Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting The deer are messing with my head...

I am having trouble getting the deer to come out during the daylight hours. I have been hunting a spot for 4 years now and the deer are always out an hour after dark or an hour before light. It is very aggrevating. My food plots look like a circus marched through them. There are always tons of prints on the trails and roads. Is there a way to get the deer to come out during legal shooting hours? The tract I hunt is only 11 acres surrounded by other hunting properties.

Is there any water on the place your at?

Spot

Oddly enough, there is a creek that is a border of my property. I have seen only a few tracks over the last 4 years though. Most of the tracks have been at least 35 yards away from the water.

Spot,

If that was happening in Minnesota I'd say your property is missing bedding or transition cover. You need to give the deer a reason to stay there during the daylight hours. Plant or create some bedding cover.

Edited to add: Sorry, Spot - I directed my post to the wrong guy. Shoulda typed "Spraynbuckshot".

[color:"red"]An assumption [/color] ; you are hunting over or very close to your bait pile. If that is correct what you need to do is find the spot/s these deer are entering your 11 acre area. They have to be somewhere before they just show at the bait. You need to get off that bait pile and setup for a shot on the most used trail leading into your plot. So many times deer pattern the hunter well before the hunter knows the deer pattern. Bet you have been hunting the very same or very close to the same spot for all those four seasons. [color:"red"]You need to get off that bait [/color].

agreed ... use your "bait pile" as a way of enticing the deer to take that trail they have naturally made ... the bait is there to get them moving up and down the trail ... You can sometimes be successful hunting over the bait, but most often, it's the spots the deer go to on their own that you'll find them, not the spots you ask them to go ...

Study the trail into and out of your bait area ... look for the rubs and scrapes, and possible bedding areas... once you get a bead on their habits, you'll have it won ...

good luck.

The guys are right on this one,

Best place to stand hunt is next to the bedding area that way the deer who leave food in the dark and take time to get there cross just as the sun is coming up.

I asked if water was around to see if you were near a bedding area, it doesn't sound like you are.

I'd find out where they are coming into the land at and set up there (a stand) away from the food.

Spot

There are some very thick spots on the property I haven't tried getting through. They could be bedding there but again I haven't seen tracks leading to or from this spot. I have moved around on the property a good bit trying to find a better stand location. I have about a 3/4 acre food plot in the center and I will stay away from it this season as advised. I know the neighbors about 1/2 mile down the road have large food plots and lots of corn. Could the deer be feeding there primarily during daylight hours and moving to my property later in the evening and snacking on my grapes, pears, and peas?

Try creating scrapes and rubs and laying out some buck urine in your area during the rut.

It may pull in does, or better yet make a buck thing some other dude is sett'n up a bed room in his turf.

Spot

With only 11 acres, you could be in the travel zone or a portion of it...and not even be in that this time of year. Southern Deer have to mover very little this time of year to find all they need. One could bed eat and water in an area no bigger than your home.

Thanks for the responses. Should I put out any kind of attractants like food supplements?

Don't know your ground of course but a TM salt block buried in the ground could not hurt.

While I have never used them I have seen the suppliment molasses blocks advertised under many labels.

As many as the local feed store sells somebody must think they are good stuff.


BCR

Obviously, I would be in position well before daylight and stay until after dark. I would also watch my wind and never let it blow through the area on my way in. If the wind is wrong, you have spooked the deer again and made them more nocturnal (at least on your land). I would try lots of attractants including salt/minerals, fertilizer on natural vegetation and planting trees (assuming this is land you will have access to for awhile). If you are serious about your deer hunting, I would avoid "unnecessary" shooting and traffic on the track. We never enter in one large portion of our hunting grounds during the season except to retrieve a downed deer. We call it a "sanctuary" and all the deer in the area bed there. I would try to encourage the deer to bed on your tract by helping the underbrush and cover get thicker and eliminate disturbing them.
my nickle's worth.

pepaw

I agree with the earlier comments about hunting the trails to and from your bait area.
They are probably meandering along not in any hurry to be the first one to the party.
If you back track the trails you will probably find where a couple of these trails intersect. Get yourself downwind from the intersection. blam