Deer Hunt 2020-Rifle

Deer sightings around my camp in Hastings County (WMU61) were zero. 5 guys, two weeks in the bush, dogging runs for the morning hunt and sitting quietly for the afternoon hunt. Not one deer seen by anyone. Lots of pokes in the leaves, feeding scrapes in the Oaks and droppings. Only one 6 pointer on the trail cams. No one saw a fresh rub on a tree anywhere on the 500 acres or so of Canadian Shield that we hunt until Friday of the second week. Lots of nearby camps have similar observations. Very few shots fired in the bush. Only a couple deer taken at the nearby camps. A buddy hunts in a camp to the west in WMU60---same thing. How does this compare with other hunts in the area? I get the feeling that the rut didn't start this past season until late in the second week. Numbers could be down too.

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Originally Posted by Paul Neal

Deer sightings around my camp in Hastings County (WMU61) were zero. 5 guys, two weeks in the bush, dogging runs for the morning hunt and sitting quietly for the afternoon hunt. Not one deer seen by anyone. Lots of pokes in the leaves, feeding scrapes in the Oaks and droppings. Only one 6 pointer on the trail cams. No one saw a fresh rub on a tree anywhere on the 500 acres or so of Canadian Shield that we hunt until Friday of the second week. Lots of nearby camps have similar observations. Very few shots fired in the bush. Only a couple deer taken at the nearby camps. A buddy hunts in a camp to the west in WMU60---same thing. How does this compare with other hunts in the area? I get the feeling that the rut didn't start this past season until late in the second week. Numbers could be down too.

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Had the same feeling down here in the 92-94 area. Granted I had my best season yet but it felt like the November rut didn't even happen. Deer all over the place early October and absolutely nothing until the end of November. I'm feeling that the hot temps just killed their daylight activity. The hottest rutting action I saw was in early December during the "second rut" when the snow stayed on the ground for a bit.

I hunted 61, saw 20 deer between 2 of us over 3 days during rifle hunt. An equal mix of buck and does. No scrapes or rubs anywhere, unusual but so was hunting in 20+c .

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Originally Posted by Paul Neal

Deer sightings around my camp in Hastings County (WMU61) were zero. 5 guys, two weeks in the bush, dogging runs for the morning hunt and sitting quietly for the afternoon hunt. Not one deer seen by anyone. Lots of pokes in the leaves, feeding scrapes in the Oaks and droppings. Only one 6 pointer on the trail cams. No one saw a fresh rub on a tree anywhere on the 500 acres or so of Canadian Shield that we hunt until Friday of the second week. Lots of nearby camps have similar observations. Very few shots fired in the bush. Only a couple deer taken at the nearby camps. A buddy hunts in a camp to the west in WMU60---same thing. How does this compare with other hunts in the area? I get the feeling that the rut didn't start this past season until late in the second week. Numbers could be down too.

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You could have been describing WMU 47. Folks around the villages and farms were having some luck, but the back country was devoid of deer.

Rifle hunt this year in 60 was tough. Muzzleloader was spectacular.


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A couple of reasons could generally account for low deer sightings: unusual weather, lack of food/ better food elsewhere, habitat changes, presence of predators, and low deer population. Occam's razor states that the simplest explanation is usually the right one.

IMO, many hunters will blame everything under the sun rather than admit that the deer population crashed since that means poor hunting for several years. They often want to blame everything and everyone but themselves. Usually, it’s a combination of factors.

A word of caution, hunting near prime food sources and later in the season in an area close to or on the way to a winter concentration area (yard) can skew perceptions that deer numbers are higher than they actually are. It’s important to look at the bigger picture rather than making conclusions on a small sample area.

17 days hunting this year and the only deer I saw in person was when walking in with corn the day before the muzzle loader hunt.

