In Season Trail Use

[persianrug]

Found plenty of well worn trails this season, but they did not looked recently used (fresh duff, no fresh prints, no fresh poop). Didn't see any deer take these trails while sitting despite some heavy pre-season use. 5+ miles into timber without sign of other humans. Iverson, Terkla, and Haugen write about still hunting along trails and stands overlooking trails, but the fresh prints were scattered.

Has anyone else experienced this lack of trail use during the season? Feels like I'm doing something wrong if 3 blacktail authors are saying the opposite of my experience.

 

[mtnbound]

I was in an area this year that has always had animals and tremendous trail activity, but this year, the majority of the sign was old from winter/spring. Something changed in this area, and I assumed it was caused by predator pressure, because it wasn't a hard winter. You may be doing the perfect technique, but that doesn't matter if they are not there.

 

[welkin]

My experience from using cams on what look like well established and trafficked trails is that they don't get used as much as you'd think/hope. Months and months can pass in between anything traveling on of those trails. And then there can be a lot of activity in a short amount of time.

 

[persianrug]

Sounds like I need to keep a few trail cams out on from mid summer to November.

 

[Ready2Rut]

Just finished Haugen's Trophy Blacktails book and he mentions how diseases will sometimes clear all the does out of a given area, and with them go the bucks. So possible that this area you were in had heavy deer activity in the recent past, but they were all cleared out and you should explore new areas.

 

[limpet]

I don’t think it’s that crazy in some terrain for trails to appear heavily used but they aren’t or only during certain periods. I have some that I thought were highways only to have the same doe and fawn come through a couple times a week.(trails can form pretty quick) I try to leave the cameras up at least a year if I’m in an area that I think will get a something good coming through at some point. I’ve had cameras that had bucks coming like clock work all summer and then they lost velvet and I don’t get a picture until post rut. I’ve had other cameras get nothing but does and bears until the last week of October and the big bucks come from who knows where. It sounds like you read Haugens books so think about what is in the area you are looking at Vegetation and cover wise and then think about when the deer are looking for that or where you can go that has what they want when you can hunt. Sometimes I’m shocked by what will show up or what you see one time at the edge of illumination.

 

[Pony Soldier]

This isn't blacktails but after 36 years of elk in the same area, trails, and ridges, this year all of a sudden about 5 townships went blank. No tracks above the bottom and nothing after september. It left us completely confused. I figured I covered nearly 400 miles and came away confused. We will see next year if there are long term effects.