nocturnal pattern
 

the deer on my dads farm are coming through at night not during the day. Is there anyway to change there pattern?

Perhaps - if you can provide cover and areas to feed without any human disturbance. Otherwise, wait until rut.

-fsh

even during rut they are like this. i put out corn so i could see when they were coming through a certain are and they only come after dark

What time are these deer coming? middle of night or well after dark?.. If right after dark...u might be too far from the bedding area..might take them that long to get there..Bedding area might be far away...Im not a expert, but maybe one will give u a legit answer :party0007:

Deer are primarily nocturnal, especially older bucks, pressured or not. That of course is in a normal setting. That's just nature. Like he said, your best chance of seeing mature buck daylight movement will be near and during the rut. Your not going to change a mature bucks pattern unless you are hunting behind a high fence and his main food source is provided by man. Be patient and wait til the rut comes near. You may see at least some daylight movement, but nothing is guaranteed.

Like already said wait until the rut or if you figure out where they're bedding slip in close well before daylight and try to ambush one right in their bedding area as he comes back hopefully just at daylight. Hunting bedding areas is risky though and if you bump a big buck at his bedding area you could run him out of your area completely.

again im with the wait until the rut, but try putting corn out at a few different places, no closer than 150 yards if possible, this way they almost have to hit it during the day light

You can put corn out or put up a feeder, but the big boys aint comin during daylight hours in a natural setting.

Exactly! Putting out corn is the fastest way to turn deer nocturnal. I've done it.

If possible, try to create thick bedding areas on your property so the deer will already be there when you hunt. Then you should be able to see them during daylight.

812, you're close to me I bet (Southern IN)....if you are,

A.) It's been as hot as all get out the last couple weeks...my water sources are all dried up/except one (that's where my cam is :s4:)
B.) Deer in general are primarily nocturnal, but not fully, rut or no rut those deer move in daylight, maybe not much, but they do...so maybe you're not close enough to where they bed or the food/water source they want.
C.) Their patterns will change as the year progresses as well. Maybe they won't use that area until late October.
D.) A little bit of corn may help, just make sure to have it out 10 days prior to you hunting that area.

Short of a sustained eclipse of the sun ... I know of no way. White tailed deer are dark time animals. Down this way, disturbing them turns them even more so. One great example that I have are trail cameras shots of one particularly superb buck. I am 99% certain it is him that I have photos of these past 3 seasons. He has a distinctive scar across his right shoulder. I have maybe 40-50 shots of him from cameras set up in the same general area. All are between about 7:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m., with most +/- 2 hours of midnight. He was a great 9 point in 2008. He sported a massive main frame 10m pt. with a split G1 on the left side that he has had since first caught on camera in 2007. He appears to be in the 250# range. Huge for down this way. I hunted this buck many, many hours last season with no luck. To my knowledge, none of us have seen this buck in the daylight.

As superstrutter mentioned, deer are nocturnal by nature. Rather than try to change their pattern, which I don't think is possible under most circumstances, I would suggest spending time scouting to try to determine as much about those deer in your area as possible. I alwys tell myself that deer have to be somewhere all the time and trying to figure out the puzzle is all part of the hunting experience.

I am more satisfied as a hunter if I tag my deer after spending countless scouting than I would be trying to alter their natural movement.
Just my 2 cents!