Let me be clear: This season sucked. It sucked in so many ways it hurts to think about it. Not everyone in Kentucky feels this way. That’s fine. I can believe our problems were localized, possibly self-inflicted, whatever. It still sucked. I’m looking at the final harvest numbers for November. Statewide the numbers good– #2 all-time. Locally, Bracken county had an average year. Just across the ridge, however, Pendleton County’s harvest was the worst in 6 years. Let me discuss what I think are the causes; maybe it will be worth it for you planning for next time.

Before I concentrate on my ridge, let me just point out that as of this writing, the state deer harvest is not showing positive effects from the statewide move to a 4 deer limit before requiring and extra tag. Antlerless harvest is showing about a 2% drop as compared to bucks. That is not a sigificant decrease in and of itself. However, adding two free doe to the package has not encouraged a lot of extra antlerless harvest. I suspect the problem is freezer space. Guys hunt until their freezers are full and then stop– for most folks that means between 1 and 2 deer per hunter.

 

Weather

When I saw the long range prediction for Opening Week change from Above Normal Temperature/Below Normal Precipitation to a big blue bullseye for Temps and a dark green bullseye for Precipitation, I knew there was going to be trouble. It was going to be a cold wet mofo. I immediately started pulling out extra coats and bibs to throw in the truck. Yes, I have hunted in the rain. Yes, I you can have good luck in the rain. However, I was worrying about the underlying weather systems this entailed and what they do to deer hunting:

1.  The barometer. If you have wild weather, that usually means wild swings of the barometer. Deer are like cattle; they bed when the barometer swings below or above their comfort zone. Generally speaking, 29.80″ – 30.60″ is considered a good range for taking deer. 30.01″ – 30.40″ is the sweet spot. It has to do with their digestion and all that gas from the fermenting stuff in their stomachs. They probably feel bloated when the pressure gets low.  This year, we had more days outside the sweet spot than in and more days below 29.8 than in recent memory.  See  Mining the Deer Log.
2.  The wind. A wild change in the barometer is always accompanied by winds. Winds make deer squirrelly. Winds at dawn and dusk make things hard on a deer hunter.

The Rifle Opener was windy. It was colder than usual, but not all that bad. Sunday got cold and it stayed that way the rest of the week. Tuesday had every imaginable sort of precipitation, rotating through rain-sleet-graupel-snow and back again. At 0200 Thursday, the power went out at camp and we decided to evacuate deer camp ahead of an ice storm. Luckily the worst was north of us. We were back out for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday– these were not bad days, and I managed to shoot my buck on Saturday morning. We were back out after Thanksgiving for 3 days and these were fairly normal days and we were able to take doe on Saturday and Sunday.

The big problem was the rain. It rained before the Rifle Opener. It rained through a good part of the week. It rained more after. Yes, deer move in rain. They feed in rain, but it turned the pastures muddy and made using the trucks almost impossible. Twice, I nearly buried the Silverado up to its axles. This past weekend, Angus and I went out to winterize all the blinds and stands. Normally, we just roll the truck up and grab the gear out and roll on. This time it was a 4 hour ordeal of schlepping everything out in duffle bags and after the downpour on Saturday, the blinds were wet and soggy.

Bottom line:  We were always out in the worst of it, and didn’t see squat.

The Rut and the Moon
By all accounts, the rut came early this year– maybe by as much as a week. All I know is that we were seeing deer out roaming around in late October and as late as the week before season. The moon was waxing. If you buy into this whole Lunar theory, deer activity goes down when you have a bright moon out during the night. Of course this can be offset by heavy cloud cover. All I know is the deer disappeared the first week of Rifle Season. You can blame it on rut timing, Lunar Phases– whatever.

Food

This is what I think was the problem. Normally, by the second weekend in November, two things have happened. First, there acorns are pretty well spent. Second: everyone has their corn harvested. We do not have all that many corn fields near us. The neighborhood is mostly taken up with cattle. However, there are quite a few corn fields in other parts of the county. All those fields are still unharvested due to the rainy weather. That has been cited as one of the main reasons things were so bleak over in Pendleton County.

Around us, I think the acorns were the biggest driver. The deer migrated to where the acorns were dropping. For whatever reason, it was not on our ridge. I keep security cameras watching the house, and I have one or two that monitor the pastures immediately out back. Last year, there were one-two dozen deer grazing in those pastures every night from September to March. This year, there were non showing up for two weeks before season and all during season. They just started showing up again around Thanksgiving. My guess is they were all off somewhere chowing down on acorns.

I examined the stomach contents of the deer we shot. Acorns dominated the early bucks. Corn and forbs dominated the last two deer. I don’t know where they were getting the corn. Probably somebody has a feeder out.

