
**Editor's Note: **Craig and Neil Dougherty take hundereds of thousands of trail camera photos on their properties in upstate New York each year. All fall they will be submitting their most recent photos, as well as photos from their contacts across the country, to Outdoor Life to help predict deer activity. Despite the fact that buck activity is picking up, a few groups of "buck buddies" remain intact and showed up on camera last week. These two year olds have been hanging together all fall. Give them another week and they will be battling not grooming.













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_We are starting to see early signs of bucks becoming restless. This yearling buck showed up in a woodlot funnel traveling away from a bedding area toward an acorn flat. Daylight photos like this one will become much more frequent in the upcoming weeks. As it stands right now hunting at midday is a low percentage hunt.







Mast is king this time of the year, both soft and hard. Keying in on food sources like this apple tree left and pear tree right is a good bet. We have been getting four times more pictures per week on apple trees vs food plots. Deer will also frequent apple trees more during windy days looking for fresh fallen fruit.






