10 year Pa deer study

[mattpsu1]

3 of the biggest bucks I've ever seen on my cameras in PA were between 10 and 1230. This was last season at 1226. Public land PA. At least 25 in spread 10pter crappy quality but you can see the width View attachment 86607

That’s a PA giant! What’s the date if you don’t mind? I got this pic at 11:16 on 11/12. Keeping me up at night, time on pic is from when I downloaded it

 

[bigmike23]

I'll add despite the evidence to stick on stand for the mythical PA monarch, I usually leave around 10 because the urge to hit pumpkin spice at Dunkin is too overwhelming

 

[bigmike23]

That’s a PA giant! What’s the date if you don’t mind? I got this pic at 11:16 on 11/12. Keeping me up at night

I have witnessed consistently, repeatably over and over again 3 years running the same thing on stand and most importantly on the Tactacams.
If you want to kill a buck, Oct 27th to Nov 8th is the time.
If you want a mature buck, it's always the 9th to season close.
The last 2 seasons I encountered my target buck Nov 13th of this year, Nov 17th last year. Once the cold front hits I hit it hard the last week.

Nov 19 was the giant

 

[Halfstep]

I think that the deer have adapted to high hunting pressure in those areas of high hunter density. It goes to show how adaptive deer can be. Where I live there are a lot of large patches of public ground called the Mark Twain National Forest. Due to the size and amount of public ground, these areas have very low hunting pressure during bow season but have very high hunting pressure during the invasion of the orange army of rifle season. So bow hunting can be good because there is a lot of public land to spread out on. Rifle season brings in a lot of out of towners to these large patches of public ground and there is a camper set up in every pull-off.

During bow season with a good acorn crop, deer movement is stable and predictable on these public grounds. I hunt both private and public and there isn't any difference with respect to deer habits and movement.

In states Like PA where there is so much managed deer habitat and high hunting pressure, the deer movement has been altered and now hunters must adapt to these changes to be successful.

 

[Allegheny Tom]

I hunt 10am-2pm quite often. I’ve seen a lot of good deer that way. I have no need to be up at 4am to go hunting. Actually every buck I’ve shot in the last 3-4 yrs has been between 10:15am and 11:45. With the exception an 8pt at 3:15.


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I'm pretty well convinced that most of us do more damage to our hunt and educate more deer when we employ the common practice of going in/out of our stands in the "traditional" time frame. ESPECIALLY when our access route takes us through fields. Mid day hunting is highly underrated. There's a LOT of days when I see very few bucks in the 1st and last hours of daylight.
~8:30 to noon is awesome during the rut.

 

[Plebe]

I have witnessed consistently, repeatably over and over again 3 years running the same thing on stand and most importantly on the Tactacams.
If you want to kill a buck, Oct 27th to Nov 8th is the time.
If you want a mature buck, it's always the 9th to season close.
The last 2 seasons I encountered my target buck Nov 13th of this year, Nov 17th last year. Once the cold front hits I hit it hard the last week.View attachment 86618

Nov 19 was the giant

I like my chances whenever I can go afield, but I think the trend you're seeing is a reasonable generalization of rut success.

I last bow and gun hunted PA in 2019. I had two nice bucks in range on Nov2 around 10am. I bumped noses with a big buck just before one pm on the second legal day of gun. A big buck.

 

[MC_98]

I started seeing way more deer when I started staying on stand until 11 to even 1 pm.

So true! Especially during the rut I’ve seen way more bucks from 10A.M. until 2 or 3P.M. I’ve seen them moving early and late but they are normally with a doe.

My thoughts are they get to a good location downwind of dow bedding or a staging area where doe are browsing slowly back to bed coming from their overnight food source. They slip in a little before daylight and sit and wait for a hot doe to come by and if she doesn’t… after a while they go search a little more.

3 of my last 4 bucks I’ve taken have been off a staging area bed (rut bed) between 10 and 2.

 

[Fgirtyman]

I saw that the pagc with a few other organizations including Penn State did a new 10 year deer study. They collared 1,120 buck, doe, and fawns over this time with gps collars. Some of the info was very interesting. Some key points that I took away ill list below.

-Mature buck are usually bedded well before dawn and don't typically move until after 10 am.
-deer patterns changed the day before the season opener.
-light rain does not affect deer movement.
-wind does not affect deer movement and movement often increases on windy days.
-the number of deer killed on public land is way less than I expected and those deer just hide more.

Here is the link to the article and the blog recording the data.

