DEER not coming to feeders anymore????

[imhntn]

Yep, lots of acorns started dropping this past week in my area.

My area too. They have slowed down for us too.

 

[Okie4570]

Made an observation over the years on one of the places I hunt. I hunt 7 quarters that form a J shape if you were to look down on them, which run north and south. Most of this is farm ground with a live creek and timber and ungrazed pasture running thru the middle of the quarters. I put out food and cams at each end and only hunt the ends and leave the middle alone. Cams and food piles are visited every 2 weeks during the middle of the day. Landowner and myself will bowhunt which ever end has the largest bucks on the cams. We make sure that the wind is right, so there are many times that an area won't get hunted at all. We bowhunt just the one end and leave the other for muzzleloader and rifle. I've noticed that which ever end we start bowhunting on, one of us will shoot a super nice buck that we've never seen on camera at the other end of the propery during muzzleloader or rifle. So I'm thinking no matter how careful you are about entering/exiting/hunting/scent control for an area, the old bucks and old doe know you've been there. Noticed this for about the last 5 years but I've hunted this area for the last 16 years. Anybody else overanalyze their hunting spot like I do?

 

[imhntn]

One thing I have noticed over the years is that the biggest deer I have shot, at least close with a bow, have been on the first time I have hunted a treestand. The more times I hunt it, the less my chances are going to be. If I am after a big deer and think I have him patterned, I want to set up on him at midday when the wind is right and try to shoot him that night. I can't tell you how many times me or friends have gone into an area a big deer has been frequenting and never see it again in daylight. They don't get big by being dumb and I guarantee you they can smell where you have been. I have had a buck sniff and then jump back and bolt from a stick I stuck out for a yardage marker 3 days after I put it out.