Deer movements in cold temps?

[RedShaft]

I seen a post in another forum and wanted to hear your thought on deer movement in COLD in late season.

I'm talking teens and below zero. I have hunted many times in below zero. And have seen very little deer movement in the mornings. Deer seem to bed and conserve energy during these temps.
The best bet was to do drives or to still hunt. And the evenings is where I would see actual deer movements. Or sometimes warmer mid day sporadic movements. What are you thought and findings?

[Bobby Urban]

Hunt food sources in really cold weather.  They are burning a lot of calories and need to refuel - often!

For the record I have had best results hunting food in the evening and bedding in the AM with near by food sources.  Typically there is early action depending on the gun pressure that they just experienced recently but then a resurgence of deer movement in the late morning around 10-11am when they get up to re-fuel.

[VictoryHunter]

On the contrary, they can be found to be up and moving around longer in search of food. Just as Bobby said, they will move again at late morning. In that kind of cold hunt food because that is all the deer are concerned with.

With our late season, if there are a number of muzzleloaders riding around in and out of the fields, (they don't get out much when it is cold), the deer seem to show up around noon to early afternoons on the back ends of public land where there is uncut alfalfa and unpicked corn, where it is off limits to those that drive in everywhere and cannot do the mile hike.

[Jerry Jeffer]

It's all about the food.

[RedShaft]

I know to hunt the food, but it the movement times. .
I just don't see the morning activity. Midday at warmest times then right before dark.

This year we have absolutely no mast. So it's either browse or there coming to fields to pic over the scraps of corn on the ground. If we have a bad winter this year it's going to be hard on them. The deer we have shot didn't have much fat on. Allot of times I see them hitting the red oaks that they bypassed earlier in the year. But there is nothing this year as far as mast.

[LB_hntr]

In my area I find that when the temps get beow zero and the snow is deeper that 8 inches or so they bed more and will feed during the midday when temps are warmest.
 Winter time deer movement is all about conserving energy here as we get alot of winter kill. So deer do whatever they can in the winter to conserve energy.

[RedShaft]

I know to hunt the food, but it the movement times. .
I just don't see the morning activity. Midday at warmest times then right before dark.

This year we have absolutely no mast. So it's either browse or there coming to fields to pic over the scraps of corn on the ground. If we have a bad winter this year it's going to be hard on them. The deer we have shot didn't have much fat on. Allot of times I see them hitting the red oaks that they bypassed earlier in the year. But there is nothing this year as far as mast.

[DaDVM]

When it gets this cold, the animals go from an energy building state to an energy conservation state. At this time of year, deer are likely to have a much smaller core area around a food source, and less likely to be found in marginal areas with little food.

[smoke1953]

I find it's not the deer changing when they move but it's me changing what I do. You go out early in the morning and you get cold WAY to fast then move too much to get warm. Stands early in the morning are very noisy. Later in the morning and late afternoon and we tend to be in a better position to hunt effectively l

[TRAP]

Originally posted by smoke1953:
I find it's not the deer changing when they move but it's me changing what I do. You go out early in the morning and you get cold WAY to fast then move too much to get warm. Stands early in the morning are very noisy. Later in the morning and late afternoon and we tend to be in a better position to hunt effectively l

I agree, cold calm mornings are tough because it's tough to get in without making a bunch of noise.  Crunchy snow and frozen leaves make it nearly impossible to get in undetected.  At 1:00-2:00PM that same snow is often quiet if you have a little warmup period during the day. It's not always about when they are most active but, when they can be effectively hunted.  

Trap

[Austin Brown]

I tried it this morning, scattered deer with every step on the crunchy,icy snow.  The farm I hunt apparently has plenty of food because I sure sent a bunch running for the hills.

[RedShaft]

What time are you guys going in? I hunt public land and right now rifle is going on. I was on stand 1- 1 1/2 hrs before light every day. I let the other guys push em into those pines I was hunting.

Hunting a spot like that I would be in early like I said I do. Other than that I get on stand 1/2 hr up till daylight.