Later high buck hunt question

[kselkhunter]

Anybody have any inputs on deer behavior for the latter part of the high buck season?  Do the deer bust out of the area completely or just hide in lower elevations until the orange army has subsided?  Is it better to focus on lower elevations in the latter part of the season? 

I've only ever hunted the first 4-6 days of the high buck, and always spend the second week of high buck for Oregon archery.  But we just decided to pull our Oregon archery elk hunt in a week.  So will now be missing opening week of high buck.  So am re-assessing my high buck strategy, now that I'm hunting the last 4-6 days of the season.

Thanks for any advice.

[muleracks]

Most of the hunters leave after the opening weekend (this year 9/15, 16, 17) and then things quiet down and the bucks soon return to their normal summer activities.  The mature bucks tend to stay high on the ridges until snow moves them.  The does and fawns will head down valley as soon as we get a heavy cold rain or hint of snow but the bucks tend to stay later.  Most years, the end of the season offers a higher quality hunt in solitude with the bucks still in their favorite summer spots; early snow can move them and that does happen about 10% of the time.

[ian_padron]

I went back up for the last weekend last season and saw WAY MORE deer in those 3 days than the 5 at the beginning of the season. I saw a grand total of 2 guys (on the trail) the entire weekend between my truck and the basins I hunt. It was a hell of a lot more fun to be up there like that and I'd plan on having the ability to do the same.

[kselkhunter]

Thanks guys.  Good to know.  With this last minute change in my plans I was wondering if deer scattered to lower elevations with the initial hunting pressure and I would need to re-focus my scouting trips the next month.  Thanks.

[yakimanoob]

Hmmmmmmmm I'll need to chew on this.  I was thinking of taking off work the 14th and 15th so I could hike in and be in place for opener.  But maybe it makes more sense to take the later Th/F off?

[boneaddict]

A majority of the deer are killed opening morning.  Its very quiet from there on out.    Hunting becomes a different animal  after opening morning.   

[huntandjeep]

I never go the first week , always the second. I see no people and more deer .

[muleracks]

I don't disagree with boneaddict.  Opening day the camp pets and unsuspecting more mature bucks will get tagged but if you want a quality experience, hunting the Wilderness without competing with or rubbing elbows with other hunters go at the end of the season.  The smarter, more mature bucks will be there but most of the the hunters will be at home.

[kselkhunter]

I've never been able to bring myself to shoot the "camp pets".  Too tame and stupid. 

If I wanted that, I'd just shoot the bucks eating my wife's roses (and man does she beg me to kill those things....she calls the rodents).