Opinions

[Sherk's Guide Service]

Hey everyone,

I have found more good bucks this year than ever. The problem is, I am getting trail-cam photos of these bucks in feeding areas after dark. Which is not surprising to me.

I feel my best chance is to get closer to the bedding areas and catch them on their way to the food right before dark. This will be tough though because the bedding areas are very large and the bucks can travel to the feeding areas from many directions. There's not a lot of deer where I hunt so I know I will go times without seeing deer.

Mainly, I was just wondering if any of you have ever been in this situation and instead of hunting in between bed and feed you actually kept hunt the feeding area in hopes of just maybe once a buck would come in during daylight hours?

I can't say I have ever pounded on a spot all season in hopes of of a buck coming in during day light. I usually hunt near the bedding area or find some bucks coming into feeding areas during daylight hours.

Let me know.

[BowtechTurkeyHunter]

Hey everyone,

I have found more good bucks this year than ever. The problem is, I am getting trail-cam photos of these bucks in feeding areas after dark. Which is not surprising to me.

I feel my best chance is to get closer to the bedding areas and catch them on their way to the food right before dark. This will be tough though because the bedding areas are very large and the bucks can travel to the feeding areas from many directions. There's not a lot of deer where I hunt so I know I will go times without seeing deer.

Mainly, I was just wondering if any of you have ever been in this situation and instead of hunting in between bed and feed you actually kept hunt the feeding area in hopes of just maybe once a buck would come in during daylight hours?

I can't say I have ever pounded on a spot all season in hopes of of a buck coming in during day light. I usually hunt near the bedding area or find some bucks coming into feeding areas during daylight hours.

Let me know.

Certainly you can hunt the food source ... just have to be abit more selective about when you hunt I would say.

Seems if you have cameras set up on travel cooridors you should have a good idea where they are coming and going from ... maybe narrow your cameras to pin point the deer.

Steve

[Sherk's Guide Service]

Steve,

Thanks for the reply. However, I think you misunderstood me. I have cameras set up at the food source which is an apple orchard. The bucks are bedding on a mountain above the orchard.

The mountain is home to an abundant oak forest with plenty of acorns. There isn't any cover up there so I don't think they are bedding in the exact same spot daily.

I know it is going to be tough to nail one of these bucks as they come off the mountain during the evening. There is just too much ground for them to get by me.

My question was that if I hunted directly in the apple orchard does anyone think there would be just one evening when one of these bucks would show during daylight?

[HOYTnMUZZYboy]

I'm gonna guess the deer are grazeing among the hardwoods during the day and eating the apples morning and night. How pressured are these deer, are there people in the orchard daily? If there is people in there daily i'm gonna guess they bucks will stay away from there in the daylight. You need to find the stageing area where these deer are hanging out in b4 entering the orchard. That may vary from day to day. Or get about 3 to 400 yards away from the bedding area. It's hard to pattern bucks let alone a mature deer. And this time of the year when theres lots of different things for them to choose from to eat, it makes it that much harder. Let us know what you end up doing, and good luck!

[Guest ArcheryFool]

As the rut comes along yes, chances are good you will see one of the bigger bucks during daylight hours.

I would move my cameras back up the trails towards their bedding areas, just to see if you can pin point which trails they are taking into the apples. Once you have that figured out move your stands up that trail closer to the bedding area.

[GWSmith]

Mainly, I was just wondering if any of you have ever been in this situation and instead of hunting in between bed and feed you actually kept hunt the feeding area in hopes of just maybe once a buck would come in during daylight hours?

Let me answer the above question first.

I surely have.

I did not pound it however...in my situation it was more of a "I have no idea what to do because everywhere up on the flat above is a bedding area and at least here on the feeding area I get to see deer right at last light" kind of waiting and hoping game. Not very productive as you might have geussed.

I have the area I've been hunting here for over 5 years now with a corn field as the feeding area and everywhere up above it is thick brushy bedding area in the shape of a big "C" all around and above the corn field.

The first couple years I camped out on the cornfield and only saw a few deer right as the daylight shutoff.

I gradually started to see patterns during that time in how the deer entered the field and what direction they commonly traveled to get there. I spent the time watching the field after the season was over with snow on the ground.

In the early spring of the following year I used a GPS and started back-tracking the deer trails that had been beaten down entering into the corn field. Out of 10+ trails I walked from the cornfield I found only 3 that looked to be used heavier than the others. An interesting factor to me was that they followed the contour lines of a topo map around hills staying on a fairly level plain then ended up going into really thick areas of brush. To me another interesting factor that only applied to these 3 trails was the way they came down off the hillside towards the cornfield. All 3 of them went down the hillside at an angle...for example: like a flight of stairs on th outside of a building.

Last season I finally made a standsite, up on the flat above the cornfield, based on the information I had gathered.

I missed a nice deer during Bow Season the first time I hunted that stand:(

Later that year I killed him on the cornfield edge by calling him in, during the rut, using doe bleats, young buck grunts, then imitating an older buck running off the younger buck, then tending the doe that was not really there.

The most interesting fact to me is that he came to the cornfield edge on the trail that was traveled the least of the 3 heavily used trails leading to the cornfield.

If I scored the 3 heavy used trails...2 of them were 10's and the trail he came in on was a 7.

I dont know if this helps you but maybe something I've done here may help you there.

I believe there is a pattern to the deer in your situation there. Get a Notebook, GPS or Compass, and Walk them Trails from the Orchard up the hill;)

P.S. Dont wait as long as I did either...I spent years getting all this information when I should have done this within the first 2 years!