Late season buck HELP PLZ!!!!

[Marker]

A little unrelated but during the controlled hunt in 92B this year I watched a coyote out in the field. I could have easily shot him but decided to pass because I didn't feel like re-loading.. lol
Anyway, when the coyote hit the path, I walked in on he stopped on a dime and bolted out of there. It's amazing how good the sense of smell is on deer and coyotes.

When a dog can come across a trail (cross track) left by another critter 24 hours earlier (or a human) and immediately know the direction of travel it shows how much we as humans do not comprehend the world of scent.

Scent has been described as colours of a rainbow, with red being the hotest trail and gradually loosing colour until it turns black about three days later.

[Gilroy]

Hi everybody,

want to start off by saying thank you for any help in advance.

Ive been hunting for 4-5 years now and continuously run into the same issue… nocturnal bucks!!!

every year I have a decent amount of bucks coming to corn and apples which I keep stocked but it’s only ever after dark. 4-6. This year I have a 10 at one location and at the other I have a 8/9, a 6, a 4, a spike. The odd time I’ll get one on camera within like 10 minutes of the half hour shooting window… but I’m usually working obviously.

does are plentiful at both stands… up to 5 doe/fawn mix at a time on a single picture. I don’t know if it’s the same ones feeding at both stands. I’m not sure exactly total how many are feeding off my piles.

ive tried doing research on how to proceed with my situation but to no avail… other than tracks in the snow I can’t find much sign. Most of the videos on YouTube which I can find are American and I’m not sure what relates and what doesn’t.

so my main questions with the end of my hunting season being this coming Sunday evening would be…

- how should I proceed? Am I screwed and should just sit on the bait piles and hope one slips up this year?

EDIT: if anybody knows of a place I could find all the right information and how it relates to hunting in Ontario that would be helpful!! I’m in zone 55A. It could be information from early season, to run, to bedding, late season, off season. ANYTHING helps!!!

thank you.

Some information to ponder.


https://www.deer.psu.edu/one-square-mile/


Penn State Deer-Forest Study (psu.edu)

[Sam Menard]

Using bait to attract bucks during daylight hours can be an exercise in futility. Hunting small properties (<80 acres) can also be tough as a bucks home range is considerably larger.

A good way to increase your odds is to break down the area that you hunt by determining what areas are used by deer and why. Air photos, satellite images, topo maps, and on the ground scouting in the post season can really help. Think of it as a process of elimination. You also need to consider the land around your property to get the big picture. What you are trying to do is figure out feeding, bedding, travel corridors and ways to exploit those areas. Increase your odds by hunting the right spots at the right time.

[glen]

I wonder if he saw any deer.

[Jlabelle92]

I wonder if he saw any deer.

I did not. Went for a walk at one point, saw a lot and learned more. It’s a win for me.

[werner.reiche]

Some information to ponder.


https://www.deer.psu.edu/one-square-mile/


Penn State Deer-Forest Study (psu.edu)

Good info in the first link. Particularly the paragraph about rifle season. This is what I call the "hunkering down and riding it out" behavior.

"The Deer Rifle Season
This is where it gets interesting. Of course, the rifle season is only 2 weeks long so you would expect the home range to be smaller just because it’s only a partial month.

But home ranges are half their size – they shrink 60% for males and 48% for females.

And look at this – both buck and doe home ranges shrink to about 100 acres during daytime (the two points don’t even separate on the graph because they’re almost identical)! Of course, if you watched the movies from the rifle season in our previous posts this makes perfect sense."

The second article - I can only excuse the writer by assuming he's not a deer hunter. He's missed the point. Most hunters hunt in and around feeding areas and deer feeding patterns. The buck behaviour described isn't feeding. It's a rutting buck travelling. You could get one these guys on a buck trail - but you might sit all week over the trail and not see a thing. Re: feeding - they do become nocturnal. That isn't a hunter misconception. Almost every deer hunter has run into this after the first few days of the season and with the widespread use of trail cams - there is more photo evidence of this than you could imagine. More than my 1000 photos a month can handle.

[Sam Menard]

The term “nocturnal” can be misunderstood and improperly used to describe the lack of buck sightings. Certainly some buck activity/behaviours e.g feeding in open fields might only occur once darkness sets in. However bucks do move during the day, but probably in forest/brush habitat where they feel more secure. An abundance or steady human encroachment into a bucks core area can cause it to avoid those areas and move to areas that are quieter. People often say things like “The bucks are/have gone nocturnal as I only get trail cam photos of bucks at night”. In reality, those bucks are likely somewhere else during the day. It’s important to know that a buck’s home range can be 640 acres or more and the boundaries can very irregular. For example, a buck that lives along a river might have a home range several miles long.

Deer are crepuscular animals, meaning that they are most active during twilight hours i.e. late evening/early morning and by their nature, they don’t move in the open that much during the day anyway. A deer’s daily cycle usually consists of feeding and bedding several times a day plus travelling from the dining room to the bedroom. A deer has a 4-chambered stomach which means that it can quickly stuff its paunch then retire to a safe and quiet area to chew its cud. A deer has to bed down to chew its cud in order to complete the digestive cycle. Despite being crepuscular, deer will feed and move during the day; however, it will only do so in areas where it feels safe… often in the woods and out of sight from hunters.

Sorry for the rambling.