Three Reasons Why Your Bucks are Nocturnal

[@davidgrant2772]

I got 8-10 different bucks including a big 12 point that I've been chasing for 3 years now. The problem I keep having is no matter what I do, they all show up at night and night only. Some show up every night. Others show up every couple night and others show up once a week or even less. This big 12 I've been chasing, 2 years ago he showed up every morning between 3:40 and 3:45 am. Last year he showed up during the daytime once in August and once in Septmeber. Again one more time in October then he disappeared until the 2nd week of Deer season and showed up a little after 1 am. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or if I'm just not I his core area. Either way, it's frustrating knowing he's around, but I can't seem to find him. I try tracking and still hunting, hoping I'll bump into him. Maybe catch him chasing a Doe or bedded down, but so far, I can't find him.

[@glorybound7599]

Briers and thick brush dominate the area I hunt. Hunting pressure from numerous hunters and deer camps seem to cause the deer to move deeper into the woods or go nocturnal.

[@richardcanfield2741]

Smart, I’m real glad for your vids, def about to watch a bunch more. I’m stoked for hunting this year. Less is more, but more is good & God is great.

[@InformedOutdoors]

Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@glorybound7599]

It’s much quieter at night and deer 🦌 come out more as the light fades, the wind dies off, the birds, crows and squirrels have left your feeders and the does come in to eat. I have only shot my largest bucks after sunset and before twilight.

[@Killada3pt]

Exactly. Deer are naturally nocturnal. Particularly mature bucks. All you can do is keep pressure to a minimum. Cover definitely helps. But cover a buck will move around in during daylight hours outside of the rut is generally too thick to bow hunt or too thick to get into without blowing deer out. Now, things are much different in the Midwest. I hunt the Deep South. In the Midwest, what deer consider cover, they wouldn’t think of using for cover down here. Thick cover down here also provides food late into fall. So outside the rut, bucks have very little need to move around in daylight. I hunt target bucks the first week of early archery, and from the pre-rut until the end of deer season. Our early archery starts 2.5 months before the rut. That’s a lot of time to over-pressure the deer.

[@tunafish8769]

Because he didn't get old by being stupid. I killed a 12 point December 17th. Nobody in this area had pictures of him during legal shooting hours. That evening I had a swarm of yearling does in the field. Ye came out briefly chasing them. He went back in the woods I thought he was gone. He popped back outta the field to eat at a corn pile 160 yards across the field. It was about ten minutes before dark. Next season I'm not killing any bucks unless they can top him. Gotta get the doe to buck ratio straight here.

[@tunafish8769]

BTW I was in the right place at the right time. That's the ONLY reason I got him. I hunt over fields and the big boys rarely come out before dark. This field has 10 acres of perfect bedding area on the north end. I'm just too lazy to cut shooting lanes and go after the old bucks. I'm sure that's where the hang out in daylight hours.

[@dannytaylor6066]

I go to thickets to hunt after the second day of gun hunting. Thats where deer go or into marshes. People chase them and I got two ten pointers and big does from. Even tall grassy areas and good for deer to hide. I just sit up high to get a shoot

[@whereswaldo6085]

Great advise. But the only PRIVATE land i have permission to hunt on is a 9 acre hay meadow ringed by mature tree rows and a creek on one side. It is shaped like a triangle due to the creek. There is not a whole bunch that I can do to improve this property. It is fairly suburban and is less that a mile from our regional airport. There are some nice buck that show at night and maybe one or two a week that cruise through in the daylight. I fell like the hay meadow is between bedding and feeding areas. Do you have any suggestions on how to hunt such a small piece of land. And nope I can't get permission from the neighbors. I already asked.

[@InformedOutdoors]

How wide is the timber? I would hunt where it pinches together to form the triangle. I know 9 acres doesn't seem like a lot, and it isn't in an ag sense, but if those strips of timber are the only places they can't find cover it's a great choke point. If you have the ability, try some edge feathering to get more growth in the understory along the edges of the hay field. What type of hay field is it?

[@whereswaldo6085]

@@InformedOutdoors The bulk of the 9 acres is hay field and is grass. The west tree row is 203 yards long and varies from 10 to 20 yards wide. The creek runs from the SW corner to the NE corner diagonally forming the triangle. Trees line both sides of the creek and it is 377 yards long and averages about 35 yards wide. The north tree row is 265 yards and basically on tree wide along the fence. 20 % wooded CRP on the property to the north. AG field with Milo to the west. And winter wheat field to the SE of the creek. There is a house and buildings to the east of the center of the hay meadow. Access is by a private drive extending from the NE corner of the hay meadow 200 yards. I park at the main road and walk in on the drive which os wooded on the north and south sides. Last night after work I removed the feed bags I had out and set up my 30 gallon feeder on the edge of the west tree row near the SW corner at the tip of the triangle. Tree Stand about 35 yards to the south of the feeder and put a pop up 30 yards to the east of the feeded in in the trees by the creek.

[@whereswaldo6085]

@@InformedOutdoors I set the feeding times on the feeder to 8:30 AM and 2 PM. Sunrise is at 7:30 and Sunset is 5:10 PM.

[@glorybound7599]

I left deer camp last year to go home only to shoot two nice bucks in my yard with cars going down the roads, leaf blowers going and the neighbors loudly watching a college football game on TV 📺. The deer 🦌 leave the woods where the hunters are present and venture into the towns and yards where there is food and no threat, other than becoming road kill.

[@houndsman406]

In front of your trophy wall again