Pulling my hair out...Mornings only!

[guitarpreston]

Im hunting on a piece of private, pretty decent cover and I see quite a few deer on cam that are nice (to me). I primarily hunt evenings due to family commitments etc. I am yet to see a deer on an evening sit, but the 3 morning sits I have done, I have saw deer every time. I put all my camera data into a spreadsheet and since Sept, I have logged 400 pics, and 73 have been between 11:30 AM and 5:30 PM...I feel like I am doing all of the things, just deer do not seem to move through this property during the evening shooting hours.
Any theories why? Maybe go out to feed during the night one way, and back to bed through my place?

 

[Skerhunter]

Do you get picks after dark of them moving through to feed (they just don’t make it to you before dark)? If not they are just taking a different route to feed every night and you need to figure out where that is.

By now everything is messed up anyways - doe will be bedding in weird places trying to hide from bucks.

 

[Tod osier]

There are unlimited possibilities. Like you said, they may not move evenings there, in addition you could be busting your deer out of there when you go in. Patterns may change at any moment or part of the season.

Think through the property to see if you can find an area they move in the evenings and put cams there to try to pattern them.

 

[nubraskan]

Not sure what your weather has been like there, but it's been very warm here and it's really messing with their usual patterns. Most days they're only out at nights but sometimes they still seem to move throughout the day. I'd try to correlate it with that, but make sure you're otherwise just putting the time in the stand

 

[Scottf270]

That's why hunting mature whitetails on small properties in the hardwoods sucks.....lol.

 

[Beagle001]

How big is the piece? Could be any number of things, but I’d start looking at if there are any small slivers or secluded areas you don’t hunt or have cameras and see what they tell you. Or maybe there is CRP grassy/marsh areas that doesn’t look like stereotypical deer country that they are actually utilizing like crazy

 

[SloppyJ]

I certainly have spots that are exactly the same. The deer make loops and they seem to be on 24hr cycles. My deer aren't bedding during the day in the same places they bed at night.

That's just part of it. Right now they're all over the place. I had a small spike make a huge circle around me twice today looking for does. Right now you're liable to see anything at any time.

Evenings, my deer seem to prefer more open locations in fields where in the morning they're in the timber.

 

[Habitat#1]

Probably the way you are accessing or they may be traveling far to food if you are hunting food and not getting there until after dark