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I hunt in the lowest kill county in the entire state. It isn't the only place I hunt, but it is where I spend the greatest amount of time late October through November. I LOVE this particular property. Part of the reason for my affection is probably because it is the first place I started hunting regularly when I moved to the area nearly 20 years ago. Partly it may be because I've had a pretty fair amount of success there. Though it has never been high-density, I've never really felt handicapped by hunting it as I feel like I have the best habitat available in a habitat-poor county. As any of you that have read my hunt journal the last two seasons will know, I have seen a ton of deer on the property the last couple of seasons, though most are a LONG way off due to the open agricultural area. Still, it's a fun place for me because I do see them, even if they are a long way off.
I started snaring coyotes a few years back with the intent of helping our fawns. It seems to have made a huge difference as I am again seeing a good percentage of adult does with fawns in tow. I started my annual coyote adventure this past Sunday by hanging snares on well used coyote trails, around the few dens I've found. These snares are spread relatively thinly over an area that is about a mile wide by 2 miles deep. I've covered a lot of ground, really, and have been making my rounds every day since Sunday via a quad. Interestingly, in the past 5 days, I have not seen a single deer track....NONE. I've been in woodlots, along fence rows, across open field travel routes, NOTHING.
I call the landowner about every day on my way up. He has a good deal of down time this year as his equipment is pretty much ready for spring planting. He usually jumps on his Gator and tags along. Even when I'm not there, he is usually out fooling around somewhere on the ground every day. He told me he hasn't seen a deer track for three weeks, at least now. Today, he and I went about a mile up the road from the property I've been running around on. It is the closest cover to the main property. It is a 68 acre woods, thick as heck. I had never been in it until today, but the landowner has spent his entire life (he's 60) in the area and knows it well. We decided to run over there after I asked him where he would go if he were a deer suffering through this weather...and he saw a big herd of deer just outside of this woodlot a few weeks ago. We rode completely around the perimeter of woodlot without seeing a single deer track! We parked at one end, went in a few hundred yards and milled about. We may have walked around in a 10 acre area, not thoroughly, just strolling through. We found the remains of 3 deer, two of which were freshly killed, blood all over the snow, etc. There was not a single fresh deer track to be found!
I've held a theory for years that deer in this agricultural area are nearly migratory. A week before I started hunting this year, there was very little sign in the area I hunt. I started hunting when the deer moved in. Years ago, when we had substantially more deer in the area, there would always be a few deer around, even after the majority had moved on. That doesn't seem to be the case now. Think about this; over the last 5 days, I've been through 2 tanks of fuel on my four wheeler, and haven't seen a deer track - in areas that should hold deer in this weather, the landowner still has a pile of corn out too!
I'm just curious as to what some of you may think. Would you find it more likely that EVERY deer in the area has simply moved on and someone somewhere is seeing every deer for miles (keep in mind, I checked the next piece of substantial cover for miles just today, and saw NOTHING), or would you have a sick feeling knowing the only sign of deer you've seen in the last week is the three dead ones you found today?
I've probably got as much experience hunting in what most would term a wasteland as anyone, but this still has me scratching my head a little... Input and theories welcome!
I started snaring coyotes a few years back with the intent of helping our fawns. It seems to have made a huge difference as I am again seeing a good percentage of adult does with fawns in tow. I started my annual coyote adventure this past Sunday by hanging snares on well used coyote trails, around the few dens I've found. These snares are spread relatively thinly over an area that is about a mile wide by 2 miles deep. I've covered a lot of ground, really, and have been making my rounds every day since Sunday via a quad. Interestingly, in the past 5 days, I have not seen a single deer track....NONE. I've been in woodlots, along fence rows, across open field travel routes, NOTHING.
I call the landowner about every day on my way up. He has a good deal of down time this year as his equipment is pretty much ready for spring planting. He usually jumps on his Gator and tags along. Even when I'm not there, he is usually out fooling around somewhere on the ground every day. He told me he hasn't seen a deer track for three weeks, at least now. Today, he and I went about a mile up the road from the property I've been running around on. It is the closest cover to the main property. It is a 68 acre woods, thick as heck. I had never been in it until today, but the landowner has spent his entire life (he's 60) in the area and knows it well. We decided to run over there after I asked him where he would go if he were a deer suffering through this weather...and he saw a big herd of deer just outside of this woodlot a few weeks ago. We rode completely around the perimeter of woodlot without seeing a single deer track! We parked at one end, went in a few hundred yards and milled about. We may have walked around in a 10 acre area, not thoroughly, just strolling through. We found the remains of 3 deer, two of which were freshly killed, blood all over the snow, etc. There was not a single fresh deer track to be found!
I've held a theory for years that deer in this agricultural area are nearly migratory. A week before I started hunting this year, there was very little sign in the area I hunt. I started hunting when the deer moved in. Years ago, when we had substantially more deer in the area, there would always be a few deer around, even after the majority had moved on. That doesn't seem to be the case now. Think about this; over the last 5 days, I've been through 2 tanks of fuel on my four wheeler, and haven't seen a deer track - in areas that should hold deer in this weather, the landowner still has a pile of corn out too!
I'm just curious as to what some of you may think. Would you find it more likely that EVERY deer in the area has simply moved on and someone somewhere is seeing every deer for miles (keep in mind, I checked the next piece of substantial cover for miles just today, and saw NOTHING), or would you have a sick feeling knowing the only sign of deer you've seen in the last week is the three dead ones you found today?
I've probably got as much experience hunting in what most would term a wasteland as anyone, but this still has me scratching my head a little... Input and theories welcome!