Deer moving at late to mid night - what to do?

[finnhunter]

Just got back checking my new trail cams. Had 3 pictures of deer, but they were all taken between 10 pm and midnight (different days).

What should I do on the opening day, go hunt during mid-day? Does anybody know how often deer feed typically? I've heard once every twelve hours, but is that correct?

Still trying to learn how to get my first one. Thanks!

 

[robertyb]

Just got back checking my new trail cams. Had 3 pictures of deer, but they were all taken between 10 pm and midnight (different days).

What should I do on the opening day, go hunt during mid-day? Does anybody know how often deer feed typically? I've heard once every twelve hours, but is that correct?

Still trying to learn how to get my first one. Thanks!

I would not hunt where you had the camera out if you saw no daytime activity. Get out and do some walking and look for sign. I checked three places this morning and found fresh droppings in two of them. I will be sitting on one of the two areas depending on the wind unless I find a better spot before opening day.

Most years I will see deer crossing the roads on my club in the mornings and that pretty much tells me where to be. This year I have seen a lot of deer around the lake but not a one crossing the roads and the lake property is pretty much off limits because of cabins and a no hunting within 200 yards rule.

I only have 4 days to hunt as I am going fishing.

Will be back for opening day of gun season.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Deer often won't come out to food plots or corn or suchlike until dark. Find their bedding area and set up between where they sleep and where they eat. They will often "stage" back in the woods waiting for it to get dark before they come out in the open. Whether they move at night are during the day also depends on the weather, temperature, moon phase, time of year, rut, and hunting pressure, etc. They'll move at some point during the day.

 

[Katera73]

A deer's stomach will empty every 5-6 hours and they will have to eat some time during the day. like NCHillbilly said look for bedding areas and setup on trails coming from those bedding areas. The muscadines are dropping right now if you do not have a food plot like most of us then look for muscadines, persimons , crabapples. I went out today and seen 4 deer at 6:00 the moon is full so that didn't stop them from being up and going before dark. Also seen today where the deer have been eating mushrooms lots of stems laying around with the tops eatin off good luck .

 

[Shine Runner]

moon phases have a lot to do with deer movement as does pressure....presure isn't just a bunch of shooting going on....it is simply just you or some others being in the woods more than you have been in several months gets the deer to moving more nocturnal...they know humans don't walk around the woods and fields just for the fun of it.....like others said you need to start focusing on the bedding & staging areas now till the good food sources inside the woods start producing and until the rut gets them stupid......good luck....keep doing your homework and it will payoff

 

[bowbuck]

At this time in the month we have a full moon I have been seeing deer all this week around 11:30 in the morning. By next saturday it could be a different story, but if I had to see one in the morning I would stay in my stand until after lunch for sure.

 

[rmucken1]

I wonder if the full moon had anything to do with it.

 

[Flathead-Hunta]

I had the same problem...I made a thread about it over in the trail cam section..then about two days later I got pics from 6 to 8 am then 9 to 11 am then some from 6 to 8 pm...and that all correllated with the cool front that came through. They will not move until they think its cool enough to eat..just like us, when we are out hot sweaty and tired, the last thing we wanna do is eat. So they sit all day, work up an appetite, then when it gets cool, they will go eat. So in summary, as soon as it starts gettin cool on a daily basis, expect more daytime movement, at least from does..

 

[1killshot]

be lazy,and laugh last!!

if you are hunting with other hunters,sleep late,eat,and go in an hour before they come out. hunters make deer move at anytime. always hunt against what everyone else is doing. my best bucks were killed between 10:30,and 2:00. most were in moving because another hunter spooked them as they were heading out of the woods.... remember deer know when we are there,and when we are not~~~it's their house.dont pay any attention to times on trail cams,just what bucks are in the area. deer move according to our move. hunt like you were the deer--when would you move?

 

[Larry Rooks]

I have been watching an area for two weeks now, and every day, at about 6:30, they start coming in and feeding,
NO FEEDER either. I have had as many as 12 in sight in the area at one time from 6:30 until dark, and one a huge
150 class 10 point. I have seen the same Buck, the big one and three more every afternoon

 

[shortround1]

Deer often won't come out to food plots or corn or suchlike until dark. Find their bedding area and set up between where they sleep and where they eat. They will often "stage" back in the woods waiting for it to get dark before they come out in the open. Whether they move at night are during the day also depends on the weather, temperature, moon phase, time of year, rut, and hunting pressure, etc. They'll move at some point during the day.

nc your righ, deer feel safer in openings after dark. i discovered a 100% method for taking whitetails. get between where they are and where they are going!

 

[huntingonthefly]

A deer's stomach will empty every 5-6 hours and they will have to eat some time during the day. like NCHillbilly said look for bedding areas and setup on trails coming from those bedding areas. The muscadines are dropping right now if you do not have a food plot like most of us then look for muscadines, persimons , crabapples. I went out today and seen 4 deer at 6:00 the moon is full so that didn't stop them from being up and going before dark. Also seen today where the deer have been eating mushrooms lots of stems laying around with the tops eatin off good luck .

I agree. I've always used the 4-6 hour rule. The 4 hour time fits more into the scheme during the peak of the rut cause of all the chasing- didn't have enuff time to eat- on the run, so to speak. For more literature on this subject go to gon.com and link to the deer hunting articles- find ''on the road with glen solomon- scroll down to the Nov. 18 entry in his diary story.

 

[finnhunter]

Good information!

Thanks for all the replies. I forgot to mention that both of my trail cams were along trails where I thought they might be moving. I'll try to see if I can find some thickets where they might be bedding. Hot weather and no appetite makes sense, as well as activity during full moon. Heck, if I were a deer I'd be moving at night also.