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Trail cam movement updates... **all bucks dead or living in a cave!!! Anyone else??

Sligh1

Sligh1

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So hot & dry for about 3 weeks. Everything slowed. & I got cams out late so pretty much pulled cards after that. Card after card after card after card after card....... crickets. A couple bucks here. Couple there. Dinkers, few does. Tons of bucks I found their sheds- no where to be found. this is over several farms and tons of cams. Anyone else have tougher time than usual getting bucks on cam?? I’m hunting a 35” fork horn on my main home farm if nothing else surfaces ;). SLOW!!!!!
 
They have morphed into woodchucks and are underground. I am "missing" a lot of deer. Acorns have been dropping for a couple weeks so that was my guess. I stay completely out of timber so if they arnt leaving it, then I don't get their pics. One deer in particular has me anxious to see his pic again and he's not on the hit list. I've never gone more than 2 weeks between pics with him and he's been "gone" for over a month.
 
Cams up here have been slower than normal as well. A few bucks but it's slow. Are you guys down there worried about ehd at all or is your thinking acorns and ghost bucks?
 
Hopefully they all moved west to my cams. I haven’t had a buck on cam yet. Maybe they migrated for me.


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I was also later than normal getting cams out but ran for a month after 7/15 over mineral sites that normally give a decent inventory of what is around. One buck over a year-long. Couple buddies that are good at running cams said the deer they had early this year have disappeared! Sure hope it isn't EHD but we were really DRY but have caught some decent rains the past three weeks.
 
Hey boys keep ur panties square. We all know it happens every year. (Aug 18-27th). The bucks are loosing their velvet, they are as big as they are gonna be. It's not a get bent out of state stage, they are still there.....be patient young grasshopper! It might be time to change cam positions.
Worse thing you can do is throw a ehd scare out.
 
It ain’t ehd for this. It’s too many farms across too many areas not seeing bucks. I personally think it’s some odd reason- like: hot & dry spell (don’t eat mineral when that happens) & something else... bugs in general may be bad- when deer go out into open (like those big black biting flies are horrid this year). Or the acorns are early. Something else. Who knows!?!?!?????? I am missing so many bucks I “know are there”. I personally think they hunkered down in low river spots where it’s cool Or a corn field. & hardly moving. Few hundred yards is all. That’s my thought. But who knows. They will come out of their holes sometime but it’s tough trying to just confirm a ton of bucks are alive and around.
 
I would say we are seeing decent amount in MN, but have not checked Iowa.

Are the bucks in the beans on cool evenings?
 
4DABUCKS said:
Hey boys keep ur panties square. We all know it happens every year. (Aug 18-27th). The bucks are loosing their velvet, they are as big as they are gonna be. It's not a get bent out of state stage, they are still there.....be patient young grasshopper! It might be time to change cam positions.
Worse thing you can do is throw a ehd scare out.
Click to expand...
Wasnt trying to create a scare, purely curious. We didn't experience it up here like the southern iowa guys did and I know people have suggested that wet years could be just as bad due to the exposure of more mud. Just trying to learn about something I know little about. Glad to hear it's not just me missing deer. As to the August transition, our farm I could set my watch by the mature bucks in previous years up through September. The first week of September we usually experience the "September shift" and find out what we lost from summer and what we gained for fall.
 
It's been about a typical year for me. I'm still waiting for 3-4 mature bucks to show, but I have a couple familiar faces. Moving cams a hundred yards can make a huge difference sometimes, but I wouldn't freak and risk the intrusion. I'd rather be the guy with fall pics than summer pics any day though.

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Ehd is alive & well - I will confirm that!! :(. A few guys have found several. I don’t think this year “looks severe” but it’s so hard to say. Ehd hits every year - I’m crossing fingers it doesn’t hit me hard. But- every year- Count on some of it.
 
Agreed Skip. In this area we are talking bout more than a week or 10 days in mid to late August. This has been the case since at least early July. On another note I think our fawn recruitment is VERY good this year. Have been seeing multiple fawns with almost every doe when the past 4-5 year's have shown under 1:1 doe to fawn ratio from treestand observation. I'll have to see what my notes show this fall but it sure looks like good fawn numbers from the road. As far as the bucks go, I sure hope they are just hunkered down letting those antlers grow out of sight! :)
 
FWIW, we haven't had very many cams out yet this year, although I did set a couple more 2 weeks ago that we haven't checked yet, and our buck sightings are off too...but I am not too worried yet. It is peculiar, but I have seen this before. We'll see what the next few weeks shows...I am still quite confident that the "usual suspects" will be showing up soon. We have at least a fair crop of acorns, so that may be the explanation, we shall see.
 
Oddly enough, in the last 2 weeks I've seen 3 "good" bucks (150-165ish) 100 yards off the gravel rd on the last mile home right a dusk. This is rare for ground I saw them on. My boy says he saw a big one too. Wondering if some of those MIA bucks found their way to my place. Seriously no worries fellas, I'll take REALLY good care of them for ya. :)
 
Same out at my place in Winterset. Seems like they're sticking in the woods right now and not venturing out into the fields as much. Tons of does, few 2.5 year olds wandering out from time to time.
 
By far the worst summer (specifically the last 4 weeks) for our trail camera's. Here in SW Missouri we need rain bad, and so I've got to believe bucks are bedding where they have safe access to water. Our creek just has a couple of pockets of water that it is holding...which it is normally running year round.

Also, acorns have started dropping here at a pretty good rate. So, I'm guessing they aren't moving away from bedding much.
 
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