what little food is left in the area is typically why I see them group up, or "yard up" as they say up north. Also, most deer are at their weakest point physically this time of year. As mentioned, there is strength in numbers when facing predators.
Marshall/ lincoln line. It not always like that. But in January and February the visible deer numbers are higher. Just cant find a rhyme or reason to it.
Im not sure there is alot of advantage to it. We dont bother them or are we going to shoot them ( although i will take one more this week for the freezer if i can get one in bow range). There wasnt a mature buck anywhere in sight for sure
I saw around 30 my last hunt Sunday evening in about 3 hrs. A mix of bucks and does. Food is more than plentiful still with standing corn and oat/ wheat fields. New Year's Eve I saw around 45 deer with 6 mature bucks all together in a group coming out to feed at 4 pm . They seem to be back to their old feeding patterns and in groups.
Safari Hunt
Well-Known Member
Could someone draw a map for next season?;) Seems like a great place...if they don't disappear before hunting season.
That's cool to see that many RB!!
I squirrel hunted this weekend and seen quite a bit. Seemed every food plot I looked at had multiple deer in it. Probably seen 10-20 just strolling through the woods.
I squirrel hunted this weekend and seen quite a bit. Seemed every food plot I looked at had multiple deer in it. Probably seen 10-20 just strolling through the woods.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I can't imagine seeing that many deer in any one location.
Have what was at one time the largest agriculture bottomland under one fence in the entire state of TN near my property, and if I saw more than 5 or 6 deer in that entire bottomland at one time I would be surprised.
Have what was at one time the largest agriculture bottomland under one fence in the entire state of TN near my property, and if I saw more than 5 or 6 deer in that entire bottomland at one time I would be surprised.
That can't be good in the long run for there food supply can it? I mean that many deer.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Sounds like it is the primary food source for a couple square miles.
What is in the fields? Surely not fescue, which is 99% of fields in middle TN.
And the lack of pressure is why they are out in daylight.
The most ive seen was around 200 deer in a 2 mile stretch of levy along the MS River at night. Before the floods of recent years which wiped out 75% of the deer herd, I bet 100 deer per square mile was the norm.
What is in the fields? Surely not fescue, which is 99% of fields in middle TN.
And the lack of pressure is why they are out in daylight.
The most ive seen was around 200 deer in a 2 mile stretch of levy along the MS River at night. Before the floods of recent years which wiped out 75% of the deer herd, I bet 100 deer per square mile was the norm.
catman529
Well-Known Member
I've seen deer group up or change patterns for no apparent reason on my place. They have plenty of food and cover everywhere, so they can just pick and choose where they want to hang out. If there aren't many acorns left, they might move to wherever the acorns haven't been eaten yet, or they may favor a certain green field, but where I'm at they've got a little of everything on all the properties in the area. When I lived in the suburbs the deer would spend most of their time across the fence all season long. By January the acorns must have gotten slim because they would come into the yard to eat our acorns that hadn't been eaten much yet.
catman529
Well-Known Member
I have never seen the northern behaviors of deer people talk about, here in TN. I find green browse and acorns all over the place, and it only gets greener as the winter goes on. That and I would hardly call them weak. They're all healthy and active and like to group up often in the winter, which I'd assume is because they are a social animal and it's neither breeding nor fawning season so they hang together more. Up north I hear about deer migrating a long ways for food. They just don't have to do that around here. They always have food.
BSK
Well-Known Member
"Yarding" is a specific behavior only displayed by deer that live in areas with extreme cold and deep snow that lasts for months. These deer "yards" develop in evergreen thickets for thermal protection, and have a pattern of well-worn trails through the snow leading outwards like spokes on a wheel. These trails allow easy escape from predators as well as access to limited food sources. Deer enter these yards and go into a a form of near suspended animation, vastly decreasing their metabolic rate to conserve energy. Deer yards can be very traditional, with deer traveling great distances to return to the traditional yard their mother taught them to use, sometimes bypassing much closer yarding sites.
