Deer are fickle creatures - Why would it bypass food?

[wildernessmaster]

So I am set up yesterday on a small food plot the wildlife commission put in a back corner of a small parcel after they allowed it to be logged. I am sitting in some mixed sparse old pine and oaks. East of me is a nice dense young cedar/pine thicket. South of me is a shallow draw which has mixed pines/oaks - and is sometimes drainage. West of me (about 30 yards) is the 150 yd x 50 yd food plot and then the rest of the clear cut field. Pretty much the field and clear cut is on top of a small (I mean small) flat hill. North of me is the rest of the woods I am in that connect some woods west to the pine/cedar thicket east. It slopes on down to a creek.

The food plot is a double treat. It is young rye and some beets (it looked like) but on my end it is full of acorns.

I am hanging in a tree thinking winner, winner chicken dinner - double treat food plot, mixed old pines/oaks, creek, dense young evergreens... transitions, food, water... all we need is deer porn and it would have everything a deer needs and more.

I set my saddle so I would be able to watch what appeared from tracks to be the likeliest approach which put the food plot on my awkward shooting side. All the tracks and entrance seemed to come from east into the field. In fact, the tree a about 10 yards away I had seen had "that day" scat near its base.

All set up, evening sit. Thinking for sure a deer is gonna slip in close to dusk to go graze on that field.

Maybe 20 min before pure dark, I don't know why but something said to look over your should. Sure enough in the north strip, traveling from west to east was a deer moving through.

Now I know that strip made somewhat of a funnel, but with food sitting right there, I would have expected at least a drive-by stop at the deer fast food restaurant of that food plot. Didn't happen...

Thoughts?

 

[toughluck]

You said wildlife commission so I'm guessing public land? If so, how heavily pressured is it? Here in the southeast, if a public parcel has food plots you can bet its been hunted and deer will not feed in the plot during daylight hours after the 1st week of the hunting season.

I would set up on travel corridors leading to the food plot in the evenings. Find these corridors and get 200 or so yards away from the food plot to catch deer movement before last light.

 

[FLS]

Everyone that sees that plot probably thinks the same thing. The deer know they don’t smell, see or hear anybody there after dark. Follow the tracks coming to it and find the staging area , lots of droppings in a browsed area, and set up there.
FWIW those probably aren’t beets, they’re turnips. If they are the deer won’t eat them till it’s frosted on them a few times. Right now they’re eating more acorns than anything else here in S.C.

 

[*zap*]

Safety trumps food for all deer except fawns.

 

[wildernessmaster]

You said wildlife commission so I'm guessing public land? If so, how heavily pressured is it? Here in the southeast, if a public parcel has food plots you can bet its been hunted and deer will not feed in the plot during daylight hours after the 1st week of the hunting season.

I would set up on travel corridors leading to the food plot in the evenings. Find these corridors and get 200 or so yards away from the food plot to catch deer movement before last light.

I would generally concur with you except for...

1. The deer actually traveled within 40 yards in full view (no cover) of the field, so safety kind of went out the door given that. If the deer had been 100+ yards away, I would have agreed.

2. This plot is in the back side of a small parcel that gets pressure but not as much pressure as others or in that section. I think people largely stay to the front of that section because that small nipple where this sits is really close to private lands where the deer can run post shot. But I understand what you mean by pressure.

 

[wildernessmaster]

Everyone that sees that plot probably thinks the same thing. The deer know they don’t smell, see or hear anybody there after dark. Follow the tracks coming to it and find the staging area , lots of droppings in a browsed area, and set up there.
FWIW those probably aren’t beets, they’re turnips. If they are the deer won’t eat them till it’s frosted on them a few times. Right now they’re eating more acorns than anything else here in S.C.

Yea said beets but mean turnips.

 

[fatlander]

Deer do what deer do.

What was the wind doing? It’s not often they’ll make daylight appearances in the wide open without the wind in their favor.

I concur with others, to go hunt travel corridors. Hunting one specific food source is often fickle when there is plenty of other food on your landscape.

Think of it like this: You’re posting up at McDonald’s once a week and hoping a specific person swings by for dinner. Sitting beside the stop light at a major intersection of a couple main roads between their house and town would probably lead to seeing them a lot faster.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wildernessmaster]

Deer do what deer do.

What was the wind doing? It’s not often they’ll make daylight appearances in the wide open without the wind in their favor.

I concur with others, to go hunt travel corridors. Hunting one specific food source is often fickle when there is plenty of other food on your landscape.

Think of it like this: You’re posting up at McDonald’s once a week and hoping a specific person swings by for dinner. Sitting beside the stop light at a major intersection of a couple main roads between their house and town would probably lead to seeing them a lot faster.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Depends of how much my victim (errr prey ) likes MacDs...

No I get what is being said, the combination of behaviors was just odd... Food source (clearly being worked in day light - because the scat was too fresh), Multi source food source (rye, turnips and tons of acorns), Not really a huge food plot, Tucked away a bit, and the deer passed within 40 yards. Just odd...

BTW, I was hunting the corridor. I did not set up on the food plot directly (it was my weak side shot) I set up on the funnel between it and the two transition woods and the road they clearly were hauling butt down.

 

[Brendan]

Happens all the time - get used to it

If it was a buck, they're hitting the time of year where they're cruising looking for does. He might have had getting something else other than food on his mind...

Other factors: Other food, pressure, scent from other hunters, wind pushed his way, he just didn't feel like it, scent from coyotes, and the list goes on.

 

[WCB]

The only time I count on deer coming to a specific plot or food is late season when there isn't much else to eat. Until winter hits or up here in the Midwest when the snow flies deer can eat everywhere.

I've baited deer miles from any agricultural food source and have seen deer just walk within yards or even feet of a pile of corn and not even look at it.

 

[EastHumboldt]

Do you stop at every single burger joint? No.

 

[anthonytexas]

Once a regular feeding routine is established, I can usually count on the same group to attend the feeder at the given feeding time. Caveat being that I enter the blind with minimal sound as possible, hunters at the lease next to mine aren't firing constantly, and hogs are running rampant in the area.

 

[boonez40]

Depends on what just dropped, I seen deer run to a white oak or beech patch that just dropped nuts and not stop for any other food.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk