Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

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Dewey
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Dewey » Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:58 am

Edcyclopedia wrote:They can smell gun oil...

You might be onto something Ed! :think:

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Stanley
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Dec 23, 2014 10:16 am

I seriously doubt if they have intuition. They do know for sure when the gun season kicks in. They are chased/shot at/harassed to no end for 2 solid weeks.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby stash59 » Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:13 pm

IMO yes. I'm disabled and don't work. I live with my brother's family. On weekdays they go to work. The family dog starts watching for them out the window late afternoon/early evening for them to arrive home. On the weekends they do church stuff and he knows to start looking for them about noon. I grew up on the end of a 5/8 mile dead end road. When our dogs heard a vehicle coming you could tell by their body movements whether it was a strangers or one of the families. Again IMO, wild animals are even MORE in tune with their environment. With some of their senses 100 to even 1000's time better than ours they know what's going on from a lot further away than we think. Couple that knowledge with a mature animal and they will know how it relates to staying safe. Dan talks all the time about not over hunting an area. How deer know about permanent stand setups used day after day and how they avoid them. This will age me but back in the late '70's and early '80's Roger Rothare and the Wensel bros talked alot about how deer remember things. In fact I bought a book Gene reccomended by a guy from South Dakota about driving deer. The name of the book was "Remember the Deer Do !"
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Haus86 » Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:16 pm

Stanley wrote:I seriously doubt if they have intuition. They do know for sure when the gun season kicks in. They are chased/shot at/harassed to no end for 2 solid weeks.


Do you think they could be conditioned from 5 or 6 shotgun seasons that started the same time every year, immediately following the rut? Could decreasing daylight play a role like was mentioned? It kind of reminded me of the circuit thread that Bucky started. :think:
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Ghost Hunter » Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:33 pm

I think just the increased pressure of human activity. Walking in woods, checking cameras, prepping stands, riding atv, bush hogging, harvest, target practice with guns an etc.
I'm reason they call it hunting and not shooting.
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Bucky » Tue Dec 23, 2014 12:38 pm

I know where I hunt the pressure in the marsh and woods explode the week prior to gun season.... I'm sure they know it is coming by rough timing estimates = tail end of rut/post rut in WI

They sure can hunker down post gun season... I'm talking days without moving in daylight according to trailcams peppered all over the place
"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values, with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." Fred Bear
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby purebowhunting » Tue Dec 23, 2014 1:22 pm

Here is a great study, its worth your time in my opinion. reference.
http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/proj ... ning-bucks
http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/proj ... not-hardly

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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Haus86 » Sun Jan 17, 2016 7:05 am

I left my cameras up in a gun season sanctuary again this year, and I experienced the same results. These bucks showed up just prior to opening day of shotgun (Dec. 5th). They stuck around until shortly after Christmas. I have no pictures of them since then.

This buck was not around during Fall.
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The oldest buck on the farm frequented the "sanctuary" Just prior to, and during shotgun season.
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My buddy was hunting 1.5 miles away as the crow flies during bow season. He had a great encounter with this buck in November. There was no sign of him on the farm I was hunting until just prior to shotgun season.

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Edcyclopedia
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Sun Jan 17, 2016 7:10 am

What a corker!

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Expect the Unexpected when you least Expect it...
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Haus86 » Sun Jan 17, 2016 7:12 am

deleted due to recognizable buildings 8-)
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sun Jan 17, 2016 7:26 am

Something is tipping them off. Maybe a neighbor that's just a gun hunter checks his spot once a year the day before season. Maybe its from an increase in vehicle traffic or someone parking ib a spot that never sees a truck.

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stash59
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby stash59 » Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:56 am

Gunfire! Most hunters leave sighting in their guns until a weekend or two before the opener. Deer can hear them from much farther away than we can. The old bucks know what's coming!

Even in areas with lots of waterfowl hunting. The shooting comes from specific areas. Sighting in gunfire comes from more areas. And sounds different.

Plus it's been documented that mature bucks can be seen in the same area. From one year to the next. Within days of the same date. During the pre-rut. Why not for the start of the firearms season in a safe zone!
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby whitetailassasin » Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:00 am

Could it be the late phase of the secondary late rut? Maybe around this time it coincided with late estrous does coming into heat. I saw one pic with buck licking nose close to a scrape? Even if it's two seperate areas, could have been what was happening and just coincidence right before gun...do you have any other years pictures to back this up in this area if no other pressure is out there?

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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby SamPotter » Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:22 am

If it's anything like here in NY, every yahoo is out there cutting shooting lanes, hammering away on their 2 x 4 tree stands, and blasting away with their guns the last few days before gun season opens. I'm certainly reminded that the storm is coming!
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Re: Can mature bucks tell when gun season is looming?

Unread postby JoeRE » Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:13 pm

Cool, thanks for doing the update Haus. I would still stand by my comment a year ago. I think its the target practice. I bet big bucks even know what the sound of shotguns versus .22s means.


JoeRE wrote:
Haus86 wrote:
Uncle Lou wrote:I think they know its coming. Like Dewey said, the amount of human activity the day before gun opener has to put them on alert.


I can say bow hunting pressure where the first buck hung out was low, and there was no increased activity leading up to shotgun season like you would see in other states. The neighboring farms get drove by groups almost every day once the season starts.


That is a good point. Most guys from other states probably don't realize that - in Iowa the day before shotgun season is like any other in terms of disturbance because very few people are out there prepping spots - everyone does deer drives and very few stand hunt so there is no prep necessary.

A buck cannot possibly know what calendar day it is (Uh-oh its Friday Dec. 5th 2014, the day before shotgun season, I better move!)...but it looks like something tipped them off what was coming. Maybe the amount of target practice they hear in the distance :think:


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