So heres my area- im having a tough time deterring deer movement, as all the shooter bucks are showing up 3-4 AM staying until 6:00 am approx.. Obviously I am trying to get them to pattern for an evening sit. Currently I am hunting a funnel shown as the orange star, the deer as far as I believe are coming out of the bedding from the south and east/west and hitting my feed then moving into the alfalfa.. unfortunately its a huge area, and I am struggling to figure out the other possible locations that these deer may be coming from. I guess my question would be- do deer typically exit and enter an ag field from the same location, or would they have different routes for enter and exit. does wind pay a big part? perhaps- I suppose I could go back and check the weather etc.. the photos indicated the buck was coming in from feeding around 6 am from the north/east-hit my bait then I have no indication of which direct he went.. how many cameras do I need, where would you put them? I have 3 up now pointing in every direction to try to figure them out this week, but they are all located right at the blind.. should I move out, what would you pro's do? I have permission to hunt the entire yellow highlighted area, I did hunt the heavy bush , but I have been getting way less deer movement as the landowner now has cattle in there.
Invite one of us up there (like me for instance) and let us help you figure it out. After we shoot one you will have a much bettter idea about things and then you can follow that lead and get the next one. This is the best idea that I can come up with on such short notice. PS - Which airport should I fly into so I can start checking prices on flights?
hahaha-- one large pond about 50 yards from my blind-and one larger pond in the cattle pasture/bush on the north side of the alfalfa
In all seriousness though... the intel you have from your cameras is a good start. You know that those deer are there pretty regularly till around daylight. With your camera set up you should be able to figure out which way they go when they leave. Now take your cameras and separate them and try to figure out a line of travel... and yes in such a big area you probably need more cameras if that is how you want to try and figure out their travel patterns. Canada may be different but where I hunt I would expect a big deer to end up bedded within a few hundred yards of wherever he is standing at daylight. If that is true for you then my guess would be that those bucks are traveling in a loop. You have them on the morning side of the loop now you have to find the afternoon side of it. In other words... they are not just passing fairly close by your setup in the evening and simply not coming over to get their picture taken. They are getting up and taking a completely different direction probably to some other food source. My recommendation would be to try another set up at some place that you guess might be in their afternoon path OR wait till you think that they might be rubbing trees and get out there and put boots on the ground. Find a rub line with good sized rubs that is on a line of travel that wouldn’t be bringing them directly to your current setup. That might be the other side of the loop. Good luck buddy and let me know about that airport.
No because deer play the wind too. If you are on a field edge and the wind is in your face, that doesn’t mean they are going to travel in front of you. Deer are going to use the wind to help them get from point A to point B safely. You have to learn how to intercept them for that movement for that day. Next day can be completely different.
Have u looked for any deer sign on the north end of the ag field by that pond? Near a water source during the rut might b a good spot. Definitely not a professional here. Boots on the ground as said before will be your best bet. Better now before too close to the season