I had 200 pictures of deer with 5 different bucks on 1 camera over those 17 days and not 1 deer seen. We also had a gang get together at the camp, it was weird because it was essentially a group of solo hunters who all came to the camp to say hi from their cars and go out hunting, but not a single deer was spotted by any of us during daylight hours.

We only put one on the pole 2nd week of rifle. The dogs had an average amount of chases, maybe a little less. I passed on a small doe my first day, and just watched her walk by, I regretted it though, as we had 4 doe tags this year. It felt weird sitting sitting in my blind in a tshirt, but it was still a nice week away from the hustle and bussle.....
Scott

I hunted in WMU 60 and was fortunate to get a small buck first afternoon of the opening day. I stayed up the rest of the week messing around camp.

Now the deer I got had the chase on a doe that came out to the stand prior to me getting him and she was on the run.

But for the whole property I saw no signs of the rut being on, no rub's or scrapes anywhere. There were other deer around at least two adult does and one fawn, I also had another decent basket buck on camera.

But overall a very quiet week very few gun shots. But I can tell you my butcher north of Coe HILL had in seven deer the first day and by Thursday of the first week had 40 deer in for processing.

I have always been told that the best hunting is in the December muzzle loading season or cross bow, never stay that long due to access.

The absence of scrapes tells me that there are few mature bucks. Younger bucks tend not to make scrapes.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

The absence of scrapes tells me that there are few mature bucks. Younger bucks tend not to make scrapes.

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What i found unusual was how many deer we put eyes on and good mature bucks, but no rubs or scrapes.
Even walked into two good bucks about to fight right at last light. They hightailed it away fast when I met them on the trail..lol

I can't complain , I hunted one day for deer this year .
On that day I sat for 1 and a half hours before a nice 8 pointer walked in at 20 yards from down wind.
The 50 cal did its job.

Hunted 49 for 5 days and our group saw absolutely nothing. A few on the trail cam leading up to the rifle season but like others no sign.

I hunt in 68a the first week and not much Buck sign as well. I was able to get a 5 pointer when we ran the dogs and my friend got a nice Buck as well. We have not been able to get any Doe tags for several years now and we see many many Does..............Daniel

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Originally Posted by huntnmachine

Hunted 49 for 5 days and our group saw absolutely nothing. A few on the trail cam leading up to the rifle season but like others no sign.

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Have you experienced bad winters?

I noticed there were fewer rubs this year and saw only a couple scrapes this year in 92 (2nd week). Saw lots of deer when driving but less than usual in the bush. I don't really know why, weather/rut/coyotes no drastic changes. I did bag an 8 pointer that came by about 5 minutes after a doe passed .

I hunted 72A, as I have for 20 years. I have never seen as many deer as I did this season. I saw deer every time I went out, which was every day of gun and muzzle loader season. Furthermore, these weren't always the same deer, according to my trail cameras. I had at least 8 bucks, from fork horns to old wide racked shooters. I finally took a nice 9 point, my second choice, the second last evening of the muzzle loader season. I saw chasing, fighting and there was the usual amount of scrapes and rubs - lots. I guess I am pretty lucky, if no one else is seeing anything!!

I'll be hunting new property this year in WMU 41. hoping to get out in the spring and do a weekend of scouting on the property

no deer in 80. nope. not one. not a single one. so dont bother hunting here this coming fall :P

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Originally Posted by canadaman30

I hunted 61, saw 20 deer between 2 of us over 3 days during rifle hunt. An equal mix of buck and does. No scrapes or rubs anywhere, unusual but so was hunting in 20+c .

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THIS X2 LOL
i was in 81

first 2 days were brutal cold and packed with snow, most action ive seen yet maybe 5 or 6 deer in 2 days
rest of the week was more quiet but i did still see a few i was hunting in a tshirt or my long sleve thin turkey sweater LOL

I hunted mostly solo in WMU 64a and half a day in WMU 63a.
During the rifle season, I hunted on 8 separate days (some were only half days), and I only saw 1 deer during that time, a young buck, which I unfortunately missed somehow. The hot weather (23 C on a couple of days, and very warm on others) was a real bummer, and I left early a couple of days since I didn't have any scent-free sunblock :). The amount of buck sign was typical for the area I hunt - there wasn't a lot. The scrapes and rubs started to appear towards the end of the rifle season, but I confirmed with the guy on the neighbouring property who has trail cameras that most of the activity was at night.

