Va late season blues

[K9kodi]

What’s your trick to hunting and harvesting late in the season. I’m hunting south of richmond in the FarmVille area. Large single tract, no dogs, little hunting pressure. Pretty successful muzzle loader and early rifle season, once rut ended I’m not even seeing bucks on cams and about the same in the woods. Largr fsrm on huge lake. Am I wasting time stand hunting this time of year? This is a newer area to me, first year on it. I know it holds some monsters. Just trying to make the most of the last week I’ll have up there

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Get in the woods and out of the stand.

 

[K9kodi]

My stands are in the woods. I can walk around some of the hardwoods, some of the lines planted years ago are walkable, the younger pines you aren’t walking through w any amount of stealth.

 

[Billy Goat]

Find food.

It's pretty common for them to show back up where they were in September now. Happens for us first few weeks of December, where you are, should be right about now.

Cutovers make stuff difficult, they can find most of what they need and not need to move too much.

 

[K9kodi]

The cutover was fresh. Hasn’t been replanted. Was cut last summer, 3 hills, but hardwoods were left. It’s pretty

 

[163bc]

find the food and you'll find the bucks.

 

[K9kodi]

I’ve always wanted a lot of land to myself to hunt. I got it and it’s way more difficult than I expected. Sooo many options haha.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

Find food.

late season in virginia is all about food, find the acorns or whatever they eat on down there in farmville this time of year

 

[timekiller13]

Food close to bedding areas. Bucks are tired from chasing does and skittish from months of hunting pressure. They aren’t going to move far from cover.

 

[K9kodi]

Yea. I figured as much. Hoping for some magic trick I didn’t know about. Trying to figure all the food and bedding areas out. Not a ton of hunting pressure due to the way the farm is set up and me being the only one hunting. Ima push the lake edges that remind me of river bottoms, we’ll see what happens a

 

[Hwcopley]

Hey, I hunt something similar in Keysville, which is probably very close to where you’re at. It’s all about food and weather from what I’ve found. On these cold days they have to get up and eat something. Something I’ve been wanting to try but never have is to canoe around the lake at first light and try to sneak up on a deer feeding on hardwoods around the lake. Might be worth trying, good luck.

 

[Teodoro]

I'm a couple hours south of you. On public, so more pressure, but on lakes like you. On the east bank, I'm seeing deer bed on west-facing slopes, particularly on clear, cold days. So far I'm seeing does in the cutovers. Found one buck's spot so far, he bedded in an uncut area, but so tight to the shore that he got late afternoon sun anyway.

 

[K9kodi]

We should get a group chat going for central and western Va and chat. I’m in rice with close to 2000 acres.

 

[fatlander]

Isn’t FarmVille west of Richmond?

Anyway, late season is tough. You need extreme cold to get bucks on their feet during shooting light in my experience. I’m ready for spring gobblers and drawing western tags. Going striper fishing tomorrow. Punched a couple buck tags in November, and have a handful of does in the freezer. Deer season is effectively over for all intents and purposes if you’re not making man drives or using dogs in our part of the world.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[K9kodi]

Yea, it’s just south and more west of richmond. I live in Hampton roads. Hoping to get a couple does last few days of season. Deer are starting to pop on cameras again

 

[Teodoro]

Farmville is definitely further west of Richmond than it is south of it, but I feel like bc of the way 64 runs, when you say west of Richmond, people think of country like around Charlottesville. In my mind, everything south of Scottsville has way more in common with Danville or South Boston.

 

[K9kodi]

That’s right. I’m prob hunting 45 min-1 west of richmond, geographically just south.

 

[stooxie]

I hunt northern VA. I hear ya, the deer do dry up around this time of year.

Couple of suggestions: If you have time lapse cameras, use them. Or get one or two. Time lapse cameras are WAY more useful than triggered ones. Set one up overlooking a huge tract of land and you may be very surprised at where/when the deer show up. You make a good point about big land being harder to hunt than smaller plots. Biggest buck I ever got was in my buddy's 1/4 acre backyard in Vienna. Hardest was another friend's lot, 27 acres in Berryville. The deer can be anywhere.

Another useful tool is a thermal camera. I know, it's big money, but a good thermal will also reveal deer activity that you might be missing. During aany a hunt where I'm convinced there ain't a deer for miles around, I'll pull out the thermal and, sure enough, they're all over the place, just not where *I* am

-Stooxie

 

[DWinVA]

Find the food & stay out there. Deer out in the fields feeding at noon today here in SW VA.

Got this one Sat just by staying after them. He was w/ some doe, 4:15 pm.

God Bless.

 

[K9kodi]

Beautiful. Ima be up there 2-3-4