Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Nocturnal deer ..

People think hunting over feeders is like shooting fish in a barrel , it might be in Texas but not Florida .
I'm in a small lease club -2,000 acres 8-9 guys .
A new guy said he had bucks/does on his game cameras all the time -season opens and he has not seen a deer on camera until well after dark. He claimed "something is wrong" .
Anybody else plagued with this ?

I have tried a couple of times to stalk hunt our swamp but hacking in with a machete doesn't work very well .

I've had a feeder going since labor day weekend -no hogs -no deer at my spot -tough hunting in NW Florida over feeders .

Same here in Alabama

Same here in CO. Feeders are not allowed, but a few weeks ago, all the deer were nocturnal at least where I was hunting.

The only deer I have seen since Thanksgiving was a herd of slickheads moving during a heavy rain on Christmas Eve, and a dink spike getting run out of a creek bottom by a 7 point last Saturday about 9:30am.

Other than that, nothing at all.

But there are trails and tracks everywhere, and always fresh.

If one is in an environment where there's an abundance of good quality grub available, deer may have little interest in feeders and not really need to move around much either.

I desert conditions where herbage is measured in lbs/acre, that may not be the case.

We're seeing a lot of deer every day on our property, but like you, they are not coming out until dark.

And, I thought it was just us here in Maryland. Good to hear we are not alone.

On one lease I had, young bucks would frequently turn up with gore wounds about two feet apart. But no one ever saw the dominant buck that did it. I also think of that famous Wyoming buck Popeye, who had a huge rack and was chased by many hunters on public land, but avoided all of them, and died of old age.

I personally think the older, smarter deer - both does and bucks - learn to avoid feeders during shooting hours. And also learn to recognize when people are in the blinds. The one exception might be during the rut, when the big guys get reckless. Or when cold weather blows in during late season hunts, the deer will get anxious for easy feed.

I've had deer on cameras, that did not show up during shooting hours. The buck I took last year would feed early - I saw him before shooting light, but he'd always leave before it got too light. One day there were a bunch of deer feeding, and I guess he felt safe in a herd. He wasn't. Hours of sitting and waiting paid off.

I suggest the following:

1. wind direction matters - even if you are in a blind. If the wind's blowing your scent to the feeder, go somewhere else.

2. be as stealthy as you can getting to the blind, and inside the blind. If there are things in the blind that make noise, fix them. Leave the cigs, and space heater in camp.

3. You want the blind to always look the same to the game, whether you are in it, or not. I always have the window behind me blacked out, so they can't spot my silhouette, and I normally put camo mesh over the windows, with small openings, to avoid being seen.

4. It sounds trivial, but your feeder needs to go off during feeding times - around the start of legal shooting time, and an hour or so before dark. Also, if you find all the corn is gone by the time you get in the blind, you need to feed more.

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I've done both spot & stalk, and hunting over feeders. Both methods require effort, and attention to detail. And the more effort you invest, the luckier you tend to be.

Hmm.. good points.

My blind is on top of a ridge, the feeders down and away, 143 and 197 yards with a protein one at 253.

All they can see of my blind is my windows on up.

Not sealed well enough but will be by next year.
But its set up so that I have bad wind maybe 1-2 times a year. I try not to hunt it if that happens.

I can walk up to the blind and crawl in without anything seeing me.

We do take the cur to the blind, and I do take some food stuff. But we are quiet and I almost always have my windows closed most of the time. They are quiet to slide open if need be.

Park usually about 3/8 mile from the blind and walk a route that goes no where near the bedding areas or even the feeding ones typically. While its in the open, its a draw and not exposed to feeders etc....

I have driven up to within 100 yards of my blind also, in the right wind, and parked and walked over in the afternoon, crawled in and look out to see deer and turkeys.

Maybe I'm lucky, but then again I took some amount of time trying to figure out a way to do it this way, rahter than driving between the feeder and blind on the way in and out...

Being that I"m on a hill, they have a hard time spotting movement in the blind though I noticed from the bottom the other day a tiny spot I need to dark out a bit next year...

The cur jumps up on his chair and watches... I can't recall being spotted.

And you make a good point too - lots of guys set up their blinds really close to the feeders. We have a couple on our place that are only about 60-70 yards. 100+ is much better for not being noticed. My best spot last year was 120 yards, but the next ranch over was sold, and the new owner complained the feeder was too close to his place, so I had to move it. I'm thinking of re-arranging things next year.

No baiting in IN but when the gun season started all my deer went nocturnal. Had 11 bucks on camera, 3 real good ones, saw 5 bucks and 3 does the last weekend of bow season, chasing and following. Never saw a deer during daylight during gun or ML season, yet was still getting the bucks on camera within range of my stands in the middle of the night. The big boys avoided all the pressure in the public land behind me because I got pictures of them after season was over. Maybe next year.

Some of this nocturnal activity occur where I hunt in Wisconsin, but with the cooperation of family, friends and neighbors we form deer drives to get a look at the deer.

Only thing I hate about distance to feeders being long is its not that easy to judge bucks really quick. I can tell at a glance if they are possibles or not. But have to often resort to the spotting scope at 200-350 yards.

I"d just as soon put all my feeders at 300 yards if judging wasn't such an issue.

I am 300 yards from a feeder at home, but its behind a fence. ANd I generally just stay way on out and watch whats moving where in the pasture and then on the oats patches back there. If I have to I can sneak in closer to judge better but I also tend to keep a spotting scope back there too for judgement.

Same here in Va...

We have large food plots on our hunt club property. They are avoiding them, at least during daylight hours.

I believe our problem is that there are acorns up the wazoo...everywhere. The deer don't have to do anything to feed, other than mill around where ever they are.

In the past, deer were in the food plots late season by the dozens...not this year.

I am pretty sure it is all about the acorn crop this year.

Tony

IME mature whitetail bucks (the big ones) are all basically nocturnal,regardless of hunting pressure,once they reach a certain level of maturity..

That applies from Alberta to New England;even in areas where hunting pressure is almost non-existent.

So Bob, that accounts for 3 bucks no one is seeing... LOL.

Bob,

I'm not sure I'd make a blanket statement like that....

I think all bucks have different "personalities", some more aggressive, some who at the slightest hint of pressure go nocturnal. Others don't care if there is a hot doe around.

I've even read of biologist studies on bucks who where huge,who didn't even participate in the rut.

Bottom line is by luck in picking the right time and place to lay up, or just being ultra wary.... Big bucks are a different animal.

Tony

The president of our club and another long time member [22yrs & 18-19 yrs] say they noticed this behavior starting 15 years ago and for the last 10 years there has been a huge change .
We'll have to get the law changed so we can hunt at night like we do for hogs .
Half way through my third season in this lease and have never seen a deer during hunting season --I thought hunting over a feeder was easy ..

What makes them avoid those areas is all the extra activity from people checking cameras.

Take the cameras down during hunting season, and only go there to hunt or fill feeders

I don't see that as a blanket statement. He didn't say they all had the same personality. He said once mature (big) bucks are all basically nocturnal. The key word being basically. It has certainly been my experience hunting deer from the East Coast to Southeast AK.