Cool
BSK
Well-Known Member
Whenever deer behavior is repeated over and over again, that particular behavior developed for a reason. Any hereditary or taught behavior that increases survival rates and/or reproductive rates is passed on at a higher percentage than other behaviors, eventually becoming predominant in the local population. If deer are seen grouping up in winter (which is common across the whitetail's range), it is a behavior that developed because it is beneficial to the population.
You need to explore more of the State Dec-Feb. I have hunted hundreds to thousands of acres where it does not get greener as the winter season progresses, and these same areas have some good mast years, and some bad. Some have red oak acorns that last past November, but many do not. There are places in the river bottoms now that has little to no green except for winter wheat. These areas are also prone to flood Dec-May. Very stressful time of year for most deer that have pushed through the winter, breeding season and the 90+ day hunting season and the pressure it brings. Furthermore, surviving bucks have lost weight and have injuries that resulted from confrontations during the rut. Yes, many of the deer are weaker now than they were entering the fall. That goes without saying and should be obvious to anybody that spends much time afield.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Switching my trail-cameras from still images to mostly video this year has taught me another fact still images can't show: how many bucks are limping with injuries post-rut. A few might be hunting related, but most are not. When seeing them in full motion, I can't believe how beat up the bucks actually are. With the local acorn failure, some of these bucks are really going to struggle this winter.
catman529
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
Another point about just how stressful the winter and post-rut conditions can be. During several of our past EHD outbreaks, trail-camera censuses only displayed a moderate mortality during the outbreak itself. The really big death toll didn't display itself until the following year. Although the disease itself killed some deer, more deer died during the following winter because they were in such a weakened state after recovering from the illness. Throw in the added burden of post-rut stress, and the fact most EHD outbreaks occur in hot drought summers that often lead to poor acorn crops, and more mortality can occur during the winter months than actually occurred from the disease itself.
I haven't seen any deer at all over here in East Tn and I drive a ton for work everyday. I have noticed over the years that I see a good bit of deer in summer. It's the same every year. Then they disappear for the most part till next summer then you'll see driving all over.
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
You guys probably know this, but one of the best ways to tell if a deer is healthy or not is the appearance of its coat.
Healthy deer groom themselves and their coat is slick and shiny. Unhealthy deer often have ragged coats, poor hair quality, and general lack of grooming, even before wt loss occurs.
A good example... we have a 3.5yo 8 pt that was the best buck we have on one of our farms. We passed him, but neighbors blew off the bottom 1/3 of his back left leg. He came out limping in front of me just before Thanksgiving. He fed, and even chased a doe around a bit. Seemed fine, but I knew the new few weeks would tell the tale.
When I came back up for second rut in December, I was planning to put my daughter on that deer and take him. I checked trail cams and had pics of him as recently as the day before, and he looked healthy, only minimal wt loss, and his coat was slick and shiny. I knew he was going to make it just fine, so we left him and hunted elsewhere.
Healthy deer groom themselves and their coat is slick and shiny. Unhealthy deer often have ragged coats, poor hair quality, and general lack of grooming, even before wt loss occurs.
A good example... we have a 3.5yo 8 pt that was the best buck we have on one of our farms. We passed him, but neighbors blew off the bottom 1/3 of his back left leg. He came out limping in front of me just before Thanksgiving. He fed, and even chased a doe around a bit. Seemed fine, but I knew the new few weeks would tell the tale.
When I came back up for second rut in December, I was planning to put my daughter on that deer and take him. I checked trail cams and had pics of him as recently as the day before, and he looked healthy, only minimal wt loss, and his coat was slick and shiny. I knew he was going to make it just fine, so we left him and hunted elsewhere.
Bet that's a site to see.
From my upstairs office window, they look like ants walking around. There were 38 today. Apparently i lost 44 to predators overnight. Raining foggy afternoons produce the highest number.
reminds me of a place in Lincoln county ,,,,,, motlow college or something like that I hunted a place near there once tons of deer by that school
