Nighttime deer movement
Since last Saturday I have gotten 6 different bucks and several does on my trail cam. All but two came through at night. Either around midnight or 3-4am. How am I supposed to combat this? Wait them out? Will they ever break this pattern? Two of the bucks had does with them.
Pretty well the norm IMO. Only thing that brings the big boys out during the day is chasing the ladies.
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Came out at night or arrived at you camera at night? How's the hunting pressure? Chances are they were active around dusk but took a while to get to your place. Do you have them patterned to know where the primary bedding areas are and how they get there? If it's taking 7-8 hours for them to get to your place and you don't have holding cover, then you have to intercept them elsewhere. Getting pretty late in the month for watching scrapelines, etc. but it can still work sometimes. Like you saw, a lot of them are paired-up with does waiting for the green light.Originally Posted by RoadrashPaul
Thanks guys. You are correct, I think they arrived at night. Below is an aerial view of my property and the surrounding properties. The green outline is my property which is right at 10 acres. The star is my trail cam that is at the entrance/exit of a road through the woods from that field. The red lines are heavily used deer trails. There is a scrape line through the field and all over the area really. I know my property is just a pass through to the feeding/bedding areas but there is good cover so I thought I would get some movement through the day. What are your thoughts?
Aerial view property.png
Your little field is a great place for a food plot if you don't already have one there! Needs to be something sweet and tasty that they can't get in the surrounding fields.
So where are they bedding? Is it on the photo? It looks like the creek area might hold deer during the day
That back corner near the creek appears to be the spot I would be setting up in. During the rut they will travel that creek all hours of the day and depending how wide/deep is is it’s almost like having a fence behind you. I’m sure your little 10 acres is a great travel route, just depends what’s planted around you and how tall it is for me to say when/where the best place is to be during legal light.
And if you can it looks like you have about 1/2 acre to plant a nice food plot!
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Best I can tell the bedding is down the creek to the right of the pic so not in the shot. I plan to put a food plot of some sort in for next year.
I have hunted there and have seen lots of deer but only doe. I have never seen a buck on that side of the property. I am not sure if I am just missing them or what. I know they travel the creek but I haven't seen them.
Keep in mind that the mature bucks don't often bed with the does until they pair-up late in the month. They'll use a couple of little hidey holes unless there's a big swamp or thicket in the area
Keep the girls around and the boys will show up. I'm lucky here in Kentucky in that we can bait and I run two feeders year round with mineral sites on my 12 acres( all woods) and I rarely see bucks or have pics during summer but once weather changes I see several bucks and manage to kill a nice one every year.
Last edited by Mike Parish; 12-05-2019 at 07:55 PM.
If you're getting nighttime pics of a buck it's likely the camera isn't close enough to where that buck beds. This is especially true outside the rut when they are in more of a bedding - feeding pattern.
Have seen some monster bucks in the past two months at 130am on my way home from work. Must be nocturnal.
This^^
Glassed a area yesterday that I knew had some does in hope my 11yr old could tag one.Well we ended up seeing some does and a dandy buck.I ended up putting out a camera only to find out there are three big ones in the area.Jr shot the blind today......but luckily it didnt spook them that bad.
Good grief! Iowa and IL is like a different world when it comes to producing racks! The middle deer is some purty
When you say Jr shot the blind do you mean he had a misfire and blew a hole in the wall or something?
Unfortunately many around combat night movement with a light. Hear individual shots at night sometimes and I think that is what is happening.
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