how do you hunt nocturnal deer

[huntinfool87]

I have been seeing a lot of nice bucks this year but it seems the last few weeks they have only been showing up on my trail cameras at night. Does anybody know of any tricks or tactics to hunting these bucks? I'm now hunting by the way. Any advice would be helpful.

 

[gspn]

The rut will be your friend. They will move during the daylight then.

Other than that I'd try to be near bedding areas well before first light to try to catch him sneaking back in.

In the afternoons I'd be in the same areas...near bedding areas and try to catch them sneaking out just before dark.

If you hunt near agricultural fields you might want to look for "staging" areas. These are areas with decent cover where bucks can be caught hanging out prior to arriving on the field.

I shot a nice 8 point last year in one such area. He was hanging out about 80 yards into the woods just waiting on darkness to fall. Several other deer were on the bean field he was watching but he would not go out there. He just hung out in the thicker stuff waiting. Several smaller bucks actually came back to him and milled around.

He was also on the down-wind side of the field...he could scent check it without ever having to go anywhere.

Ultimately he got a ride on a 4-wheeler.

 

[huntinfool87]

Great advice! The problem with the rut is that is rifle season and it's public land. All my cameras are on a alfalfa field there is plenty of cover around it. But there are some rolling hills by it also and I'm not so sure they are not bedding up in there. I will be putting more cameras out tomorrow.

 

[MCgunner]

Big bucks don't get that way by being stupid. The rut, rattling is a technique that is supposed to work, but I just kinda make noise trying it. Luck, that's the best technique, pure luck during the rut.

 

[sage5907]

The bigger bucks will be in the roughest thickest cover that is in the area. Remember that deer don't move very much in the early part of the fall if food is abundant and they aren't bothered by people but later in the year they will travel many miles to a food source. Public land hunting is hard because the hunters always push the bucks out of the area. I would hunt just as far away from the fields as you can get in the roughest and thickest cover area that you can find. Go to the hills just as close to private property as you can get. If you can get a mile or two away from those fields you may be able to catch a big buck on his way out of the area. A buck traveling slow in the twilight can cover a mile in 10 minutes. The best time to hunt is the hour before dark and the hour after daylight. That means you will have to travel in the dark either going to your stand or coming from your stand. Choose you stand spots before the season starts and do dry runs to them so you can get there in the dark. When you get to a stand location sit down and stay there until the deer stop moving or in the evening until after dark. If you hunt the outside perimeter of the public land you can follow the fences back to your vehicle.

 

[brainwake]

Great advice here. I was thinking in the back of my head, look for those staging areas. Chances are he will move from bedding like the others, but may take much more time to do it. The big ones are both lazy and smart. They let the does and young bucks take the risks. If I was trophy hunting...I wouldn't be near my feeding area's....but rather somewhere between them and the beds. Scouting and patterning is really the key when going after a specific buck....especially a big one. You may also want to wait for a cold snap and the perfect wind before making any attempts. Trophy's don't come easy.

 

[jrdolall]

On public land (or most private land) it is absolute luck to shoot an old trophy buck outside of the rut. They bed down in the thick stuff and don't come out at all during daylight hours unless they are bumped. A dog, coyote or any unwanted intruder can make a buck move to a new hidey hole and, if you are in the way, then you can get lucky. The exception to this is probably extremely cold weather but I have never hunted in that.

The biggest buck I ever killed was at 4:45 on a Tuesday afternoon. The neighbors over a mile away were burning some brush on a clear cut and the wind made a drastic change and started coming from the Northeast. Within 5 minutes this 5 year old 10 point walked out of some thick pines on my neighbors property, jumped the fence and headed through some mature pines to the creek bottom. No hurry at all but he knew exactly where he was headed. He didn't make it.
Every other mature buck I have killed was following a doe.

 

[WestKentucky]

Preferably not with a pickup truck. It's really expensive that way and there's usually not a lot of usable meat left.

 

[gspn]

No hurry at all but he knew exactly where he was headed. He didn't make it.
.

That made me smile.

 

[Captcurt]

Luck of the Draw.

Around here the pre-rut in mid-October is "THE" time to kill a good one. Most of the wallhangers that I have came during our early black powder season which starts in 2 weeks. I usually look for scrapes and rubs and then set up on the downwind side. It helps if I can find a funnel area where the terrain forces the travel thru a narrow spot. The staging areas near the doe feeding and bedding areas also get a lot of attention.

There are some bucks that are almost totally nocturnal. I have pictures of two that I have never seen or gotten on camera in the daytime.

 

[Patocazador]

"How do you hunt nocturnal deer?"

At night of course.

(I don't want jack-lighters to take this seriously.)

 

[Frostbite]

Make runs, force the big dodgy smarter ones to move or they will not. We have lots of success with runs. Be prepared to shoulder and shoot fast. Muzzleloader is a one shot deal. If you are bow hunting, well, good luck!

 

[huntinfool87]

Well I took a hike into the hills and concerned what I thought. The big ones are bedding in those steep draws. I put a couple cameras up at the bottom of the draws for one to see if they are using the draws to get into the hills and for two to see if it's during hunting hours . It's really thick cover in there so my hopes are high. Thank you everyone for the advice.

