Hello everyone. I'm new to this site. I'm fortunate to have a new place to hunt this year. Its a shelter belt surrounded by good productive farm fields, lots of cover, lots of water. These deer are 99% nocturnal. I have only a few pics of deer out in the sunlight or can legally harvest. Does anybody any ideas on how to possibly keep these deer out long enough to take a legal shot? I've used attractant and added a feeder this year as well as mineral blocks. Thank you for responding..
Welcome to the site. Can't help with the question but some people use spotlights. Not recommended, though. Will watch as I would like to see what others suggest.
I take it you're hunting the more open food source? You need to get back into the cover a bit more if they aren't showing up at the food during shooting light. Find where they're bedding and the trails leading from the bedding to the food. Setup back on those trails closer to the bedding. Many times they will be staged up or wandering to/from the food back in cover while there is shooting light. But be very careful not to disturb the bedding.
How much land are you able to hunt? Can you post a pic from google earth or onX so we can see what your looking at. Agree with Mod that you need to get closer to bedding, but won’t help much if you can’t hunt closer to bedding.
The bucks u are after could very well not be coming into the property u hunt during daylight . Not much u can really do about that, outside of rut. Daytime sighting usually directly correlate to bedding locations. Too often guys think they are gonna draw em over with scented up bait piles with the same results. Same thing, they come to it at night. More often than not, if U don’t have a good day sanctuary, it’s not gonna pay off with daytime sightings.
If they are in fact bedding on the property, I’d say u need to push in further and be more aggressive. Two choices, wait on feed and get the same results , or be aggressive and push in further. If ur not killing em with the current strategy, give something else a try. If u have an idea where a buck is hanging his hat, that could work out in ur odds. Wind and thermals is key, which usually makes a buck decide where he beds. As well as how he’s going to enter/exit said bedding. Try to figure these things out and it’ll help u get a better idea of how to put a quill in him
I appreciate your response. Its not legal in my state to spotlight deer. Thank you with response. They are bedding down in my my father inlaws field. He will not allow anybody to hunt on his property as he feeds these deer for urs now. However my brother in laws property which is only 5 acres has the shelter belt that separates the pieces of ground i do have permission to hunt. Like clock work this herd comes in from the east at the northern end of shelter belt. Then walk south right into my feeder which is 10yds from my tree stand (7ft up) and tucked under the canopy. I think somehow they know I'm in there. When I'm in the stand they will not show up until its dark enough I can't get a legal shot nor can you see well enough to do so. When I'm not in there the trail camera shows them coming in 30 minutes before sundown.. Everytime. I'm feeding, using attractant, scent blocker. I don't get it.
Thanks for responding. Getting closer to the bedding would be ideal for sure. However I don't have permission to hunt in that area. I'll work on the Google earth site hopefully I can get a pic. Thanks again
Thanks. I'm trying to work a deal to get closer to the bedding grounds. I really think that would help alot as Mod-it had stated earlier.
