My deer have become nocturnal...

[erierik]

Any tips on methods or ideas to hunt them.We are in the middle of our gun season so prob. Won't get out till following weekend.Have not hunted them that hard but the last couple weeks they have gone to the night shift.This gun pressure won't help but just looking for tips on how u guys deal with it.

[bigbadjon]

I'm still pulling my hair out trying to locate them now that they've been pressured. I'm hoping to see some movement when the moon starts waning.

[katman]

Waning moon will help. Also try to hunt just ahead or after a front moving thru.

[Greyfox54]

In the past during a full moon the hunting was always better late morning to early afternoon which makes it hard for after work hunting , but now that I have only a little work and get out more I find I've spent a lot of time watching the pines grow . Just me I hope . And remember every time you go out and don't see anything it only increases the odds the next time .

[yogibarrows]

Originally posted by Greyfox54:
And remember every time you go out and don't see anything it only increases the odds the next time .

That's exactly how I feel!!

[xtrema312]

I am waiting on the moon and weather changes and end of gun  season. I see no reason right now to waste time stinking up my hunting spots with so little activity. Now if you have a good spot you can get in and out of very close to bedding area that can help catch them stretching out at first or last light moving in being area. There is also stalking bedded deer. None of those are god options for my areas right now.

[Bonebuster]

Deer would be extinct by now if they did not curtail their movements during pressured times...

If,(and this is a BIG if) you can get close to the thickest bedding areas without alerting them, you have a chance...if they catch you, then hope the birds keep you company.

Deer in Michigan dissappear during gun season when pressured.

[Tom Leemans]

Move closer to the bedding area and mind the wind.

[Mojostick]

A couple quick thoughts...

As the season wears on, good food sources close to bedding is key.

The rut is winding down, so deer now are more apt to bed close to food, in heavy cover, and only get up to feed, then go back to the bedding. Deer often bed very close to the food source in late season, so you have to be careful to slip into the staging area between the bedding and the food, without bumping the deer from the bedding. Be extra mindful of the wind and the bedding area.

I've also found that it's a good plan to stay out of my property for about 10 days after rifle season ends, to give the deer time to settle down.

Another thing is, if it's really cold, deer are more apt to feed in the late afternoon and remain bedded in the coldest AM hours. If the late season weather is nice, in the 40's and warmer, deer may well feed more in the AM.

Also, the woods are now wide open and unless you have great background cover, you're more apt to get busted. A ground hunting situation in thick pines/conifers is something you should consider.

Other suggestions are, make sure you use unlined wool, since about everything else is noisy in the often dead calm late season woods. Fleece is quiet, but not very warm. All other materials make noise in the cold.

Practice with the heavy gear on and wear a wrist guard. Bulking coats make for string slaps.

Consider shooting a lower weight bow. That 50lbs may feel like 60lbs after 2 hours in the bitter cold.

Be extra quiet getting to your stand. While many drive a truck or ATV close by in October, December deer may be far more spooky with that noise. Try to slip in with extra, extra quiet caution.

A couple other observations are, if windy on a cold late season day, deer don't move. I recall a study where if the late season wind was like 15-20mph, deer movement basically stopped.

Stay off field edges and instead think staging areas.

Deer will often feed just before a snowstorm, when the barometer is falling. (Seems fishing can also be good right before a storm also).

If you hunt a treestand, use either an open camo pattern like ASAT/Predator/Vertigo or (secret tip) use your camo blaze orange from gun season. Not solid orange, but camo'd orange. To a deer looking up, camo blaze orange looks like the winter gray sky with branches or leaves, depending on the camo pattern. Two of my best treestand bucks were in bitter cold weather, wearing blaze camo coveralls. I never once had a deer remotely notice me. It's a far better pattern than any "blobbing" Real Tree or Mossy Oak.

If you hunt in a treestand or ladder, re-check every strap. Every creaking noise is worse in the cold.

Once your feet get cold on late season sits, your hunt is about over. I've tried all the tricks and after owning a sporting goods store, tried most well known boots.
While I'm not a big Cabela's fan, they do sell the best pac boot for sitting...
 http://www.cabelas.com/mens-insulated-hunting-boots-cabelas-predator-extreme-pac-boots-150-brown-mossy-oak-break-infinity.shtml?WT.tsrc=CSE&WT.mc_id=GoogleProductAds&WT.z_mc_id1=03 223101&rid=40&mr:trackingCode=0230FFB0-5EA4-E011-9A77-001B21631C34&mr:referralID=NA&mr:adType=pla&mr:ad=21046044551&mr:keyword=&mr:match=&mr:filter=43600703111

Another trick if one has sweaty feet...
 http://shop.dsehealth.com/categories/Certain-Dri-Feet/

[Ravenhood]

deer live outdoors 24 hours a day 7 days a week

[Hoyt]

I think my deer have become summer sausage and venison burgers..what few that were around here before the first gun season anyway. Second gun season started this morning and I just yesterday saw the first deer from my stand since the first gun season.

