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Nocturnal deer

I've been experiencing nocturnal deer I've not seen a deer in daylight since November 7th anyone else experiencing this all my cameras all locations all at night and late at night I've been seeing a lot less dear but I'm sure more to do with The rut pushing deer around. I'm sure it's not like this everywhere I have not been pressuring my areas every day. Good scent control. Just doesn't seem like The rut is in daylight in my areas

Same in all my areas. Once in a very blue moon I get a pic at dawn or dusk and during this past rain I had one 6 point buck at 7:34 am. Everything else is nocturnal as they should be during intense hunting period, bow and gun. It is normal. With a slow rut it works better for them to run at night. Maybe someone else is pressuring them. Oh well.

Are you hunting over bait?

I had a nice rack buck go by me today around 11 AM as I was walking out of the woods. He made it by me unscathed. I hope to see him again!

No baiting on my properties. The neighbors on one property in zone 12 do bait when they remember to fill the feeder.

No not baiting not allowed in my areas ,thinking lockdown also may be part of lack of movement

I read an article about a study done on bucks during the rut and they determined their was no such thing as lock down. The answer is they were just in another location at the time.

Same here even when I don't hunt or check cards at a property for weeks. Night time is when they move.They're hooved bats.

the deer on my cameras seem to disapear around this time of year, my theory is that food is becoming more scarce and pushing them out of their core areas.

Food sources change, but I think the deer are just responding to pressure. The rut pretty much occurs at the same time each year. The only difference is how much of it we get to see due to weather conditions, amount of daylight and human pressure. We try to play the wind and control our scent as much as possible, but the deer can still tell we were there afterwards. Doesn't matter if we are just going in to check cameras, scouting or hunting. They pattern us as much as we do them. Add bird/small game hunters and the sudden onset of loud noises from firearms season and it's no wonder we see fewer of them this time of year. Attached is a recent GPS study showing how deer respond to hunting pressure. They are still out there, but choose to hang out further away from us now than they did a month or two ago. The data suggest that moving stand locations might help give us an advantage.

"food is becoming more scarce"

I don't think so. I'm betting that a long cold snap will have them ranging farther for food as they stoke their fat reserves. Also, the milder temps are not fat burners under those winter coats.

How about you guys that have taken and butcher deer, telling us about the layer of fat along the back.

I had a doe with good amount of fat. Then I butchered a buck for a friend. Not much fat on the buck.

All my pictures are nocturnal except an occasional buck late afternoon but rare

N8tureboy nailed it. Guys think deer avoidance behavior is random and based on other sources. They can't fathom that deer avoidance behavior is the direct result of hunters negative conditioning them. If hunters could understand this, or positively condition deer to hunter presence, deer hunter success would improve dramatically. If you sling an arrow at your dog every time you see him, he's quickly going to learn to avoid you.

Thanks to everyone points of view ,I have got to deer one three weeks ago fat was not bad at all it was in fact low.i seen tons of acorns out there to if that helps anyone .

Doc - gotta agree with you as well. I like to move stand locations often and hunt different areas, I've been to 4 different location this season alone, and heading out to a 5th next time out.

Not much on my doe but i likem like that..

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