Olympus
Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 4,212
Ok, I'm in desperate need of some expert advice regarding my hunting land. I have 22 acres that I have been hunting for the last 10 years. I'm the only one that hunts the land. My biggest problem is that I cannot get bucks to come out during shooting hours. I have a TON of deer that go through the property and I have hundreds of game camera photos. I have an enormous amount of does that come on the property and probably 6 to 8 different bucks that I've been able to identify.
There is a definite pattern to their movement and behavior. The deer only move through my property in the evenings. The trail cam shows basically no evidence of deer during the morning or during the day. I can also confirm this by having never seen a deer in the mornings during the entire 10 years I've hunted the property. The trail cam shows absolutely zero deer movement until around 4:30PM. That's when the first does start to show up. The does will graze and congregate around the feeder sometimes up to 8 or 10 at a time!
The problem is, the bucks don't start showing up on the camera until after 6:30PM. Absolute last shooting light is at 5:15PM and that's pushing it for me. The bucks start showing up at 6:30PM and they are in and out all night long all the way up to about 2AM. Then all of the deer disappear, never to be seen again until around 4:30PM to 5PM the next day.
I've tried different feeder times and that doesn't seem to help. My feeder is throwing a LOT of corn out every day and it's mostly getting eaten by the does. I've tried setting my feeder to only throw feed during the morning and middle part of the day and nothing in the evenings, but that didn't work. The corn would just sit on the ground all day until the deer started showing up in the evenings. I've tried planting food plots, but they always burn up from not getting enough rain. I have no way to irrigate. The property is mostly pasture with a little woods in one corner and around the perimeter of the property. I've attached photos so you can see the layout. I have the grass cut for hay twice a year and usually by the end of the summer, there is some tall switchgrass that I leave for cover for the deer to walk through which I think helps keep them from feeling so exposed out in an open field.
Basically, I need to know what else I need to try in order to get the bucks to travel through my property during the daylight hours.
There is a definite pattern to their movement and behavior. The deer only move through my property in the evenings. The trail cam shows basically no evidence of deer during the morning or during the day. I can also confirm this by having never seen a deer in the mornings during the entire 10 years I've hunted the property. The trail cam shows absolutely zero deer movement until around 4:30PM. That's when the first does start to show up. The does will graze and congregate around the feeder sometimes up to 8 or 10 at a time!
The problem is, the bucks don't start showing up on the camera until after 6:30PM. Absolute last shooting light is at 5:15PM and that's pushing it for me. The bucks start showing up at 6:30PM and they are in and out all night long all the way up to about 2AM. Then all of the deer disappear, never to be seen again until around 4:30PM to 5PM the next day.
I've tried different feeder times and that doesn't seem to help. My feeder is throwing a LOT of corn out every day and it's mostly getting eaten by the does. I've tried setting my feeder to only throw feed during the morning and middle part of the day and nothing in the evenings, but that didn't work. The corn would just sit on the ground all day until the deer started showing up in the evenings. I've tried planting food plots, but they always burn up from not getting enough rain. I have no way to irrigate. The property is mostly pasture with a little woods in one corner and around the perimeter of the property. I've attached photos so you can see the layout. I have the grass cut for hay twice a year and usually by the end of the summer, there is some tall switchgrass that I leave for cover for the deer to walk through which I think helps keep them from feeling so exposed out in an open field.
Basically, I need to know what else I need to try in order to get the bucks to travel through my property during the daylight hours.