Nocturnal deer

[EAGLE EYE 444]

The truth in my case IS THAT THE DEER MOVE ALL HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT EVERY DAY AND THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR SEVERAL MONTHS NOW. I do have so many cameras that I get lots of photos of all sorts of deer constantly moving about in the bright sunshine and even during heavy rains as well.

Look at the actual time of the day etc that is shown on every photo below as I try to keep all of them within the correct time limitations and it is easy to see just how much they move around during daylight hours.

The biggest problem that I have had this season is that if I decide to hunt from a certain stand because of the wind etc, then I see later when I pulled all of the memory cards that the deer that I might be hunting the most is actually on the other side of the property strutting his stuff without a care in the world. This fact has happened many times this season so far. Recently, I hunted a certain stand because of the wind and then the fog rolled in so bad that I couldn't see well so I got down and moved about 500 yards to another stand as it was around 8:00 AM by then.

Later when I pulled the cards, I saw that the buck (that is shown in the very first photo here) that I am really hunting was actually out in the open pasture within 60 yards of the second "ground" stand that I decided to hunt that morning. I was there in place at 8 AM and this buck was there at 7:21 AM that morning as you can see in the photo. I just missed the timing by about 39 minutes or so of having a clear shot at him that morning.

The following are some of the recent photos that shows several does and bucks moving about all during daylight hours and peak hunting times as well. If you click on each photo individually to view it, you can get a much better view of each photo that way. Especially if you do this on the first photo because it will appear that this buck is shooting a white arrow right out of his keister !!!!!

THE DEER ON MY PROPERTY WILL TRAVEL ACROSS AN OPEN FIELD WITH SCATTERED BROOM-SEDGE WITH NO PROBLEM, BOTH NIGHT AND DAY AS WELL. I WAS NOT ABLE TO BUSH-HOG IT BEFORE SEASON THIS YEAR UNFORTUNATELY.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT POSTED A COUPLE OF THESE PHOTOS TWICE AS IT DID NOT UPLOAD THEM TWICE !!!!!!

 

[JBFarmsCummins]

The truth in my case IS THAT THE DEER MOVE ALL HOURS OF THE DAY AND NIGHT EVERY DAY AND THEY HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR SEVERAL MONTHS NOW. I do have so many cameras that I get lots of photos of all sorts of deer constantly moving about in the bright sunshine and even during heavy rains as well.

Look at the actual time of the day etc that is shown on every photo below as I try to keep all of them within the correct time limitations and it is easy to see just how much they move around during daylight hours.

The biggest problem that I have had this season is that if I decide to hunt from a certain stand because of the wind etc, then I see later when I pulled all of the memory cards that the deer that I might be hunting the most is actually on the other side of the property strutting his stuff without a care in the world. This fact has happened many times this season so far. Recently, I hunted a certain stand because of the wind and then the fog rolled in so bad that I couldn't see well so I got down and moved about 500 yards to another stand as it was around 8:00 AM by then.

Later when I pulled the cards, I saw that the buck (that is shown in the very first photo here) that I am really hunting was actually out in the open pasture within 60 yards of the second "ground" stand that I decided to hunt that morning. I was there in place at 8 AM and this buck was there at 7:21 AM that morning as you can see in the photo. I just missed the timing by about 39 minutes or so of having a clear shot at him that morning.

The following are some of the recent photos that shows several does and bucks moving about all during daylight hours and peak hunting times as well. If you click on each photo individually to view it, you can get a much better view of each photo that way. Especially if you do this on the first photo because it will appear that this buck is shooting a white arrow right out of his keister !!!!!

THE DEER ON MY PROPERTY WILL TRAVEL ACROSS AN OPEN FIELD WITH SCATTERED BROOM-SEDGE WITH NO PROBLEM, BOTH NIGHT AND DAY AS WELL. I WAS NOT ABLE TO BUSH-HOG IT BEFORE SEASON THIS YEAR UNFORTUNATELY.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT POSTED A COUPLE OF THESE PHOTOS TWICE AS IT DID NOT UPLOAD THEM TWICE !!!!!!


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What county are you in if you don't mind me asking? My land is in Decatur County and the rut should be coming on in a few days. Hopefully this will get them on their feet more during the day.

 

[brownhounds]

I killed a buck after Thanksgiving after we have not being seeing much on our club. I was hunting a mile from camp, BUT, on my way out, he was in the 1st foodplot 50 yards from camp at 12:30.

I think he had us patterned. We are normally back at camp by 11:00. I think he had been hitting that plot every time after he knew we were settled back eating lunch.

 

[EAGLE EYE 444]

What county are you in if you don't mind me asking? My land is in Decatur County and the rut should be coming on in a few days. Hopefully this will get them on their feet more during the day.

I see that you are indeed down in the peanut and many other row crops country. I do have some peanut processing customers down your way. I wish that I had lots of crops such as peanuts, soybeans, corn, silage, cotton etc for a food source for the critters as there is none of that up this way. I am dang near in a different time zone away from you as my property is in Lincoln County. I actually live in Augusta but grew up in Lincoln County and still own property there as it is only 40 miles or so away. I did have lots of photos of bucks still sparing from the photos from last week.

