Having the strangest early season

[RangerClay]

The will be my 21st year hunting deer on my property.  About the last 10 I have started using trail cameras (which I only check once a week).  I've come to really understand the deer movement on my property.  My land is a transition area.  Early morning they pass by me coming from feeding in the fields all night then stop by my food plot on the way to their bedding area (off my property).  Evenings they stage up at my food plot before heading to the fields to feed all night.  I normally get a couple daylight hours in the morning and evening where I can see/shoot deer, or they show up on camera.  But not this year.  98% of my pictures are at night.  Almost zero pictures in the daylight.  ALL of my buck pictures are in the middle of the night.  I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what has suddenly made them so nocturnal.  Have any of you ever had something like this happen to you?  I'm trying to figure out what to change.

[Robhuntandfish]

Maybe because it has been so warm? Was watching the news and it's like the 3 warmest summer ever and Sept is in the top 10 warmest ever as well.  Maybe they are spending more time in the dark due to the heat..... Just a thought 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Robhuntandfish

[Fletch]

Could be something else forced them to change their pattern as well off your property. Any changes that you can tell to the fields or bedding? Is there new human interaction, clearing, new building, new owners putting on their own scouting pressure?

[mowin]

Has the food source changed in the fields? Mast crop dropping and changing things up? 

[Swamp_bucks]

If your area is like mine this year there are apples and acorns everywhere it seems like. They might just be hitting those in a different spot and going to agg fields then hitting them again on the way back.

[johnplav]

Has there been a change in the crop fields they are going to?  If their preferred food is in a closer field, they may need less time to get there and begin staging later in your food plot.

[wolc123]

Two suggestions to prevent this from happening in future years:

1) Make some thick, sanctuary areas on your land and stay out of them at all times, except possibly for some late winter hinge cutting.  This will encourage deer to bed on and spend more time on your land.

2) Put in some wheat/soybean/white clover mix plots around September 1.  I can’t think of anything more likely to draw deer away from apples and acorns than fresh sprouted soybeans.   The only way you can get that in early October, is to plant them in early September.

If I was in that situation this year, I would find someplace else to hunt until November 1st or so.   Let the deer start to feel safe on your ground, with no traces of human scent around (don’t even pull camera cards).  Hit them by surprise, just as the peak rut begins.

That is my plan for my own back 40 even though I have seen a buck or two in the daylight, nearly every time that I have been back there, over the last 3 weeks.  I have some good sanctuary areas, but no soybeans this year.  

 

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by wolc123

[G-Man]

22 years , and your woods have grown become more open... happens a lot I hear it all the time I've hunted the same spot for 20 years!!  Woods mature brush dies off.. patterns change..

Drops some trees, hinge cut.  A sanctuary is 100x more important than a food plot.  If the deer bed on your property and feed on your neighbors they will be on your 80% of the time.

You have a few small plots that are staging areas so those will help keep them on yours in daylight.. deer move at dark when they don't feel safe.. 

Dropped over 700 trees on my place last winter to just thicken up the wood to make deer bed on it vs just passing thru.  Wasn't a week and the local herd moved in... 

 

[Hock3y24]

Deer are not "nocturnal", they are just nocturnal in your camera locations, their patterns change and you gotta move if you can, or change the habitat. They are really hiding out in the apples and acorns from what ive seen.