"Night Moves"
- Thread starter lakngolf
- Start date
Our gun season began last Saturday and runs for 16 days and then a couple weeks later it starts again for does for a couple weeks...I saw 3 eating clover in the backyard this morning from the house...in daylight!
Cap'n
Active Member
Maybe your neighbors are pressuring them, keeping them on edge and they may not have a sanctuary they can go to and not be pressured.
I'm sure once your rut starts that will change, at least for a while. When is your rut?
maddog3355
Member
Start hunting at night!!!! Lol
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately that's unavoidable unless you can provide a sanctuary where they aren't pressured. Until someone convinces me different I will remain firmly entrenched in my belief that the formula is simple: Lack of pressure equals daytime deer movement. The only thing to do is be in your stand for the first and last half hour of daylight. Good luck.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
No question you are right on this Mennoniteman and Cap'n. It's just that simple. To detail it further, to be a property with daytime deer movement during rifle the property should be hunted extremely low impact with minimum pressure and have all of the daily needs of the deer including, food, water, cover and as mentioned sanctuary area or better yet lot's of sanctuary area. I used to think we hunted low impact for the past thirty years but over the last four or so years Steve Bartylla and many other forum people of the past and present have encouraged me (directly and indirectly) to bring the extremely low impact hunting to a new level and oh what a difference it has made.
We are six or seven weeks into gun season and as Okie stated, we are still seeing deer moving on and off throughout the day even in our yard. The only time the does disappeared in the open during daylight was just before they came into full heat. I'm tagged out on the buck hunting(only get one buck tag for rifle) and it's got me going crazy;Today is a deer shooting day if there ever was one. Timing and conditions are just perfect. Good thing there are plenty of high priority projects to keep me busy around here.
kjgallaher
New Member
Is it possible to have sanctuary areas on your property when the hunters on neighboring properties run their dogs through your land?
It is too late for this now - I am out on my property every day of the year. Riding my side by side, tractor, shooting on my range, hunting, fishing, cutting firewood, gardening, checking on my bees. The deer dont see any increased human intrusion during deer season - in fact, probably less human activity during season. Season has been open two weeks and my son saw 26 deer this morning while hunting.
Chainsaw
Well-Known Member
SwampCat, It just shows how every property can be so different. Back in the late eighties when we purchased this property, it had been overhunted and had very few deer. Sightings per WEEK of all day hunting for two people were a combined total of four deer.The growth was so thick you could run into it and literally bounce right out. Over the next several years the deer population skyrocketed and it became common to see over thirty deer per sit in the woods. Twenty-one was the most sighted in a one acre food plot at once during the day during rifle season. While that is over 2,000 sq. feet per animal it sure looked crowded. Still though if one saw thirty deer on a sit , the second day in the same stand saw 15 and the third eight and the fourth maybe one buck fawn. There was a lot of deer but enough food so they could simply reduce their daytime activity to avoid us. Soon (after a few years of that) the growth had disappeared and the deer were very hungry. No amount of pressure then seemed to deter them. They could usually be seen feeding in open fields at all times a day. Scare them out and they would return quickly.
We ramped up the doe shooting and once the deer population got back in tune with the available growth the deer were no longer seen in the open fields all day long. They became much tougher to hunt. So there definitely are more circumstances to daytime deer movement than pressure but still in most cases, on most properties where the herd is in sync with the property(not over populated) daytime movement is highly affected by pressure whether it be perceived or real hunting pressure. We are talking general deer population here; bucks are a different animal altogether and seem to "always" be affected by pressure.
I'm do not know why the deer are seemingly not affected by pressure on your property but be assured; it is not the norm.
lakngolf
Well-Known Member
Good thoughts all. I run a cell camera all year and the area deer get caught on camera way more at night than daytime, throughout the year. I am just glad I have a good number of deer in the area, and that so many of them were out during Youth weekend. I plan to make use of that weekend EVERY YEAR as long as I can. Also, will encourage the grandsons to get into bow hunting because we have such better sightings before gun season starts in mid to late November.
I have decisively made changes to the area to provide more sanctuary and protection on my property. I am bordered by National Forest and hunters so that will be a key in the future. Taking small steps and that is helping.
