where’d they go?

From Heirloom Turkey Calls Forum

Postby geheehunter on Sat May 17, 2008 4:31 pm

i was out with the kids today to a spot that last year i spooked a deer while walking with the wife and kids. the year before there were tracks everywhere. the year before that i spooked 5 deer while walking with a friend. the year before that i missed opportunities on 8 deer during the course of archery season as i could only hit to 30 yds and they were at 40+…

today, hardly any sign whatsoever. only a few faint tracks that had been left prior to the last rain… so where’d they go?

the game commission says our numbers have remained constant over the last 4 years..

Deer movement is very dependent on what’s for dinner, and they can be finicky. If a given weed or bush is at its peak flavor, they’ll be over munching it. Over the years, you can see the trends. If they were there last year on such-n-such date, they’ll be there sometime around that date the next year. . . that is, as long as you are talking about natural browse.

On the other hand, you never know in agricultural areas. One year, the neighbor may have corn and the next year he may leave the field fallow. I have also seen a huge variation in deer patterns on my property as the result of the neighbors doing supplemental feeding.

Also remember that a huge number of deer tracks usually equates to only a few deer. They just keep running over the same area. The tracks you saw last year might have only been a dominant doe, her daughter and one or two fawns.

One thing that will stabilize those patterns, at least before season, is salt licks. As long as the salt is there, deer will alter their pattens to visit the salt throughout the late Spring and into mid-Summer. After August, salt becomes less important, but they tend to maintain the travel patterns anyway.

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