Changing/Influencing Deer Patterns

M16LR.50

M16LR.50

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
14   0   0
Location
Canada
Hoping I can get some sage advice from the ontario hunters familiar with the peculiarities of the white tailed deer ... I am hunting public land in WMU80 & 81... there's a particular 100ac lot that I have been trying my luck at these past weeks but no dice. There is a tremendous amount of deer sign... The place literally smells like deer, from all the droppings. There are always fresh tracks through the snow and today I followed one deep into the trees and found a point where around 4 trails converge. I am guessing that the deer are active at night... so how does one "encourage" them to move into hours more favourable to hunting? We have a reasonably long bows only season, so, any tips would be appreciated...

I did see a rather large buck today, but he was on the far end of an open field (private land), heading into another woodlot that is inaccessible (private land). This fellow made his appearance when i climbed down from a tree stand, and casually went on his merry way... maybe if i had a decoy out, it could have interested him... but anyways, how can I get the ones on the huntable side to move in reasonable hours?
 
You might not be able to have them come to you during hunting hours, so maybe move to them during hunting hours.....
Try and setup some place near their bedding area, stay away from the open fields and get into the bush.
Try some still hunting early morning or late afternoons... Keep the wind in your face or crosswind and go in their and look for them. If the poop is there, they can't be too far away. :)
 
Find the trails in the bush away from the field edges, as mentioned, and be very quiet. When deer go nocturnal it can be very difficult to get them to come around. If they are in the fields at night try to get around the field, and into the bush so you can have a shot as the sun comes up.
 
You can push them from beds. But if you have an inactive daytime deer herd (my area) you have be able to sit it out (wait for the pee break, leg stretch, get a drink moment during legal) or bust them out. Or get lucky I guess. The most active deer hour on my trailcams in this area is 3 am. We do regularly manage to fill tags though.

Bust a deer twice and you probably won't find one bedding in the same spot ever again so you'd have to make it count.

If you can't get permission on private lands you can drive just as well with a chainsaw in your hands as a bow if you can talk the owner into some free firewood processing.
 
Whitetails are light switch material.
Lights off, owt they come.
Lights on, owt they go.
Get there way before legal shewt'in time and wait..........and wait..............and wait.
Pay heed to the wind.
 
I live beside pressured public land surrounded by private forests/fields and it's quite remarkable how the resident buck and doe avoid the public land during daylight hours and only go on public land at night. Her twin fawns and the younger resident does and their fawns follow her lead so she's essentially turned the local deer nocturnal on public land. They cruise around the private land during daylight hours, often with the big 8 pointer and smaller buck in the mix. If they're spooked out of private land for whatever reason they will hangout in the field or along the edge of the public land before heading right back to the private land to avoid the dreaded public land.

Do you have any trail cameras to figure out when they're hitting the bush you hunt?

Do you know where they're bedding and feeding?

What time of day are you hunting and is it possible it's a bedding area and each time you go to hunt you're spooking the deer?
 
I’m not familiar with Ontario regs, are you allowed to use bait while deer hunting? That’s the only way I’ve had deer that were nocturnal start showing in the daytime. Late season apples and alfalfa are hard to resist sometimes.
 
There are ways to influence deer to move... Baiting, dogs, still hunting etc...

Our group of 4 hunt ~120 acres private land surrounded by other private land. There isn't much room, so we hunt from tree stands.

I find it a game of chance, or luck if you will... First, you have to be in your tree stand AND the deer have to decide to go past your stand.

In 7 years of deer hunting at the farm, our group has taken 11 deer: 6 bucks and 5 does. Doe tags have gone unfilled & there have been seasons where members of the group did not see a deer. Case in point, me last year... On average, a deer is taken every 4-6 sits, a sit being 3-4 hours in the stand.

We are not in an area with lots of deer, but seeing as how most of the property around Ottawa is private land, we are fortunate to have access to it.

Cheers
Jay
P.S. My deer this year where he fell. There was a doe taken by another member in our group on day one of the rifle hunt. We have two doe tags left & may hunt during the muzzleloader season. IF the weather cooperates, hate freezing & we don't have box blinds...
F25D9F99-0221-4129-B78F-9C63ECA713E5.jpg

Yes, it was tagged BEFORE we moved it.
46374996_559285391204185_788957566397841408_n.jpg
 

Attachments

  • F25D9F99-0221-4129-B78F-9C63ECA713E5.jpg
    F25D9F99-0221-4129-B78F-9C63ECA713E5.jpg
    88.6 KB · Views: 472
  • 46374996_559285391204185_788957566397841408_n.jpg
    46374996_559285391204185_788957566397841408_n.jpg
    29 KB · Views: 462
canadian hunter312 said:
I live beside pressured public land surrounded by private forests/fields and it's quite remarkable how the resident buck and doe avoid the public land during daylight hours and only go on public land at night. Her twin fawns and the younger resident does and their fawns follow her lead so she's essentially turned the local deer nocturnal on public land. They cruise around the private land during daylight hours, often with the big 8 pointer and smaller buck in the mix. If they're spooked out of private land for whatever reason they will hangout in the field or along the edge of the public land before heading right back to the private land to avoid the dreaded public land.

