Deer Hunt 2020-Rifle

[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.

[MihajloSimsic]

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.

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.

[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 .

[ninepointer]

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.

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.

[Saskfly]

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


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[Sam Menard]

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.

[Fox]

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.

[LiveBates]

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

[Gilroy]

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.

[Sam Menard]

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