My land in this area is doing pretty good for how small it is. Here is an aerial view. My 25 acres is in red. Blue is National forest which does receive some pressure in gun season. In the yellow areas I have planted trees and allowed to grow as thick as possible for cover. There are great year round springs on the west side of my 25. Red circle is where camera is currently snapping deer at night.
Even getting some sparring action now
I have decisively made changes to the area to provide more sanctuary and protection on my property. I am bordered by National Forest and hunters so that will be a key in the future. Taking small steps and that is helping.
My land in this area is doing pretty good for how small it is. Here is an aerial view. My 25 acres is in red. Blue is National forest which does receive some pressure in gun season. In the yellow areas I have planted trees and allowed to grow as thick as possible for cover. There are great year round springs on the west side of my 25. Red circle is where camera is currently snapping deer at night.
Even getting some sparring action now
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I also run a texting camera. We can legally bait here in AR - but I dont do it except for one spot for about two weeks when the granddaughters are coming to hunt. I have only ever put out corn for deer when I do my camera surveys pre-season - until last year and this year for the granddaughters hunt - so I am no expert when it comes to bait. But, I did notice something very unusual this year - or at least my wife did - something I have no explanation. The corn is spread in the edge of a two acre clover/wheat food plot. I got lot of night pics of all variety of deer, including some nice bucks. My wife decided to hunt that food plot but I told her all the activity was at night. She hunted it twice and saw 14 deer - including some nice bucks - and one of them visited the corn during the daytime. She said I needed to turn the camera around and let it face the big part of the food plot. I got another camera and put it on the other side of the tree. I get multitudes of day and night pics on the food plot and night time pics only on the corn. The cameras are one foot apart
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Not sure of the right way but Dougherty in his book Grow Em Right suggested riding around your property once a week and when seeing deer keep motoring by. I've done both, limiting access, peripheral access, and riding my atv to the stand. Thanks to a little gimpy left wheel of mine this year, I've ridden the atv nearly every hunt. Just the other day I parked the atv about 60 yds from my stand, sneaked up over the rise, and had to wait 30 minutes as a group of deer fed under my stand.
And yet This morning I walked to another stand, and spooked 3 deer who took off running. This evening I rode again, had deer again, and left early and rode within 20 yds of bucks and does feeding and they just watched me go by. This is all after 8 wks of bow, doe gun, bear, and this weeks rifle season in some of the heaviest hunter/sq mile land in the country. Perhaps its what the deer get used to on your property. I have sanctuaries, but really don't stress too much my access thru the year. I know the one thing I've done this year is not check my cameras since season began, and I've enjoyed my hunts more than I have in a long time. Those things cause too much stress and anxiety of what deer are there, will they show, and will they survive the season? Just a few rambling thots. Good luck Lakn.
And yet This morning I walked to another stand, and spooked 3 deer who took off running. This evening I rode again, had deer again, and left early and rode within 20 yds of bucks and does feeding and they just watched me go by. This is all after 8 wks of bow, doe gun, bear, and this weeks rifle season in some of the heaviest hunter/sq mile land in the country. Perhaps its what the deer get used to on your property. I have sanctuaries, but really don't stress too much my access thru the year. I know the one thing I've done this year is not check my cameras since season began, and I've enjoyed my hunts more than I have in a long time. Those things cause too much stress and anxiety of what deer are there, will they show, and will they survive the season? Just a few rambling thots. Good luck Lakn.
I own two parcels of property, eight miles apart. I live on one of them and am out and about on it every day, planting, cutting firewood, hunting, etc. my next door neighbor is a cattle rancher and the hired help is also out every day. Eight miles away, I have another piece of property. I am probably on it about 30 times a year between planting and hunting. Deer populations are about the same - but the deer act totally different. At my home ground, deer stand and watch when they see me on tractor, truck, or four wheeler. They walk across my shooting range WHILE i am shooting. On the parcel of ground I dont live on, the deer dont stop and look. If you hunt that property two or three days in a row - they quit using it. The deer using the two property’s are as different as night and day.