Self-Inflicted Causes

I normally do not engage in a lot of self-flaggelation, but I will say that our camp is far too stuck on the high-percentage venues, and these are all one overlooking pastures. The deer were not out in the pastures. Last year, we took out three stands that were set up in the woods for lack of use. We stopped using them for a variety of reasons, but it boils down to a lack of deer sightings. I think the last deer taken out of any of the three was 2009. Well, when you think of it, I stopped bow hunting in 2007. By 2008, we were taking the majority of our deer out of ground blinds with a rifle. The best rifle venues are all overlooking pastures. It made sense. However, there is no backup plan if the deer never show up. Campground is my last stand located in the woods. However, there were no deer walking by there either.

I have to tip my hat to Angus. He got it done last Sunday  kicking it up old school.  When the fog was too heavy to see anything in the woods, he still hunted the fields and managed to walk into a herd of doe.  That’s the way to do it!

If you look back at the our harvest log, you can see off years like this. You can also see years where the only deer we killed were at places like NewStand and Garbage Pit(both now defunct) that only produce when there is a big acorn crop. What we have done is maximize our chances by concentrating on deer feeding in the fields. That makes sense until you get to a year like this.

The other thing I think caused our problem is that the inclement weather caused us to stick to the hunting venues that afforded the most comfort. You really can’t knock any of us. Poor SuperCore has a fairly recent quad-bypass. He’s now on an ATV getting back and forth to the Jagende Hutte. I spent the worst of the hunting days camped out under a camo umbrella at Hollywood. That was because I was sick and tired of holing up at Midway day after day. There was one day where the wind driven rain was coming almost as bad if I’d stayed outside. I put a poncho up across the window like a shower curtain to keep the worst of it off me.

Solutions

This past year was an outlier in so many ways.  I am not sure a once-in-2-decade set of circumstances warrants a major change in strategy.  Having said that, this past season did underscore a need to get back in the woods.  I’m not sure where or how yet.  However we need more options that give us an alternative to setting up in the open fields.

 

Gear

Every year, I try to give y’all a few reccommendations on the gear we use.

First off, I bought one of these back in August 2017 for $26:

I bought one that was 2 sizes too big thinking it would be a great way of adding a layer of warmth.  I’ve had it out in the most miserable coldest Turkey Season and Deer Season, and I have to say, that it’s the best cheapest way to add warmth to my long sits that I have ever found.  I had something like this 30 years ago, and have been looking for another for years.

I substitute this for the inner poly jacket that normally acts as a lining for my Orange Clown suit– MUCH warmer.  On the coldest mornings, I also added an insulated vest (remember 2-sizes too big.)

 

 

USB Handwarmer

The other big performer was my USB Handwarmer.  I already mentioned it in regards to how warm it kept me during Turkey Season.  It did the same for Deer Season, and it kept on going.  I bought 2 more when I saw them on sale on Amazon for $8, and gave them to Angus and SuperCore.  Both reported good results. I am not going to reccomend a particular make or model, but you should be able to find a 5200 m

 

Camo Umbrella

This is a pic of the one I was using this year to keep the nasty rain/snow/grauple mix off me while I was out in the worst of it.  I bought several of these off SportsmansGuide.com over a decade ago, and have only used them sparsely since.  It saved the say.  It doesn’t look like it, but the umbrella is wide enough to keep me out of the rain while sitting in a chair.  It was also sturdy enough to deal with the wind.

 

The Mauser from Hell

The Mauser from Hell has to get at least some mention.  I finally gave it an honest test of its capabilities and the 8X57 175 grain Speer plugged a buck at 130 yards– didn’t move an inch.  I am not going to get all wound up over it.  It’s been a long hard slog getting that rifle to shoot straight after years of abuse. I also won’t try to tell you that a custom-built DIY Mauser is the way to go.  The rifle was free to me at the outset, but it has been a 5-year pain-in-the-patoot.  I could have gone out and bought another Ruger Hawkeye for what I’ve put into this thing, and it is still not done.  I now have to find a gunsmith to install a workable safety.  However, it has proven itself.  Yes, I like 8X57 for deer– knew I would.  Would I switch from a 30-06? Absolutely not. However, it was a challege doing the project

30 Briar Light Magnum

Before I forget, I gifted my old Winchester 670 in 30-06 to #3 son a few years ago.  He used it to take both his deer.  He can’t stop talking about it.  He absolutely loves what I dubbed the Briar Light Magnum.  It was my long time favorite deer rifle. I’m glad it is in the right hands.

 

 

 

 

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