The "October Lull"

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Do you notice a drop off in deer sightings during the middle of October?

Yes
28
41%
No
40
59%
 
Total votes: 68
mainebowhunter
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Re: The "October Lull"

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:14 am

Interesting. Listening to the live FB thread with The Hunting Public. What those guys are experiencing is exactly why I do not care for heavy acorn years. Its why this season I really entered it pretty excited because I know my odds go way up when properties I hunt have little to no acorns. Just as those guys are experiencing, it really spreads the deer out. I know last 2016 August, my shoulders slumped when I started looking at all of the acorns that were hanging in the trees. I knew this was going to a long Oct. Saw plenty of deer...but nothing compared to the bucks sightings of 2015. 2017 was very similar to 2015.

So this really also contributes to a tougher october with heavy acorns. Aaron was mentioning that Joe said this...really holds true with what I saw here last year.

HOWEVER, rifle season, guys did fantastic last year. Because the deer were spread out, bucks were really up and moving during the rut. It was a terrible Oct for my buddies but a GREAT rut hunt.


mainebowhunter
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Re: The "October Lull"

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:38 am

Sorry to keep blathering on ...Oct chasing whitetails really fascinates me.

As I am looking back over some of these slower acorn periods, I am running cams and keeping track of what happened in 2016 in hopes of that same pattern repeating on the next heavy acorn year. Like one piece of timber that abutted a swamp, had a LOT of daylight activity on a big ground scrape the 3rd week of November. I have a cam there now and it will be there until gun opens. I suspect that area will not be bedded or used the same this year because of the lack of acorns in that area. Time will tell when I pull the cam.
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fireforeffect
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Re: The "October Lull"

Unread postby fireforeffect » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:25 am

Your blathering makes for good reading Maine. :lol: Hunting, like so many other things, is all about correlation. The acorn crop definitely factors heavily in my area.
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oldrank
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Re: The "October Lull"

Unread postby oldrank » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:47 am

The only October lull I know is when I lull them to sleep with an arrow through the lungs !!!

I do see pattern shifts start around the 20th of September. I posted about the apple trees n my yard a few times. Every yr like a switch the deer go from hitting them all day everyday to one day no shows during the day.

I love a good acorn crop. More so for late season hunting. This yrs crop was the ideal way I like them. It's mediocre... Easy to find hot trees but they r not everywhere. 4 yrs ago they blanketed the forest floor. Last yr we had almost none. When we get a massive crop predicted feed areas go dead in October. But man does it get hot in December.
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<DK>
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Re: The "October Lull"

Unread postby <DK> » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:48 am

oldrank wrote:The only October lull I know is when I lull them to sleep with an arrow through the lungs !!!

I do see pattern shifts start around the 20th of September. I posted about the apple trees n my yard a few times. Every yr like a switch the deer go from hitting them all day everyday to one day no shows during the day.

I love a good acorn crop. More so for late season hunting. This yrs crop was the ideal way I like them. It's mediocre... Easy to find hot trees but they r not everywhere. 4 yrs ago they blanketed the forest floor. Last yr we had almost none. When we get a massive crop predicted feed areas go dead in October. But man does it get hot in December.


Good post!
mainebowhunter
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Re: The "October Lull"

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:15 am

oldrank wrote:The only October lull I know is when I lull them to sleep with an arrow through the lungs !!!

I do see pattern shifts start around the 20th of September. I posted about the apple trees n my yard a few times. Every yr like a switch the deer go from hitting them all day everyday to one day no shows during the day.

I love a good acorn crop. More so for late season hunting. This yrs crop was the ideal way I like them. It's mediocre... Easy to find hot trees but they r not everywhere. 4 yrs ago they blanketed the forest floor. Last yr we had almost none. When we get a massive crop predicted feed areas go dead in October. But man does it get hot in December.


100% saw this last season in urban. Only got to hunt it couple days. 2 steps away from killing a target 4.5+ buck.. it was dynamite. First Dec on that ground last year.


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