Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Nocturnal Deer Advice

For starters I’m not the most experienced hunter. Me, and 2 other people are on an 80 acre lease. I know that’s not much land but it was a deal that couldn’t be passed up. It’s probably 75% planted pine and 25% hardwood bottom. To the east of us is a 160 acre pasture and the rest around us is several thousands of acres of hunting club land. The club to our north killed 20+ deer no matter the size this year so i know that was a ton of pressure. On top of us hunting the small piece of land didn’t help either. Besides pressure, what are some off season tips to pull the mature bucks in during daylight? They show up around 6 in the evening most of the time and hang around until around 4-5 a.m. We seen does and several young bucks during daylight but that’s it.

I just finished my 15th year of deer hunting and it was also my most successful. Deer just prefer to move more in the dark and there's not much you can change. Just be in the woods at the right time and in the right place.

Ditch the other two that hunt it with you. Provide as much food as you can. Hunt the first couple weeks of the season, then stay off it until middle of January.

The land was hunted almost every weekend it didn’t rain. And honestly I’m guilty of most of the hunting I just wanted to figure this property out. But i figured next season way less pressure is key. Would summer plots be a great addition? I know summer deer herds can differ from winter deer herds.

Good luck and let me know if something works.

I lease almost 8x that much to just myself and mitigating pressure is my number one objective with providing quality habitat a VERY close number two in getting bucks to move throughout the property in daylight. It takes a lot of discipline and patience to leave a lease alone until the timing is perfect. Especially after you have so much time and money invested in it. It’s not for everyone but to me that one week or so in January has proven to be epic more times than not. I made 16 individual hunts and 6 property visits for planting/feeder maintenance, on 600+ acres this year starting in August. To me that was pushing the envelope towards being too much.

Stay out of the area till rut 80 acres isn't enough to be hunting weekly unless u can access it from any direction n just hunt the edges with good wind

Your main issue is 3 on 80 and hunting every weekend. If all I had to hunt was 80 acres and wanted to kill a mature, quality buck, I'd plant the best stuff I could, hunt it opening weekend, then not hunt it again until the rut. We hunt at 275 acres/gun and we might make 1-2 bow hunts, a gun hunt opening weekend, then we do not go back onto the property, at all, until around Jan 10-15th (depending on the weather) which is when our mature bucks typically start looking for does. After 40 yrs of hunting them and 25 yrs of actively managing for mature bucks, I've come to believe the following: Killing or having the opportunity to kill mature bucks, and hunting every weekend, even in high acreage situations, simply do not go together. You may luck out every once in a while and kill a good one, but if you want to be able to see and kill them consistently, you're limiting yourself to a very small number of hunts on any given property, and hunting only when the timing and conditions are perfect. This is especially true if you are surrounded by other high pressure hunting, which it sounds like you are.

Does is what you need. Lots and lots of does. Happy content unpressured does that come out in day. Have that and you will have day walking bucks. I have over 300 acres to myself, very little hunting pressure and its still uncommon to see mature bucks in shooting hours. Thats why I hunt a little at Thanksgiving, a little at Christmas and then hunt pretty much all day every day for several weeks last of January. At 80 acres you won't even come close to holding anything. You gotta give them a reason to come to you or at least pass through. I have a 40- acre block I could hunt two people on every day of the season and not screw up a thing, but thats because I am able to do what I want with plots, stands and lanes. With a lease you probably don't have that ability but long shooting lanes and concentrated does are what works for me.

Keep plenty of feed out and only hunt the rut. Youll kill deer

I know 80 acres is not near enough for 3 people but I just can’t find any more land to lease. We have just a handful of does and they are out making their way around the property 75% of the day. We definitely have several mature bucks bedding nearby. I’ll back off on the hunting pressure for sure next season and plant some high quality food. Btw, if anyone knows of some land for lease in the Monroe/Butler county area please let me know.

There’s plenty of land to lease. You just have to jump when something pops up and you have to look daily starting in may.

Find a better place to hunt.

If only it were that easy

I’ll have to disagree on this .good Lease Land has gotten very hard to come by . When Most tracts come available they get leased sight unseen immediately.

Deer likely live somewhere else and move there during daylight finally make it to your place after dark. Make some cover for the deer to stay in during the day.

How old are the planted pines?

If I had to take a guess somewhere between 25-30 yrs old and a very small portion of the property has some pines that look to be about 10 years old

There is like 8 cutovers and 4 of them are used as main trails to access stands and a couple plots

I did not read all the replies but JHL and Josh28 - good stuff

Reduce pressure as much as u can - try to find extra ground to split up pressure

The only bullet proof method and I only been able to do this few times - the land has to be set up for it - my current place does not allow me to do this the way the land lays - set up your hunt stand where u can leave it and never be detected - back your stand up 60-100 yards off your plot - it will make for longer shot. I hunted my nuts off in FL when I was able to set my stand up like this - and if u hunt the wind - they never smell they never detect - it like u never hunted - bingo - I killed the second largest buck on that clubs 40 year history doing that and watched one much bigger for about 10-15 minutes doing that. It ain’t the only state I done that in

I believe that might be a major factor. The land is somewhat setup for it but it is very difficult to access stands where the mature bucks roam without being detected bc you have to cross their travel patterns to get to stands. And the stands are setup the way they are due to wind direction.The food plots are easy to access undetected but the mature bucks rarely come into them and when they do it’s at night only.

You just gotta know the right people. Lots of guys no longer want to go through the hassle of answering 100 phone calls and the time it takes to list and show property. Last three I've leased, never hit the market. Guys that I had dealt with before and had relationships with, simply called and asked if I was interested. There has been a very distinct shift in the leasing market in the past 10-15 yrs. It used to be that all but the very best of the available tracts, generally hit the open/advertised market. Now, I'd say that less than 10% stuff coming available is ever even advertised to the public. Local contacts are the key.