buckeye

I am debating on setting up a stand or two for next year specifically to try to capitalize on mid-day movements. Perhaps decoying the setup as well.



[/align]I would like to know if and how much mid-day buck activity you have witnessed over the past few years? I am most interested in hearing about the late pre-rut into the beginning of the post-rut, but will take any relevant info. I do not want to define a definite timeline as the rut is at different times for a lot of us.

For this, let's call "mid-day activity" 3 hours after sunrise to 3 hours before sunset.

Give me some details and let me know what your setup was, whatyou saw, the approximate time of the sighting and by all means a photo of a happy hunter if applicable!



[/align]

Rick James

I have seen quite a bit of mature buck movement between 11am-2pm during the rut cycles you mentioned. Actually I would say that probably half the mature bucks (3.5 or older) I have seen while hunting were during this time frame. That buck movement was always related to either them being pressured from people walking in and out of the woods for lunch, or chasing does. The two points in the field that you can see in the pic I posted is a hot spot for this. The bucks will chase them on that southern sidehill that is a known doe bedding area and the does will break into that field hoping the bucks won't follow into the open. The does will break into the field on the western point, and then go back into the woods on the eastern point. Sometimes the buck follows into the open, sometimes not. We have seen them follow into the field 3 seperate times in the last 2x years though including one that was visibly a dandy from 500+ yards away with no glass. I have a stand in there now but haven't gotten a chance to hunt it yet.

buckmaster_27

all areas and deer are different.depends on the land and pressure.try deer cams they're a big help to find day time movement.i swear by them.good luck

130woodman

I have good daytime movement for about the first 3 weeks of November. During our gun season I have shot more bucks after 10 am than before. Hunt along edges between bedding and food area's you should get some movement.

Dubbya

I agree with Matt, I've seen the majority of my "daytime" buck movement between 11am-2pm. I'll also say that the majority of these occurrences were in pretty thick areas adjacent bedding areas. I too have hung stands in these areas and two bucks were killed out of one stand this year. Granted one deer was taken in early daylight hours, but the other was taken shortly after noon.

buckeye

Rick and dwd thanks for the info guys.

Everyone else...

If you guys could... I am looking for a little more specific information regarding what you saw,what your setup was, the aprox age of the buck and what hewas doing....

I'm not so much looking for advice at this time. I want to compile thespecific information from everyone such as if the bucks theyhad seenduring this time were chasing, cruising, fighting etc etc so I can determine what type of setup (bedding, travelcooridors etc)I may want to attempt to capitalize on during this time frame.
[/align]

TFOX

This doesn't pertain to the rut BUT


A couple years ago I was scouting at 1:00 and was sneaking around the edge of the woods coming up on a bean field inearly september and I saw 3 good deer and 1, I would estimate at 3-4 years old.It was a distance though so I am not sure.He did have about a 20" spread.They were feeding about 50 yards into the field but there was a creek right behind them with an easy escape route.I was slipping up on them and I heard a noise,I looked to my left and saw a 2 1/2 year old jumping up off the ground at 20 yards from me.It looked as though he was bedded right there,just inside the woods.


I have seen many deer feeding in bean fields in the middle of the day while still in their summer patterns.

I don't know if this is the kind of info you are looking for but it has been some of my experiences.

This isweird,I think you have forgotten more about big bucks than I will ever know.

GregH

It's hard to say, I'm usually napping during those hours. I am 50.

TJF

Scott

I see quite a bit of activity at mid day but generally it is young bucks ( 3.5 years and younger ) roaming rightoutside the bedding areas. The big boys roam the edges" inside "the bedding area. I wish we had trees here to capitolize on it. To hard to hunt inside the bedding areas without wrecking the area when hunting on the ground. I hunt30to 50 yards outside theedge and hope one slips up but so far no luck.

Our bedding areas are really defined... probably more so then yours. The bucks will have a trail 15 to 25 yards inside the bedding area...running the wholeedge for scent checking the bedding area. I would love to hunt thesetrails but with the young bucks and does feeding right outside the bedding area at mid day it would be a disaster. Plus these trails are in the heavy cover and I would need to be above ground level to get a shot. Again a tree would be nice.

I don't keep a log of deer sightings andthat iswhat you really want to know. It really isn't going to help you out by knowing my specific buck tally for mid day movement anyways. What is important... your deer have the same habits as mine. They rut the same and deal with pressure the same.The key for me is finding an area that isn't/hasn't been pressured duringpre - through post rut. Tough to do but that is where I see the best midday moment. Find those spots, hang acouple stands and tell us what your buck tally is next year.

I am also thinking of trying a deer decoy for mid day hunts. If I can't hunt inside the bedding area... it might be a way of drawing the mature bucks out.

Tim

pjhunts

Chasing and cruising mostly for midday. You always hear 10-2 but for me it's more like 9 -1:30. Occasionally you will get a good fight but not often. My style is different from most. I concentrate on spots that I've actually seen deer chasing in, I'll set up on my little stool and wait for one to come by. Most of the time I'm not quite in the right spot though, but that is ok. When I do see a good one out cruising, especially chasing, I'll watch where they go and wait a few mins after they leave and move my set-up to a place, preferrably a point of some kind, where I saw them pass. I'd say at least 50-60% of the time they will come back by that point or another buck will cruise through on the scent trail an hour or so later. Believe it or not this works really well. I generally look for spots in the river bottom or saddle areas in fields where there are wood lotson both sides of the saddle. Other than right at dark, this is when I see the big boys. Another good tactic if you have plenty of area to hunt is taking 1/2 hour or so during this midday movement and drive around your area and look for bucks cruising. Figure out where they will likely head and ambush them. I did this on one of my best bucks, the hunt lasted almost 4 minutes. I knew he was skirting the edge of a cow pasture and was able to slip around and meet him on a cow path, shot him at 12 yards and he never knew what hit him. That is an "odd" way but it does work. During that time of the year the bucks are fairly "approachable" and really let their gaurd down.