10-year Pennsylvania deer study shakes up what hunters thought they knew [column] | Outdoors | lancasteronline.com
Penn State Deer-Forest Study (psu.edu)

So interesting...Thanks for the post. I agree with much of it here as I have observed some the same conclusions and observations in Wi.
Especially with bucks and deer moving in higher winds contrary to popular beliefs. I am also a believer in does having their fawns in areas where predators fear to travel... nearer populus areas of humans. Thanks again for bringing this info to us TK.

 

[Fgirtyman]

I like my chances whenever I can go afield, but I think the trend you're seeing is a reasonable generalization of rut success.

I last bow and gun hunted PA in 2019. I had two nice bucks in range on Nov2 around 10am. I bumped noses with a big buck just before one pm on the second legal day of gun. A big buck.

I agree best times are midday during the rut. I have hunted during midday in Sept. and Oct. but most buck activity is at night or late evening or early AM not midday. Bigger bucks may get up and move short distances but generally I don't hunt late mornings for lack of capitalizing on that movement....at least in the areas I hunt. The old saying you can't shoot them off the couch is true but if I'm after bigger bucks midday Sept. or mid Oct
I'm better off resting up on the couch.

 

[woodsdog2]

Anything to narrow down his travel before he reaches the food source?

All on private where he’s bedding that I don’t have permission to hunt. The owner is also a hearty hunter but lives out of state so isn’t there hunting all the time. So I’m caught trying to waylay him from standing corn. If I go into the public woods that he comes through to approach the lane I never see anything except small fry when set up in the woods. Everything else is out feeding already both in the grapes (hitting the plantings and/or cover crop they put in between the grape rows which is typically a brassica of some type) so trying to get in early is not a feasible option as the deer are in the area near the target apple tree at 2pm in the afternoon. I have thought about going in super early and bumping the does off to set up but worry he’ll wait till dark if I do it. The closest I came last season was the first couple of days into the archery opener and he came close to the corn and clover patch but turned back east into the woods instead of west toward me. D the next day I one sticked up a maple into the woods he turned into with the spiker about fifty yards from the lane they used the night before to go back into the woods and all that showed up was a doe and her yearling fawn and a little four point. Exit is a huge issue there too as to get back to my truck involves busting everything out. After that second night he wasn’t hitting the apples anymore that I could tell!!! By then the wind was from the southwest so my cornfield strategy had to go down the poop tube as he would have walked right into my scent stream. It has to be an east or a NE wind for this setup to work.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

All on private where he’s bedding that I don’t have permission to hunt. The owner is also a hearty hunter but lives out of state so isn’t there hunting all the time. So I’m caught trying to waylay him from standing corn. If I go into the public woods that he comes through to approach the lane I never see anything except small fry when set up in the woods. Everything else is out feeding already both in the grapes (hitting the plantings and/or cover crop they put in between the grape rows which is typically a brassica of some type) so trying to get in early is not a feasible option as the deer are in the area near the target apple tree at 2pm in the afternoon. I have thought about going in super early and bumping the does off to set up but worry he’ll wait till dark if I do it. The closest I came last season was the first couple of days into the archery opener and he came close to the corn and clover patch but turned back east into the woods instead of west toward me. D the next day I one sticked up a maple into the woods he turned into with the spiker about fifty yards from the lane they used the night before to go back into the woods and all that showed up was a doe and her yearling fawn and a little four point. Exit is a huge issue there too as to get back to my truck involves busting everything out. After that second night he wasn’t hitting the apples anymore that I could tell!!! By then the wind was from the southwest so my cornfield strategy had to go down the poop tube as he would have walked right into my scent stream. It has to be an east or a NE wind for this setup to work.

So, the spot you are hunting the corn is private you have permission on? If so, I'd see if I could use screw ins or bolts and make a couple of preset spots that all I had to do was slide in and shimmy up the tree and hunt. I'd set them up just like John Eberhart does. He has quite a few videos on his presets and also hunting standing corn. I'd set up one to shoot that apple tree and one over where you saw that buck go into the woods. I'd put it to cover the boundary of the corn and woods. There is usually a narrow strip of open ground bordering crops.

If the does are at the apple tree at 2pm I would plan to ease in there at 11 or noon and set up. Another idea is to hunt the spot when it is raining light to moderately and sit all day if you can. The rain might help you get in and out cleanly.

 

[Plebe]

I agree best times are midday during the rut. I have hunted during midday in Sept. and Oct. but most buck activity is at night or late evening or early AM not midday. Bigger bucks may get up and move short distances but generally I don't hunt late mornings for lack of capitalizing on that movement....at least in the areas I hunt. The old saying you can't shoot them off the couch is true but if I'm after bigger bucks midday Sept. or mid Oct
I'm better off resting up on the couch.

