When do you see the fall shift?

[Swamp_bucks]

Couple of my spots are different. One they won’t shift into until mid October after all the local corn comes down.  The others it’s already starting to happen. Seeing bucks the last week where I haven’t seen them all summer.  Some I think are just exploring and checking spots out but a couple I know are showing in the same spots they did last year already.  

[G-man]

The 1st shift happens  here when all the seasonal cabins resident start tonshow  up and tromp thru the woods  usually labor day weekend.  The normally quiet woods are now full of atv and people walking checking stands and cameras.  Main reason i dont allow anyone in woods after labor day weekend till opening day. 

2nd shift is when soft mast is falling and it really draws does and right there with them bucks  making scrapes in orchards looking for 1st hot does. 

The 3rd shift occurs at leaf drop cover is lost and deer continue to find and use available cover  daily trails shift to remain hidden.

The last shift occurs after thanksgiving wèkend as most hunters stop  hunting and food ( corn) has been  cut. Deer will now herd  up and move to available large food sources. ( thisbis time to  hunt destination food  plots like large standing soybean or corn  field) close thick cover is  where deer will be found.

[Jeremy K]

My cameras usually show a switch just before season starts ,could be tje close proximity to corn . I also hunt property that has a pond that keeps tje surrounding area very wet ,if the summer is dry I feel like they stay close to that pond area until the dry summer lets up and water becomes more available in other areas do to rain replenishing other areas for hydration. 

[Robhuntandfish]

My area is like clockwork every year.  Hardly any bucks til mid October, then 10 show up for a month and a half, then gone again. 

[mowin]

I've noticed a big difference from this time last yr. Very few deer out in the fields in the evening.  They are hitting the acorns, apples and hickorys before coming out into the fields well after dark. 

Edited August 18, 2023 by mowin

[lucky118]

This bucks velvet was already coming off

[mowin]

Nice buck.  I haven't seen any hard horns yet, but it's not far away. 

[Buckmaster7600]

Around home it’s when the corn is chopped sometime in September. In the adk’s not much changes until October 20ish, when the bucks start to feel the tingle.

[ShootEm]

On my one piece of private, it's usually the same situation as @Robhuntandfish. I know there are usually some doe families that stay year-round, but it seems that bucks only come in when they're searching/cruising/chasing so it's basically a rut-and-done type of thing. Those few weeks can be unbelievable though, given the right conditions. Last year didn't have those conditions.......at all. 75 degrees on November 5th at 11am when I shot my buck that came into a last-ditch grunting sequence. Not my idea of great rut hunting conditions, but bucks gotta mate!

I'm so new to the public piece I started in on last year that I can't make heads or tails of it, yet.

This will be my first year running cameras on that private piece so hopefully I'll have a better idea of what's around. Not to hijack the thread, but anyone have thoughts on throwing down a mock scrape in the next couple weeks just to see what comes by?

[Robhuntandfish]

5 hours ago, ShootEm said:

On my one piece of private, it's usually the same situation as @Robhuntandfish. I know there are usually some doe families that stay year-round, but it seems that bucks only come in when they're searching/cruising/chasing so it's basically a rut-and-done type of thing. Those few weeks can be unbelievable though, given the right conditions. Last year didn't have those conditions.......at all. 75 degrees on November 5th at 11am when I shot my buck that came into a last-ditch grunting sequence. Not my idea of great rut hunting conditions, but bucks gotta mate!

I'm so new to the public piece I started in on last year that I can't make heads or tails of it, yet.

This will be my first year running cameras on that private piece so hopefully I'll have a better idea of what's around. Not to hijack the thread, but anyone have thoughts on throwing down a mock scrape in the next couple weeks just to see what comes by?

if you can find a licking branch that gets used a lot, prob dont need to scrape at all.  I have pics of deer using them all year.  

[Stubborn1vt]

There is no wrong time for mock scrapes.  I agree with Rob, that the licking branch is the most important part.  I've been using grapevines on mock scrapes for years and deer use them year round.  Pick a spot that deer are already traveling and put one in.  Trail intersections and transitions between types of habitat are my favorites.

[Bucksnbows]

5 minutes ago, Stubborn1vt said:

There is no wrong time for mock scrapes.  I agree with Rob, that the licking branch is the most important part.  I've been using grapevines on mock scrapes for years and deer use them year round.  Pick a spot that deer are already traveling and put one in.  Trail intersections and transitions between types of habitat are my favorites.

I also use the grape vine bunches as a licking branch.  I’ll be peeing in at least one scrape tomorrow when I swap SD cards on my 7 current cams running. Reminder to self: drink lots of coffee and water tomorrow morning. 

[dbHunterNY]

Several years ago I started figuring this out with a handful of top 10% of most mature bucks around here. I used and moved around cams to keep finding them. I started seeing a slow shift in beginning of August and then by now they'd kick it up a notch depending on how far that particular buck shifted to reach its fall range. More often than not it had to do with security cover low pressured areas as long as it was in reasonable proximity to food.

[DirtTime]

For the past 5-6 years it seriously depends. Last year it was almost November before leaves and temps were close to Fall here at home. Up north, in the middle of October most of the leaves were down.

 

Deer started moving more at night by the middle of October on one spot of land that's private but were still moving during the day on some state land.

Edited August 19, 2023 by DirtTime

[ZAG]

One of the bucks I glassed the other night had his dark winter coat already.