Do you have any trail cameras to figure out when they're hitting the bush you hunt?

Do you know where they're bedding and feeding?

What time of day are you hunting and is it possible it's a bedding area and each time you go to hunt you're spooking the deer?
Click to expand...

I currently go in 29minutes before sunrise so that I don't have bring an extra bulky case with my pack, and sometimes portable blind... It's still pitch black at that time but I can't say for sure if I'm spooking them.

I was afraid to set trail cams because I was not sure if I'd lose them to theft. I've only been in this area 1yr so this is my first time hunting it. So far, apart from the deer tracks, my prints are the only other tracks I see, so that's encouraging. I can't tell if I have spooked the deer, but I have never seen or heard (electronic muffs) them dash while going there ...

I thought they were bedding at a certain spot, but the discovery yesterday has me thinking it may be further in.

Butcherbill said:
I’m not familiar with Ontario regs, are you allowed to use bait while deer hunting? That’s the only way I’ve had deer that were nocturnal start showing in the daytime. Late season apples and alfalfa are hard to resist sometimes.
Click to expand...
Yes baiting is allowed... Do the deer in Ontario that are used to corn fields go for apples and alfalfa?
.
@Jay very nice deer... When I lived in Ottawa five years ago, there was always a nice herd out in Kanata...
 
M16LR.50 said:
I currently go in 29minutes before sunrise so that I don't have bring an extra bulky case...
Click to expand...

That is a mistake... you can legally shoot 30 minutes before sunrise and you should already be in your stand for 20 minutes before that time arrives... get a loose cloth gun sock for your rifle (or bow), it meets legal requirements and can be stuffed into your pack once legal light arrives.
 
hoytcanon said:
That is a mistake... you can legally shoot 30 minutes before sunrise and you should already be in your stand for 20 minutes before that time arrives... get a loose cloth gun sock for your rifle (or bow), it meets legal requirements and can be stuffed into your pack once legal light arrives.
Click to expand...


How much earlier do you recommend that I go it?
 
I hunt 81a in November and my dad and brother hunt it in december. Deer are always more nocturnal by the time december hunt rolls around. I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm thinkin they are a bit smarter and skittish by then and I think they know they stand out more in the snow and wait til after hours.

I've watched a doe and two fawns cross the road in front of my dads farm every night right at dark. It's too dark to shoot but light enough I can see them bounding their way across the bean stubble.
 
Earlier the better for the morning hunt. But when it's bow season, and cold, I'll be there 1/2 hour before legal.
This year the moon has allowed the deer to see at near daylight levels at night. They can feed easily at night, so they are not moving much in daylight. As the snow comes they get hungrier, and will move more in daylight. We got dumped on with 9" here, and the deer are moving at mid day now. I have no doe tag, so naturally I'm seeing nothing but does.
The rutt seems slow here too, not seeing any sign of it at all.
 
Are you sure it's a bedding area and not a staging area or travel route between bedding and feeding grounds? Are you seeing actual signs of them bedding down? 100 acre lots aren't really that much room and most of the deer around here will use private land for bedding and public land as cover when passing through from one bushlot to the next.

You need a couple trail cameras to figure out which direction they're heading and at what times. Like most animals they'll follow roughly the same routine if not disturbed too much.


There's a public bush I deer hunted for two years and saw tons of sign. I never saw a single deer hunting there and the trail cameras showed that all deer activity was at night so I was essentially wasting my time. I should have bought the trail cameras sooner...
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Earlier the better for the morning hunt. But when it's bow season, and cold, I'll be there 1/2 hour before legal.
This year the moon has allowed the deer to see at near daylight levels at night. They can feed easily at night, so they are not moving much in daylight. As the snow comes they get hungrier, and will move more in daylight. We got dumped on with 9" here, and the deer are moving at mid day now. I have no doe tag, so naturally I'm seeing nothing but does.
The rutt seems slow here too, not seeing any sign of it at all.
Click to expand...




Bucks were on fire and in full chase mode Halloween week, just like they have been for years and years. The first round of does have been bred and the second rut will be upon us in a couple weeks. The rut happens at pretty well the same time every year, it's poor weather which alters patterns of both deer and hunters making it seem like no action is happening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom