still hunting in a tree stand once the rut ends what is the best way to call in or bait the deer?
Post-rut you have to go back to hunting deer not areas. Hunt trails near bedding areas, creek beds and thick areas with sign in them...bucks have to rebuild body fat and will often feed during daylight in thick cover.
Corn kills deer! How you use corn depends on where you hunt, if I use corn I don't sit on it, again, hunt trails and where you can get in or out with them eating. If you sit on a corn pile your stuck and will spook deer at some point. Most of the time if I'm feeding corn I'm mainly doing just that...feeding. I want them to have something to keep them in the area. My land is all pine trees so if no corn all the food is brose.
Late season (last week or so of season) I'll sit on corn if nothing else is working. While I'll hold out for a while on a buck as long as I can if I'm sitting on corn I'm there to kill.
Does come into heat at different times and more then once if not bred, hunt near where does live. If I hear a deer walking that I can't see I'll grunt at it, listen to see if it stops walking, if so, one more grunt so it gets a location and just wait. It'll come to investigate or not but over grunting almost always blows your chances. You can use a doe bleat the same way.
Deer eat, bred and sleep use that against them! I hope this helps, it works for me. Good luck!
thanks have been hunting a stand with lots of trees but not much ground cover and putting the corn by what looks like tree scrapes. now may move to open fields with a few trees, mostly open with cut trees on the ground. plan to put corn out near where they have been crossing the road, but wounderd it they are doing that at night seeking cover in the morning and late afternoon after dark any thoughts?
A grown up field or old pasture can be a great place both in the mornings and evenings. The amount of daylight use depends a lot on how close it is to a bedding area. I would give it a try for sure on a good cold morning. A lot of sign is made in the dark so without knowing the land its hard to say if it's worth hunting around. The more pressure there is in your area the more important cover and bedding areas become. Some corn near where trails come into a field is never a bad idea.
I hunt out of a climber mostly often never climbing the same tree twice in a season but I may only move 50 yards at a time. Time in the stand studying the land and deer movement is best for learning where they will be at a given time next year if hunting pressure is not causing their movements. I have two trees I climb year after year and kill deer out of about 50 yards apart but there good at different times of the year that is if I climb the wrong one early in the season I wont see anything but as patterns change later in the year its a great tree.
As challenging as hunting can be at times remember it really all comes down to three things, Food/water, cover/bedding and breeding...that's all a deer does. The later in the season it gets the more important cover becomes. If the field with cut trees your talking about happens to be a cutover HUNT it! I would try it in the morning a time or two (the colder the better) if nothing try evenings. Remember the first time or two you hunt an area will be your best chance at seeing deer. If your hunting fixed stands like ladder stands be careful when you put it up that you don't ruin your spot doing it. If you can put it up and get right in it.
When I travel and hunt I normally arrive mid-day, scout just a little, hang a stand and get right in it. Hunt my first evening in it and first morning then move mid-day the 2nd day if I need to. Deer will stage around fields in the evening also, they stay just inside the woods until just before dark or dark so if you can try to be where one these areas are...you can find them by the amount of sign and droppings.
A wild card is always the weather...say its been raining for 24 hours, the deer may not move during the rain but will be looking for food as soon as it stops. We had about 36 hours of rain and hard wind here last week, the rain stopped but the wind was going to blow for another 12 hours (about 15 mph) I know the deer had to eat and there is a field near a bedding area where they could go in the open to eat and use their eyes to make up for what they couldn't hear...a hour before dark the field filled up with deer.
If the deer are coming into your field in the evenings but after dark try moving toward where their coming from so they arrive at your location earlier.
I hope this helps. Let me know how you do, I may not be able to put you on a 80 pound Wahoo but I can kill deer like a kid in the rain :reddot: It's just hard to help from far away sometimes!
should have stayed home today I assume it was too hot for them to move much hope its better sat with the cooler weather
I swapped cards in the camera today. The pictures I pulled today show deer eating between 10 pm and midnight and between 11 am and 1 pm. My feeder throws corn at around 7 am and there was no corn on the ground when I pulled the card. Sure enough, they arrived to start eating at 10:58 am this morning.