Well this got interesting fast. My personal experience tells me that buck can bed all day long. For this experience led to my all day sit once. I massive buck payed down about 200 yard on the other side of a pasture right after sunrise and laid there until 15 minutes prior to darkness. This was November
Also I'm not attempting to disprove anyone's opinions. I'm simply implying it's difficult to disprove what others have experienced first hand.
IMO the October lull is partly real.No deer do not stop moving altogether but they are starting to grow/already have their thick winter coats and in most states it still gets up to 80/85 degrees during the day.Deer do not move during daylight as much then because of they would get to hot to quick. If I had to wear a down coat and go to work in 80 degrees I would probably be waiting to do my work until it got dark and cooled off. As for the OP,just because you killed a buck during the "lull" doesn't mean "the lull" is completely nonexistent.Im guessing one of the reasons you didn't have him on that one camera now was because he wasn't moving very much at all because of the winter coat. I believe that a deer can bed all day without moving because I have seen it happen.Last season I watched a doe bed down 3 minutes before legal shooting time.I stayed on stand all day as it was getting close to rut.I watched that doe through binos and when I left that night she had not moved a foot.She stood up a few times but that's it. And if you don't feel like posting in online forums anymore well then just don't post anymore.
Grow some thicker skin dude. You're not completely right or wrong, no need of being completely and irrationally perturbed by someone disagreeing or by a couple of terms that are thrown around and used in general. I don't know that anyone thinks that "nocturnal" means a deer absolutely doesn't move at all in daylight. What it means to me is that a deer has shrunk his movement in daylight to a very small area and only ventures out to his normal larger area at night. No deer is unkillable and there are no absolutes in life. Congrats on the deer, he's a dandy.
That word doesn't irritate me. If the deer only comes through my farm at night and spends the day on the neighboring farm, then to me he is nocturnal b/c at no point will he show up in front of my stand during the day.
I'm tired of seeing "rant threads"... Grown men getting on the internet to complain about wording and their problems in the hunting world dealing with "terms" is beyond sad. As hunters we should be devising solutions on how to maintain and preserve hunting and the great outdoors, not complain about Bill saying TO-MOT-O and I say TO-MAT-O... If you'll read articles written by our nations top wildlife biologist, they use the terms nocturnal and October lull. They also define these terms. Stick with me here because this is key...They are used to describe a deer's behavior in the location they are being observed. If you get all night pictures of a buck in an area, that is a nocturnal buck in that area. There is a lull in deer movement in early through mid-October in rich oak habitat when there is an abundance in acorns that year. They can eat where they sleep. Heaven for bid they have water close by that, there's not much else a deer needs...eat, water, sleep.. don't get killed. Pretty basic. These terms were derived by research used to describe behavior where they are being observed from. Not as absolutes.
I've been "corrected" online and as a newb, I took it in stride. We're never too old to learn, no matter how it stings. Pride has gotten in the way of many potential friendships and I WANT friends who are smarter than me, better hunters than me, more knowledgeable than me! One thing I've learned from my smarter, better hunter friends: there are few real absolutes in deer hunting in terms of deer behavior. My anecdotes are not superior to yours or your neighbors.
Deer are actually Crepuscular, meaning they move a lot at twilight. Their eyes are adapted to see pretty well in low light. They feed most of the night long. So, I guess if someone wants to call deer nocturnal, they really wouldn't be too far off the mark. They also change their movement pattern to a fair degree in the early Fall. They tend to spend more of their daylight time in a very small portion of their core area just prior to the pre-rut kicking in. Call it a lull if you like, you really wouldn't be that far wrong. To hunt a mature buck during that period of time, you must risk bumping him. If that floats your boat, have fun with it. But, don't whine about the buck disappearing all together. Chances are, you pestered him enough without even knowing it that he relocated. I can't comment on how much pressure bucks will put up with when corn is being dumped in their bedroom. I've never done it.
I don't personally believe in the magical time frame where bucks (or deer in general) stop doing stuff. I think a lot of hunter attributed non-sightings is the change in food sources, ability of deer to feed more in seclusion on the last green brows and nuts if around...dispersal of bucks as well in some cases from summer locations to fall...and the kicking of button bucks from doe family groups...depending on property if all of these things happen I could see how you'd go from seeing a bunch of deer to very few while shift/swing/change occurs.
I believe that was the point the author was trying to make. The deers pattern changed and his scouting pattern changed. As a result he located and killed his target buck. To over simplify do the same thing over and over and expect different results or change tactics be more aggressive/proactive. For me that is always the greatest dilemma, do I go into my sanctuary areas or wait for the rut to bring them to me. I have had success with both tactics.
Agreed 100%. Which is exactly what I define as the lull. That time when your opportunity to kill a target buck is greatly diminished due to lessened travel during daylight hours. They might be on their feet at the same time, but they stay much closer to their bed, which makes it a risky endeavor to push in on them to hunt. They keep doing "stuff", but they do it in a smaller area during shooting light.
defined lull is: 1. a temporary interval of quiet or lack of activity They are still active...just not how we desire
