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Dates of your kills...

JRudd said:
10/25, 10/31, 11/15, 11/5, 10/15, 11/1

IMO i think there is no excuse for not getting out in Oct. Weather you intend to let an arrow go or not, you cant kill em at home.

first week- bucks might still be on pattern and possibly in small bach groups.

second-thrid week= a few more people in the woods that might move a deer out of his home turf. my 10/15 buck is good example.

the whole month there are farmers in the fields harvesting. once again, you never know waht might get moved out of the corn field or bumped off of a fence line

I have sat Oct 1, 2 or 3 for my first sits of the year, every year since ive started bow hunting (besides this season)...and theres 3 years that i have seen more deer and deer movement than any other day of the season while in stand on those dates... theres also years i havent seen squat until the end of Oct

my thing is, if you have the time, go sit... you never know. anything can happen on any given day. i would have never thought id let an arrow fly on Oct 15 on a buck like i shot 2 years ago (avitar pic)... and i wouldnt have if i was sittin on the couch on that particular day. but i would agree with anyone that says the first two weeks of november would be the best time to take vaca
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I agree 100% with everything you said. If you get the chance to get out, you might as well take advantage of it.

Keep the dates coming. I've got them all in an excel document and I'll post the graph if anyone is interested.
 
JRudd said:
10/25, 10/31, 11/15, 11/5, 10/15, 11/1 IMO i think there is no excuse for not getting out in Oct. Weather you intend to let an arrow go or not, you cant kill em at home. first week- bucks might still be on pattern and possibly in small bach groups. second-thrid week= a few more people in the woods that might move a deer out of his home turf. my 10/15 buck is good example. the whole month there are farmers in the fields harvesting. once again, you never know waht might get moved out of the corn field or bumped off of a fence line I have sat Oct 1, 2 or 3 for my first sits of the year, every year since ive started bow hunting (besides this season)...and theres 3 years that i have seen more deer and deer movement than any other day of the season while in stand on those dates... theres also years i havent seen squat until the end of Oct my thing is, if you have the time, go sit... you never know. anything can happen on any given day. i would have never thought id let an arrow fly on Oct 15 on a buck like i shot 2 years ago (avitar pic)... and i wouldnt have if i was sittin on the couch on that particular day. but i would agree with anyone that says the first two weeks of november would be the best time to take vaca
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I also agree I saw many deer last year that I would have never saw if I listened to everyone that says don't hunt until late October. Last year I hunted 60 out of the 69 days during the early split.. This year I hope to beat that
 
11/20, 11/15, 11/9, 11/15, 11/6.
That said, I really don't put much time in until the last week of October. Maybe a few hunts here and there. Come Nov, all day sits as much as possible for the first two weeks.
 
buckfever321 said:
I agree 100% with everything you said. If you get the chance to get out, you might as well take advantage of it.

Keep the dates coming. I've got them all in an excel document and I'll post the graph if anyone is interested.
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Please do! My buddy and I were just talking about something like this on a state level.
 
JRudd said:
10/25, 10/31, 11/15, 11/5, 10/15, 11/1

IMO i think there is no excuse for not getting out in Oct. Weather you intend to let an arrow go or not, you cant kill em at home.

first week- bucks might still be on pattern and possibly in small bach groups.

second-thrid week= a few more people in the woods that might move a deer out of his home turf. my 10/15 buck is good example.

the whole month there are farmers in the fields harvesting. once again, you never know waht might get moved out of the corn field or bumped off of a fence line

I have sat Oct 1, 2 or 3 for my first sits of the year, every year since ive started bow hunting (besides this season)...and theres 3 years that i have seen more deer and deer movement than any other day of the season while in stand on those dates... theres also years i havent seen squat until the end of Oct

my thing is, if you have the time, go sit... you never know. anything can happen on any given day. i would have never thought id let an arrow fly on Oct 15 on a buck like i shot 2 years ago (avitar pic)... and i wouldnt have if i was sittin on the couch on that particular day. but i would agree with anyone that says the first two weeks of november would be the best time to take vaca
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Agreed!

My best bucks (youngest probably 3.5 or 4.5) were on 11/6, 11/7, 11/10. Have also seen (and missed a few) older bucks the last week of October thru November and have had trail cam pics throughout that time as well. One buck I'm after (if he's alive) I have a few daytime pics of from each of '11, '12, and '13, ranging from September to November and then after shedding. I have also seen him while on stand during early morning or last 1.5 hours of daylight on 11/4/11, 10/31/12, 11/2/13 (yes, I'm obsessed with this deer!). Guess when I expect to see him again, if I do? You're correct, 11/15! Haha, no, 1st week of November.

I'm also interested in the graph as there are a lot of dates in this thread!
 
Here's the graph. Nothing earth shattering but cool to look at. I graphed it with dates in three day increments just so it would be a little easier on the eyes.

We had a total of 104 bucks in the graph. 65% percent of those were killed between 11/1 and 11/15. 11/4 to 11/9 produced 35% of the mature bucks killed. So if you had 2 weeks of vacation just for deer hunting, 11/1 to 11/14 would statistically be the time to take it.

One of the reasons I did this was because I was curious to see what kind of luck everyone had in late November (around thanksgiving) as this has always been a great week for me. I've always figured there was kind of a second wave a does that came into their cycle around then and it was another spike in rut activity. Surprisingly, I didn't see that correlate to the graph. There's a little spike in late Nov. but not much. I expected more.

I was hoping for a little more participation so we could have more dates and better data but 104 isn't bad. Enough to see a trend. Good luck this year to everybody and congrats if you've already tagged out.

picture.php
 
I'm surprised that more of the people didn't throw their information in. Although the graph is skewed simply because the bucks are harvested then because that's when guys are on vacation typically.

I will say it makes sense that a majority are killed 11/4-11/9
Since
Peak breeding typically takes place on 11/10-11/14. Thus they are cruising that week before.
 
very nice to see! thanks for sharing! if its not too much trouble, maybe update after this season and keep a running total? just cool to see
 
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hoosierhunter said:
Although the graph is skewed simply because the bucks are harvested then because that's when guys are on vacation typically.
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I was just thinking the same thing. If people thought that mid-October was the best time, we'd possibly see more bucks killed then just because that's when people would be out hunting. But, it seems logical that people would take off when the best activity is based on their past experiences as well as those of other hunters.

I would venture a guess that a big part of the reason for lower numbers later in November is that people are already tagged out, or possibly schedule conflicts.


Thanks for the graph! I'd be interested in a running graph as well.
 
StickersNKickers said:
I was just thinking the same thing. If people thought that mid-October was the best time, we'd possibly see more bucks killed then just because that's when people would be out hunting. But, it seems logical that people would take off when the best activity is based on their past experiences as well as those of other hunters. I would venture a guess that a big part of the reason for lower numbers later in November is that people are already tagged out, or possibly schedule conflicts. Thanks for the graph! I'd be interested in a running graph as well.
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The week of thanksgiving has always been hot in my area for sightings. I agree guys are tagged out and the season is waning as burn out sets in...
 
9/18, 10/20, 10/29 , 11/4, 11/4, 11/12, 11/18 These are just the better deer, all but 1 of these I have on the wall.
 
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11/09, 11/11, 11/13, 11/15, 11/17
Guess I should only hunt on odd numbered days.....
 
I have tried many times earlier and later, but the days I see the most buck activity are the first 2 wks of Nov, I have late Oct thru Thanks-to hunt all I want, so time off is not an issue. Heck,,,I seldom even see many rubs around until Nov!
 
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