 

[Grumulkin]

I have been seeing a lot of nice bucks this year but it seems the last few weeks they have only been showing up on my trail cameras at night. Does anybody know of any tricks or tactics to hunting these bucks? I'm now hunting by the way. Any advice would be helpful.

I hunt them at night with a spotlight.

...and a nuisance permit of course.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I was taught that after the first week of opening season, the deer go nocturnal, and you're just not going to get a shot.

I found this to be balderdash in all but extreme cases. Now there is a difference in getting a shot at a deer that you can harvest, and getting a shot at a buck with a large rack. As others have said... that big, dominant buck with the big rack got that way because he's smart and wiley. If the rut has finished up for him... he's just not going to be stupid.

As for deer in general, they have to eat and move to stay warm, and thus in colder weather, they often have to eat well twice a day to maintain calories... and late in the season, by hunting all day, without leaving the woods for a lunch break, I've gotten deer when folks would swear up and down the deer only moved at night.

What was happening was the deer were feeding about an hour before dawn, then holding up for most of the day. A lot of the hunters were doing morning hunts, and leaving at noon, or breaking for lunch for about 3 hours, from say 11:00 to 14:00. What they didn't know was that the deer often moved at about 12:00 to 14:00 and ate, until they heard the hunters return, and went back to hiding....

I found that staying from first light until sundown, I often get deer after "lunchtime" or even at sunset. My last deer was the last day of the Black Powder season, 30 minutes before sundown last January.... when most of the other hunters that I know told me I was wasting my time.

Now, true, one year the deer behavior was that they ate at just before dawn, and just after sundown, so that was the toughest year that I have experienced, but it's not some universal behavior, and staying put all day will also give you the chance to pick off the deer that got spooked from a hide by a hunters leaving at the end of the morning.

LD

 

[buck460XVR]

As others have said, the pre-rut and the rut will bring the biggest of bucks out during daylight, but still, much less than younger bucks. Pressure is also a huge factor. Bucks accustomed to coming to a feeder and not harassed for 4 or 5 years will come out during legal shooting times much more than a older buck pressured heavily for that many year on public land. Big bucks will also move during daylight, right before a major change in weather, especially if the wind is making a major direction change. Big bucks also move during the middle of the day sometimes, but don't move very far. Many times this is the move from a bedding area to a staging area. During the rut, most of my bigger bucks have been shot @ mid-day, between 10a.m. and 2p.m.. Took me a few years of bumping big bucks on the move when coming off stand @ 9 a.m. to figure that out.

 

[22-rimfire]

This is about the time of the year when deer shift to feeding primarily at night, the early mornings (dawn) and late afternoons (dusk). As mentioned, if they are allowed to move in their normal patterns, it will be move to feeding area in late afternoon and move back to the bedding area in the early morning. The trick is to know where they are feeding and where they are moving to and from.

Hunting season may shift their patterns around a bit, especially the older larger bucks. If there is a lot of hunting pressure, they could be moving at just about any time of the day. They know that hunters like to move out of their stands, take naps, and eat around noon. During the rut, the bucks will be out all day long in search of does.

 

[ridgerunner1965]

you can use hundreds of differnet methods,pattern them, but the best method is just to be out in the woods as much as you can. even a wise old buck gets up once in awhile and goes for a drink at the pond or creek.

as my gpa used to say "you wont get no deer on the dam couch" well actually he called it a divan.

just be out there and stay out there.

do your scouting preseason. i really dont like to penetrate a bucks core bedding area, it will make them go nocturnal or just move really quick. get them going out or comeing to it.

the rut is a toss up, yu will see bucks yu did not even know existed sometimes.but again by being out there at 2 in the afternoon when yur buddys are at camp playing cards you may git a monster. the biggest deer i ever saw was shot by my 15yr old son and it was 3 in the afternoon and it was dogging a yearling doe in heat.it would not leave that doe even tho i knew it saw me. i let him walk cuz i knew it was heading towards my son in his stand.he got it.

non rut bucks are just a matter of waiting them out,if your out there where they are eventually one of them will slip up. the forest is their home. make it your home also.

 

[Sun Tzu warrior]

Some years back, I got in my bow hunting stand before daylight. At the break of dawn, a nice buck came into the area I was hunting, totally avoiding my shooting lanes. He bedded in a brush top a mere 30 yards from my stand. Not wanting to draw attention to my position, I did not sit down all day. Every couple of hours, he stood up, (for about 20 minutes) then laid back down, but did not leave that spot. I have been told that they have to stand every couple of hours to keep their guts from tangling up. Long story short, I went back after recuperating from the all day on my feet, and moved my stand to where I could get a shot at him, when he stood up in the brush top. Then I waited for the right wind, invited him home for supper, and he accepted the invitation.
Use your cameras to find where he beds at, observe from a distance, with the right wind, then beat him to the area, choke up on his bed just enough to be in range. BTW, he scored 162 5/8
STW