a question about deer traveling
 

my question is will deer travelat the same time as they do now as when the days get shorter. so like for example there is this one buck that always travel pass my camera at nine o clock so right before dark so will it keep traveling pass it right before dark or will it keep going pass it at nine o clock. i hope you understand my question. im not sure if i did i very good job explaining it. but i hope you understand. hope you can help. thanks

Although deer will travel trails at any time of the year, changes in available food sources, the rut and the weather will affect their routes and times of travel. I doubt the buck will have the same schedule year round.

T.R. HAS TO BE drooling/licking his chops right about now.:)

x2, there are simply too many variables that determine deer movement. any change in their environment or daily activity can directly effect their normal pattern.

Unfortunately it seems like after the first or second weekend of the season the bucks like to go nocturnal. They don't get big by being stupid.

Patterns and travel routes will constantly change. LOTS of variables. Barometric pressure, moon phase, length of days, hunting pressure, predators, competition, food source, etc....

I highly doubt that he will be passing by your camera around 9pm consistently by next month.

I've found, Deer will travel when they want, where they want, and not care about wind direction. Guess they didn't read the same hunting article I did growing up. One of the reason's I don't mags anymore, other than American Hunter.

Several good answers here, except for Crokit, who provided no insight whatsoever.

One problem we have when we try to figure out the time of day when deer will move, is tht we talk about it in terms of a watch, abd deer don't have a watch. THey can't tell tme. What they can do is tell how much light it out there, which you allude to in your question about shortneing hours of daylight.

If we think about der activiyt in relation to how many hours from sunries or sunset, we have a better way ofthinking baout it, and a better way of talking about it.

So, throughout the year, deer, in general, are most active, withing 2 hours of sunrise and sunset. And although some animals will move at approximately the same time (whithing about a half hour) some weeks, there are far too many variables to predict when a particulra deer will be at a particular spot - except on a semi-regular basis.

One of the variables that wil cause the bigest change, partiularly with bucks, is the rut, whicn often causes them to move earlier in the evening, and latrer in th morning than normal. Plus, bucks will often move from summer to fall, so that buck may not even be there come October 15 or so. It could be there, or it could be miles away, which is why you have to scout, or watch your cameras, at least a couple of times per week - to figure out where - and when - they are moving.

Obviously the hunting season will change when, and even where bucks move. THey oftem move after dark, which means you hve to pattern them, to find out where their daytime core area is, so you can get close to it, to hunt them, during daylight or legal hunting hours.

If there is extreme weater, too hot, too cold, too windy, too wet, they may not move at the samae tme, or even in the same place.

The only thin you can partially count on, is that during daylight hours, from about 10AM to 3-3 PM, they will be in their daytime core areas, which I shwy I keeptelling people to locate their core areas, because that is where every deer spends the most amount of time during the day.

I hope that helped. If you have quesitons feel fre to PM or e-mail me at [email protected].

God bless and good hunting,
T.R.

in response to:


With all the " maybes ", " sometimes ", " it varies " " not always ", etc., etc., that were sure to come, i knew my above quote could be counted on 100% of the time.:happy0001: Some things, unlike deer movement are " cut in stone ".:s6::biggrin:

BUCKSNIPER 14: The REAL answer to your question is , no.