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

Last Friday morning it was raining lightly, and not much above freezing. A nice 8 point, wide and heavy, dark horned, walks out, looks at the feeder and dives back into the brush, never actually going to the feeder. Didn't get a shot, but saw him long enough to judge that he wasn't a young deer. Never have seen him before or since. If he goes to the feeder, he doesn't do it in the daytime. He will be a challenge for next year.

Keep that feeder going all year long. Be sparce in the way you dispense the corn. Your are shaping the deer's behavior to equate the sound of the feeder with a quick meal. I like them to go off at consistent times. One hour after daylight, two hours before sunset. Adjust for Daylight savings if that applies to you. Don't know how this would work for you guys west of the Mississippi, but I've seen it work here.
Hope you are pleasantly surprised!

My buddy puts his feeders in the brush. Drives him nuts at times, but he sees more than I do. I prefer to be out away from the brush but to be able to peek into it from up high.

A mature buck knows where all the feeders are in his area. He will visit them as needed. And if not needed you'll never see him there even at night.... Each year and every week can bring differing results.

Its one main reason I set up on a major trail intersection pattern about 300 or so yards from my stand, even in "bad" years where the corn will pile up, I still see the deer going from bedding to feeding and vice versa.

As to training a mature buck to a feeder, it will never work, unless its a year where there is nothing to eat. Coming from someone who has fed year round at home and at the lease since the 80s. Never figured it was right to give em a bit to bait em and then cut it off during one of their stress times. That plus we put in food plots at home year round. Only time they are withotu a food plot is spring and fall when we transition from one plant to another. And those times they either have food to eat or its so dry food plots would not work yet anyway.

I agree to much of what you are saying. As to training a mature buck to come to a feeder--that is not the intent. I don't care to use corn as bait. Year round feeding is one: to supplement any deficiencies during seasonal transitions, two: to get the deer accustom to the feeder, three: to see if deer will use it and establish trails to it, and four: to encourage does into an area. It's does that in turn draw big bucks.

I agree. I think I read in one of Charles Alsheimer's books that if a buck survives two hunting seasons, he has learned all the necessary survival skills to die of old age.

I'm convinced that the only reasons I've been lucky enough to kill these bucks over the years was due to the rut and luck.

And what kind of bag limits does Al. have? Also, how are your friends hunts going? That would be interesting to know.

I think it's 50 a day............

Up here, the rut and cold weather are the great equalizers.

Interesting as we see 3-4 year old bucks every year eating either food plots or feed of some type. Occasionally we see 5-6 year old bucks.

I do not know that I've ever killed one over 6.5 yeras old though with any method of hunting, though I know I have seen a few, that were not "legal" to harvest where I was at.

3.5 year old bucks around feeders are still a dime a dozen the ohter night. I had 22 deer out, a few were does but at least 10 of those were 3.5 or older.

Doesn't sound like "nocturnal" deer to me. I thought we were talking about deer that go nocturnal at the first sign(s) of human activity/hunting pressure.

I would agree with this 100%, and I'll throw big mule deer bucks in that same category. Big ones......5.5 yrs old and older. We have 4 hunters on 65,000 acres of prime mule deer acreage, even though there are low deer densities. We hunt every day of the 9 day season around Thanksgiving. The bucks start rutting the week of Christmas, which is obviously when we see the big bucks that you never see any other time of the year, ever. We take the ranch foreman around with us, and 90% of the really big bucks, 190"+ that we see......he has never seen before, and he is out and about feeding cattle, etc every day. Big bucks just "know the program", whether whiteys or big mule deer bucks.

I do a ton of scouting all Summer and Fall and see a good number of mature bucks. I'll see the same deer over and over and over. Then comes the last week of September and it all ends. What changes? Fall agricultural harvest, bear hunting, beginning of moose season, archery season, bird season, and early goose season. Generally more people out and about. Those mature deer go woodchuck on me.

I've noticed when the bucks rub their antlers, they are seen alot less. With hard antlers, they can use heavy cover alot more easily.
Some bucks do become "unhuntable." I'm just glad the bucks I hunt usually leave big, often unique, tracks to allow me a chance to track them. I finally killed one old buck, age 14, after trying to track him for five seasons. E

If you are going to hunt feeders don't leave your scent in the area. Stay away from the feeder as much as possible. Study the ways trappers minimize and cover the human scent at their trap sets. Get rid of the game cameras and hog lights. Keep your stands at least 100 yards from the feeder. Set up multiple stands for different wind directions. Don't place the feeder out in the wide open. Put it in some cover so the deer will feel secure. Still hunt your way to the stand in the light of day. Stumbling to it in the dark only alerts those deer who bedded near the feeder and you won't see them leaving the area.
Watch down wind. Those deer and hogs will circle down wind of your stand to see if you are present.
Don't always hunt from the stand. Still hunt or sit watching the trails leading to and from the feeder.

Mature bucks rarely go to feeders. They do follow the does during the rut. The does may come to the feeder but those bucks will hang back, circle the area, and meet the does again after they leave your feeder. Hunt those bucks from the ground away from the feeder and you will see more bucks.

Use the feeder to keep the does moving through the area and the bucks will follow during the rut. Hunting feeders requires more skills than simply plopping your butt down in a blind. Unless you are satisfied shooting does and immature bucks.

It often helps to relocate the feeders and stands every season.

Yup. During hunting season the thing that gets them on their feet is the rut.

If you're lucky.

I pretty much agree with this. It is all about having the ladies available and comfortable in the area. I've seen bucks walk right through a food plot that was in great shape to eat leaves off a beauty berry bush, but the does love the food plot and spend a lot of time in it. The bucks might not use the food plot much but they aren't very far away if the does are there.

One thing we have all been doing for a long time and many deer generations is shooting deer that, for what ever reason, were moving during daylight hours. How long does this have to go on before you end up with a deer population that has a much higher tendency towards nocturnal movement as opposed to diurnal movement. On our property we have watched some identifiable deer that have never been seen during daylight. Either actually seen or on camera. One particular doe, with half an ear gone, was watched for 4 or 5 years. She always had twins and we decided to give her a pass on doe days. We never caught her moving during the daylight. We also have bucks that have never been seen during daylight. The neighbors have talked about seeing them too, but only at night. I think that we are going to end up with some deer that are completely nocturnal and might already have more than we think.

Even if they are moving at night, if the ground allows it, they wil leave tracks. That not only tells you they are there, but where they went. E

Mathsr ,

You make some very good points there -hadn't thought of it as an evolution type thing.

Hog -dog hunters here say many hogs are now runners and will not stand and fight . They say many hogs will just blast off and run at a fast clip for a long long way -the stand and fight hogs got their throat cut and ended up on the tailgate.

The property where I work doesn't allow any hunting and there are quite a few deer on it. One thing I noticed over the years is a deer's behavior is much different at night than in the daytime. Their tolerance towards humans also changes. During the day 100yds is about as close as they tolerate a human,but at night I've walked right by them at 20yds or less and it didn't seem to bother them. Another thing I noticed is,they like open areas were they can see around them in case a wily predator is trying to put the sneak on them. They can see at night,but they don't see as well as they do during the day and they seem to be more reluctant to run. During dry weather,plants they feed on are also more succulent at night too,so what better time to get a bite to eat. Does will be more actively feeding day and because their nutritional needs of having to feed themselves and fawns. Now put all these things together and you can kinda see why a buck may tend to live the nocturnal life.