I agree that the weather had to play a part. It has been unseasonably warm, even here in the mountains. We also seemed to have a lot of full moon or cloudless nights during the season, which didn't help with movement during the day. Still, I was able to hunt without freezing to death, so I'm not complaining.

 

Judging by the amount of deer I have seen, and others in this area, it wasn't a poor season in SE NC. I didn't get that big one, but I still seen lots of deer.

 

No acorns at all in my area this year (Rockingham County) so a very productive deer season meat wise. They were moving early almost every evening to feed. Did not kill "the big one" but filled the freezer nicely. Next year when the acorns drop, I will be wondering what happened to all the deer.

 

I've seen about as many this year as any year before. Granted they didn't "pattern" as well as in past years but when the season opened they went to the areas of refuge that they always have. I hunted with clients 16 times this season and 13 were successful. Biggest this year was an 8 pointer, 16" inside and he was shot at 30 yards with a handgun.

 

The rut was not early this year, unless there were 3 rut periods. I shot a buck with slightly darkened hocks on Oct 31st, nose to the ground in Central and I shot a deer whose hocks were black and he stunk to high heaven on Dec 28th. Everything in between was like a SUPER lull period with very few buck sightings in daylight and not many dead deer on the ground. I know weather contributed but I have no idea what happened to late November.

 

The rut was not early this year, unless there were 3 rut periods. I shot a buck with slightly darkened hocks on Oct 31st, nose to the ground in Central and I shot a deer whose hocks were black and he stunk to high heaven on Dec 28th. Everything in between was like a SUPER lull period with very few buck sightings in daylight and not many dead deer on the ground. I know weather contributed but I have no idea what happened to late November.

This. In my mind I always tie the rut to the number of deer on the hwys dead. Usually it's around the middle of November. This year it was a month late. The last half of December I saw 10 times as many as anytime earlier this season.

Better luck next year lol. I only killed 1 doe

 

They seem to be waiting till dark to move.....played chicken with 7-8 of them just half an hour ago 1/2 mile from my house....

 

I think part of my poor season was moving all of Moore County into the Eastern Season. Deer population going down due to more hunting pressure, more coyotes, Did not see a deer while hunting this year at all. half of the time I could hunt was the full moon.
Mast should not have been a problem as my Dad had acorns covering his yard.
Saw lots of tracks, mostly larger deer, few smaller deer (coyotes vs fawns??)
CF

 

They seem to be waiting till dark to move.....played chicken with 7-8 of them just half an hour ago 1/2 mile from my house....

That's to be expected this time of year

 

I can't complain. I got two fairly nice 8-pointers and two does. I could have gotten more but that's enough. Early season I saw lots of smaller bucks and does. Towards the end of the season I saw nothing but young does and button heads...usually just a few minutes before dark.

I hunted four mornings...the remainder of my hunts were in the afternoons. That way I know what time to leave the woods.

 

This was an off year for us as well. Volume was low. When we did see deer in the field, it was usually a doe & yearling. Seemed like they started to move later in the day this year, game cameras showed a lot more than we ever saw. Sweet potato and corn piles sat around for weeks.

We hunted coyotes last week and saw a more traditional group of 8 deer including a huge buck. Reasons for optimism next year.

 

Seemed most of the movement around here was in the afternoon. I got both of my mine in the afternoon. Never saw much in the morning

 

I shot both of mine in the morning, and had more sightings in the morning by far.

 

I had a great season. I could have killed deer every time I went except once. We took several very nice bucks and left a few for next year. I have no complaints.

 

I saw plenty of deer in my neighborhood this past season including a nice shooter buck. Unfortunately, the only threat they faced was someone driving a car.

 

I'm wondering if that Blue tongue outbreak last year hurt the does more than the bucks. I know several guys locally that barely saw any does. I saw fewer deer last year. Killed several, so it was not a total loss. I know there were problems with blue tongue to my west and NW, so it's not out of the question that it made it closer.

Had a game warden come by to get a holster. He said a lot of guys were complaining. Seemed to think the blue tongue could be part of it.

 

If it was Hemorrhagic Fever (Blue Tongue) the decline in the herd would certainly make sense. Add the growing Coyote population and you have a double whammy of sorts. From what I've seen the herd usually bounces back pretty quickly from Blue Tongue.

 

Yeah, I'm sure they will. But it hit last season, so we lost does and whatever young they would have had. I'm sure there were less fawns this year in some places. The strangest things is the lack of does in some areas. IIRC it was mainly the Yadkin river and it's watershed. But I imagine it may have moved a touch further than that because I heard they lost a lot of deer around Rutherford College in Burke county.

 

Here in Davidson Co, me and the two guys I hunt with around about 6 miles of area, we all filled our buck tags, not a single one of us saw a single doe.

 

Yeah, I'm sure they will. But it hit last season, so we lost does and whatever young they would have had. I'm sure there were less fawns this year in some places. The strangest things is the lack of does in some areas. IIRC it was mainly the Yadkin river and it's watershed. But I imagine it may have moved a touch further than that because I heard they lost a lot of deer around Rutherford College in Burke county.

Burke County was hit fairly hard last year. Have a friend that works for the Table Rock Hatchery. They were pulling deer out of the flume lines and ponds daily where they would come to die at the water.

 

Burke County was hit fairly hard last year. Have a friend that works for the Table Rock Hatchery. They were pulling deer out of the flume lines and ponds daily where they would come to die at the water.

That's what I was kind of worried about. Sounds like when it worked it's way up the Yadkin headwaters it may have jumped over into the Wilson/Johns River shed into the Catawba side.

Any idea what the buck to doe ratio was for dead deer, wild guess even?

 

Must have been worse in your part of the state. Raleigh still has way to many deer darting out in front of traffic and I see many more doe than bucks these days. Counted 11 in my neighborhood yesterday 1 buck 10 doe.

 

Yup - had a dozen in the front yard yesterday afternoon. We really need to extend the season through January.