I also hunted during the muzzleloader season on 4 separate days (one was a half day). I didn't see any deer.

During the archery seasons I hunted 9 separate days (all half days or less) and I saw 12 deer in total, only one decent buck, but he was running, so I didn't have an opportunity for a shot. I passed on a little fork horn on Halloween, and of course, I am regretting that now that I have an empty freezer.

Personally, I think that last winter didn't help the herd. It didn't snow a huge amount here, but I seem to remember that there weren't any really warm spells to melt the snow, so a fair amount accumulated. Then the spring was initially pretty cool, so green-up was seriously delayed, which probably resulted in some starvation.

Plenty of deer 92 1st season I was done Tuesday morning, then my son-in-law got another buck out of same stand Friday

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Have you experienced bad winters?

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Not really......but lots and I mean lots of moose in our area.
Some claim moose and deer cannot live together so if that's true it would explain the lack of deer

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Originally Posted by huntnmachine

Not really......but lots and I mean lots of moose in our area.
Some claim moose and deer cannot live together so if that's true it would explain the lack of deer

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Usually deer thrive and moose populations drop due brain worm. The parasite is not fatal to deer but they play havoc to moose.

This year I chose all my sits to hunt with favorable wind, didn't wander around all over the place to hunt, and completely stayed out of my property starting early October so as not to leave any human scent throughout the woods (no more doing weekly trail cam checks, etc). Sample size of 1 year, but it was night and day how many deer I saw this year versus previous years.

Tough to do obviously if you don't have full control of a piece of private land, but it was pretty interesting what having a low pressure area in a sea of high pressure areas does. Just some food for thought.

Hunted on private land in WMU 60 for a few days during both weeks of the rifle season.
Saw zero deer myself, and my hunting friends also saw none.
A few deer were only showing up at night to pose in front of cameras.
After that one friend managed a young buck during archery season, and that was our singular harvest for 2020.
As of January we are seeing a bunch of deer hanging around - and laughing at us - as they enjoy all the nice food that we serve them! ;D

Here are my quick stats for the 2020 deer season.
I hunt a family farm in 64A with high deer density and some property close to home that I have gained permission on in 68B that is lower deer density farm country.
My goal going into the season was to hunt around home more often than usual partly because I have a young family at home and also because despite the lower deer numbers the bucks around home seem to grow a lot bigger headgear.
64A - hunted 7 days (3 during rifle season and 4 during bow season) and saw 56 deer. This includes deer I saw on my walk out from stands (just after dark). I had one encounter with a shooter buck at about 50 yards on my first bow hunt of the year and didn’t see another buck bigger than a spike the rest of the season.
68B - I hunted 17 days (3 during gun season, 4 during muzzleloader, and the rest during bow season) and saw 30 deer. I was after one specific buck (but would’ve gladly taken any 3.5+ yr old) and saw him once at 200 yards during muzzleloader season.
Overall it was a good season despite not filling my tag. The last 2 years I had actually seen more deer and more bucks but also spend a lot more time hunting in 64A. Luckily I got a moose in Sept so was still able to fill the freezer.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Usually deer thrive and moose populations drop due brain worm. The parasite is not fatal to deer but they play havoc to moose.

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I can tell you up my way there are always deer and Moose on the same range and its been that way for at least 25 years, no big numbers of each but both always there.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

I can tell you up my way there are always deer and Moose on the same range and its been that way for at least 25 years, no big numbers of each but both always there.

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Brain worm may not be an issue. It’s not in the western provinces. An intermediate host of the brain worm are snails.