Fighting through the tough times.

For some reason this season has been especially difficult for me in my traditional hunting grounds. Unlike the previous years, I am seeing very few deer. Last year by this time I averaged seeing five deer per hunt, and this year I have seen six all season and one of them was the same deer two hours apart. I have racked my brain to figure out what has changed and I have limited it to two factors that are different than in years past, with a third factor that could be a contributor.
1. There is a hunting club that boarders two sides of my land, this club has historically placed corn feeders (legal in this portion of the state) close to the boundary line to draw deer from my land onto theirs. I had stands between the bedding areas and their feeders. This year, they have stopped the corn feeding opting instead for planted food plots. The plots look good, but they seem to have not produced any deer activity yet.
2. Acorn crop. We are having a bumper acorn crop this year as opposed to years past. there are acorns everywhere, white oak acorns, red oak acorns, and others. There is food everywhere. This I believe is the main reason we are seeing less deer. They simply do not have to travel to find food. They can literally eat without getting out of their beds.
3. Predominate winds. Historically the predominate winds are N-NW so the majority of my stands are situated for N-NW winds. On several hunts this year we had S-SW and S SE winds. This completely blew many of my stands and I was forced to hunt areas I was not as familiar with. (There will be more options next year!)

One thing this has taught me is that I was getting complacent and lazy in hunting the same familiar stands and locations and I stopped scouting and searching for better locations on the same property. I have found some real nice locations for stands, and will be more ready next year. But I have not given up yet.

The cold weather is finally moving in, the acorns are getting more and more scarce, the NW winds are returning, so I am hopeful - Deciding to return to the days when I scouted more than I hunted. Which is key. As one person said, "if you have only three days to hunt somewhere, spend two days scouting and one day hunting." I completely agree, and this year has taught me not to get complacent with familiar ground, keep searching, while your spots may be good, they may not be the best. Keep looking for the best! So I have not given up yet, I am still looking for that buck that will make all of this frustration worthwhile. When I find him, you will be one of the first to know.
Good hunting.