Well with all the acorns,persimons,corn,soybeans etc...gone, and with all the dry weather we had this summer, I don't see a hole lot of browse for the deer to munch on. I'm at kind of a loss as to where I'm gonna hunt this late season. Got any suggestions? There only one area I can hunt that might have a little corn still laying around on the ground, but very little woods! :dunno: What do you think? Thanks' Jason
I have good luck hunting around honey locust pods in the late season, especially if there is snow on the ground.
Patches of honey suckle can be great as well!
I set my stands up on high traffic trails. The animals here travel several routes with regularity. Even with no food there you can bet there is a trail from there that deer use year round.
Sounds like we are in different worlds, but here in the northeast they change to eating a lot of cedar and stickish crap in winter. Don't know how they do it, if I couldn't eat a nice hot bowl of venison chili now and then, well...I just dont know
Find the best food source around and hunt it,or funnels and bedding areas.
worse case order some venison from cabelas and shoot the box when it gets delivered.Same as hunting in winter, but you get to eat something. :laughing:
Ha!!! good idea
Deer in my neck of the woods like to browse on them little bitty hickory buds in late season.
Corn and soybean fields that the dirt has not been worked. Has always worked for me.
Al
The deer in our area have absolutely no pattern! You see a deer by chance.
In utah the snow pushed the deer down to wintering grounds. These are mostly open sage / Scrub oak area's. Really it's the best time to hunt in Utah.
Deer are browsers (and grazers) so if the row crops are gone, acorns eaten or buried, they will turn to browse--small, twigs and branches that were put on this season. In fact, there is an exotic honeysuckle shrub(Japanese) whose leaves stay green well into the fall that is very common in midwestern forests, especially thin or narrow bands of forest where lots of sunlight filters down.
I mainly sit and shiver and wonder where all the deer went. :confused: :D
Still fun to be out though. Every now and then you pick up a nice doe. We get to hunt untill the end of February here, and I take full advantage. Pretty much what Bowwild said: honeysuckle, dogwood twigs, odds and ends like that.
QuoteOriginally posted by sweeney3:
I mainly sit and shiver and wonder where all the deer went. :confused: :D
Still fun to be out though. Every now and then you pick up a nice doe. We get to hunt untill the end of February here, and I take full advantage. Pretty much what Bowwild said: honeysuckle, dogwood twigs, odds and ends like that.
That's been my story too as of late. I sit and shiver and feel totally at a loss on what I should do or where I should go. I've got very few actual hunting days left so its starting to look like a nice big hot bowl of tag soup for me.
I start trapping furbearers about this time and right now I'm just waiting for it to dry out a bit.
But.....I still have some clover in my small food plot and there's still plenty of acorns around so this late season should still be fair.
Once I get traps out, I will hunt in the evening and run sets in the morning.
If I didn't have any food sources to hunt in your case and no trails or travel routes to set up on, then find a bedding area and hunt the edges. If no bedding area.........well then maybe you should get some Osage and try your hand at bowmaking?
Or travel to a different area, maybe public ground? Most public areas have some kind of left over food planted just for wildlife or at least something on a nearby property.
If your dead set on staying after it, then I would start scouting some new areas around your home and who knows.....you may find a new honey hole?
Good Luck
hunt the trails/funnels! When I'm not hunting I am trapping . . . nothing like another hobby to drain the bank account :)
I look forward to late season so I can still hunt or track in the snow. I have the woods to myself and have a ball. It turns out to be the most fun season for me. This year I am going to include a Ghillie suit also.
It's a good time for still-hunting. Late season is pretty cold which makes sitting less enjoyable and the leaves are decomposing - making for quieter footing.
Lots of time we have snow in the late season, making tracking more viable - for patterning the deer if nothing else.
Late season - I'll most likely be drifting around the woods as slowly as I can go.
If you can find the preferred food source, you are in business. The colder and nastier it gets the better.
Hunt pheasants and wait for some real cold -20 or so, another foot of snow and then hunt the trails leading out of the cattails to the picked corn.
We still have plenty of acorns in the woods. When it gets late season, I would look for consistent travel routes. Man I wish I had time for a trap line. I miss doing that.
start by looking for browse on the sunny slopes--say south or so eastern slopes where the sun shines early--
This year the acorn drop was huge. They may have gotten most of the white oak, but there are plenty of red still on the ground. I know of a picked bean field that has not be plowed up. Hay fields can also be great for quite a while if they had the right amount of new growth height before the snow.
QuoteOriginally posted by sweeney3:
I mainly sit and shiver and wonder where all the deer went. :confused: :D
There are many good ideas on this thread, but I have to agree with this one most!
Plan on sitting a long time without seeing much, or worse, seeing deer but they are moving so slowly the chances of them getting to you before dark are slim.
I have hunted a lot in late season and will continue to, but haven't thrown many arrows, nor have my buddies that put in their time too.
I sit in the woods and daydream about warm coffee at home.
When I get home I day dream about the non-existant deer in the woods.
Can't win so enjoy what you have.
Just come on down to sunny Alabama. The acorns are still on the ground and in most of the state the rut doesn't start until after Christmas, although a few areas do have a November rut. In my area the rut peaks in mid January. It gives me something to look forward to at the end of the season(Jan.31).
Hi Jason, great topic!
One of my favorite ways to hunt this time of year, is what I call "nudging drives". Works pretty good, and you get to hunt with your buddies!
Basically, just do sloooooow pushes through the cover or woods. Pretty much, still hunting! I prefer to do it with not more than 3 hunters.
I'm suprised, after reading the other posts, of the folks who run trap lines. If you can't find good browse areas, a creek or body of water, would be my choice!
Animals of all types, use the water ways, looking for food and hydration. The outdoor Arteries!
Yeah, and then, I too, always hope for the Second Rut!
Good shootin,
Steve
QuoteOriginally posted by sweeney3:
I mainly sit and shiver and wonder where all the deer went. :confused: :D
Still fun to be out though. Every now and then you pick up a nice doe. We get to hunt untill the end of February here, and I take full advantage. Pretty much what Bowwild said: honeysuckle, dogwood twigs, odds and ends like that.
Same here, but you're pretty lucky to see a deer for a month after the orange army marches through. But heck then it's muzzle loader season so it's just like the orange army turned and came back after the survivors.
Honeysuckle, food plots or trails here.
We just got about 2 inches of fresh snow, gonna try it in the morning, deer are moving in and out of the oaks pawing up the acorns! Most of deer I had been seeing was right at dark! Gonna check a spot on the edge of a cedar swamp to see if there has been any deer movement there as well!
Pray i see something...the freezer ain't lookin good this year :dunno:
Got a few inches of snow this morning. Looking foward to hunting this late season!
Been a strange early season, for sure!
Hunt funnels to winter food plots which have a lot of kale and turnips in them. The deer here won't touch it until it has had a couple of hard freezes on it.
Since I cannot legally fill anymore tags. I chase coyotes and squirrels. Sure it hard to get them to come into range but when they do it is very satisfying.
Rut starts in about 2 weeks!! Cant wait.. Already spotted a few scrapes right beside one of our winter food plots and I didnt tell nobody where they are!! The area is kind of open so Im gonna find the main trail and get close to the food plot and scrapes. Maybe he'll swing down through there.