Didn't see anything this morning. I've been hunting in the beds all season. I'm going to move into even thicker areas soon.

I checked a scrape this morning in a spot I'd seen 6 or 8 really big bucks mid Nov. and the scrape has been enlarged to go all the way around the tree..actually about 5 big scrapes under a little dog wood plus a new one under another tree 10yds away.

Nothing looked real fresh, but heavy frost is like rain and it's been heavy..so will hunt it a few times. I know they are coming through on occasion if not really working the scrape.

[Bobaru]

Mojostick:

Great post!  I hope you don't mind, but I copied your post onto my computer.  

I always have a difficult time deer hunting this time of year, and your post give me a few good things to consider when setting up late season.

Thanks!

[moleman]

Deer in my area have went nocturnal as well, but after some scouting, i found there bedding and feeding areas, as well as the travel route between the two, which is dense young growth.
Im hoping now, that its just a matter of me being there at the same time they are and not getting busted.  

[Mojostick]

Cool, hopefully you can use something there.

Keep in mind, post firearms season bowhunting in northern states is a completely different deal than "early season" bowhunting.

That's not to say that you can't kill deer away from food or cover, you can, especially if reasonably warm and no snow. But from 34 bow seasons in Michigan, it's my experience that your odds are greatly increased if you can get into a small staging area between the bedding and a good food source, during the late season.

If it's a small staging area between the bedding and the food, like a long narrow strip of trees or a thick fenceline, it can turnout that nearly all the deer moving in the area will walk past you. If the staging area is big, then you still may see deer, but not in range. Find where the staging area bottlenecks down, so it forces the deer to walk past you.
The key is, finding that spot. If the food source is fairly constant, it can be the same late season spot for years of good hunting.

For example, a few years back I waited until around Dec. 15 to start bow hunting after the end of rifle season on Nov.30.
I slipped into a natural ground blind made of pines mixed in live xmas tree size pines, between a bedding area and a cut corn field. I got there about 90 minutes before dark, since deer typically move later in the late season. Within minutes I saw the first deer, but it was a yearling buck where both antlers had already dropped. I passed. But 15 minutes later, I shot a mature doe with an antlerless tag. It was a 20 minute hunt and I had the deer gutted and in the truck before dark.

If done right, late season can be quite good. But if you miss hitting that sweet spot between the deer bedding and the food, you may have a lot of skunk sits where all you bagged was a chill and a discouraged shiver, wondering where all the deer went.

I hope this makes sense. You're basically "pass shooting" them from an ambush position, as they walk to the food source. If you actually hunt on top of the food source, you'll likely get only one good sit, then you'll ruin it during daylight, as you'll spook the group of deer either by shooting or leaving the stand/blind. Don't hunt the food directly, hunt the path to the food. Then if possible, have setups pre-positioned on both sides of a bottlenecked trail, so you can cover most winds.

[Overspined]

Mojo is my neighbor, and hunts the deer here with the other MI residents.  Good advice.  Our season was sept 22-Jan 1 this yr.  640,000 unique gun hunters Nov 15-30, a gun season Sept 22-23, and Dec7-Jan 1. CAN YOU SAY PRESSURED??????

They are the smartest and most wary deer I've ever seen.  Illinois is like a dream world when I go there.  As is Indiana.  I imagine if you can be successful in MI, there's not a deer that's not in trouble when less pressured areas are hunted.

[Wiley Coyote]

Where I hunt in Ontario the deer have gone nocturnal.I don't know if it was the gun season or the rut but this time of the year you struggle to see anything moving during daylight. I am also still looking. I was sitting over a trail this evening and there were some tracks in the snow but it was probably night time activity.  

[Mojostick]

Hey Matt, how'd your season go so far?

Sometimes I forget that many states don't have the intense pressure that much of LP Michigan does. Some of my advice may seem like overkill to other guys in other states. Not so in much of Lower Michigan. By December, there's no errors allowed here.

My season is done. I go in for rotator cuff surgery on Dec. 19. No fighting it anymore. I can't draw 35lbs now and the pain is 24/7 and even can wake me up at night. It's torn from the bone, no healing without reattaching at this point. The doc says I'll be 90% plus by summer. Rehab sounds like a bit of a beotch. Oh well.

Here's a solid Zone II buck I shot on Nov. 15 with my lever action conversion kit.            
While not huge in many area's, it's a good one for my property. 17.25" inside. I didn't bother with many hero shots, just a couple quick truckbed phone pics. (Tag is on back leg for the internet police on some other websites LOL)

Have a good late season if you still have tags!