I am hinting in San Saba county and never been skunked till this year. Maybe its due to my earlier post problem with feed but the deer population doesn't seem to be as heavy as earlier yrs. All I am seeing is yearlin and not too many mature does. Zilch on bucks, humm. Hogs have moved in prety good and maybe this is why the deer are scarce. Whats yalls thoughts.

I hunt in Hamilton County and it has been the same. Lots of yearling dear and small young bucks. No mature deer to be found.

It was a full moon last night. When did you hunt?

Usually the best times are around the new moon and three days after full moon. Weve also have a major storm hit the east coast. All of that effects deer behavior.

Except in Georgetown. Deer stand in your yard all day long. At night they really come out regardless of what the rural areas are doing. They also come a running when you whistle and throw corn out. Big bucks too. Almost like chickens......Go figure.

i hunted this weekend as well as opening day.

I have had to change my tactics up this year. The deer just wont come to a feeder during the day. I set me a pop up blind in a heavily wooded area away from the feeders with game trails crossing in front of me. Saw a nice buck sat around 1:00 in the afternoon and shot a big doe sun morning. I guess with all the acorns this year you have to hunt the deer rather than wait on them to come to you.

Chris,

I agree. I set up a Pop Up blind on a corned road away from my tower blind and feeders. I have seen 4 bucks ( no shooters ), and 5 or so doe cross that road. Have only seen 2 deer at the feeder all year long. Not much rut activity at all yet.

I have to agree with the title of this thread!

First time I've seen the rut not materialize around the week before thanksgiving like it has for several past seasons. The weather has been anything but ideal, and I'm also not seeing many bucks that are mature and very few younger one's also.
I know it's going to change, or at least I'm thinking it will, so I'm not going to panic just yet.

We hunt on our family ranch in Bandera county Tx.off ranch road 337 ---In September the Axis bucks,does along with alot of whitetail were feeding about 4pm daily and going to feeders at day break and late evening.When the acorns and pecans began to fall the deer did not move to the feeders at all and they are not seen much during day light hours any longer.We need a solid cold snap for a couple weeks.Hogs running at night..none seen in day hours.
I have not seen any bucks chasing doe yet.
Been too hot and windy..

On my 700 miles of travel this 4 day weekend I saw three bucks tending does, one at Golthwiaght (SP) while driving, one in Menard while on my lease, and one near Llano while driving.

At the lease in Menard Friday eveing was cool and pretty active, Sat. AM was high 30's and deer were ALL OVER, most bucks spotted were mature and noses in the air and on the move. Sat. evening and Sunday AM I got skinked, not even birds were moving.

Summary, trickle rut for 2012 IMO.

I am guessing Wed. under the full moon and cold front hunt mid day if you can. Then I think this Sat/Sun will be as good as it is likely to get in Central Texas unless we get some hard feezes befor end of December to push the mature bucks to feed up post rut. Horns are solid this year, if you can fine an old guy out moving.

my $0.02

we are seeing alot of does and fawns, nothing like ever before.

very few bucks in general, almost no mature ones, save for a few here and there.

the only thing I can think of, is that the bucks are feeding in the oat field at night.

I hunted in august trying for a hog and I saw 12 bucks at one corn feeder, and I haven't seen but maybe one or two of them since hunting season began.

I dont get to go again till after Christmas hopes are high for then , lol have to be but will probably take the clamp on and find a tree to place it and hunt differently if still the same way.

Our deer are nocturnal and eating TONS of Acorns. It will get better, always does. We need some cold weather.

We are taking a fair number of culls/management bucks but few really big deer. Hunted Fri-Sat-Sun and probably the fewest bucks I've seen all year. Lots of oaks and acorns on our place.

slow for us in coryell, (izoro) got great deer on camera, when we arent their whihc s during the week and when the weather is good of course.....come weekend when we go hunting, its warm and movement sucks....

I'm not seeing anywhere near the deer I saw last season at this time. No way they all died off. I think Erathkid is right. We need some cold weather, and we need a freeze to kill some of the natural forage. I was hunting last afternoon and a doe and yearling came into view in the narrow path to my feeder. They spent about an hour in full sight of my feeder, and when it threw corn they showed no interest at all. They just kept munching leaves and grass. They ate the whole time they were in view. My point is that it appears that they don't need to travel to find food, so they just stay up in the thickets and eat. And a day or two before that, I had 6 does in the field in front of me, and along came a 6 point. He did some halfhearted chasing, and they ran around like teenagers for a bit, but it sure didn't look like the rut was in full swing yet. And I can't find pigs or coyotes. Geez....

I spent about 24 hours in the blind this last week. Got out there Thursday afternoon and left last night. Saw TONS of doe and turkey and a few hogs. But only 3-4 bucks the whole time and they were chasing never slowing down to give me the option to shoot. Only one I could have pulled the trigger on was a TINY spike. Very frustrating and confusing at the same time. Only thing we can figure is weather...no measurable rain in the past few months, 23 degrees one morning and 80 the next afternoon. I looked around and theres not many acorns left. Hopefully it turns around!

Doesn't look promising for cold weather......

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/denton-...&view=table

I ranch and hunt in sterling county. The deer activity has really been weird this year. Through our helicopter survey we saw our numbers are down of course because we had a 30 percent fawn crop last year due to drought. But since I have the fortune to work on the ranch and hunt daily I can tell you that there is a lot of movement and rutting going on. We dont have anything coming in to corn hardly but i have camo'd out and sat in brush and rattled 3 different days and have called in 18 bucks. I pulled through a cattle this morning and saw 2 does and 8 bucks chasing. So hang in there it will happen.

In Hood,Parker, and Erath counties where I hunt its mostly the acorns it seems like we have a tough year every other year and last season was great so of course this year is rough, on my Ranch in Hood county I also have a problem with a literally physcotic neighbor him and his 80 year old mom are always drunk and crazy, he has more dogs than I can count and they're so hungry all I have is packs of starving dogs at my two best feeders, and every time I shoot one he goes on the war path so I'm gonna wait until after deer season to call animal control.

In Young county and headed out tomorrow for the cold front. Will be rattling mid morning if there is no movement.

I have good friend who has 17,000 acres in west texas, biologist did a fly over census of 5000 acres, they counted only 70 deer total. Way down from last year, majority were yearling bucks and does.....drought really hurt them...

Cooper area has been slow as well, only buck (little 6 pt) I've seen in person I almost hit at about 5am on the county road on the way to the lease. Hunted 3 mornings and one afternoon so far, nada...gamecam on the trail to the stock tank is showing a few does and a weird 2X3 little buck(not legal) right after dark.
Needs to get real cold, real soon.

Talked to a processor in Dublin tx and he
Said his business was down 60 to 70 percent
. Said it was due to weather and acorns.

I hunted Sutton county for 9 days returning Sunday. I saw pretty much the same as everyone else. Alot of young bucks at the feeder and not near as many does as last year. Most of the older bucks I have on camera 2-3 months ago never showed. Acorns on the ground and alot of greenery beneath the tree's on our ranch. Most of the activity I saw was happening away from the feeder. Rut is in full swing but deer are just staying away from feeders. I have a trip planned the last week of season. Hopefully the cold weather will kick in by then. I also have a trip planned Dec 14th but not confident I will see a big change from last week.

Here a couple of weeks ago there was a full blown rut going on for about 5 days. I was seeing older bucks after does at all times of the day. Then it quit. Now nothing.