I generally commit full days to hunting. Makes for long days in early October. For sure I don't see the same midday action then as later in the month and through November, in the same spots. I prefer mornings that time of year, even though I've had encounters with nice bucks in the afternoon, those usually happen towards the end of legal shooting when daylight is poor.

 

[woodsdog2]

So, the spot you are hunting the corn is private you have permission on? If so, I'd see if I could use screw ins or bolts and make a couple of preset spots that all I had to do was slide in and shimmy up the tree and hunt. I'd set them up just like John Eberhart does. He has quite a few videos on his presets and also hunting standing corn. I'd set up one to shoot that apple tree and one over where you saw that buck go into the woods. I'd put it to cover the boundary of the corn and woods. There is usually a narrow strip of open ground bordering crops.

If the does are at the apple tree at 2pm I would plan to ease in there at 11 or noon and set up. Another idea is to hunt the spot when it is raining light to moderately and sit all day if you can. The rain might help you get in and out cleanly.

Yes, the corn and the grapes are private, the apple tree(s) are right on the public/private line. And yes, I have permission to hunt on the private. The woods are public that tend to get pounded but eratically. So I can't use screw in steps. I could put an old set of climbing sticks up but they may get stolen. I used a stepladder in the corn last year and it worked golden except the buck yinged when I wanted him to yang. He wasn't spooked and the wind was from him to me, actually I was parallel to the wind stream. He came to the apples as precictated (I had standard trail cam pics of him from September 30th through October 5th or 7th and he was pretty much hitting that pattern every other day or so. The evening I was able to hunt him he walked along that same lane and then hit a scrape then went back in east or directly opposite the direction I was at and haven't seen him since!! But I will say it was cool kind of completely predicting what he was going to do. It was probably 6:30 or so the sun was low in the western sky behind me so he didn't see me at all. I had does walk past me from the south out of the corn to converge on the clover/hay field, brassica greens in the grapes and over course those dropping apples. Those old apple orchards pull deer in from all directions hence the other issues I was contending with. Noses, eyes and ears everywhere!!! At one point I took my ladder to align about three rows to the west from that dropping apple. I would just stand up and shoot him as he went to the apple was my plan but the first night I decided to do that I went about three rows back to the west directly from that dropping apple tree and does were already bedded in the brassicas chawing on the greens!!!!! That's what forced me into the corn in the first place. That ten and the tall spiker bed in an overgrown grapefield to the north of the active grapes that are farmed. They crossed a rural highway every evening from grown over grape field bedding. I can't put steps on the public land but I could hang a ladder stand but then that invites others to the section.

 

[elk yinzer]

@bigmike23 is that a creek or a pool of rainwater? How high on the mountain is it? That's an interesting place to be getting daytime pictures. Do you think the bucks water there, or is it more a travel route?

 

[bigmike23]

@bigmike23 is that a creek or a pool of rainwater? How high on the mountain is it? That's an interesting place to be getting daytime pictures. Do you think the bucks water there, or is it more a travel route?

It's usually a 25 yard wide area of dirt in the middle of Mtn Laurel. Nothing grows in it. Bedding is to the left of it. About 1/3 from the top. This is it earlier in the year

 

[elk yinzer]

It's usually a 25 yard wide area of dirt in the middle of Mtn Laurel. Nothing grows in it. Bedding is to the left of it. About 1/3 from the top. This is it earlier in the year

That's what I thought. I've come across very similar areas, never really paid much attention to them as a focal point but it makes sense if it's close to good bedding cover.

 

[BTaylor]

Nice bear and buck in that spot.

 

[bigmike23]

I'll also add, hunting mtns of PA that nothing has been more instrumental in my success or knowledge gained than cell cams.
I don't watch much of Infalt anymore as very little of his tactics apply to me. But on a video he discussed hunting the rut, he found a buck will hit an area hard for a couple of days, then be gone for good. That's your window to go in for the kill. That's what led to me having an opportunity on my targets the last two years. Once I get a pic of a buck I want, and it's cold enough to go out I move in.
I mentioned earlier I had an opportunity the 2022 season on Nov 13th. This was the buck the day prior and the one I wounded on the 13th. Picture doesn't do it justice. Was very high nor wide, but his mass was unreal and I never killed a 9 pter which I want off the bucket list

 

[hokiehunter373]

All of these are from last year during times that most hunters would consider not to be prime time

 

[hokiehunter373]

All of these are from last year during times that most hunters would consider not to be prime time