 

[mguthrie]

With that logic, what about natural food sources? Aren't they alway there?

Yep. I don't understand that logic either. A cut corn field is there 24-7. A cut bean field is there 24-7. An acorn hollow is there 24-7. A food plot is there 24-7but placing corn on the ground makes them go nocturnal

 

[mguthrie]

Pressure is what makes deer "go nocturnal ". Deer are naturally most active at night,even with no pressure. You add human scent to the woods and it makes them avoid those areas even more in daylight.

 

[dirtnap]

While no deer are completely nocturnal there are deer that limit their normal daylight activity outside of the rut to a core area that is so small and thick that for all intents and purposes they are almost impossible to kill without a lot of luck

 

[ryanh487]

My neighbors feed the deer. This is their yard every morning and evening. I've seen bucks there in the middle of the day as well. Tons of daylight activity around a corn pile.

 

[EAGLE EYE 444]

I killed a buck after Thanksgiving after we have not being seeing much on our club. I was hunting a mile from camp, BUT, on my way out, he was in the 1st foodplot 50 yards from camp at 12:30.

I think he had us patterned. We are normally back at camp by 11:00. I think he had been hitting that plot every time after he knew we were settled back eating lunch.

Day before yesterday, I was going to pull the cards from my cameras and put some feed out for the critters as well. I only got to pull cards from about 70 percent of my cameras before I got hurt in a freak accident. This accident happened right in the edge of the pasture ONLY about 50 yards from the buck that is shown in the first photo up above. I fell while walking across some leaves that had some water draining underneath. It was on a slight downslope and I could not stop the fall before I was already hurt. This fall happened so quickly and I cut a flip and landed in a weird position with my entire body weight on my right leg that was folded up in a bad position underneath me.

Unfortunately, I had surgery on my right knee due to multiple tears in it back in 2016 after a freak happening in the woods about 1/2 mile from where this one took place. The last time back in 2016 involved calling my best friend at about 7 AM on a Saturday morning and getting him to call an ambulance and then him meeting the ambulance at my gate to drive the ambulance crew back into the woods with a back-board in his truck to find me as I couldn't get up and walk back to my truck to get out of the woods etc. It also included a 50 mile ambulance trip.

Luckily, this time, I was only 20 feet from my truck and was able to get back up and able to get over to it. I drove home very carefully from the country and after being examined by the doctors yesterday including numerous X-Rays, so far the results show that I do have a fracture in my right foot and quite possibly might have some torn things in my right knee again but I won't know the full outcome until they do the MRI next Tuesday.

I did upload the cards that I did change-out before this accident and I had only 2,820 photos. Several of those photos showed does and bucks traveling around mid-day with one really nice buck on camera that was caught at 11:59 AM on Wednesday before I got up there. After uploading these photos, there were no really exciting ones so I deleted all 2,820 photos that were taken since Thursday afternoon of last week.

Thursday of last week was the last day that I hunted and now my season appears that it may be completely over unfortunately. I have always hunted and done everything by myself since I started back hunting close to 10 years ago, after not hunting for 10 years prior to that due to my late wife's illness and death. The fact is that I just love the outdoors and everything in nature. I got a second chance back in May of 2007 after having a heart attack only 6 months after my late wife of 31- 1/2 years died of severe heart and diabetic related illnesses. My obsession with trail cameras has been my passion for many years now as it helps me to realize the most important things in life. I normally spend close to 10 hours per week in keeping up my routine with my cameras and I know that my friends and others think that I am crazy but I love to see all of the critters in the woods as they do things that 99 % of others would never be able to see. It actually helps to keep my blood pressure really down along with lots of other health related things in check (well, except my dang right knee and foot).

My Daughter and Son-in-Law told me last night that I should be banned from going into the woods up in the country. All three of us are supposed to be in Montgomery, Alabama beginning next Friday thru Sunday for the Georgia Southern Football Bowl event. I might not be able to do the driving but I hope to be able to attend this event with them.

 

[Matt.M]

Yep. I don't understand that logic either. A cut corn field is there 24-7. A cut bean field is there 24-7. An acorn hollow is there 24-7. A food plot is there 24-7 but placing corn on the ground makes them go nocturnal

Right? With broadcast feeders spinning for 8 seconds there is limited amount on the ground to be consumed. Not the same for food plots or browse.

My money is on pressure for the deer. Either checking cams\filling feeders\ or riding around.

Maybe these boys forgot to change their feeder times with daylight savings time.

 

[Timberman]

I have a new Decatur county lease this year. Have had a cell camera out since mid September and have had some good bucks and plenty of does on camera. The problem is in all this time I have had absolutely no daytime pictures. I have a few food plots planted and am feeding corn also. Any ideas on how to get the deer feeding during daylight hours?

They're probably just hot and lazy. My relatives down there don't even start hunting until about now.