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Rich77

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Have been running a camera in one of my best summertime spots.
Have always gotten pics of great deer in this location for atleast the last 5 years. Nothing has changed anywhere around this farm.
Over 6,000 pics in the last 4 weeks and I dont have one single antlered deer picture... not a spike, forky... nothing! Have upwards of 14-16 does in one picture, fawns and does all day and all night. Ill add that it is over a large corn/ apple pile thats super easy to drive to so im not spooking deer at all.
Just seems really strange for a traditionally great spot to have zero bucks
 
I'm having the same problem on one property. Hey if you have the does the bucks will show up. I wouldn't get too worried about in. Bucks will be showing up in the next few weeks as velvet starts to come off
 
Yr in and yr out we see and kill more bucks on this farm during the rut than any other due to the terrain and always having a good ammount of does. Its just unusual that there are zero bucks there now. I even found a 60" 4 point side 10 ft from the camera when I hung it. Just a matter of time I guess. Ill be there in November no matter what the camera shows
 
No worries on antlers now. You have that many ladies- you will have the antlers come Halloween and later
 
My guess would be there is a bachelor group of bucks somewhere on the farm or near you. The next time you see a buck you'll probably see 4 or 5.
 
Seems odd, is there a different crop rotation around you? 10 years ago, we had no corn/beans adjacent to us...now...there are 3 cornfields immediately across the road from us and we also have 5 acres of corn that is looking beeyutaful!!

We are seeing a different mix of bucks this year too, but not zero. I think right now that the bucks are spread out in the corn around the neighborhood.
 
I've got one camera over mineral that has only had one little yearling buck show up a couple times, the rest is does & fawns. Another camera, also over mineral, a quarter mile away, seems to be buck central. Not much for giants, but plenty of young horn. In the past, pictures from the 2 sites have been more mixed, but this year it seems pretty segregated. FWIW: The does seem to be relating to my Dbltree food plot while the bucks seem to be more in the vicinity of the neighbors corn field. I'll bet that they get plenty "mixed up" in a couple months.
 
I typically run into the same problem each year. Normally my best pictures are taken from Aug 15 until season opens. Very rarely will I have consistent pictures of bucks until this time of year, but I'm also not running camera's near corn as often. Getting pictures of a lot of does is a great sign for the rut, and I'm sure that bachelor groups will start showing up soon enough with the temps and daylight changes.
 
Ran into the same thing this year as well. This particular camera was my go to last year and never disappointed. Had does, does, and more does. Only to find out the other camera 1/2 mile away had all the bucks. The crop rotation on my farm has them moved around as they are hanging out in the corn.
 
Liv4Rut said:
Not many men are brave enough to walk into a crowd of 14-16 women with their babies.
Click to expand...
Haha, nice one! I have the same problem at one property this year. I wonder if it's due to all the consistent rain we've been getting around where I hunt. Forage food and resources are very plentiful so maybe bucks don't have to move as much as they might during drought years. Doesn't explain why all the does still come consistently though.

I was scouting stand locations and jumped two dandy bucks deep in one property about a 1/2 mile from a cam and they have never showed all summer. It should be getting good pretty soon though!
 
This is a fairly large piece, i dont run cameras anywhere on the interior of this farm and am not at all worried about there not being any good deer to hunt. Just thought it was strange to have that many does and not so much as a little dinker.
I can drive a mile down the road and watch bucks/ does/ fawns all in the same alfalfa/ bean ground any evening. Maybe a few of these old does are just old haggard nags and the bucks can't handle them.
 
^ That's what I'm thinking, too,Rich77. May just be a case of some older does being very protective of their young and bumping the bucks out. it's like you and others said, ' If you have that many does around the property, you shouldn't have anything to be concerned about come pre rut, rut time.

Though, out of curiosity, were there high buck harvests #s, for your particular area, during the 2014/15 seasons? May also be the case of having some really great groups of hunters (or extremely lucky, anyways)in the area.
 
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